I finished Offbeat Bride in just two sittings because I just couldn’t put it down. My only disappointment was that there weren’t any suggestions on how to handle being an offbeat bride with a traditional groom. How do you have an offbeat wedding without crossing the line? How to have a traditional ceremony that won’t make me feel like I’m at someone else’s wedding? —Becky

Becky, this is a great question, and absolutely a topic that should have been in the book! I lucked out by having a groom who’s wedding visions were as hallucinogenic as mine, but your situation is infinitely more common — just because two people are engaged doesn’t mean they’re somehow a brain-unit with matching Christmas sweaters and 100% aligned opinions.

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Oh, of course Offbeat Bride is on MySpace! Aren’t you? Even if you hate it, you’re drawn to it like a moth drawn to a blinking, midi-playing, animated-background flame. My favorite MySpace comments ever, from a blog comment thread about MySpace’s awful usability and design:

i couldn’t disagree more, myspace’s design is fine. maybe your to stupid to be using the net in the first place … atleast myspace has a bit more color then this BLOG….the creator of this blog MUST be old.

… In other words, if MySpace is too ugly, perhaps “your to old.” Oh, it makes me laugh and cry at the same time. Anyway, if you use MySpace, consider adding the book to your friends list!

A few months ago I won a charity auction to have my book reviewed by the Seattle’s snarkiest alt-weekly, The Stranger. The review published today, and it’s a win/win … the article is wonderful and I got to donate to Northwest Harvest! Plus, it was fun. Furthermore, one of my favorite Stranger writers, Cienna Madrid, wrote the piece. Is that four wins? Whatever. Here’s a quote:

Offbeat Bride is the perfect book for engaged couples who are grappling with how to buck tradition, bypass the formidable Wedding Industry, and design their own weddings. For such couples, Offbeat Bride is more than a go-to guide; it is a godsend. (Or goddess-send. Or mystical-universal-life-force-connected-to-the-great-mother-earth-send.)

Stallings is a relentless researcher and clever type A who has explored every avenue ending in wedding bells, interviewed every other offbeat bride she could shake a charming stick at, and has the good heart to pass on her smarts so that other brides aching to break from tradition may profit from her knowledge. Stallings doesn’t just pave new bridal paths, she gives couples the tools to forge their own.

Read the whole review.

The offbeat bride: Greta Christina, Writer (and Offbeat Bride lab rat!)

The other offbeat bride: Ingrid, nurse practitioner

Location & date of wedding: November 12, 2005 in San Francisco’s Swedish American Hall in the Castro district

What made our wedding offbeat: 1. We encouraged all our guests to dress in festive/glamorous attire, including historical costumes. Boy howdy, did they take us up on it.

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I wrote in Offbeat Bride about how great it was to work with two independent designers to craft my weird-ass wedding outfit. Obviously tastes vary, but I think that for many offbeat brides, independent designers are the ideal for wedding wear. Not only do you have the joy of having something custom made just for you and your style, but you also get to support an independent artisan. And if you’re going to go spending money on a dress, better to give it to a hardworking indie designer, rather than an overpriced wedding salon!

In that vein, every once and a while I’ll be pimping an indie designer who is worthy of offbeat attention. The photo here shows rock photographer Marina Chavez and her groom Diamond Dave Cooper. Marina is wearing a custom design by Lorna Leedy of Fancy Pony Land. That dress! I am dying from the gorgeousness and already knocking down Lorna’s door to see if I can get more pictures of her custom wedding work. (Just wait until you see the shots from Lorna’s wedding. More on that later.) For one more great shot of this beautiful white and red gown, read on …

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