So, y'all remember Whitney Lee Photography, right? Whitney's advertised on Offbeat Bride before, and she's back … only this time I want to introduce you to her second in command, Leah Muse.

This is actually a small world story, because I've read Leah's blog since 2001. Imagine my surprise then when I realized that now Leah's assisting one of Austin's most popular offbeat wedding photographers … what the HUH!?

I remember when Leah called herself TIME GIRL and wore two watches in high school. I remember when Leah grew up, got engaged, and then got married to her hotty rock star husband Taylor.

Anyway, this post isn't actually about all the things I know about Leah from stalking her online for 7 years. Rather, it's about the amazing wedding photographs she takes in her work with Whitney Lee…

Continue reading "Meet Leah Muse of Whitney Lee Photography in Austin" →

Today is our 4th wedding Anniversary! To celebrate, I thought I would share a few outtakes from our wedding photos.

Continue reading "Happy 4th Anniversary, Andreas!" →

Those of you who have read the book will remember Ben & Joriel. They had a wedding on March 20, 2005, but opted not to get legally married because of concerns with marriage inequality. Yesterday was their third anniversary, and they celebrated by making their commitment legal! I was proud to be a witness at their Seattle courthouse wedding:

So, why did they decide to make get legally married after all these years? The short answer: Joriel is pregnant. The longer answer is eloquently written out on Joriel's blog:

We still feel strongly that the institution of marriage is not what we wish it was … We can only hope that the institution of marriage will continue to evolve and that perhaps we can help that process along by continuing to challenge homophobia, gender role assumptions, religious persecution, and other forms of oppression in our relationship and in our lives. [read the whole thing]

Happy new years, everyone! It was exactly one year ago today that I officially unveiled (har har) this website. And what a crazy fucking year it's been.

I spent the first half of 2006 aggressively promoting the hell out of my book the traditional ways, with readings all over the country and lots of press with radio interviews, newspaper articles, and tv appearances. It was really REALLY exhausting, often demoralizing, and didn't seem to do much for book sales, honestly. I mean, the book did fine … but not great.

The second half of the year I focused exclusively on promoting the book via this website and not only did book sales markedly improve, but I started making money from offbeat advertisements! Yay. That makes the entrepreneur in me happy. Traffic has gone from 8,000 visits in January 2007 to over 60,000 in December 2007. DAMN! You could draw all sorts of conclusions from this (mainstream media dead? print being eclipsed by web? elvis still alive?) but I'll just say that I'm happy it's working out. Thanks to each of you for being a part of that working out-ness!

With a year of content on the site now, I know it's easy for things to get lost in the archives … and with there being a whole new wave of freshly engaged offbeat brides for 2008, I'm going to start occasionally linking to older posts that I think have stood the test of time, just as a way to keep older stuff fresh in the minds of newer brides and to keep from having to repeat myself.

Also, incidentally, today is Andreas and my "real" anniversary. We don't really celebrate our wedding anniversary but we're all about our "kissaversary," which was New Years Day, 1998. WOOHOO! That baby wearing the pink wig? That was me the first night I kissed Andreas.