Photo by Maile Lani.

The offbeat bride: Jenn, Youth Worker

Her offbeat partner: Brandon, Musician

Location & date of wedding: Illuminated Sculpture Gallery in New Orleans, LA on January 10th, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We were already legally married and decided to get "weddinged" almost exactly on our one year anniversary.

Not bad to have already gotten through the first year of marriage on your wedding day…makes for a lot less nervousness.

Continue reading "Jenn & Brandon's Matrimonial Purple Tudor Tea Party" →

The offbeat bride: Lea, Artist

Her offbeat partner: Mike, Structural Engineer

Location & date of wedding: Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago, IL on May 23rd, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: A friend of ours, a wonderful fantasy writer, officiated with an incredible speech (which can be found here). Mike's family is very Lutheran, and mine is very Jewish, so we managed to put a ceremony together that summed up both of our beliefs without actually offending anybody.

Continue reading "Lea & Mike's big laid-back Jewish/Lutheran budget wedding" →

The offbeat bride: Stacey, Figure Skating Coach & Graphic Designer

Her offbeat groom: Joel, Motion Capture Specialist

Location & date of wedding: Strathcona Park Lodge between Campbell River and Gold River, BC. August 25, 2007

What made our wedding offbeat: My job as a Graphic Designer was at a wedding invitation design studio. My whole life had been filled with other people's wedding plans for years. I'd always been the one dishing out advice and helping people with their taffeta filled or very alternative plans. So when it was my turn I had lots of ideas but I also knew that everything had to be different from anything I had worked on for a client. Having helped with a few hundred weddings, that was very difficult but it also pushed me to try things I wouldn't have otherwise.

Continue reading "Stacey's elegant stormy wedding" →

My fiancé has a very small family, while my family is ridiculously huge … do you have any ideas on how we might be able to help his family (of about eight Polish immigrants with limited English speaking abilities) be not so intimidated by my family (of about 50 festive Mexican Americans)? We've already decided that having the guests split up into a groom's side and a bride's side is just ridiculous and we're not having any of that. However, I am at a loss as far as how to diplomatically integrate our very different families. —Veronica

First, I have to take a second to say that Veronica and her fiancé Luke are one of the cutest couples I've ever seen at an Offbeat event. Look at how adorable they are in their matching little veils! So much of teh kyoot™!

But anyway, onto the question at hand: how to deal with enormously lopsided family guest-lists …

Continue reading "Lopsided families" →