The offbeat bride: Chantal, Banker (and OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Sean, Chef

Location & date of wedding: Studios In The Exchange, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada — August 29, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We decided to do our own take on tradition. We didn't want to eliminate traditions all together just because we didn't believe in them, we wanted to show how we could interpret them in our own unique way.

We were together for ten years already and didn't want it to be all about us getting married. We wanted it to be more of a celebration of the relationship we already had and are planning on continuing.

Continue reading "Chantal & Sean's dark red and black, rock 'n roll marriage party" →

The offbeat bride: Suzanna, Professor/Sociologist (and OBT member "Suzgrad")

Her offbeat partner: Ronald, Academic/Computer Scientist

Location & date of wedding: The University of Washington campus in Seattle, WA (Sylvan Grove and Mary Gates Hall) — July 18, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We’ve both had reservations about marriage: it’s often associated with sexism, it implies that relationships should be permanent even though they often aren’t, we were already long-term, and we think marriage should be legal for more people. Still, we wanted to make our commitment official in a public way — but we wanted our wedding to reflect our ideas about marriage, without becoming about them rather than us. So…

Continue reading "Suzanna & Ronald's slightly unorthodox, gender-neutral, public celebration of commitment" →

The offbeat bride: Anke

Her offbeat partner: Dave

Location & date of wedding: Las Vegas, Nevada, A Special Memory Chapel — October 21st, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: First, excuse me for my bad English, we come from germany.

My hubby and I didn't ever want a "normal" wedding with a meringue colored dress and those embarassing games with our wedding party. In fact, we never wanted to marry because everlasting happiness can be there without certificates.

Continue reading "Anke & Dave's rock-n-roll, Las Vegas elopement… with Elvis" →

Everyone, let's us all fucking bow down Eden (pictured above) who found one of the coolest accessories for a winter wedding that I've ever seen — the wool pom pom hat with dotted black lace veil by Agneta Persson. As Eden put it, "Is it not the most tongue-in-cheek winter accessory you have ever laid eyes on or what?"

It came from a store in Manhattan called Off Broadway, but the rest of us non-New Yorkers are in luck because they're available online!

Photo courtesy of Off Broadway

Winter brides, you are welcome.

OBTer JodiT looked at a lot of DIY birdcage veil tutorials before diving in to make her own, but found none to be *just* what she needed. So she meshed them all into one, added her own (very helpful!) two cents and put together this easy-to-follow tutorial for all you crafty mavens! – Offbeat Shrie

The first veil that I made was attached to a headband. This was easy to make and very easy to put on and take off (no fussing around with clips) but it was also not adaptable. I could change the length slightly by moving the headband, but that was it. I couldn't change the angle at all. I also played around with the single-gather type, gathering one long edge of the netting and attaching it to a single comb that would be worn at the crown of the head but I was not happy with how it looked on me.

What I made is a wrap-around veil: a length of netting gathered at the shorter ends and attached on both sides of my head. Here's how I did it!

Continue reading "How to DIY your own birdcage veil" →