We're back with another new jewelry feature from Turtle Love Committee where we feature some of our favorite from their new lines of necklaces and earrings. Again, I feel the need to point out that we love them because they focus on jewelry that’s eco-conscious and made by independent artisans. Really, these people are good eggs — you can read about the people and the TLC philosophy and see for yourself.

Offbeat Discount: OBB readers that subscribe to the TLC mailing list will get a 20% off coupon, good through 12/20.

Like the miniature lithographs necklaces that we featured a little while back, these lovebirds necklaces are made by a husband-and-wife team in their home studio using at least 50% recycled silver. And the sweet thing about these babies is that they can worn all symbolic-like to represent you as a couple!

Or, added bonus, they can also represent family ties… they come in single parent or a two-parent team. A perfect gift option for the new moms or step-children in your life as you build your own nest through marriage.

Go check it out, lovebirds!

I love multi-purpose wedding stuff. One of our orange coral centerpieces sits on my bookshelf as decor, and every time I look at it I get the warm and fuzzies thinking about our wonderful day. I also wear my wedding flip flops all the time with the same results. So when I saw OBT member Kim's (aka. "uloveit") wedding cake topper choice, thought it was a great idea! Kim found a pair of adorable salt and pepper shakers to adorn the top of her cake…

Kim's cake topper:
 According to her wedding planning update, she's going to accent this cake topper with the Mary-Chapin Carpenter lyrics, "Grow old along with me" on the cake. Romantic overload.

Kim inspired me to look into some other salt and pepper cake toppers (because how nice would it be to have a functional cake topper that you could use all the time?), and found an incredible array of choices. So I'm gonna share with you my favsies…

Continue reading "Kitschy-fabulous salt & pepper shakers as cake toppers" →

The Offbeat Bride: Kimberley, Early Childhood Education Data & Policy Officer

Her Offbeat Partner: Dan, Musician/Book seller

Location & date of wedding: Barr Smith Lawns, Adelaide University and National Wine Centre, Adelaide, Australia — 1st November 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We embraced the traditions we loved and ditched the ones we hated. We made the whole experience as "us" as possible by using every decision as an opportunity to impart our personalities.

Continue reading "Kimberley & Dan's Skulls & Blue Birds Wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Sara, Educational Consultant and Obsessive Blogger

Her Offbeat Partner: Matt, Director of Sharing for a network of charter schools

Location & date of wedding: Sunshine Mountain Lodge in the mountains of Colorado — July 19, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat:We started the wedding planning process by declaring a strict and modest budget: $2,000 to be exact. We wanted our wedding to be about sincerity, authenticity, connection, and a celebration and proclamation of love and commitment. We didn’t want it to be about monogrammed napkins and excessive amounts of fondant. In all honesty, we didn’t want to let our wedding overshadow our relationship (and we needed to save money for the house we planned to buy four days after our wedding).

Continue reading "Sara & Matt's Summer Camp Wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Jen, Artist/Library Aide

My Offbeat Partner: Doug, Artist/Museum Officer

Location & date of wedding: Lingrow Farm, Leechburg, PA — 3/22/2008

What made our wedding offbeat: I think one of the things that made us so "offbeat" was how laid-back we all managed to stay about everything! We'd been friends for twelve years and partners for seven when we got engaged, and up until that point I had never really envisioned what I wanted in a wedding.

When we sat down and talked about what we absolutely had to have, the list was actually pretty short: a red wedding dress, good vegetarian food, a venue with some character, and we end up married when it's all over. Once we established that, it was pretty easy to compromise on the rest of the stuff and let go of what wasn't really important.

Continue reading "Jen & Doug's Wabi-sabi Barn Dance Wedding" →