You all remember Megan, aka Princess Lasertron, right? You've seen her on obb.com before … She of the pink polkadot wedding dress? She of the magenta crinoline? She of the magical felt-and-button wedding bouquet?

If you were drooling specifically over the button bouquet, you are in luck because Princess Lasertron makes them for a living. Well, bouquets along with boutonnieres, barrettes, and tons of other felty, buttony, vintage magic. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Megan says "I spend a LOT of time searching for vintage materials to make my products. Every bouquet features mostly vintage buttons and other antique findings like ribbon, seam binding, thread, and felt. (But nothing dull or dingey!)"

You can buy her goods on Etsy at princesslasertron.etsy.com, read more about her process on princesslasertron.com and drown in button bouquet wedding porn on her Flickr photostream.

Why kill flowers when you can just make one, in the case of this origami boutonniere.

The bridal party got origami necklaces, origami place cards, the centerpieces and even the bride's bouquet were made from origami flowers!

(Thanks to mysoldiergirl for the photo!)

Here's the ultimate DIY wedding bouquet idea: as your guests enter your ceremony venue, give each of them a flower. Or you could even ask each guest to bring a flower as their gift!

Then, when you walk to the altar, you can stop to collect a flower from each guest … assembling your community bouquet as you go. This gives you an awesome opportunity to acknowledge and involve each guest — I like this way better than a receiving line.

(Thanks to levinine for the photo!)

I am FREAKING OUT over the photos from this wedding, which took place in a theater and featured a rockin' bride named Megan in the cutest polka-dot dress with hot pink crinoline.

Thanks to Melissa and Becca for pointing this one out to me. *faints* One more pic of the bride, her amazing up-do and her button bouquet below…

Continue reading "Adorable bride in a polka dot dress" →

Well, that didn't take long! As seen on OBB yesterday, here's the full scoop on Sandy's colorful wedding and her Christmas ornament bouquet.

The offbeat bride: Sandy - high school secretary/craft maniac

Her offbeat partner: Josh - middle school social studies teacher/musician

Location & date of wedding: 3/15/08 at Butler's Courtyard in League City, TX

What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted the wedding to reflect us as a couple and be memorable, but we also didn't want to alienate any family members or make them feel uncomfortable along the way. We wanted to express ourselves while still making everyone feel welcome. We chose a rather traditional venue, but it still had enough character and history (we both majored in history) to make us fall in love with it. Also, the owners seemed to really be on board with any and all ideas we had, so that made it excellent.

Continue reading "Sandy's colorful, crafty, hip-but-won't-scare-grandma wedding" →

Check out these gorgeous non-floral bouquets:

Sandy, the bride, made her bouquet out of christmas tree ornaments, and her bridesmaid's bouquets out of paper. (Unrelated: check out Sandy's shoes! And her purple crinoline! *swoon* I'm dying over here!)

Sandy also made the centerpieces out of paper:

Check out all the photos here, and rest assured that I'm already stalking Sandy and will hopefully have a full profile soon. You all know how much I love a colorful wedding…

Update: here's the full profile!

For those of you seeking out alternatives to the traditional floral bouquet, check out Rachel's fabulous peacock feather bouquet.

The peacock theme continued on the wedding cake, too.

It's worth checking out all the photos from this lovely wedding … this one is my favorite, although I'm also quite fond of this one of the wedding party and the adorable flower girls.

(Thanks to maggiemacphoto for the photo!)

Hi, Ariel. I just wanted to express thanks to you for saving me from my mother. She had been pestering me to carry flowers, which I had absolutely no interest in at all, whatsoever. After many impassioned pleas and fights, I decided to email her a link to offbeatbride — particularly the response you wrote to the girl who didn't want to carry anything on her trip down the aisle.

My mother called me and told me that she had never even considered that flowers were optional — it just seemed like something you had to do. Long story even longer, she spent an hour perusing the site and told me how much fun it all looked like, and how she just assumed since she had always seen things done a particular way, it had never occurred to her that it didn't have to be that way.

I don't know how you managed to get it across to her, but you've not only opened her eyes, you've helped me to be more understanding of where she's coming from. Thank you so much for making this ridiculous and incredibly arduous process a little bit more human, and a little bit less stressful. -Trish

P.S.: When I walk down the aisle with no flowers in hand, I will be secretly whispering "Thank you, Ariel!"

Aww, you're so welcome Trish … and Trish's mom! I'm actually curious if there are any other mothers-of-the-offbeat-bride reading. Mamas, are you out there?