Theresa, a PhD student, vegan and rad Australian, posted this short and sweet tutorial about how she made super-kitschy "parental flowers," little giveaways her parent's could take with on their trip back to the states after the wedding. They're just too easy AND adorable not to share. Take it away Theresa! – Offbeat Shrie

We wanted to have something special to give our parents at the wedding, but we didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for flowers from a florist — especially since my parents wouldn't be able to take real flowers home with them to the US.  So we decided to make them ourselves, and all for less than $10.

So, behold our parental flowers, awesome and flippin' cheap!

Continue reading "How to DIY your own floral fascinators and buttonhole flowers" →

We've been bugging OBT member Megan Kugler about how she made her GORGEOUS crystal bouquets, and voila! She finally gave us the scoop. The process is simple, but it'll take some time. So grab your favorite bromedy, a cup o'cocoa and get makin'! – Offbeat Shrie

Hello all! This post is going to teach you how to make your own crystal bouquets. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it, but it IS time consuming (so don't be like me and wait until the last couple of months before your wedding to make them!).

However, because we didn't want to spend the money on flowers, making crystal bouquets actually saved us a ton of money. We made seven bouquets (mine included), and thirteen bouts for just about $100, give or take, and that was with leftover crystals and wire.

Continue reading "How to make your own sparkly crystal bouquets" →

After spying Donelle and Adam's glorious 8-Bit wedding, we fell head over heels for their DIYed Shrinky Dink boutonnieres, hair clips, corsages and "diamond" necklace. And we were downright impressed with the fact that Donelle came up with the idea and executed it to complete perfection!

Donelle, graphic design maven of 8 Bit Onion, was oh so kind as to give us a tutorial chock full o' pictures. Read up, DIYers… this is a how-to you're going to wanna see.

Continue reading "How to make your own 8-bit wedding accessories, by Donelle" →

The offbeat bride: Emily, Geologist & General Rock Geek

Her offbeat partner: Dave, Environmental Consultant

Location & date of wedding: The deck of my parent's cottage in central Alberta, Canada on June 5th, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We both really wanted to have a party with all of our family and friends. The actual ceremony lasted less then 10 minutes, but the party lasted for three days.

Continue reading "Emily & Dave's Rainy Cabin Potluck Wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Shannon, theater actress/web site manager

My Offbeat Partner: Brandon, improv actor/managing director

Location & date of wedding: Lake Forest Park Civic Club on Lake Washington in Seattle, WA (we're not members, anyone can rent it) — 5/4/2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was completely ours. We ran the thing ourselves and enlisted the generous help of talented friends and family to design our invites, print them, set-up, DJ, officiate, work the bar, and make appetizers.

We decided early on to eliminate certain expensive sources of stress to keep the budget and the stress as low as possible. We planned the wedding for about 4-5 months after the engagement to save ourselves a year of stress. Within a few weeks, we'd chosen an inexpensive (under $1K), little-heard-of venue north of Seattle. It's in a lovely spot on the lake but because the building is old 1960's utilitarian, so it's not used often for weddings. We decided the space was too small for a wedding party and we didn't want to deal with choosing dresses and tuxes and favors and coordinating the people (this ended up being our most controversial decision).

Continue reading "Shannon & Brandon's comedic Seattle wedding" →