The offbeat bride: Monica

Her offbeat partner: Paul

Location & date of wedding: Rochester United Methodist Church, Rochester, IL — 07/07/07

What made our wedding offbeat: The first thing everyone notices is my green and black dress. I designed it and my friend Rachel made it, as well as all the bridesmaids' dresses. Also coordinated to my dress was my cast I had on my left hand/arm that covered my left ring & pinky fingers! I fell and broke my hand exactly two weeks before the wedding! The designs on it were a coordinated effort from my dressmaker and a haunted house airbrush artist, with a matching "bracelet" made by yours truly.

Continue reading "Monica & Paul's traditional wedding with a twist or two" →

The offbeat bride: Nadine, Tracer

Her offbeat partner: Alex, Industrial Mechanic

Location & date of wedding: Germany, Black forrest, Rottweil, City Hall of Rottweil — 11.12.2009 & 12.12.2009

What made our wedding offbeat: The first thing is that we are offbeat ourselves. We are heavily tattooed on the complete body. When Alex asked me to become his wife we planned to get married five month later. As we both have no money on our site, we decided to create a low-budget wedding. The complete wedding with 150 guests costs under 4000 €.

Our wedding was complete done by us. Every single detail was planned and tinkered by me. I looked for bargains every day, bought many things used, and spent all my time for every detail for this wedding.

Continue reading "Nadine & Alex's self-made, low-budget, costume, "freakwedding"" →

The offbeat bride: Trish – graphic designer

Her offbeat partner: Patrick – technical operator

Location & date of wedding: Wandsworth Town Hall, London UK — 14th November 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We didn't have a lot of cash, and we didn't want a shiny 'perfect' day. We wanted to get married with all our friends and have a great party!

Continue reading "Trish & Patrick's tattooed, gothic, rockabilly, metal funfest!" →

We've introduced you to Austin wedding photographer Whitney Lee and friends several times, and now we'd like to introduce you to their new lead-shooter-in-training Lindsey Baker. Whitney tells us that she's "kind of a deal" because she's not even up on the website yet.

Lindsey recently captured Kati and Hilal's eco-conscious wedding in San Antonio, Texas, that included a raw vegan dinner for their 300 guests and she did a freaking fantastic job of it. Kati, who rocked her amazing dreads in a super neat-o up-do, had her custom dress made to reflect the Victorian femininity and the "Wild West" of the 1800's but modernized. And it is one amazing creation. And whoamygod her shoes are pretty damn incredible as well.

Check out the rest of Lindsey's photos (including one of the most muy romantical first dance photos EVAR) by heading over to the Whitney Lee Photography blog. And then make sure to book Whitney Lee Photography for your Texas wedding and become your own drool-alicious wedding porn!

Unless you are one of those lucky ladies who never, ever has trouble finding items that fit you perfectly straight off the rack, there’s a good chance your bridal attire will require alterations. If you are having something custom-made, you will probably need to have at least two fittings. (In my experience, three fittings for a mass-produced wedding dress is common.)

If at all possible, start with a dress (or outfit) that is your size — or very, very close to it. While it is often possible to size a dress up or down, don’t count on being able to take in or let out a dress by more than one or two sizes. Many dresses do not contain enough seam allowance to let out that much -– and with fabrics like velvet and satin, the original seam lines will show. (With satin, original seam lines can resemble track marks, hardly an appropriate look for a special occasion.)

If you have not yet purchased your attire, PLEASE resist the urge to buy something that is on sale but several sizes too big. Garments that are much too large for the intended wearer often need to basically be taken apart and re-cut in order to hang properly on the body. This is such a labor-intensive process it can quickly eat whatever money you saved –- and then some.

Continue reading "Bridal Fittings 101: advice from a former tailor shop employee" →