We're trying to do our wedding on the cheap but still have it be unique and cool. So, we decided that our theme needs to start with the invitations! We hired a local tattoo artist to draw up [Editor's note: DRAW, not design!] a 50's-60's rock concert poster for us that we plan on printing off at Kinko's and mailing as our invite. The problem is, he just told me it's going to cost $500 in order for him to draw up the original! So, I'm thinking $500 for the original + ($.48 X 150) for printing + small manila envelopes for mailing + postage + home printed response cards = me being taken to the cleaners on my "cheap & cool" invites? Or, is it worth it for the cool factor and the fact that we will forever have original artwork to remember our wedding by? I have to laugh that our invites could cost us more than our rock-club reception space! -Becky

Ah yes. How well I know the progression from "cheap and cool" to "handcrafted and awesome" to "hey wait a minute — this would have cost less if I'd gotten invites at Target!" Awesome offbeat custom wedding stuff has a sneaky way of costing more than mass produced mainstream stuff. A custom dress made in China is going to cost you less than a custom dress made around the corner.

Continue reading "Is it worth spending money on wedding art?" →

You've seen Seattle comic artist Ellen Forney's work before — I featured her Zombie wedding invitation last fall, and if you've visited Offbeat Mama, she's the creator of the three little characters all over the site.

Ellen's also a dear friend of mine (she's Sassafras's dogmother!), and I was talking to her recently about her favorite kind of custom wedding invitations to illustrate.

"I love doing portraits that combine words and pictures using a familiar context –- stuff like mock travel postcards, movie posters, magazine covers, cereal boxes," she told me. "I wish I got more invitation work like that, but most people aren't into that kind of thing."

"But der, Ellen," I said. "Offbeat Brides aren't 'most people!' Offbeat Brides love custom wedding comics!"

Ellen sighed at me…

Continue reading "A conversation with Seattle comic artist Ellen Forney" →

OBT member "Rachel Mann" posted a wedding planning update in which she showed off her X-Men comic book cover-style STDs which are pretty freaking incredible…

"Jarrod and I LOVE the X-Men and Rogue and Gambit are our favs, so it was great to incorporate that in our save the dates. My last name is Mann, so the whole thing tied into each other. Get it 'X-Mann.' Clever me."

Oh man, it works on so many levels, far beyond just being awesome! "Clever you" indeed.

OBT member Angie is a self-described "brew goddess, and competent bride-to-be" and she has shown off both of these attributes by homebrewing her very own pumpkin porter beer for her fall wedding! And she got her "Woman of Awesome" to illustrate the custom labels. How awesome is this!?

Cheers to you Angie. I bet your beer is going to taste as great as it looks, have one (or several) for me.

OBT members can check out a close up of the custom beer label here and everyone can check out her "Woman of Awesome's" Etsy shop with more custom illustrations here.

Meet Stinkerpants Designs, where everything is insanely cute — even the name!

Stinkerpants founder, Sara, is an an illustrator from San Francisco who does custom drawings for wedding invitations, save the dates and thank you notes.

Sara does all kinds of personalized stationary and custom illustrations — you must go browse the cuteness of her work for prior wedding clients.

Although Stinkerpants is mostly focused on custom illustrations, Sara also has wedding greeting cards that are adorbs. I mean really: weren't we just talking about thank you cards?

To learn more about Sara's custom illustrations, head on over to stinkerpants.com, friend her on facebook, or follow @stinkerpants on twitter.

…And tell that cutie Sara that Ariel sentcha!