The offbeat bride: Lea, Artist

Her offbeat partner: Mike, Structural Engineer

Location & date of wedding: Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago, IL on May 23rd, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: A friend of ours, a wonderful fantasy writer, officiated with an incredible speech (which can be found here). Mike's family is very Lutheran, and mine is very Jewish, so we managed to put a ceremony together that summed up both of our beliefs without actually offending anybody.

Continue reading "Lea & Mike's big laid-back Jewish/Lutheran budget wedding" →

The offbeat bride: Miranda Podger, Registered Nurse

Her offbeat partner: Mike Podger

Location & date of wedding: The dance marquee in a very muddy field at the Pontardawe Music Festival in Pontardawe, South Wales, UK on August 16th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: A traditional wedding with all the trimmings was never going to be right for Mike and myself. This was the second marriage for both of us and we're not what you'd consider the most traditional, mainstream of couples. We got engaged on Christmas Eve 2007 and married August 16th 2008, so that didn't give us long to plan things. Plus we had a very small budget (in the end we managed to pull it off with a spend of around £300!)

Continue reading "Miranda & Mike's Fun-filled Festival Wedding" →

So, you your family/friends are freaking about about your plans for a tiny simple wedding in your backyard. Or about how your sweety wants to carry a pirate sword for the ceremony. Or about how you're wearing a black dress instead of a white one. Whatever: you told 'em something, and they've freaked out.

While every situation is different, I decide to write up a few copy 'n' paste responses that y'all could use in your conversations with your family & friends. Obviously, these would need tweaking depending on your particular conflict, but hopefully the respectful but firm tone will help you hold your ground while also keeping the peace:

Continue reading "Copy 'n' paste conflict resolution (aka How to say "fuck off" and "I love you" and "this conversation is over" all at the same time)" →

We've featured this sexy couple on OBB before, but couldn't get enough of their flamed/boobfested hotness! OBT members can check out George's blog post of the whole shebang!

The offbeat bride: George, Retail Owner

Her offbeat partner: Sebastian, Art Entrepreneur

Location & date of wedding: back courtyard of The Duke of Edinburgh Hotel on August 2nd, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: What we wanted most for our wedding was for it to be us. We are fairly relaxed people, but with a very definite sense of our own style; and we wanted that reflected in the event.The most important thing for us was the public affirmation of our commitment to each other, and a party with those we care about most.

Continue reading "George & Sebastian's Gothic Latex Boobfest Pub Wedding" →

The offbeat bride: Molly, business owner and teacher

Her offbeat partner: Laurie, business owner/dog adventure guide/writer

Location & date of wedding: Guemes Island, WA overlooking the water and mountains on October 25th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Some details of that made it ours….

Rather than sending STD cards or standard invitations…we put together a CD (I love music) and sent it to our guests. We sent the CDs 10 months ahead of time (and even with no Save The Date) it worked out great – people loved the CD and still talk about it. The CD had our website on it, which was all people needed. It set the tone for fun and expecting the unexpected. (In hindsight, it also served as the ‘favor’).

Guests were asked to participate in many ways. During the ceremony we had a Community Support section where guests were asked to publicly declare their support to our commitment. We also had a Ring Warming during the ceremony where the rings were passed around and guests were asked to take a moment to hold them, infuse them with their physical, emotional, and spiritual warmth. And we had a wedding certificate made that our guests signed with us after the ceremony. We got a lot of response at how much people enjoyed being a part of it all.

Continue reading "Molly & Laurie's Island Outdoor Lesbian Yes-We-Can Wedding" →