The Offbeat Bride:
Tiffany, Librarian
(and OBT member "TippyLooHoo")

Her Offbeat Partner:
Brandon, Electrician

Location & date of wedding:
Friday the 13th, March 2009
Kilworth Memorial Chapel in Tacoma, WA & BPIC in Browns Point, WA.

What made our wedding offbeat: One of the biggest things that made our wedding offbeat was that it was on a Friday the 13th. And our colors reflected that: orange, black, purple, and white. We tried to do everything as cheap as possible. I bought most of our decorations, supplies, etc. on Ebay. We decorated everything ourselves. I made my very own nearly flowerless bouquet. We didn't use tradition music for the ceremony. Oh, and all of my bridesmaids were men.

Continue reading "Tiffany & Brandon's Orange Friday the 13th family blending" →

Photo by Amanda Jaffe

I've been thinking a lot lately about the pursuit of authenticity versus the pursuit of attention. The first feels very internal, like you really have to look with-in yourself with a lot of introspection and thought to determine what's important … while the other feels very external, like you're hunting for other people's eyeballs. And why does one seem like so much fun, while the other seems like so much work?

(…I swear this relates to wedding planning!)

Continue reading "The pursuit of authenticity vs. the pursuit of attention" →

I submitted my wedding months ago and it still hasn't been posted. I am not trying to be rude or pressuring you into posting my wedding, but I am just curious as to why it was never put up. I think we had the most punk rock glamour fest wedding imaginable! There wasn't one thing we didn't DIY ourselves.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write, and let me say this right off the bat: YOUR WEDDING WAS AMAZING. I've looked through the photos, and it was amazing. (Especially that one bridesmaid with the cocktail cleavage!) I haven't had a chance to feature it yet, but it was amazing.

Yours isn't the first email I've received asking this question, so I'm wondering if it might be helpful to share a bit about the process of selecting to weddings to feature on Offbeat Bride…

Continue reading "Why didn't you feature my wedding?" →

Welcome to another installation of OMGOBT!, the series where I share some of my favorite content from the OBT. This post comes to you from OBT member Rodrigues.

I have been pondering ways to keep my family involved in my wedding yet respectful of our wishes. I almost feel like it is harder to plan a “mostly traditional with some personal twists” style wedding than a totally off-the-wall affair, mostly because if you are having the latter, it seems friends and family will eventually resign themselves to the fact that you are unequivocally NOT going to have the wedding they want.

Because our wedding appears fairly traditional on the surface, the changes we’re making are confusing the hell out of my parents, making them think that we are only changing certain things to spite them.

Continue reading "How to keep family off your back, by Rodrigues" →

I belong to a community of brides on another site. One of the brides prides herself on her uniqueness and originality. No one has a problem with that. But she really puts down a lot of the other brides who are more traditional. She calls their weddings cookie cutter.

I’m sure there was a time when the offbeat brides of the world took a lot of slack for doing things the way that made them happy but now this lady has started bride-reverse-discrimination. My point, how do I tell someone to chill with their "I’m so original and different" superiority trip?

Easy: send her the Your wedding is not a contest post.