friends | Offbeat Bride

This is Offbeat Bride's archive of friends posts.

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A bunch of my friends just got engaged, and now they're all planning weddings. As a happily un-partnered woman, of course I'm excited for them, but I can't help but feel a little sad. The majority of my closest group of friends are now focused on wedding planning, and I can't help but think that once the weddings happen, I'll never see them again. I want to be supportive, but I can't help it: I feel left behind. -Ashley

Thanks to amberelaine for submitting this shot to the Offbeat Bride Flickr pool!

Oh, transitions. They're bumpy and messy, like riding in the back of a car and dumping your burrito on your lap. I know that for me, there was a time in my life when the people who I was closest to were people who all did the SAME STUFF. First it was college friends and the pack of roommates who lived in our shared house called The Muthaship. Then it was my crew of raver friends, who all met for pre-funks at midnight before going out. Then it was coworkers at various media jobs, meeting for happy hour. We were all in it together, in relatively similar stages of our lives, doing relatively similar things. But then something strange happened: people's lives diversified. Some of us got married, some of us didn't. Some of us traveled, some of us had kids. Some of us started our own businesses, and some of us went back to school. Gone were the days when we all met at 11:30 pm to go out.

Does this mean we all went our separate ways? Some folks, yeah. I think there will always be a collection of people in your life who are there because they're doing the same stuff as you. But I also think it's imperitive to make the effort to bridge the gaps with the folks who are on a different path, but to whom you're devoted. This is something Offbeat Mamas talk a lot about — how everyone (parents, childfree, and kids!) benefit from maintaining relationships. To be sure, the transition to parenthood can definitely be brutal on relationships.

The same is absolutely true of weddings and marriage.

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I'm by no means a wedding planner. I had never even planned a large event before I got engaged… but in planning our wedding from over 2,000 miles away I found that there...

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The offbeat bride: Gina Lee, Dress Designer/Maker & Illustrator Her offbeat partner: Wayne, Residential Caretaker & Landscape Gardener Location & date of wedding:...

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The offbeat bride: Julie Ke, Sign Artist Her offbeat partner: Jonny, Chef Location & date of wedding: Forest House Lodge in Foresthill, CA on October 10th, 2008 What made our...

The offbeat bride: Nicole, Office Manager & Baker Her offbeat partner: Marty (bass player for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists) Location & date of wedding: Bankuet Place in...