The offbeat bride: Rosemary, graduate student

Her offbeat partner: Christopher, graduate student

Location & date of wedding: June 21, 2008 in a friend’s wild back yard and forest, near Montreal, QC

What made our wedding offbeat: We made up our own ceremony to be exactly what we wanted it to be, which meant throwing out most traditional elements. Being part of a Pagan community, this wasn’t so surprising to our friends, but what may have surprised them was that we threw out most of the Pagan handfasting traditions as well, since they didn’t really speak to us either.

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How great would it be to apply this business card concept to your wedding invitations? Thanks to Scunshine for the idea!

The offbeat bride: Sharon, Admissions Officer/Blogger

My offbeat groom: Tim, Software Engineer

Location & date of wedding: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception a short walk away at the San Francisco Film Centre. August 2007.

What made our wedding offbeat: For an outsider it may have seemed somewhat traditional, but for us it was about doing the traditions our own way. We wrote our own ceremony which included a reading from “The Little Prince” and a tree planting. It was officiated by Tim’s brother who was deputized for the day. All the ceremony music was Sufjan Stevens. There were a ton of DIY elements — my mother-in-law hand-wove shawls for the bridal party, we ordered the flowers directly from an organic farm and made our own bouquets, nearly all of the reception decoration was from recycled/reused materials.

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The offbeat bride: Sarah, barista

My offbeat groom: Josh, architecture student

Location & date of wedding: County park in St. Louis, MO (May 20th, 2007)

What made our wedding offbeat: I know “green” weddings are quite popular on the coasts, but here in the Midwest, people were stunned. We did our best, on our budget, to be eco-friendly. And our subtle message resonated with our guests, who were all intrigued and asked lots of questions. Our wedding was truly a family affair. Our focus was on having a nice, peaceful, low stress day. Oh, and our goal was to spend less than $2,000. We ended up spending about $2,500, which is probably rounding up, on a wedding with 75 guests.

We kept our own names. I wore Chuck Taylor’s at the reception. Fuck heels.

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