In the glorious Offbeat Bride community, there are loads of different kinds of people into loads of different things. You name it, we got it! From tattooed rockabillies to tight-panted hipsters to earth-lovin' hippies and every idiosyncratic style (lifestyle?) in between. One aspect of the Offbeat Bride army, if you will, that we often don't associate with being particularly offbeat and is definitely under-represented on OffbeatBride.com are military brides. Yeah, I said it… military brides can be offbeat too!

On the Offbeat Bride social network, Offbeat Bride Tribe, there is a group devoted entirely to brides and their partners who have served or are serving in the armed forces, police force or firefighting arena. There's a little sumpin' sumpin' about a man or woman in uniform!

Continue reading "Offbeat military weddings" →

Typically, "wedding porn" is just a figurative term … but I pretty much want to have sex with Meaghan's ENTIRE WEDDING PARTY. The bridesmaids in their red dresses! The groomsmen in their vests and inked forearms! The groomsgirls in their adorable shirts! Only you Seattleites will get the neighborhood reference, but this may be the most perfectly Georgetown wedding I've ever seen.

Lots more hawtness over here.

The offbeat bride: Claire, Operations Manager at a non-profit

Her offbeat partner: Bobby, Comedian, Puppeteer and Giant

Location & date of wedding: Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA. July 12, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was subversively quirky. We both went back and forth about certain traditions and our families had some say in that. I was in a big pouffy white dress with a veil for the ceremony and the boys were in tuxes.

But! Our attitudes were not traditional, which made the whole day wonderful. I didn't care about being a bridey-bride and just wanted everyone to have a blast. We chose to focus on the quirky funny details and on us starting a new partnership together.

To start, we had a 29 year old male flower girl. My wedding party walked down the aisle to Raider's of the Lost Ark and we walked out to the Ghostbuster's theme song.

My husband is a puppeteer and made each wedding party member a puppet to match them as our gifts to them. The wedding party entered the reception with their puppets, and our flower girl even slow danced with his at one point.

Continue reading "Claire & Bobby's puppet wedding" →

Our wedding party consists of Matt's brother and two of his buddies, and my cousin/childhood best friend (as "the best woman") and my four brothers (as my "bridesmen"). Any tips on how to incorporate 9 men into a wedding? The only chicks are me and my best woman, Jenna, and my baby cousin (she'll be a 2 1/2 year old flower girl). In addition to the nine men, we have 4 little boys who will be taking part. A sausage-heavy wedding for sure! We're full of ideas, but I was wondering what cool offbeat ones you could add. -Shauna

A couple ideas:

• Have all those groomsmen and bridesboys carry you down the aisle on a palanquin.
• Give them fabulous titles and jobs like "Lead Camp Counselor," "Wedding Captain," "King of Ushers" (Lord of Ushing?), and give them all walkie-talkies. Or perhaps secret service sunglasses and ear-bugs?
• Have some of them act as candle lighters, complete with blowtorches and/or flame-throwers
• In terms of the ceremony, if you're planning a traditional "his/hers" wedding party altar situation, have your bridesboys stand on your side.

Offbeat brides, any other ideas?