The offbeat bride: Rei Chee, naturalist

My offbeat groom: Bryan Perez, musician

Location & date of wedding: Backwoods on my friend/reverend's property in Boston Hills, NY. May 2006.

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was not the ball of the year, but being in the presence of nature & our close friends made it very magical.

My husband & I eloped in my woodman friend's backyard, which was a huge tract of natural land. He was also our Reverend. We were married between a shagbark hickory (signifying solidity & strength) and a beautiful white pine, the Tree of Peace among the Iroquois Indians. Our invited guests were my parrot, a few special humans, and the Reverend's pack of border collies in a very whimsical ceremony.

Continue reading "Rei Chee's forest elopement" →

If you're a Flickr user, I heartily encourage you to join the Offbeat Bride group and either submit your awesome photos or browse through the pool. Photos submitted to the pool are part of the gallery over there in the sidebar to your right, and I'll be featuring especially awesome ones regularly as offbeat wedding porn. Join now! Get in on the fun! Post your pictures! Overuse exclamation points just like me!

I was browsing around Flickr looking at quirky wedding photos tonight, I think this one is my favorite. I love Aussie Rebecca Mence's outfit, from the tip of her top hat right down to the boots.

It's not often that I see something wedding-related on theknot.com that I actually like. For the most part, the site runs too traditional for my tastes — although it does have some useful tools that even the most offbeat of brides can use. That said, I about fell out of my snooty-chair when I came across Kameo Brown's amazing profile. Her photos are gorgeous and the event looks stunning. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised — the bride is a photographer and clearly has an amazing eye for the details.

Although the wedding seems like it definitely was not a low-budget affair, there are some inspiring decorative and conceptual elements that are great for brainstormers. And I absolutely loved the Kammeo's quote: "Entering my thirties, the idea of being a 'little princess' didn't appeal to me as much as being 'Queen' for the day." And omg, did she ever achieve it. Stunning!