The offbeat bride: Marylyle, Librarian (and OBT member)

Her offbeat partner: Jordan, Computer Programmer

Location & date of wedding: The garden outside UVA Alumni Hall in Charlottesville, VA. — 08/16/2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Jordan is a Sephardic Jew and I am Unitarian. It meant a lot that both of us and our traditions be represented equally. We worked together really hard to craft an interfaith wedding ceremony that was meaningful to both of us.

It was important to him that we include Jewish traditions such as the chuppah and circling each other. I chose Celtic traditions to connect with own my heritage such as handfasting and jumping the broom. We wrote our own ketubah and our own translation of the seven blessings. We also drank wine from both a Jewish Kiddush cup & from a Scottish quaich, or loving cup, during the ceremony. Jordan's mother, a rabbinic student, and an interfaith minister, performed the ceremony.

Continue reading "Marylyle & Jordan's Sephardic, Celtic, Balkan bash" →

Oh you Austin brides. I'm still so jealous of your access to long-time Offbeat Bride sponsor, Whitney Lee Photography. Whitney recently sent me these photos of Leah & Evan (and baby Ada's!) Chinese/Jewish wedding, and I'm just blown out.

You've got to see these shots of the breastfeeding bride, elegantly non-matching bridesmaids, and all the details…

Continue reading "Chinese/Jewish wedding with a breastfeeding bride from Whitney Lee Photography" →

The Offbeat Bride: Emily, bodyworker (and OBT member "Emily L")

Her Offbeat Partner: Mark, Case Manager

Location & date of wedding: Yerba Santa Goat Dairy, Lakeport, CA — 5/16/09

What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted everything to be as 'green' as possible. We bought and then donated all our plates, silverware and glasses. We sat on hay-bales which were later fed to the goats. We made as much by ourselves and with friends as possible and kept the food and drinks very local — we served veggies all grown within 100 miles of our home, buffalo raised 20 miles from the farm, a goat and goat cheese raised on the farm. We served Sonoma and Napa County wines, home-brewed beer by a dear friend of ours, and olives picked from Mark's mom's front yard and brined by us.

Continue reading "Emily & Mark's homemade Goat Farm, Native American, Albanian Orthodox, Love Fest" →

You've already gotten the full scoop on OBT member Jess' fabulous colored crinoline wedding dress, now get the entire scoop on the wedding itself!

The Offbeat Bride: Jess, Experiential Educator

Her Offbeat Partner: Sean, Organic Foods Data King

Location & date of wedding: Artists for Humanity, South Boston, MA — May 2, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: I am a Jewish educator and my husband is of Irish descent and was raised in the Catholic Faith. We wanted to honor and celebrate our heritage, while at the same time express our free thinking personalities. We had a Jewish Lay Leader and a family friend who is a former Pastor co-officiate our service, which we wrote ourselves, but honored every tradition that we could.

Continue reading "Jess & Sean's Irish-Jewish tradition-meets-offbeat wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Kimi, artist and designer

Her Offbeat Partner: Paul, artist and museum worker

Location & Date of wedding: Audubon Boathouse, Prospect Park Brooklyn — 9/12/2008

What made our wedding offbeat: I'm half-Japanese Hawaiian and half Jewish, and my now-husband is an ex-Mormon, so tradition was out the window. All we wanted was a good party that felt like us. We splurged some, we scrimped lots. We made everything, except the building and catered stuff, by hand. So on the day of our wedding everything was pure us.

Continue reading "Kimi & Paul's Jug Band, Critter-Filled Wedding" →