Category Archive

lessons learned

After the dust has settled, sometimes it’s nice to share the core lessons that you learned from your wedding… sort of a paying it forward sorta thing, to help future couples avoid making the same mistakes you did. We’re always looking for more “lessons learned” submissions, too. Tell us what YOU learned!

0773 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Our wedding was full of tears and imperfection… and I loved it

Our wedding day was not perfect. It was waaay colder than expected, our venue had half a dozen hiccups, there was one trip to the hospital, one birth, and one rival college football game. But when people ask me how my wedding was, all I can say is “like a dream.” Then I ache and wish it was three times longer and I could live it ten more times over.

The post wedding sexism guide alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

The post-wedding sexism guide: Be prepared for these bizarre encounters…

You might not notice it now, because our culture appears besotted with the search for The One and having that Big Fat Dream Wedding, but marriage doesn’t have the greatest reputation. Wives are even more unpopular. I read every blog going about being a feminist bride but I didn’t come across anything about being a feminist wife, and as a result I was thoroughly unprepared for the post-wedding sexism I was about to encounter. If you’re about to get married, it might pay to be prepared for some of the bizarre encounters you are probably going to have with friends, family and colleagues in the days and weeks after the wedding. So here’s the scoop…

Movie theatre wedding couple 03 MetroStyle Studios of Mpls alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

My one wedding regret: Not hiring the vendor we purposely cut

Through planning our wedding, we nixed a lot of vendors and traditions we didn’t think fit us.

I made our cake, we had no flowers, we self-DJed, and we didn’t have a videographer. All of this was in an effort to save money, but also have the wedding we wanted instead of producing some generic details we would never remember 15 years down the road.

And now my one regret is not hiring a videographer. Here’s why…

biggest wedding disasters alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

We’re ALL struggling: How I realized “the picture perfect relationship” is a lie

We were married three months and already talking about divorce, seriously?! There were times when I just wanted to give up and walk away, broken. I felt like I was failing this imaginary test.

It seems as though there’s a weird phenomenon that happens to some of us after marriage. We act out, and hurt the one we love most because we don’t know what else to do. It happened to me, my friend, and I know it’s happening to many other people out there. That’s why I wanted to write this. I wanted to let you know, if you are going through a rough patch after your wedding, you’re not alone. The pressure of this “idyllic marriage,” that’s what happened.

What I learned alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Things WILL go wrong, and 7 other things I learned at our wedding

I love the “lessons learned posts” on Offbeat Bride, because they’re always chock full of good advice. In that spirit, here is what I learned through planning and throwing our Halloween Horror Wedding…

wedding planning advice alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

18 things I wish I could have told my wedding-planning self a year ago (Part 2)

With the benefit of a year of hindsight, I thought I might give some advice to my younger self. Or, failing that — why do we not have time-travel yet?! — I figured I could give some advice to those of you who are still deep in the trenches of planning. The number 18 has great significance in Judaism, so without further ado, here is part two of the 18 things I wish I could tell my wedding-planning self…