It's been a year since we had our last Q&A with Milestone Images, and we thought we'd check back in with New York based photographer, Angela, and see how a year full of Offbeat Brides has been treating her…

From Lesley and Todd's wedding.

We love hearing from the photographers that create offbeat wedding porn. Would you tell us about some of your favorite OBB weddings from last year?
The weddings I shot for people who found me through Offbeat Bride have been amazing. These celebrations have ranged from everything from a Wednesday morning elopement in Central Park to Lesley and Todd's beautiful New England coastline wedding to Jen and Ken's autumnal, DIY, summer camp wedding with campfires, cabins and a treasure hunt and Laurie and Sam's cocktail party wedding in a Manhattan loft. They essentially threw a great cocktail party, halfway through which they exchanged simple vows before a justice of the peace, then went right back to a cocktail party. It was great.

From Emily and Jeremy's wedding.

Emily and Jeremy's wedding was pretty unforgettable too, come to think of it. My favorite part was probably the water gun ambush in the middle of the best man's toast. Ha!

Oh! and Henry and Stephanie's wedding!…

Continue reading "A year of Offbeat Brides: another Q&A with Milestone Images" →

Offbeat Bride has talked about how much we love the idea of making your own wedding ring before. So how could we not take this opportunity to show you exactly how OBT member "merryf" and her FH created their own wedding bands.

Last Saturday my FH and I did the most extraordinary thing and made our own wedding rings. Not designed, but actually took metal and, after eight hours, ended up with wedding rings.

My FH found a ring making studio in New York while surfing the Web. It was all his idea, and I went along with it. This was the one thing that he wanted to spend money on for the wedding. How could I say no?

New York Wedding Ring is right in Lower Manhattan, a few blocks from the WTC subway. The goldsmith, Sam, was so nice, and so helpful. He takes just one couple at a time, so all his attention was on us. The nicest thing was that he didn't touch our rings at all — they were ours to make, and he demonstrated what he wanted us to do on a ring that he made at the same time. (Well, at one point he did help me when I got frustrated and threw it down on the table.) At one point I helped my FH and then he helped me, and that's nice to know that my ring has a bit of him in it, and his has a bit of me.

It wasn't all fun — the sanding and polishing almost put me to sleep and for the life of me I could not file the edge in a straight line. And my FH got a "corkscrew" instead of a circle when he bent it in a machine. And it was not cheap — it was about $1,400 and the actual cost of the metal was just a fraction of that, (the main cost was the time we spent there) but we had a lot of fun, and I learned that I can use those sort of tools and I'm not afraid. It's the ultimate DIY project.

And here is how we did it…

Continue reading "Fire! Hot Metal! We made our own wedding rings!" →

Photo Pink is back, YAY! You may remember Photo Pink from when we profiled them before, and they became super popular with OBBs almost immediately…

"I saw this post and contacted Photo Pink, since I ve been hunting for a few months to find a photographer. Not even 24hrs into the process they are AWESOME. I highly recommend talking with these folks; they are friendly, responsive and most of all REAL PEOPLE." -Heather

Well, now they're back to share with us Heather and Bryan's Brooklyn wedding, complete with tons of awesome offbeat details, captured perfectly (of course) by photographers Liesl and Randy.

Keep reading to see some beautiful NY wedding porn and get the info on their sweet Offbeat Bride discount…

Continue reading "New York wedding photography by Photo Pink" →

Thanks to OBT member Ellabean for both finding and sharing this super creative cake topper from Bee Mine Designs…

Ellabean sez:

"We wanted to have our son represented on the cake topper with us, because we believe this is as much his day as it is ours. I asked the lady who made the [cake topper] we liked and asked her to make a Little Swirl toddler."

What a super [chunky] cute way of repping your little one on the cake topper! And I love that the designer totally took on the challenge and came up with the cutest little swirly jar kid EVAR. I just wanna eat 'em up.

Also check out Bee Mine Designs on Etsy for more creative cake toppers AND ho'ma'gawd adorable invitations…

Finding the perfect non-cheesy songs for your wedding can be a difficult task, especially finding songs that haven't been used to death. That is why Jennifer Haase ("rhymes with classy") has come up with this unique solution to the problem — she's a singer/songwriter who takes commissions to create custom songs for special occasions. For instance, oh say like… an offbeat wedding!

I've actually been to a wedding where the bride performed a song that she wrote for her husband in leu of a first dance. It was beautiful. It was super touching. And it was something that I only wish that I had the talent to do. Thankfully, Jennifer Haase has enough talent to go around!

Clients can negotiate custom packages to fit their wedding needs…

• Do you want just a simple demo plus lyrics so that you can perform your own wedding song your way?
• Or a fully-produced professional recording, with full instrumentation to play while you take your first dance?
• Do you want it all and, hey, maybe even have Jennifer come perform the song, while you walk down the aisle?

It's all affordable and do-able, and Jennifer is flexible about meeting your offbeat budgets.

Oh and have I mentioned that Jennifer can really sing?

For a custom song sample go to her website and click on the "MUSIC" link, then find "CUSTOM SONG: 'It's How We Love'" on that page. Please, also check out the great quote from the client who commissioned that song by clicking on the song name for more details.

So if you'd like someone to help you create, or record the perfect wedding song for you — exactly the song that will express exactly what you want to say. No gimmicks. No suits. No cheese (unless you're into that kinda thing). Just a girl, a guitar and a journal full notes.

Email Jennifer so she can get started on your theme song!