The offbeat bride: Jessica, Photographer

Her offbeat partner: Matthew, Musician & Photographer

Location & date of wedding: Mashamoquet State Park, Pomfret CT. 10/7/2006

What made our wedding offbeat: We decided to get married after having seen each other in person only five times (over a year and a half) and burning through countless verizon cell-to-cell minutes. We had only two months to plan the wedding, and I (the bride) was living in California while the groom and the wedding was in Connecticut. I arrived in Connecticut four days before the wedding and thankfully had family and friends who handled all the preparations while Matthew and I generally freaked out.

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I have been going round and round in my head for some idea on sprucing up a park ramada in a state park that we are using for our reception. The picnic tables I am not so worried about - those can be covered! But I am trying to make it look fun and festive with out it looking like a) a carnival b) country bumpkin - no offense on that cause I am one! or c) like a 5 year old’s birthday party! Any suggestions on helping me with keeping the natural element but making it look special? -Rebecca

To answer this question, I brought in the best expert I know — my friend Sarah Kelly, better known to those of you who have read the book as Upper Location Manager Sarah! Sarah is an interior designer specializing in organic decor working out of Los Angeles.

• Fabric is good and can be your friend. Drape it, layer it, cover it, use different colors for depth. For a dramatic effect, use deep or contrasting colors. That said, there is such a thing as too much chiffon and organza.

• I am going to go on the record and say that balloons, if ever used, should be used sparingly and only for an effect that can not be achieved by other means.

• I love flowers I know there can be some controversy about using a lot of fresh cut flowers. I get it — call it my eco-sin. I love flowers!

• I’m a big fan of lighting. Here are a few examples of lighting that, if modified and used right, could easily be applied to a ramada:

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For those of you seeking out alternatives to the traditional floral bouquet, check out Rachel’s fabulous peacock feather bouquet.

The peacock theme continued on the wedding cake, too.

It’s worth checking out all the photos from this lovely wedding … this one is my favorite, although I’m also quite fond of this one of the wedding party and the adorable flower girls.

(Thanks to maggiemacphoto for the photo!)

I’m all a-twitter over the amazing photos and stories from the wedding of two members of the Offbeat Bride DC Wedding Co-op.

…The bride had a sword!

…The groom wooed her with a bowl of brownies he baked that morning!

…They did all their flowers themselves!

…The bride’s entrance was one of the most dramatically beautiful I’ve ever seen.

…The location (Adelphi Mill) was insanely gorgeous!

Basically, you should just go read the groom’s incredibly sweet post about the wedding. I’m going to go lose myself in the photos again, myself…

You’ve seen Fancy Pony Land on offbeatbride.com before — now here’s the story on Lorna’s own wedding!

The offbeat bride: Lorna Leedy, fashion designer and creator of Fancy Pony Land

Her offbeat partner: Peter Maggio, Park Ranger

Location & date of wedding: 7/8/6, The Gould Community Center in Gould, CO (North-Central Colorado)

What made our wedding offbeat: We had a Frontier Pioneer themed wedding in the North Park area of North-Central Colorado, where my family has a fly-fishing ranch. It’s one of the most gorgeous places on earth.
The wedding was supposed to be at my family’s cabin on the Ginger Quill Ranch, overlooking the North Platte River, but torrential rain forced us to have the wedding in the reception hall, the Gould Community Center. It’s an old wooden building with exposed beams and a giant fireplace. We had 175 people packed in there and the crowdedness made it really intimate and wonderful. We couldn’t have planned it better.

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I’m trying to get caught up on my backlog of bride profiles — so this week it’s wall-to-wall wedding porn for y’all. Enjoy!

The offbeat bride: Melissa, Student

My offbeat groom: Jon, Student/Retail

Location & date of wedding: Jon’s Parent’s HUGE yard in rural Manitoba, Canada. June 23, 2007

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was unique in that we both wanted to save money (because we both feel the same way about overpriced wedding crap) and wanted to have an outdoor celebration that was not limited by who could join us. So we chose Jon’s parents home as a location that would not limit our needs.

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I love this playful bike ride shot from Rebecca & Jeremy’s vineyard wedding. I don’t have any details on the event other than what you can see in these pictures, but I positively adore the groom’s suit (so cute with the bow-tie!) and the bride’s cocktail-length dress.

Photo courtesy of Red Apple Images.