Turn inexpensive paper lanterns into swanky decor Steal this idea »

I think if I were to hire a bride to make my own DIY details, this would be the one. She made awesome paper flowers and a rolled magazine page card box, but the most amazing contributions were the FABULOUS bridesmaid dresses and homemade cake — all of which look professional. This bride and her helpers have major talent. On top of it all, this pair is so damned cute that I will call them Squishies and they will be my Squishies.

Retro dresses, victory rolls, in-ceremony Facebook updates, a pre-ceremony cocktail party, lots of polka-dots, and an impromptu feat of strength on the dance floor: it's a retro wedding for everyone!

If your bridal shower went down ANYTHING like mine, you were left with PILES of tissue paper that (three years later) I'm still re-using. Offbeat Bride reader Violet has a great idea on how you can use all that colorful tissue paper as festive wedding decor. Here she is with your tissue paper flower tutorial…

When you start a week on a beach with no pants, you know it's going to be a good week. Sadly, we're all probably at work, pants probably mandatory. But to make up for it, I'm showing you some of my favorite reader submissions from the Tribe, the Flickr Pool, and Pinterest. This week I went a little overboard with the handmade items, but can there ever be too much? There are Legend of Zelda cake toppers, DIYed paper flowers, sweet little petal cones, and even a Han Solo in carbonite candy mold.

This week we're paying homage to the academics, the bookworms, the card-carrying library loiterers, and the literati among our readers. So in addition to our usual round-up of reader submissions via Flickr and Pinterest, we're showcasing some bookish wedding details including decor made from book pages, bookish cake toppers, table numbers from vintage books, and even a Scrabble cake!

For our Alice in Wonderland wedding reception, we wanted to have flowers from our colour scheme in teapots for centrepieces; however, flowers are expensive and we're aiming for a budget-friendly celebration! To counter this, my partner and I created 60 red, white, and black flowers out of cardstock. The project cost us less than $20 (not counting the cost of secondhand teapots).

We've done tons of posts about outdoor ceremony decor, window decor, even porta potty decor! But what about offbeat decor options when you're getting married in a church, that may or may not place limitations on what you can do? Church brides want funky decor options, too — so we've rounded up a metric butt load of awesome inspiration for ya.