The Offbeat Bride: Chantal, stay-at-home mommy (aka CeCe on the OBT)

Her Offbeat Partner: Kirk, customer service representative

Location & date of wedding: Shore Side Lake Nipissing, North Bay, ON — August 5th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was offbeat for a few reasons…

Continue reading "Chantal & Kirk's Simple Pink Preggers Wedding" →

The offbeat bride: Miranda Podger, Registered Nurse

Her offbeat partner: Mike Podger

Location & date of wedding: The dance marquee in a very muddy field at the Pontardawe Music Festival in Pontardawe, South Wales, UK on August 16th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: A traditional wedding with all the trimmings was never going to be right for Mike and myself. This was the second marriage for both of us and we're not what you'd consider the most traditional, mainstream of couples. We got engaged on Christmas Eve 2007 and married August 16th 2008, so that didn't give us long to plan things. Plus we had a very small budget (in the end we managed to pull it off with a spend of around £300!)

Continue reading "Miranda & Mike's Fun-filled Festival Wedding" →

The offbeat bride: Danica

Her offbeat partner: Mike

Location & date of wedding: Newcastle Island, Canada – August 8th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We kept it simple. I made all the cupcakes for the guests (all ninety! WHEW! Transporting them was a BITCH). We had our talented photographer friend Aki walk on stilts.

I'm double Offbeat! Pregnant, tattooed and I wore white!

Continue reading "Mike & Danica's Simple Island Wedding!" →

Those of you who have read the book will remember Ben & Joriel. They had a wedding on March 20, 2005, but opted not to get legally married because of concerns with marriage inequality. Yesterday was their third anniversary, and they celebrated by making their commitment legal! I was proud to be a witness at their Seattle courthouse wedding:

So, why did they decide to make get legally married after all these years? The short answer: Joriel is pregnant. The longer answer is eloquently written out on Joriel's blog:

We still feel strongly that the institution of marriage is not what we wish it was … We can only hope that the institution of marriage will continue to evolve and that perhaps we can help that process along by continuing to challenge homophobia, gender role assumptions, religious persecution, and other forms of oppression in our relationship and in our lives. [read the whole thing]