The Offbeat Bride: Sarah, Social Worker and student

Her Offbeat Partner: Paul, Web Developer at Minnesota Public Radio

Location & date of wedding: Minnehaha Falls Park and our back yard in south Minneapolis, MN — September 20, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was offbeat for several reasons. First, we had a short engagement (four months) and we stuck to a very reasonable budget. Second, we kept everything really simple, we had a small wedding party of my sister and Paul's best friend.

Continue reading "Sarah & Paul's simple and fun outdoor wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Leslie, Computer Science Instructor (and OBT member)

Her Offbeat Partner: Von, Senior Bailiff

Location & date of wedding: the back garden at Noe's Nest Bed and Breakfast in San Francisco, CA — August 9, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: LEGALLY marrying the Latin butch of my dreams, before California voted in PropHATE. Being surrounded and helped by many friends, most who we knew only from online and had not met in person before we arrived. Going from, "Hey, they're letting me go to LinuxWorld in San Francisco!" to… "Let's make it a vacation!" to… "Oh hey, let's get married" in less than a week, to married in less than a month.

Continue reading "Leslie & Von's last-minute, long-distance, LEGAL, butch-femme and friends wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Danielle, Business Owner Missing Piece, LLC

Her Offbeat Partner: Roland, Photographer/Carpenter

Location & date of wedding: Our house in San Francisco, CA — Friday, Oct. 31, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: I met Roland at Burning Man and we were married exactly two months later, on Halloween. He is from London and I am from San Francisco. I asked him to marry me via text message while he was in New York. We sent out "Corpse Bride" inspired wedding invitations via Facebook, bought some alcohol and snacks, and our motto all week was "Let's Get Fucking Married!!!"

Continue reading "Danielle & Roland's halloween wedding party" →

The offbeat bride: Ali – pediatric nurse

Her offbeat partner: Phil – electrician

Location & date of wedding: Brethren Church in Toronto, Ontario: wedding upstairs, reception in the gym downstairs. May 9th, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: I'm from New Jersey, he's from Fiji. We met on a ship in Liberia, and he proposed with a tie wrap in Canada. My wedding ring is wooden; he carved it for me while we were apart during our engagement.

We wanted our faith to be central, so we started our ceremony by sitting back down with our guests while my cousins led worship. Phil is Fijian-Indian, so we had an Indian food buffet for lunch. My brother's mother-in-law did all the decorating and flowers for us, my uncle married us, and my brother emceed.

Continue reading "Ali & Phil's laid-back lunchtime celebration" →

The offbeat bride: Naomi

Her offbeat partner: Casey

Location & date of wedding: First Assembly Church Chapel in Cedar Rapids, IA. November 1, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: For starters, I wore a black dress. It was actually a bridesmaid's dress, which made it tons cheaper.

Then, we did almost everything ourselves. I made our invitations on postcards. No real flowers — my bouquet was handmade from little christmas bulbs and tulle. Oh, and little white lights. Yes, it lit up!

Every tradition in weddings we pretty much went against. No unity candle, I stood on the 'wrong' side, my mom and dad walked me down, Casey had his parents walk him down.

There was no white was at our wedding — it was all black and bright blue.

Continue reading "Naomi & Casey's punk rock Iowa wedding" →