The Offbeat Bride: Katie, Woman of the World

Her Offbeat Partner: Victor (Victy, Victory, Boyfriend), USAF Officer

Location & date of wedding: Qualicrest Farm, Wooster, Ohio, USA, North America, Earth — May 25, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We tried to make our wedding guest focused and had a GREAT time! Plus, when planning we tried to buy local, buy green, stay organic/all natural, in the family, home made (the best cake ever!) and fun.

Continue reading "Katie & Victor's funny, simple, eco-friendly Ohio wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Isa, Museum Mistress (and OBT member "Isa")

Her Offbeat Partner: Clinton, student and drummer extraordinaire

Location & date of wedding: Mount Majura bushland, ACT, Australia — April 11, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Clinton and I decided to get married over the phone while I was in Tonga working as a volunteer, and I planned the whole thing from overseas. Perhaps the thing that made our wedding most unusual was how EASY everything was! It all just fell into place, with minimal stress and effort.

Continue reading "Isa & Clinton's easy-peasy, eco-friendly bush wedding" →

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: Jeannette, belly dancer, violinist, and daytime accountant

Her Offbeat Partner: Cliff, software engineer

Location and date of wedding: Ceremony: Arizona State, Reception: Jeannette's parents' back yard — September 13, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We always knew we wanted a very small wedding. We decided to skip a bunch of the usual built-in drama and leave out bridesmaids, groomsmen, ringbearers, piles of doves, etc.

Continue reading "Jeannette & Cliff's small, anti-conventional wedding with a surprise reception" →

OBT member Rodrigues left this message on the OBB facebook page:

I am glad to see you touching on subjects of marriage and tradition/values rather than just "wedding detritus." I think its really important to steer the focus away from stuff whenever possible, especially since its so easy to become obsessed with it while you are planning.

It's only been three days since I got married and already the "stuff" we had at our wedding seems frivolous — the best and most important parts were the ways in which people we loved were able to participate, seeing so many friends and family travel across and country and across continents to see us exchange vows, and the actual vows themselves.

Amen, girl. Oh and by the way? Your first dance looks like heaven…