The Offbeat Bride: Sara, Educational Consultant and Obsessive Blogger

Her Offbeat Partner: Matt, Director of Sharing for a network of charter schools

Location & date of wedding: Sunshine Mountain Lodge in the mountains of Colorado — July 19, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat:We started the wedding planning process by declaring a strict and modest budget: $2,000 to be exact. We wanted our wedding to be about sincerity, authenticity, connection, and a celebration and proclamation of love and commitment. We didn’t want it to be about monogrammed napkins and excessive amounts of fondant. In all honesty, we didn’t want to let our wedding overshadow our relationship (and we needed to save money for the house we planned to buy four days after our wedding).

Continue reading "Sara & Matt's Summer Camp Wedding" →

The Offbeat Bride: Lisa, administrative assistant/writer

My Offbeat Partner: Rowly, History professor

Location & date of wedding: The Woods at Wihakowi a local camp and retreat center, Northfield, Vermont — June 21, 2008.

What made our wedding offbeat: This was a second wedding for us both, so we had family members to think about, our kids and new friends to fit in. We thought about what we wanted and realized that since we'd both done the big traditional wedding before, neither of us want that AGAIN, and it wasn't who we were as a couple. We had a small budget and decided early on to cut our guest list in half. This was painful on one hand, knowing that we couldn't invite every single person we wanted to, but on the other hand it was a relief. We were able to invite those who were truly part of our everyday life.

Continue reading "Lisa & Rowly's kid-friendly campsite wedding" →

The offbeat bride: Laura, Policy Wonk

Her offbeat partner: Dave, Computer Geek

Location & date of wedding: Pinegri-La Retreat Center in the Trinity National Forest - Castella, CA – September 27th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Last December, while in Vietnam, we posted a blog mentioning a possible future destination wedding in Long Hai. We'd never before mentioned marriage, so it was a surprise to friends and family that not only were we thinking about a wedding, we also expected them to fly to southeast Asia.

Continue reading "Laura & Dave's Fire-Dancing Mountain Love Affair" →