Several people have asked me about the outfits Andreas and I wore at our wedding, and while I go into detail about them in the book, I must take a minute to call-out one of the indie designers we worked with — Chaya Branley, who works under the fabulous name of DaintyCore. Chaya worked on everything that Andreas and I wore, with the exceptions of my bustier and ribbon veil.

Chaya does all sorts of awesome work, but you must check out this wedding dress she made a few years ago. I think “dress” is almost an insult — it’s almost more a contraption, with all the delicious grommets and ribbons and laces and layers. When I saw the series, I was like “YOU! WOMAN! CLOTHE ME!”

The only sad part of this story? Chaya isn’t actively taking clients at this point — if you’re inspired by her fashions, you could try begging. Or just drooling over and over again at this gallery.

My taste in wedding gowns tends toward the theatrical, and that goes a long way towards explaining why I just spent half an hour drooling over the couture gowns at Uptight Clothing. WOW. The photos in the Real Brides section make me want get married five more times, dressed in varying degrees of queenly regalia like this or this or this.

The prices are very high (especially with the pound-to-dollar exchange rate), but if your tastes run towards the fairy/goth/costumey, Uptight Clothing is a site well-worth perusing for inspiration. And hey: if you’ve got $6k to spend on a dress (reality check: that was the cost of my entire wedding!) then for godsake: get something like this!

For those uninterested in princess wedding dresses, prepare to have your head explode from the innovative gorgeousness that is indie-designer Chrissy Wai-Ching Leung’s dress line. Hailing from Seattle via Chicago, Hong Kong, and Nice, France, Chrissy specializes in making custom silk wedding dresses that fly (or in some cases float) in the face of over-brocaded poofy white wedding wear. Using hand-dyed silks, each dress is custom made to meet the needs of the bride’s tastes and curves, ensuring that your wedding dress is truly one of a kind.

Chrissy caters to brides all over the nation via her website, but if you happen to be looking for a Seattle wedding dress, you owe it to yourself to visit her cozy Pioneer Square loft studio where, if you’re like me, you’ll want to fondle the samples and pet the silk-ribboned pillows for a couple hours. Forget the “white blindness” so common at bridal boutiques — at Wai-Ching you bathe in rich blues and reds and greens.

I wrote in Offbeat Bride about how great it was to work with two independent designers to craft my weird-ass wedding outfit. Obviously tastes vary, but I think that for many offbeat brides, independent designers are the ideal for wedding wear. Not only do you have the joy of having something custom made just for you and your style, but you also get to support an independent artisan. And if you’re going to go spending money on a dress, better to give it to a hardworking indie designer, rather than an overpriced wedding salon!

In that vein, every once and a while I’ll be pimping an indie designer who is worthy of offbeat attention. The photo here shows rock photographer Marina Chavez and her groom Diamond Dave Cooper. Marina is wearing a custom design by Lorna Leedy of Fancy Pony Land. That dress! I am dying from the gorgeousness and already knocking down Lorna’s door to see if I can get more pictures of her custom wedding work. (Just wait until you see the shots from Lorna’s wedding. More on that later.) For one more great shot of this beautiful white and red gown, read on …

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