As part of my ongoing mission to ensure no engaged couple ever feels forced into a box of roses and doves and champagne flutes, it gives me great pleasure to unveil the two newest Offbeat wedding website templates! Both these designs come from Royal Steamline, and both of them are completely free from the wedding froof that plagues 90% of wedding website designs:

Tell Tell gives you a darkly anatomical take on romance, with its neo-Victorian wallpaper and a heart that looks like it could still be beating. Love it? Of course you can get the matching paper invitations direct from Royal Steamline.

Coney Island 1896, meanwhile, proves my point that when it comes to forward-thinking design elements, tentacles are the new birds. A little steampunk, a little circus, and a lot of sepia tone, this is yet another wedding website template that's also available as a print invitation.

Do you design wedding invitations?
Let's get your badass designs translated into templates!

Of course these are just the two newest templates I've got for Offbeat wedding websites, and while there are no champagne flutes, there are of course a full range of milder to wilder designs available. Go check 'em all out now, and sign up get your designer wedding website up 'n' running today!

First, you should feast your eyes on Aerin & Jeremy's wedding profile. Then you should feast your eyes on the new Alice in Wonderland-tinged template Aerin just did for my wedding websites.

If you've already got a wedding website with me 'n' Nearlyweds, and you're looking at this new design and love it as much as I do, remember that you can change your template at any time and as many times as you want. And of course, if you like the new template, you can order the matching invitations.

(And yes: this is one of those things that I desperately wish had been around when I was getting married in 2004. Back in my day, we had to design our non-froofy wedding websites from scratch! And manually coordinate with our designers to make the invitations match! And walk uphill to the altar barefoot in the snow! You 2009 brides don't know how easy you've got it…)

I'm madly in love the invitation aesthetics of Aerin's Royal Steamline designs … which are a little dark, very vintage, and full of intoxicating little details like anatomical hearts, tentacles, and the most non-cutesie butterflies evar. With Royal Steamline, the issue for me isn't "Which of these designs might make a good wedsite template?" but rather "Which design should I beg her to convert into a template first!?" Because really, they're all winners.

So, you tell me: which of Royal Steamline invitation design would YOU next like to see available as a wedsite template? I'm leaning towards Tell Tale.

Oh, and if you don't have a wedding website yet: RUN DO NOT WALK and start designing yours. It's free to dive in and start tinkering and your slightly dark Alice In Wonderland-themed wedding website could be up 'n' running in about 10 minutes. Go get started!

PS: If you're an indie invitation designer, I'd love to feature YOUR work too.

Want to go straight to the wedding website templates? Click here!

I know that not everyone wants a wedding website that's covered with roses and ribbons, so I decided to offer wedding websites complete with exclusive, wedding website templates created by indie wedding invitation designers.

Some of the exclusive Offbeat templates include the gothic one with the crows, the vintage one with the clock gears, the dark neo-Victorian one from the likes of Royal Steamline.

I've just added several new designs from Modern Girl Invitations and Claire Hammond … including a Peacock-perfect woodsy design, dramatic red & black damask design, a bubbly retro orangesicle one, and several others … all of which have matching paper invitations available!

So, if you need a wedding website that isn't all lace and roses and doves and ribbons, one that gives you tools like blogging, online RSVP, push-pin guest-mapping, and tons of other stuff — go give it a try.

(Yes, you can change your template as many times as you want, and it's free to start building your page!)

UPDATED: Check out more new wedding website template from Royal Steamline, based on an Alice in Wonderland tea party theme.

Ladies, I have been working on this for months, and I am so excited to announce that I am partnering with Nearlyweds.com to offer wedding websites with exclusive offbeat design templates!

Because really: where else but Offbeat Bride are you going to find wedding websites with rockabilly, goth, peacock, or steampunk themes?

We're totally keeping it in the offbeat family, too: many of the exclusive offbeat templates were designed by Aerin of aeiou design, who's wedding I ogled a few months ago. If there's anyone who truly gets offbeat wedding aesthetics, it's an offbeat bride herself! (PS: Indie designers, here's how you can submit your templates!)

I've also featured Nearlyweds on Offbeat Bride before — of all the bazillions of wedding website services I've tested out, I love love love them the most. I'm a big fan of their web 2.0 features like guest mapping, and I love how if you like your wedding website template, you can get paper invitations that match. They've got online RSVPs, blogging, unlimited photo uploads … all the stuff you'd want, wrapped up in a nice well-designed package. (They're also a Seattle company, and I like my hometown geek-heroes!)

So, enough talk from me … it's time to get started designing your new wedsite! You can sign up for a free trial below. If, after two weeks, you love it as much as I do, you pay $49 … which covers hosting for as long as you want your site up! As a bonus, if you use the promocode offbeatbride, you'll get 10% off.

I hope to be adding new designs regularly, and I'm doing a poll to hear which wedding website templates you'd most love to see:

Continue reading "Wedding websites for people who aren't into froof" →