If your tastes run toward the elvish, fairy, medieval, celtic or renaissance styles, you pretty much can’t do better than Rivendell Bridal. The gowns ain’t cheap, but the inspiration is free!

I have stretched earlobes, 2G to be precise. Not as big as they could be, but they’re definitely not bridal-jewelry accessible. Even though my ears are larger-than-the-average-bride, I want to play with the wedding bling too! i’ve seen some beautiful large-gauged fancy filigree, and diamond studded plugs online, but I’ve yet to find anything that really looks “wedding day” to me. have you run into any other large-gauged brides who’ve faced this issue and succeeded fabulously? i’m desperate for some inspiration! -Laura Sina

I love it when I get questions that other people have already answered for me. There’s a whole discussion happening right now on the OBT about earrings for stretched lobes — and I figured I’d borrow some of my favorite answers from there to share, plus some of my own findings.

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Offbeat Bride t-shirts are back by popular demand — and with a new tagline! A very special thanks to Nicole for coming up with Altar your thinking!

At the suggestion of a clever OBT member, I’m offering the shirts for pre-order so that I can offer TWO colors instead of just one.

So now you can choose between two fabulous colors and sizes for everyone: little girls, big girls, and big boys too! I’m offering pre-orders at a discounted price: $20, which includes shipping. Shirts ordered up until 2/25 will be shipped by 3/7.
Pre-order yours today!

The Etsy Wedding blog has done it again, sniffing out gorgeous custom letterpress invitations from Etsy seller Pistachio Press. Nope, they’re not cheap. But man, they’re inspiring.

A few weeks ago I got some great feedback in the form of a book review over on Amazon:

I think it’s a little funny that the chapter on bridal wear in Offbeat Bride does not even mention the possibility of the bride wearing - gasp - pants instead of a dress. Utilikilts get a mention — “Match your skirts!” — but even then does it not enter the picture that some brides are not into dresses.

Why, what an excellent point, and what a total oversight. While of course I couldn’t cover every single breed of offbeat in the book (snowboard brides got short shrift, and transgendered Buddhists were completely ignored), writing about brides in pants is actually something I really wish I’d included.

In my poking around online I found a fair amount of inspiration for brides who wish to go the pants route, and even some awesome indie vendors…

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I know some of you out there are hard at work planning your winter weddings, and I can’t help but link this dramatic shrug with its fabulous “evil queen” stand-up collar from Etsy seller Rohm.

I love this thing, and of course it gets major bonus points from me for being handcrafted and custom-made for each bride.