Recently a friend of mine sent out a tweet asking for gift ideas for her bridesmaids in which she added "…and don't say jewelry." Which got me to thinking, what are some good bridal party gifts for the ladies that aren't jewelry. Even a check of the OBB archives brought up mostly jewelry suggestions, so let's fix this. Here is a jewelry-free bridesmaid gift guide.

1. Flasks: This was the winning decision generated from my friends Twitter inquiry. Someone suggested "monogrammed flasks! Boys get them, why shouldn't the girls?!" I like this hot pink one that can be engraved. But yet another friend of mine pointed me in the direction of these funky flasks from Pylones USA which are SUPER unique.

2. Stationery: I know, I know, kinda boring, but at the same time, super useful. And you can find tons of sources for unique stationery pretty much anywhere, and it's not hard to make yourself.

3. Fascinators and hair accessories: They can wear them in wedding as well as a every day life. Etsy has an incredible selection of 'em. Or the DIY inclined make them themselves using our tutorial.

4. Custom pottery: In our last post about bridesmaid gifts a couple of commenters mentioned "text bowls" from Esty seller Paloma's Nest. At $22 each, it's a cute and affordable way to tell your girls that you love them. Plus it gives them a place to put all the baubles that you won't be buying for them.

5. The gift of adventure: What about something like surf lessons or take the girls zip-lining. This idea would be perfect for a destination wedding — find something to do unique to the area and take your gang on a group trip. Not ones for adventure? Do a spa day or something — mani-pedies, or massages for all! Your friend will have fun and it's great for group bonding.

Continue reading "13 jewelry-free bridesmaid gift ideas" →

So, I've never really understood the whole "inspiration board" thing. I guess I'm just not a collage maker, so organizing my wedding ideas that way just didn't appeal to me.

Evidently, however, I DO like to play with dolls, because I've recently been sucked into ShopStyle, which essentially lets you create "Looks" based on their big ol' catalog of clothes, shoes, jewelry, accessories, etc.

It sounds silly even to a superficialite like myself, but OMG, I've lost several hours of my life to creating Offbeat Bride Looks:

Continue reading "ShopStyle and the digital paper dolls" →

Thanks to OBT member Ellabean for both finding and sharing this super creative cake topper from Bee Mine Designs…

Ellabean sez:

"We wanted to have our son represented on the cake topper with us, because we believe this is as much his day as it is ours. I asked the lady who made the [cake topper] we liked and asked her to make a Little Swirl toddler."

What a super [chunky] cute way of repping your little one on the cake topper! And I love that the designer totally took on the challenge and came up with the cutest little swirly jar kid EVAR. I just wanna eat 'em up.

Also check out Bee Mine Designs on Etsy for more creative cake toppers AND ho'ma'gawd adorable invitations…

Everyone, let's us all fucking bow down Eden (pictured above) who found one of the coolest accessories for a winter wedding that I've ever seen — the wool pom pom hat with dotted black lace veil by Agneta Persson. As Eden put it, "Is it not the most tongue-in-cheek winter accessory you have ever laid eyes on or what?"

It came from a store in Manhattan called Off Broadway, but the rest of us non-New Yorkers are in luck because they're available online!

Winter brides, you are welcome.

I am considering having my bridesmaids wear wrist corsages instead of carrying bouquets. But I can't find any good, hip, cool, young-looking corsage ideas. All I have seen is fuddy, grandma styles. Help! -Melissa

Now, Melissa. You didn't specify whether you were looking for floral corsages or non-floral corsages. But I decided you wanted non-floral corsages, and so of course I turned to my beloved Etsy to help me with this. Here are a few ideas…

Continue reading "Non-grandma-ish wrist corsages" →

I love multi-purpose wedding stuff. One of our orange coral centerpieces sits on my bookshelf as decor, and every time I look at it I get the warm and fuzzies thinking about our wonderful day. I also wear my wedding flip flops all the time with the same results. So when I saw OBT member Kim's (aka. "uloveit") wedding cake topper choice, thought it was a great idea! Kim found a pair of adorable salt and pepper shakers to adorn the top of her cake…

Kim's cake topper:
 According to her wedding planning update, she's going to accent this cake topper with the Mary-Chapin Carpenter lyrics, "Grow old along with me" on the cake. Romantic overload.

Kim inspired me to look into some other salt and pepper cake toppers (because how nice would it be to have a functional cake topper that you could use all the time?), and found an incredible array of choices. So I'm gonna share with you my favsies…

Continue reading "Kitschy-fabulous salt & pepper shakers as cake toppers" →

OBT member Kasia, aka. "Lil Pistol" found these rad tattooed toasting flutes from Laserbird's Etsy shop. They're perfect for a tattooed bride and groom, or a couple that wants to get non-cheesy toasting flutes.

The glasses "features two birds nestled among beautifully detailed roses, with a flowing ribbon banner that reads LOVE." And the best part about these babies is that they can be custom engraved with your name and date. The ones pictured show the names engraved along the wing of each bird, and the date in the upper left.

Continue reading "Sailor Jerry Tattooed Toasting Flutes" →

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!