Announcing the birth of our sister site: Offbeat Mama!

The average American wedding costs over $25,000. I encourage brides to find innovative, thoughtful ways to reduce their bridal budgets, and if you do choose to spend money, spend it on independent vendors and thoughtfully-made merch like the stuff below…

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Oh you Austin brides. I'm still so jealous of your access to long-time Offbeat Bride sponsor, Whitney Lee Photography. Whitney recently sent me these photos of Leah & Evan (and baby Ada's!) Chinese/Jewish wedding, and I'm just blown out.

You've got to see these shots of the breastfeeding bride, elegantly non-matching bridesmaids, and all the details…

Continue reading "Chinese/Jewish wedding with a breastfeeding bride from Whitney Lee Photography" →

Peep Toe Flat with BowAnother week for me to geek out on wedding shoes!

Last week, I heard from several readers who were like, "Yeah sure cute — but what about those of us who want to wear flats?" While I make a point to include flats in every batch of shoes I feature, as someone who can't walk in a heel over 2 inches, I got nothing but love for the ladies who want to rock the flats on their wedding day.

And so, without further ado, here's my collection of lovely low wedding flats that will make you feel 10 feet tall:

Continue reading "Wedding flats for brides who hate heels" →

You know Turtle Love Committee from our past introductions. We LURVE that they specialize in affordable and eco-friendly non-diamond engagement rings and wedding bands. But now there’s even more reason to lurve them… TLC now has a whole slew of really unique necklaces and earrings. We'll be featuring our favesies from their new jewelry lines that would make perfect (and AFFORDABLE!) wedding party gifts.

EveryDayArtifactsSwing

Check these beautiful and moody silver lithograph pendants. Each piece is hand-inked and hand cranked on an antique printing press and then strung on super subtle gray cord. They're like cool tiny art pieces!

They also do double duty of conveying complicated sentiments without being cheese-tastic. Like, the house and the nest are perfect for celebrating, well, housing and nesting. My personal favorites, the bridge and the railroad tracks are a great way to symbolize the journey and connections that weddings have a crazy way of bringing about. And the adorable little girl on the swing just makes me smile all goofy-like.

Head over to Turtle Love Committee get your own goofy-like smile going.

Black Wedding DressLooking for a wedding dress in any other colors besides "white" or "ivory?" Maybe say… something like that black beauty for your Halloween wedding?

Yeah, well … good luck with that. Shopping for a colorful gown can range anywhere from frustrating to completely frustrating, forcing brides to either relive prom dress shopping or scouring the bowels of the internets for creative alternatives. That is until Wedding Dress Fantasy showed up on the bridal scene!

Based in New Jersey, they have an online store full of colorful wedding gowns! You can now easily find the perfect red dress for your gothic castle wedding, or blue dress for your urban loft wedding, or pink dresses for, oh I don't know, your lesbian gamer geek wedding? Or even the ever rare and elusive gold wedding dress for your elegant lodge wedding. They also gots tons o' love for the plus size brides as well.

Oh, and maybe you're a budget bride, but you feel weird about ordering a custom dress from overseas. Wedding Dress Fantasy's custom dress prices are uber-affordable, ranging from $299 to $599.

So, when you're ready to easily track down your perfect colorful wedding dress, head over to Wedding Dress Fantasy.

Cork Tattoo Wedge PumpOoh, it's time for another edition of Foot Fetish, where-in I inflict my questionably loud taste in special occasion footwear uponst my willing offbeat victims!

This week, I'm focusing on veggie-friendly heels. From as best as I can tell, all these shoes are all made with non-animal products — most of them are rubber, synthetic, or satin uppers with man-made soles and insoles. The advantage of man-made materials? Yes they're nicer to our animal friends, but they're often also cheaper than leather. The disadvantage? Sometimes quality ain't forever-wear awesome — but that's the joy of wedding shoes: hopefully you only need to wear 'em once!

So, without further ado, let's dive into some crazy/fabulous cruelty-free wedding footwear. As always, click on the shoe picture to view more information, as you imagine these fabulous-but-animal-friendly beauties peeking out from under the hem of your wedding dress:

Continue reading "Veggie wedding heels for daring-but-cruelty-free brides" →


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