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…
Well, not only do I want to share the photos of the winner of that contest, but I want to let you know about ANOTHER offbeat contest that Whitney's sponsoring — this one's for a free Halloween engagement session.
So first, lets bask in the photos of Kaci, the bride-to-be who won Whitney's last Offbeat contest…
Remember back in April when I co-sponsored the VAIN Hot Hair giveaway for Seattle-area brides? Well, I wanted to share this awesome photo of the winner, Shayla, rocking her wedding day hair and custom Hair Poison fascinator alongside VAIN stylist, Kelly. LOOK AT THE HOTNESS!
For more info about hot wedding hair in Seattle and those badass fascinators, get in touch with my ladies at VAIN. They've taken care of my offbeat hair since 2001, so obviously I love them.
You know that wedding file you have on your computer desktop that's a tangled hodgepodge of random inspirational photos, ideas, and links? (Mine was labeled "wedding crap.") Well, Snipi helps you bring order to that online inspiration chaos.
With Snipi, you can create a wedding inspiration stream by dragging and dropping products, photos, and videos you find interesting into a convenient web browsing tool. Snipi not only saves the snippet, but it also automatically gathers the information (descriptions, prices, website of origin, etc.) and adds it to your collection. I gave it a try with some of the links from my old "wedding crap" folder … and it's awesome! It's like a living inspiration board.
Ooh, but then it got cooler — you can share your Snipi stream with people (your fiance, bridesmaids, mother-in-law, etc.) using a custom URL, or people can subscribe to your stream using RSS. You can also easily share the items via Facebook, Twitter, or your WordPress blog without leaving the original website where you found the inspiration.
The photo above shows a before & after of one Offbeat Bride-reading couple. On the left: their lovely wedding portrait. On the right? ZOMBIFICATION.
The process is pretty simple: you send Rob a clear, high resolution jpeg of you and your beloved (or your bridesmaid, or your groomsmen, or your mother-in-law), and he'll works his illustrative magic. This is definitely a, uh, one-of-a-kind gift.
Special Offbeat Wedding Packages:
Bride and Groom couple's portrait $160
Maid of Honor and Best Man singles portrait $80 each
Each additional portrait order $60 for single, $140 for couples
Group of six (head and shoulder shot) 20" x 30" $480
I've gotten a few questions lately from brides seeking the perfect offbeat groomsmen's gifts. I've resisted weighing in because no two dudes are the same — and I really don't dig the gender-normative trends in groomsmen gifts. It seems like it's assumed that groomsmen are interested in booze (flasks!), titties (pin-up cufflinks!), tools, and sports. I mean sure: you know your dudes best. Maybe they love these things. But are we really so sure our guy friends are so narrow in their interests?
So, in putting together my list of awesome groomsmen gifts, I'll recognize that some dudes might be into a flask or cufflinks, but others would be much happier with a Star Wars flash drive, pedicure, or leather wrist-cuff. My ultimate test for groomsmen gifts: would a badass Best Woman like it too?
That in mind, here are a few of my favorite nontrad groomsmen gifts, some more mainstream, some tongue-in-cheek, and some totally out there:
Ok, remember forever ago when I told you about Austin wedding photographer Whitney Lee's bridal portrait contest? Remember that? 
