The offbeat bride: Madame Strange, educator

Her offbeat groom: Sensei Strange, Magician

Location & date of wedding: A friend’s yard, Austin Texas. 10/28/2006

What made our wedding offbeat: I was a geisha, he was a pirate, it was a costume wedding right before Halloween. It all began when we lived together in Japan, and he bought me an antique wedding kimono. It was so gorgeous, when he asked me to marry him I knew I had to wear it. And if I was going to wear it, I had to do it right, so I went all in. I had a friend make me a hair piece, dyed my hair black to go with it. He got to shoot the objector, another scurvy pirate. We had another magician tell our story prior to the pagan ceremony, followed by a hand fasting.

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The offbeat bride: Liz, Marketing Communications

Her offbeat partner: Laurie, German studies scholar and language teacher

Location & date of wedding: The Night Kitchen restaurant at the Montague Book Mill, Montague, MA

What made our wedding offbeat: Probably the most “offbeat” aspect of our wedding, aside from our gayness and my burgundy gown (are those things even offbeat anymore? Please!), was our dress code: we specifically instructed our guests to Outshine the Bride. It was right there on our website and in the invitation, and our guests did an amazing job!

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Remember the wedding with cue cards? Here’s the full story!

The offbeat bride: Yolkai, Mama, crafter, delicious food maker

Her offbeat groom: Anthony/Ackshawn, Teacher, K-8 Behavior Specialist

Location & date of wedding: Isis Oasis Sanctuary, a retreat center with an Egyptian theme in Geyserville, CA.

What made our wedding offbeat:We did it our way! After six years and a baby together we wanted the public declaration, the fancy outfits, and the big fun party! We chucked most of the mainstream wedding crap and held on to a few sweet traditions. Pretty much everything, from the invitations to the interpretive dance, was an expression of our style, our silliness, and our values.

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Remember Raina, the autumn bride who wore her mom’s dress? Here’s the full scoop on her library wedding!

The offbeat bride: Raina, Graphic Designer

Her offbeat groom: Mike / freelance photographer & TV production guy

Location & date of wedding: The Clayville town library in Clayville, NY

What made our wedding offbeat: We really wanted to save a lot of money and keep it simple, simple, SIMPLE! We only had 7 people at the ceremony besides the two of us.

We did it at the tiny library in the town I grew up in. It was perfect because it was so small on the inside, and it happed to be a church at one point which lent itself to the layout of the ceremony well. We didn’t have a religious ceremony but it was kind of cute to be in an old church turned library (and my job involves designing book jackets, so it was extra special!).

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Remember the Wards and their colorful wedding? Well, here’s the full scoop!

The offbeat bride: Helen Ward, Graphic Designer

My offbeat groom: Tim Ward, Graphic Designer

Location & date of wedding: The Paintworks gallery space, Bristol, UK

What made our wedding offbeat: The first thing I knew was that I WAS NOT going to be wearing a white dress and that I WAS going to be wearing red shoes!! Everything else went from there really.

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Those who’ve read my book (which should be all of you *cough cough*) will notice that this wedding sounds awfully familiar. Elisa and I grew up together on Bainbridge Island, and our weddings had a lot in common! I’ve mentioned her wedding before, but here’s the full profile…

The offbeat bride: Elisa, Therapist

Her offbeat groom: Eric, Electrician

Location & date of wedding: My mom’s backyard in a clearing surrounded by Cedar trees on Bainbridge Island.

What made our wedding offbeat: We decided to go low key, fun and DIY! We had a backyard ceremony and I wore the same dress that my grandma and great-grandma wore. It was so special, I’m really glad I did! After the ceremony I changed dresses so I wouldn’t trash the antique one and we danced and hung out all night. I made many of the things for the wedding to keep it cheap and cute, with everything being our colors of bright orange, pink, red, and fushia.

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The offbeat bride: Sharon, Admissions Officer/Blogger

My offbeat groom: Tim, Software Engineer

Location & date of wedding: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception a short walk away at the San Francisco Film Centre. August 2007.

What made our wedding offbeat: For an outsider it may have seemed somewhat traditional, but for us it was about doing the traditions our own way. We wrote our own ceremony which included a reading from “The Little Prince” and a tree planting. It was officiated by Tim’s brother who was deputized for the day. All the ceremony music was Sufjan Stevens. There were a ton of DIY elements — my mother-in-law hand-wove shawls for the bridal party, we ordered the flowers directly from an organic farm and made our own bouquets, nearly all of the reception decoration was from recycled/reused materials.

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I’m trying to get caught up on my backlog of bride profiles — so this week it’s wall-to-wall wedding porn for y’all. Enjoy!

The offbeat bride: Melissa, Student

My offbeat groom: Jon, Student/Retail

Location & date of wedding: Jon’s Parent’s HUGE yard in rural Manitoba, Canada. June 23, 2007

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was unique in that we both wanted to save money (because we both feel the same way about overpriced wedding crap) and wanted to have an outdoor celebration that was not limited by who could join us. So we chose Jon’s parents home as a location that would not limit our needs.

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