Category Archive

Alternative Wedding Ceremony Ideas & Examples

We’ve got SO much wedding ceremony advice like how to officiate a wedding, tons of wedding ceremony readings, a bazillion wedding ceremony scripts, and even wedding vow examples! We’ve also got info about handfasting and other unity ceremonies. You’ll want to start here: Wedding Ceremony 101.

Ariel reading at The Redwood Wedding alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

7 unique wedding readings: non-religious, funny, and zombies!

A wedding reading is a passage or a poem that is chosen by the couple to be read during their wedding ceremony… and unique wedding readings will add that personal touch to the ceremony, providing an opportunity for the couple to share their thoughts, feelings, and values with their guests.

officiating a wedding for a friend alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Officiating a wedding? You need these wedding ceremony interview questions!

So you’ve been asked to officiate a friend’s ceremony and you have no idea where to start? Well, we’ve got you. At Offbeat Wed, not only do we have a massive archive of wedding ceremony scripts for folks who are officiating a wedding, plus tons of advice about how to officiate a wedding… but today we’ve got questions you can ask the couple getting married to help you write your wedding officiant script.

IMG 0583 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

How to officiate a friend’s wedding with grace & humor

For many of us who are tapped to officiate a wedding for a couple of dear friends, it is our first experience designing a ritual, not to mention one so important. We take to the trusty Internet for answers, but find little. We can’t look to previous generations for wisdom, as most of them were either married by a religious figure by choice or obliged by their parents. To help fill in the gap, here are a few of the practices I’ve picked up along the way or created whole cloth.

Cocktail Wedding Reception Coworking Space photos by Drushotya26 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

These wedding vow promises will make you weepy (+ring-warming wording!)

Willie and Maya planned a casual cocktail wedding reception with an elegant vibe at a coworking space! We loved their wedding vow promises and ring warming so much and feel like there is lots of inspiration for folks looking to write their own personal wedding vow promises.

best vow alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

This year’s best vow examples

We’ve featured literally thousands of real weddings on Offbeat Wed, and most of them include an excerpt from the couple’s vows. For those of you planning your weddings and trying to write your wedding ceremony scripts, these wedding vow examples from real couples can be a great way to get ideas to help you figure out how to write your own wedding vows.

witchy halloween handfasting script alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Our Halloween handfasting ceremony script complete with readings

The wedding officiant at our witchy Halloween handfasting was one of our close mutual friends. The Halloween handfasting ceremony script he read from was composed of our personal wants, Pagan influence, and research on nontraditional vows from other offbeat weddings.