Category Archive

WTF!?

Wedding planning offers a non-stop stream of WTF moments, from cringe-worthy articles to heinous wedding supplies. Here, we document the most outrageous.

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I let my fiancé see my dress before the wedding, and I lived to tell the tale

“He saw you?!” they say in a mixture of disgust and horror. Yes. He did see me. I asked him to take the photos. And yet, I don’t feel as if our relationship is doomed for failure. Weird.

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My concerns with styled shoots, and why I publish them anyway

Are you familiar with this concept of styled shoots? It’s when wedding vendors team up together to create a fantasy weddings, showing off what they can do. I totally get why styled shoots are great for vendors — it gives folks a chance to show off the kind of work they WANT to do — but we have a clear policy to never ever feature them on Offbeat Bride, and here’s why…

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In which a giant registry store loses our business by ignoring my groom

Husband of the Future and I made an appointment to go to a major retailer to get a start on our registry. We ended up leaving when they totally ignored by groom, stating “Oh, he doesn’t matter. Grooms don’t matter at all! Everyone knows it’s the bride’s day!” So let’s talk about standing up for groom-inclusion and voting with your dollars.

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No, I’m not marrying my best friend (…her husband may take issue!)

Since we’ve gotten engaged, a couple of people have mentioned things about “marrying your best friend.” As in “Oh, isn’t it great that you get to be with your best friend forever?” Let me be clear, if you are a person who feels that they will be marrying/have married their best friend, that’s great! You do you, whatever makes you happy. But I’m a little weirded out that this seems to be the assumption now.

My fiance is not my “best friend” and I doubt he ever will be.

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Why does the internet love snarking about weddings so much?

The internet loves snarking in general, but there seems to be something particularly digitally delectable about making fun of weddings. Sometimes it feels like nontraditional weddings get snarked on the most, but these days it seems you’re just as likely to see people bitching about how all the wedding trends are played out. What I want to explore is WHY? Why does everyone love getting bitchy about weddings? I’m going to put on my sociologist/media studies hat and share a few theories…

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Should photographers shoot same-sex weddings any differently?

As some of you might know, I wear two professional hats: one as the managing editor of Offbeat Families and another as a wedding photographer. As such, it made sense that Ariel asked my opinion on Capturing Love: How to Photograph Same Sex Weddings, an NPR piece about how “different” it is to photograph same-sex weddings. Based on the title alone, I was puzzled…