Organize your wedding planning

Our Offbeat Wedding Planning Tools:

• Printable checklist: to print and bring along anywhere
• Wedding planning binder: Google Drive spreadsheets to organize EVERYTHING
• Wedding Vendors: Find your offbeat-friendly wedding vendors from photographers to planners to dress makers and more
• Wedding websites: start a free (and gorgeous) wedding website

Organization advice:

• Weddings 101: wedding planning basics
• 7 questions to ask before picking the wedding date
• 6 ways to help vendors understand your offbeat wedding
• Set up a Dropbox for wedding vendors
• How to plan your wedding, Project Manager-style
• Archive of wedding planning tips

New for 2020: City Pages

Offbeat Bride wedding planning city guides: the nitty-gritty of how to get married in your city. These are based on the top US cities where Offbeat Bride readers live… coming soon, our top international cities like London, Syndey, and Melbourne.

• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• New York City
• Philadelphia
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington DC

Sending invitations

Letterpressed lovelies or emailed videos, how will you be letting everyone know the deets?

Tools:

• 10 design apps to use for your DIY wedding invitations (including 5 COMPLETELY FREE ones!)
• Wedding invitation printing techniques primer

Wedding invitation advice:

• When to send out your invitations and save-the-dates
• Common mistakes when addressing your wedding invitations
• Wedding invitation wording basics for the newly engaged
• How to avoid drama when not including people on your guest list

Wedding website

Offbeat Bride has partnered with mywedding.com to bring you free wedding websites with non-froofy wedsite templates designed specifically for geeks, steampunks, rockabillies, and other offbeat wedding aesthetics.

Tools:

• Create a free wedding website

Wedding website advice:

• 9 wedding website tips to inform, reassure, and give warm fuzzies to your guests
• What should you put on your wedsite's FAQ?
• 6 tips for an extra-useful wedding website
• How can I make sure my wedding website won't show up on Google?

Offbeat-friendly vendors

Some wedding vendors will look at you funny when you share your nontraditional plans, but the businesses in our wedding vendor directory LOVE alternative clients. (Some even offer special discounts just for Offbeat Bride readers!)

Tools:

• Offbeat Bride's Vendor Guide

Vendor advice:

• How to find your wedding reception venue
• Important questions to ask wedding venues
• Important questions to ask your potential wedding photographer
• Insider advice that jewelry stores may not want you to know

Your wedding budget

Making and sticking to a wedding budget is key to staying sane and keeping your life in balance. We've got tips…

Tools:

• Wedding budget calculator

Wedding budget advice:

• Sample wedding budgets for all kinds of offbeat weddings
• Package deals, tax write-offs, and pants: Save money on your wedding
• Catering advice from a wedding caterer
• 10 realistic wedding budget tips to stop budget ballooning
• Archive of wedding budget tips

Craft your ceremony

From vows to readings to unity ceremonies and playlists, there's more to ceremonies than meets the eye.

Ceremony advice:

• Wedding Ceremony 101: Crafting your own wedding ceremonies from scratch
• So you want to have a friend officiate
• Lots of ceremony scripts
• Tons of wedding readings
• Movie-themed instrumental songs

Wedding day timeline

From the crack of dawn to falling into bed at the end of the wedding day, it'll likely be jam-packed. Here's how to get it all organized…

Tools:

• Wedding timeline spreadsheet

Wedding timeline advice:

• How to make a "less worry/more party" wedding day timeline
• An insider's view of a wedding photography timeline
• Example day-of schedule for an early morning wedding

Find your outfits

Whether you'll be wearing a long white gown or a floral pantsuit, your wedding day outfit should totally be YOU.

Tools:

• Wedding dress timeline

Fashion advice:

• Everything you need to know about having your wedding dress custom-made
• The ultimate guide to plus-size wedding dress shopping
• 5 things you should know about tuxedo rental and fittings
• 11 wedding hair tips
• What to wear as a gender-bender
• How a trash bag helps you go pee all by yourself
• Tons of SHOES

Decor & Flowers

Decor can be totally optional with the right venue, but if you're handy, crafty, or chic, this is where you can shine.

Decor and floral advice:

• Themed decor: Harry Potter-style
• 6 vital things you need to know when working with a wedding florist
• So many FREE printables for weddings
• Tons of decor DIY ideas
• Our decor archives

Playlists and reception

Tools:

• Using Spotify as your wedding DJ
• The ultimate DIY wedding photobooth tutorial
• Easily edit your wedding songs

Reception advice:

• 13 ways to make a reception more fun
• 10 delicious ways to make your wedding food fun
• First dance songs that haven't been done to death
• Dancing alternatives
• Archive of reception ideas

Themes and real weddings

Having a wedding theme is not at all required, but they can certainly be fun to incorporate as little or as much as you'd like.

Themes and real weddings:

• Lots of offbeat wedding themes
• Thousands of REAL weddings for inspiration
• Tons of wedding porn to sate your wedding appetite
• Archive of dresses

Ready for even deeper insights?

There are loads more advice posts over on our wedding basics page, our full content archives, and of course, by searching the site! You can always submit your questions and ideas here, and wedding photos here, if you need more advice. We want to help!

Photos by All Bliss Photography, Flick + Dave Photography, Mariela Campbell Photo & Cinema, Megan Alvarez Photography, YouAreRaven, Novella Photography, Sarah Barthlow Photography, ixi photography, Lovesick, Wasabi Photography, Steven Branstetter Photography, Zac Wolf Photography, , Basic Invite | Page lead image by Oh, Karina Photography