Category Archive

dress shopping

MArz21 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

How do you say yes to your dress when there’s no teary-eyed “this is it!” moment?

Everyone who has watched “Say Yes to the Dress” knows about the expected “ah-hah” moment in the bridal dress salon. But what happens when that, well, doesn’t happen? How do you know to say yes to that dress?

Screen Shot 2013 09 30 at 3.28.58 PM alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

What if you don’t want to play “princess for a day” at your wedding?

“I’m not really into princess-y dresses.”

“Oh, but why not?” asked Frannie, bustling behind me to unpin. “It’s your only chance to be a princess for a day. Every girl wants that.”

“Actually,” I replied, suddenly tired of being “helped” by this well-meaning woman and others like her, “I don’t like princesses.”

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“How can a dress make you fat?”: Judging my value by more than my clothes

Recently, I overheard a (rather curmudgeonly) acquaintance complaining, “These days, no one cares about who you are inside or what you do anymore: you can behave as hatefully as you want, as long as you wear the right shirt.” At the time, I rolled my eyes, and he backed down from such an extreme example; but when I returned home and was fretting about wedding things again, his remarks came back to me, and gave me a wee epiphany about wedding planning

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Airs of indifference and being “too cool” for this wedding stuff

I have this idea that I should be embarrassed about wanting a wedding. I keep pretending to care less than I do. Insisting that my dress isn’t a big deal — I’ll still get to get married, even if I don’t look pretty doing it. If our retired-baker friend has plans and we don’t get a cake, that’ll be okay, since we can always get a sheet cake from the grocery story. Flowers? Who needs ’em? It reminds me of when I was a senior in high school, and I wanted desperately to go to the prom, but had to act like I was too cool to actually care.

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My dress doesn’t define me: How a tomboy learned to love taffeta

I have always been a tomboy. That’s not to say that I’ve never worn a dress before; I do like to get “dressed up,” but my definition of dressed up doesn’t match most of society’s definition. Now I love a pretty dress as much as the next girl, but trying to find a wedding gown that suited my personality and my budget was one of the hardest things about planning my wedding. I hated everything. I didn’t want a formfitting dress but somehow I couldn’t fit the notion of those giant cupcake dresses in with my lack of femininity.

alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

The joy of NO: What offbeat-types can teach you about saying “no,” even to yourself

Being on the wild end of the offbeat spectrum does confer certain disadvantages and benefits. You’ve gotten really good at deflecting or ignoring criticism, maintaining internalized self worth, and just generally saying NO. NO to feeling bad about yourself, NO to apologizing for your choices, NO to altering your life to suit the preferences of others. NO is a goddamn survival skill. This is fucking invaluable as shit when wedding planning.