Category Archive

feeling competitive

Weddings can bring up all sorts of uncomfortable feelings… including competitiveness, envy, and feeling jealous of other people’s weddings. This is our collection of posts exploring the green-eyed wedding monster, with great suggestions for how to get over competitive wedding syndrome, and start feeling joyful.

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On being a special snowflake in a community full of them

Almost every wedding idea I have, someone else here has had before me, and someone else will have it again after me. So how to be a Special Snowflake in a drift of other Special Snowflakes? I’m not entirely sure yet. But here are a few things I AM sure of…

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All weddings are awesome — not just mine

I am confused by the attitude that surrounds weddings and costs and ideas and things. Maybe that’s what makes me offbeat… My problem lies in all the intense bitchiness that lives in the wedding world. “My wedding is better than yours because of such-and-such.”

Can we all just chill the fuck out and be nice to each other for like… five and a half seconds?

tacky weddings alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Win the Judgey Olympics: transform your petty wedding snarks into personal growth

JUDGEY-NESS. We all do it, and it’s fine — but every time you get all judgey about someone else, you’re missing a chance to learn something valuable about yourself.

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Avoiding engagement ring envy, or: How I learned to love the symbolism

Engagement ring envy — the stuff of legend and myth? Or a nasty side effect of being engaged and the wedding industrial complex? Since the holidays are a popular time to propose, we thought we’d share Offbeat Bride reader Sarah’s thoughts as she delves into her inner psyche and explores the deep annals of her engagement ring envy demons.

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Am I still offbeat if I love white chair covers? (Hint: YES.)

Not long after I joined the Offbeat Bride Tribe, another member posted her feelings about the more traditional elements of her wedding. Ariel posted a reply stating that this issue comes up every year or so and she finds it’s best to let Tribe members figure it out for themselves.

Wise words, Ariel. I didn’t get it at the time, but the last six months have been a journey for me, a journey of discovery about myself, about my future husband and about the US we have created. If I could sum it up in one line, it would be:

I LIKE WHITE CHAIR COVERS AND I CANNOT LIE.

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Finally owning that I’m a more traditional bride: You are awesome and so am I

Offbeat Bride (both the book and the site) changed me a lot. I became more comfortable with who I am. I discovered fashions and subcultures that I had never known existed, but now love. I learned how to deal with stress, with family, with my own doubts. But because of this fabulous place, I also developed one of my biggest doubts about the wedding: was it going to be offbeat enough?