The offbeat bride: Maddie - Graphic Designer

Her offbeat partner: Tim - Hydrogeologist

Location & date of wedding: Wedding: New Farm Park, Brisbane, Australia Reception: New Farm Lawn Bowls Club (across the road). 8th October 2005

What made our wedding offbeat: My husband and I dreamed up every aspect of the day so that when we remember back, it may not have been everyone’s idea of perfect but it was everything we could have ever wanted it to be. With very little cash and a whole lot of skilled friends pitching in their skills, this green coloured wedding and accompanying reception ‘on the green’ was a whole lot of fun!

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Lots of grooms look great in kilts, but there’s just something about Miroslava’s groom Kevin that’s extra hot.

Is it the jacket? Is it the boots? Is it the hair? Or wait, is that kilt leather?! Regardless, Kevin’s taking “sexy kilt” to a whole new level.

Don’t get me wrong: Miroslava herself is positively dripping teh secksay in that bright red dress. But I’m used to seeing sexy brides. Grooms, for better or for worse, usually have to settle for “dignified” or “handsome.” Not this one!

You can see lots more about this Cannon Beach, OR, wedding on over on Flickr.

PS: I find that these photos are best enjoyed while listening to Kevin’s music.

One more Kevin-in-a-kilt shot below.

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Haley & Joe are totally Burners, and since half my friends are at Burning Man this week, I figured it was the perfect time to feature this fabulously PORANGE wedding!

The offbeat bride: Haley, Nanny

Her offbeat partner: Joe, Engineer

Location & date of wedding: Joaquin Miller Park Cascade, Oakland, CA. June 29, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: My favorite color is pink, he likes orange. I like cats, he likes rabbits. So instead of having a wedding where I picked everything and he said, “Yes Dear” this wedding was all about our “Us-ness”. Pink and orange make Porange, and Porange suits us.

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Study this amazing pin-up bridal hair. Learn from it. Worship it. Lots more pics over here, including my personal fave, which is this one of the bride and her grandmother:

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Everafter Images recently shot Patrick and Kelly’s wonderful eclectic downtown Austin wedding at the Austin Symphony amphitheater. As this shot shows, they definitely tapped into the bride’s sass. Everafter Images’s Raymond Malkiewicz explains, “It was a casual and comfortable wedding – with humor provided by the officiant who started the ceremony with the marriage voice inflection from the movie A Princess Bride. His ‘maiwidge’ generated laughter from guests and wedding party alike.” You can see more wedding porn from this Austin wedding over here.

Everafter Images definitely caters to all sorts of nontraditional brides, with their wedding photography blog currently featuring Renaissance themed Renewal of Vows and a heavily pierced/inked semi-traditional-but-not Jewish wedding.

And these Austin wedding photographers are looking for offbeat brides to photograph — and to prove it, they’re offering a 10% discount to all offbeatbride.com readers! You can get in touch with Raymond and Debra via the Everafter Images website, or call them directly at 512-989-6952. Just mention you found them on offbeatbride.com to get the discount.

The offbeat bride: Sarah, writer

Her offbeat partner: Jenn, typist

Location & date of wedding: Our meadow, Basom, NY. September 29, 2007

What made our wedding offbeat: We wanted our wedding to be a reflection of our deepest spirits - and said spirits just happen to have wings ;D

My wife is very much a Winter person, and I’m very much an Autumn person - so we came up with a vision of how we’d pull it off. Our dresses were sewn by my wife’s mother, and we ordered wings that would reflect the seasons. We couldn’t imagine a more magical place than our own meadow/backyard to get married in, so we dressed it up as a Faerie meadow - ribbons, flower petals and branches with autumn leaves were everywhere.

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This was originally posted as a comment to the “Your wedding is tacky” post, but I think it’s important and wanted to take the time to answer it publicly.

…While I at first did enjoy this blog’s celebration of all things unique and offbeat, Ariel’s recent increasing blowups on any negative comments is, frankly, off putting. Any post on any subject is going to evoke negative AND positive reactions from people. Freaking out whenever people comment negatively, whether using “tacky” or not, is ITSELF unwelcoming of discussion.

I enjoyed this blog because it gave me inspiration for various ideas I could ponder and decide whether to include or exclude them with my wedding. And even though it is MY wedding, I still care what other people think, because this wedding is a celebration for my whole family. They’re giving time and money and traveling a long distance to be with me, I want them to have as much fun as possible. So yes, I find value even when people react negatively to different wedding ideas, and I even find value when people use the word “Tacky”

Demanding that every comment flower praise on the couple’s wedding choices isn’t offbeat, it is typical selfish bridal behavior. -Elizabeth

Elizabeth, I totally hear you and it’s definitely a balance I struggle with when thinking about offbeat editorial and moderation strategy. Honestly: it’s not like I love every single nontraditional wedding I see. It’s not like I’ve never looked at a wedding photo and thought “Woah! Bleah!” But ultimately my goal has always been acting as a cheerleader and supporter of nontraditional couples.

From the introduction of my book:

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