This year’s hottest wedding trend: fighting back against “Pinterest-perfection”

Once a week or so, I’ll get an interview request from a journalist — and inevitably one of the questions they want to ask is “What are your trend predictions for next year?” I usually hedge these questions with a positive spin like, “Hopefully, a reduction in fear-based marketing” or “Less body-shaming directed at brides under the guise of beauty,” but this year I have a bigger prediction:

That couples are going to start pushing back against the idea of “Pinterest-perfect” weddings.

We’re very very glad that you exist, too

“I made the incorrect assumption that Offbeat Bride would be all about how offbeat you all… but you do so much to stop it turning into a ‘more offbeat than you’ competition…”

Are photographers going to start offering discounts for unplugged weddings?

In my almost-eight years of running Offbeat Bride and working with wedding photographers, I’ve heard of photographers offering potential clients discounts for all sorts of things: discounts for destination weddings, discounts for LGBT-identified couples, discounts for sci-fi weddings or elopements and all sorts of other niche weddings. But yesterday was the first time I saw a photographer who’s offering a discount for couples doing an unplugged wedding. Is this a new thing?

Andreas & Ariel’s island hippie/raver forest freak-fest (10th anniversary flashback!)

10 years ago today, the wedding that ultimately kicked off the whole weird world that is Offbeat Bride happened. On August 7th 2004, I married Andreas. Then I wrote a book about it. Then I launched a website about the book, and now here we are. To celebrate, I figured I’d fill out a wedding profile myself. If these pics make you curious, you can get the Offbeat Bride book on Amazon for like 50 cents.