Mismatched bridesmaids all in shades of yellow and gold and awesome

We’ve been fans of non-matching bridesmaids since 2008, but we’re making love extra hard with the way that Liz here not only let her bridesmaids pick their own dresses, but celebrated their choices via these super-luxe photos from Rachel Joy Photos. Especially this one shot you have GOT to see, where the bridesmaids share how they met the bride…

Zam’s outfit will totally make you rethink everything you know about groom gear

This is Zam. Lily from [vendor-heart link="http://vendors.offbeatwed.com/listing/wild-about-you-photography"]Wild About You Photography[/vendor-heart] photographed Zam and his bride Athena in Hong Kong, and I think we can all agree that he totally freaking ROCKED his groom gear. He claims that his style has been heavily influenced by NBA stars (HA!) but we think he’s totally got his own thing going on — you’re going to lose it when you see his shoes.

Why do I have cleavage on my back? Learning to love your Venus Fold

For a lot of women, their first experience with a structural shaping garment other than a bra is a corset-back wedding dress — and they quickly learn that a corset is a bit more complicated to wear than a bra. (What, you mean I have to reach in and shift stuff around to get it sitting right?) When you compress the average torso in a corset, the person’s back skin tends to fold a bit on itself. This is commonly referred to as “back cleavage” or the “Venus Fold.” Let’s talk about it.

A sticky WIC-ket: Offbeat Bride is part of the Wedding Industrial Complex

There’s a lot of talk in the alt-wedding world about the “wedding industrial complex,” that runaway freight train of wedding industry grossness that’s always pressuring you to do things a certain way because supposedly that’s how things are done.

Lots of us hate the Wedding Industrial Complex, which some people abbreviate as “The WIC.” I feel y’all on the loathing of an industry that can be insidious and damaging. I think it’s also important, however, to reiterate something I’ve written about several times before: Offbeat Bride is absolutely part of the wedding industry.