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.

Not being given away: how I skipped the aisle-walking drama

For some women, walking down the aisle with their father (or fathers!) can be a really beautiful way to honor the role that relationship has played.

For me, despite the fact that I’m a total daddy’s girl, it wasn’t a tradition that felt like a fit with my ceremony.

Let’s drool over some umbrellas

In celebration of autumn weddings, which may or may not include a bit more rain than your average wedding, today I want to round up some of my very favorite umbrellas. Rainbow umbrellas, peaked umbrellas, heart-shaped umbrellas, ruffled vintaged-styled umbrellas, polkadot umbrellas? ALL AWAIT YOU…