Geekiness, diversity, & authenticity: why offbeat couples are my happy place

So it was ten years ago that I was planning my own offbeat lite wedding and my husband-then-fiance had a panic attack at a dance lesson to help us figure out what to do for first dance. We thought a dance lesson would help him have less anxiety. It didn’t. I was already a wedding photographer, but nothing I had seen my clients do for their first dance felt like it would be right for us. I Googled “alternatives to first dance” and found Offbeat Bride.

I felt heard. I felt understood. I felt like I found a community that would support me and my spouse. My majors in college were photography and women’s studies, and the Offbeat Empire felt like the best home for me and the best place to grow my business, which was already LGBT-friendly and supportive of couples finding their own path down the aisle.

I’ve showcased so many of those weddings here, from snowy days, and zombies, and marriage equality in front of the Statue of Liberty, and aerial gymnastics, and elopements and polyamory to pyrotechnics. I just had a three-day weekend last month where I shot three offbeat weddings three days in a row, with a TARDIS surprise entrance and lightsaber portraits, a video gaming theme and old school console station for mid-reception Mario Kart, and a ceremony and celebration focused on love and feminist interpretations of Jewish wedding traditions.

WHOVIANS!

Jedi!

Beating the pants off your brothers at Mario Kart!

All the candid, emotional moments you never want to forget.

Also, the weather finally cooperated so that I could nail this rain shot involving remote triggers and off-camera flash. I’ve been working on this technique since 2016! It finally precipitated the right way and I finally had a couple willing to go out into the misty drizzle in the middle of their reception.

For a photo like this? YAAASSSS

Badass off-camera flash techniques aside, my photography work has become a celebration of diversity and love in all its forms. I love nothing more than witnessing people dedicating their hearts to each other and entwining their lives. I love being able to say, “Look how happy you look. Look how your BFF cried tears of joy during the toasts. Look at how loved you felt in that moment. Look at your grandma on the dance floor; your baby girl as the flower girl in her parents’ wedding.”

It doesn’t matter if you got pregnant before your proposal or if your budget has you doing everything DIY or if you want a blow-out bash with a jaw-dropping Viennese hour. Are you trans, or do you have trans people in your wedding party, and your most fervent wedding day wish is that preferred pronouns respected and dead names not used? Your wedding would not even be my second, third, or even fourth time at that rodeo. In a queer interracial couple? Honestly, at my clients’ weddings? So’s your grandma. You are seen and honored and celebrated and respected. This is your love story, and I’m honored to tell it.

Always a discount for offbeat couples!

You always save 10% when you mention Offbeat Bride. Save 15% when you book with a contract and retainer by December 1, 2018. Save 20% if you and another wedding planning friend/couple book at the same time.

We heart Angela SO hard and cannot recommend her more to any offbeat couple looking for artistry and skill wrapped in a super fun package. Go say hello!