Category Archive

industry insiders

The Offbeat Wed community includes hundreds of inclusive wedding industry pros who are all working to change the cynical, exploitative nature of the mainstream Wedding Industrial Complex. We invite our awesome offbeat vendor friends to share their industry insider tips with us and our readers — together we can change the wedding industry to be more inclusive, more offbeat, and more awesome! (If you’re an offbeat vendor, let’s get you in here!)

wedding portrait time tips alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Get past grin and bear it: 8 wedding photographer secrets for less sucky family portraits

Sober, and with blood sugar crashing, I can’t think of a better way than a formal photo session to torment family members who just want to get to the reception to party and eat.

meaningful bedecken alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

How to make your photographer feel like a friend-tographer

I’m Angie Gaul, I am an avid Offbeat Bride reader, and have been since I started planning my own wedding way back in 2007. I keep coming back because I love the community here, along with the other Offbeat Wives who still read after their weddings. I love weddings, obviously, and I love learning about people’s cultures and subcultures, and I really love the respectful tone and intelligent level of commentary and discussion that Ariel, Megan, and the rest of the team work so hard to maintain.

I read the same articles you do, so I know that Offbeat Bride readers are really debating going back and forth between having a friend take their photos and a vendor. I so get this. That’s why I try to offer the best of both worlds…

Why You Should Care About Prints alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

4 sad-but-true reasons to turn your wedding pics into OMG REAL LIFE ACTUAL photo prints

As a wedding photographer, I hear these two statements all of the time: “we aren’t worried about prints right now” or “we will order prints after the wedding.” Here’s why you should think about going through the pain-in-the-ass process of turning that convenient USB drive into real life wedding prints…

gender neutral first dance on offbeat bride alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Who cares who leads? Non-gendered first dance ideas for all

My brother-in-law — who has never danced himself — once told me that it is only natural in dancing that the man leads and the woman follows. Having taught many partner dance classes, from Swing to French Folk, I can tell you that that is completely and utterly untrue. Of course there is nothing wrong with the “man leads, woman follows shuffle”-type first dance, but not every wedding involves one man and one woman. And even for those who do, there are many options beyond the traditional first dance…