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!)

Philadelphia Allebach Offbeat 1 3 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Chemistry, price, and a “bait & switch” scheme: real talk tips for how to choose a wedding photographer

Mike Allebach has photographed hundreds of weddings over the past nine years, and he’s picked up a few fool-proof tips for choosing a wedding photographer along the way. Here are the six most important factors to consider when choosing a wedding photographer (and one word of warning you can’t afford to ignore!).

alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Weddings and body image: get past needing to look “good” and start getting real

I’ve been photographing people in love for over a decade now, and the number one question I get asked as a photographer (by far!) is actually the wrong question to ask…

“Can you make me look good?” The only way to answer this question, is to bring it all the way around to body image. When the question, “Can you make me look good?” is asked, I learned that that’s not really what they’re asking…

alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

Ring needs resizing? Here’s why you should wait to wear it…

If your engagement or wedding ring needs resizing, there are some good reasons to wait to wear it. As someone who has worked in a chain jewelry store and done a lot of research out of personal interest, I’ve seen some real damage occur when a larger ring is worn before resizing. Letting it flop around and hitting against another ring to keep it in place is both bad for the metal and the stones. It puts it at much more at risk for knocking the stone out, chipping it, or breaking it completely depending on how old the stone is and what kind of inclusions it naturally has.

cats alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

…Because sometimes you have a wedding day brawl (+ some wedding crasher tips!)

I’ve seen a lot of stuff photographing weddings, but brawls are a different story. This is not the story of that time I totaled my car on the way to a wedding or that time the groom spent the wedding day grabbing my assistant’s ass. This is the story of Meggen and Jake and their wedding day brawl.