Category Archive

overcoming adversity

Wedding planning isn’t all wine and roses. Sometimes you’re dealing with the loss of a loved one or a job, illness, or even a terminal diagnosis. This is our archive of posts about working with wedding planning hardships that go above and beyond the usual concerns.

A sweet Philadelphia elopement with an homage to some of the best photo spots in Philly

I never wanted a big wedding: here’s why I wish I’d gone with my gut & eloped

Not everyone has dreamed of a big wedding. So when you’re confronted with the planning of one, there might be some lessons learned the hard way: “If you want to have a gorgeous and huge wedding with all the trimmings, go for it! But if you’re more like me, who never really thought hard about a wedding until you were with your life partner, and you love the outdoors, more intimate ceremonies, and really just can’t wait to marry the love of your life without all the trappings of a more traditional wedding, I’ve got your back…”

Challenging "normal" wedding planning when I lost my mother while engaged

Challenging “normal” wedding planning when I lost my mother while engaged

I considered myself to be an “ordinary bride,” that is until my mother died, and then I discovered that the definition of normalcy is what you deem appropriate, especially when it comes to wedding planning.

Hankies at the ready: this couple made the decision to have a last-minute hospital bedside wedding

Hankies at the ready: this couple made the decision to have a last-minute hospital bedside wedding

Life continues to happen even as we plan weddings. Alysson and Adam’s circumstances led them to make a pretty huge choice. They decided to get married at Hackensack University Medical Center to be with Alysson’s ailing father. Photographer Stefanie Murphy had received an inquiry for a “last minute wedding ceremony” and soon realized that it was imperative that she take it.

I hope you’re wearing waterproof mascara for this one, y’all…

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

An intimate bucket list wedding planned in two weeks after a cancer diagnosis

My husband died seven months after our wedding. The most important lesson I learned from our wedding is that when it really comes down to it, your marriage is more important than your wedding.

What I want to share with other Offbeat Bride readers is that if you are lucky enough to have found someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with, the rest of details don’t really matter.

What I learned from wedding planning during crisis situations

What I learned from wedding planning during a medical crisis (spoiler: communication is key!)

Planning a wedding can be stressful on its own, but how do you get through it when a major life event is also going on? This is what I had to figure out when, four months before our wedding, we found out that my three-year-old nephew received a very serious and potentially fatal diagnosis. Here’s what I learned from it that could help you in a similar situation…

My circus, my monkeys: our "fun" in dysfunctional wedding

My circus, my monkeys: our wedding put the “fun” in dysfunctional

Both our families are slightly unconventional, to say the least. We decided that our families put the “fun” in dysfunctional, and wanted to create a wedding day that was full of festivities to match our family’s strange dynamics. We are proud of the little family that we have, so we decided to put on a carnival-themed wedding to honor our dysfunction. Here’s how we did it…