We're back with another new jewelry feature from Turtle Love Committee where we feature some of our favorite from their new lines of necklaces and earrings. Again, I feel the need to point out that we love them because they focus on jewelry that’s eco-conscious and made by independent artisans. Really, these people are good eggs — you can read about the people and the TLC philosophy and see for yourself.

Offbeat Discount: OBB readers that subscribe to the TLC mailing list will get a 20% off coupon, good through 12/20.

Like the miniature lithographs necklaces that we featured a little while back, these lovebirds necklaces are made by a husband-and-wife team in their home studio using at least 50% recycled silver. And the sweet thing about these babies is that they can worn all symbolic-like to represent you as a couple!

Or, added bonus, they can also represent family ties… they come in single parent or a two-parent team. A perfect gift option for the new moms or step-children in your life as you build your own nest through marriage.

Go check it out, lovebirds!

Her Offbeat Partner: Kev

Location & date of wedding: Rufford Mill, Rufford Country Park, Nottinghamshire, UK — 21st August 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: Our wedding was simple in ceremony but lavish in dress. I had a gorgeous red silk 50s dress and had a bouquet of white roses with diamante and black feathers, which I held with a black silk hanky. My daughters dress complimented mine with a red sash, underskirt and slip on pumps. My groom wore a Ben Sherman pinstripe suit, converse trainers, a red tie and red silk handkerchief.

Our wedding rings were handcrafted to our own unusual design, made from platinum and rose gold engraved with the date inside. My father gave me away wearing a pure white suit, black shirt and white tie.

My table place cards, seating plan and guestbook were black and red with Charles Rennie Mackintosh font and symbols. Each table had a 50s movie star photo to correspond with the seating plan. I had a guest request if she could sit at the Marilyn Monroe table and the reason for this was she came dressed as Marilyn herself!

Our first dance was not 50s inspired though, as we didn’t want the usual four minutes of cringe worthy embarrassment we had the "Birdie Song." We danced alongside my daughter and her friends, it was fabulous and funny to boot. We had a jukebox loaded with songs our guests had chosen which added to the whole 50s party atmosphere.

Our friends stopped the traffic at the ford and we had pictures taken on the bridge which we’ve always loved. An amazing day that will hold many memories for us in the future.

Our biggest challenge: My biggest challenge was keeping calm when people confirmed then cancelled at the last minute — especially when a good friend texted fifteen minutes before I left for the wedding!

Also a few details were overlooked which at first bothered me but then I was enjoying the day too much to care.

My favorite moment: My favorite moment was leaving our local club "Rock City," dressed in our wedding outfits, after continuing the night in style and eating burgers at the stand next door. We were approached and congratulated so much that night — it was wonderful. It was also really good the hotel was two minutes away from the club!

My advice for other offbeat brides: Do it your way, however that may be. Any advice given take with grace, but still do it your way as only then will you be truly happy with the end result.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:

To see the slide show, head to offbeatbride.com.

Her Offbeat Partner: Victor (Victy, Victory, Boyfriend), USAF Officer

Location & date of wedding: Qualicrest Farm, Wooster, Ohio, USA, North America, Earth — May 25, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: We tried to make our wedding guest focused and had a GREAT time! Plus, when planning we tried to buy local, buy green, stay organic/all natural, in the family, home made (the best cake ever!) and fun.

The homemade wedding cake.

I think the thing that made it mine (ours) was that everyone had a good time. I've heard people say it was like two comedians getting married. Plus we made it a weekend — bonfire Friday night, party at mom's house Saturday, and the wedding on Sunday! Fantastic!

A few special features: made the cake myself (did I mention best cake ever?); made the bridesmaid skirts and none of their shoes matched; I wore a fantastic organic dress I got for $300 and recycled shoes; didn't buy flowers; walked down the isle to "All You Need is Love"; Dad sang during the ceremony (just like when I was a kid!); we were outside and had great weather (weird for Ohio); choreographed our dance to Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"… and that's just the tip!

The colorful bridal party.

Oh, and my photographer thinks I'm so offbeat they suggested I submit this!

Our biggest challenge: Getting the wedding party to the venue early… really, I just wanted to party!

The weird thing is, I didn't have many, if any, problems.

My favorite moment: When my husband used some of my favorite John Denver lyrics in his vows. That was so amazing! "My life, my love, my everything, it's you I want to be with"

My advice for other offbeat brides: Don't sweat it when people give you the raised eyebrows when describing what you're planning for your wedding. I got crap from a few family members, but I just kept my head up and said that is was exactly what I wanted. And sure enough, on the wedding day they loved it all!

Oh, and don't give up when trying to find the things you want. It's all out there, you just need to keep up the good work.

Bride's shoes made out of recycled tires.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• Venue: Quail Quest
• Dress: Get Conscious
• Caterer: Mustard Seed Market
• Photographer (best ever!): Merge Weddings

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!:
To see the slide show, head to offbeatbride.com.

This is OBT member Ang's advice for streaming your wedding live on the internets. This is awesome for people who aren't going to be able to make it to the wedding as well as for all your OBB friends to be able to ogle you.

Real time wedding porn, YAY!!! -Megan

So here's my situation. First and foremost we are on a budget so our guest list is limited. I am a techno geek, so most of my friends live inside my computer and are pretty far away. Even though several are going to be able to make it to my wedding, there are even more that won't be able to make it. Not to mention family and friends who won't be able to make an international trip, or who are in poor health and aren't supposed to travel. Originally I was planning on sending them all photo CDs, and doing a slideshow on our wedsite, but then I started thinking with my geek gland.

Back in March, one of my fabulous internet groups had several members who attended an expo in Chicago. ALL the members of the site had helped to fund raise, and everyone was excited about it. I decided try and stream it live, so all our online friends who couldn't be there could be participants. It was a resounding success, and everyone loved it. Why couldn't I use this self same technology for my wedding?

The Software
I'm using http://www.ustream.tv/ for several reasons.

• It's FREE.
• It's easy to use.
• It's got great image quality (especially considering that it's FREE).
• It has Chat and Twitter capabilities so people can talk about what they're watching.
• It's customizable (Look, it's my wedding colors and logo!

The Computer
I have a Toshiba laptop that runs Vista. Ustream can run either Vista or XP on a Mac or PC. (There is a special plug in to use to get extra quality but we'll go over that later. Basically you can use any computer with internet access. I'll also be using my FH's Lenovo ideabook.

The Camera
While it is completely possible to use the built in webcams, they typically aren't that flattering, the picture quality sucks, and they're almost impossible to adjust. I went out and bought a "Streaming" camera with light correction off Ebay for $65. The camera I got is the Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision SE Webcam.

You don't have to spend that much money if you don't want to — you can get decent web cams from Wal-Mart for like $20 if you or one of your friends don't already have one already. There is also a way that you can hook your video camera up to the computer and get all kinds of fancy, but we're just going to focus on the basic USB camera. I'll be using the FH's laptop's built in camera too.

This is going to be an ongoing saga as I figure out how I'm going to do it for our particular venue and handle the cameras, angles and all that. But I wanted to start with the basics.
Stay tuned next week when we bring you the step-by-step set-up tutorial in Part Two.

I'm especially taken with Liz's bubbly uber-ruffled pink Betsy Johnson wedding dress — it makes me think of a cupcake or some other sugary baked good begging for some om-nom-nomming:

I'm not sure how Michelle managed to make the roller rink lighting turn so lush and delicious, but the photos are screaming with color and out of this world…

To see the slide show, head to offbeatbride.com.

To see lots more photos and get more information this awesome East Bay rollerskate wedding, head over to Michelle Hayes' blog!

Her offbeat partner: Andrew, Art Gallery Director

Location & date of wedding: The Balcony on Dock St., Wilmington, NC — 10/25/2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We made our wedding offbeat by keeping the decorations simple, but with tons of personal touches. We actually had three beach houses on N. Topsail Beach for everyone to stay in for the entire weekend. We made our own invitations, programs, favor boxes, centerpieces and cupcake toppers. Everyone close to us contributed in some way. My bouquet was made by the Maid of Honor, out of hand sculpted and painted birds. We made the groomsmen handkerchiefs with a variety of mustaches for them to wear.

The mustachioed programs & guests.

I get nervous in front of large crowds, so we attached fake mustaches to the programs for all the guests to wear. It was a big help! We had a short, traditional ceremony, followed by pictures in the courtyard. Our reception was a brunch with lots of music and dancing. We saved so much money having a brunch wedding.

Our friends and family contributed so much to our wedding. The cupcakes were made by a friend, chocolate with lime icing! And our dj was my best friend of nine years.

Our wedding was about letting everyone know who we are together and bringing them all together. We made decisions and stuck with them, let everyone be themselves, and bonded with all of our guests personally. We let things flow naturally which is how we live our lives. We might not have it all together but together we have it all.

Our biggest challenge: Our budget was our biggest challenge. We had decided to pay for the wedding ourselves. We did not want our families to have to contribute anything but love and support. We planned everything to a tee! Except for a photographer! How could we forget?!

The bride with the groom-made fascinator and MOH-made birdie bouquet.

Cupcakes with DIY cake toppers.

It was quickly approaching our wedding date and we did not have much money for a photographer. So we took a chance. We posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a photographer to shoot our wedding. We said we did not have much money but it was guaranteed to be fun! We recieved over fifty responses in two days! We were so suprised. We ended up having three wonderful photographers. We only spent 250 dollars and traded some vintage clothes for the services. We agreed to do photo editing ourselves and we got a deal! We could not have asked for better photographers! We learned that it does not hurt anything to ask. You never know what you will recieve! So take a chance. There are tons of talented people in the world, including friends and family. We spent only 4000 dollars on our wedding, for everything! And we have over 1000 pictures to remember our day!

My favorite moment: There are definitely more than one favorite moment for me. But I think the one that stands out most would be my entrance into the ceremony. Our good friend played "The Girl from Ipanema" on guitar and I walked with my father. To see that most all of our guests had on their fake mustaches and were all smiling, made me so happy! It was more than the silliness of fake mustaches, it was everyone lightening up for a moment, and also showing us support! Everyone looked hilarious! And to have everyone I care about in one room was so powerful! It was something I will never forget. Not to mention my Maid of Honor had taken her shoes off because they were hurting her feet! It was wonderful to see everyone being themselves even in a semi-serious situation!

Mismatched bridesmaids with mustaches instead of bouquets.

My advice for other offbeat brides: Oh boy do I have lots of advice.

I have only been to two weddings my whole life. I knew nothing about what to do. I did not expect things to be so expensive. So the first advice is to enlist help from friends and family. People are so creative. All you have to do is let go of the control a little and it will pay off. I did not even see my bouquet until the night before. It had been described to me but I had not seen it yet. And I let the girls pick their own black dresses. Anything they want! You have to remember that you love these people for who they are, and if you try to control everything about them on your wedding day, you are taking away part of their individuality.

Also try to make as many things for your wedding as you can. It will be more peronal, and a lot less stressful.

Stand your ground on the important things, and let the others go. It is your day, but it is also a day about family and coming together. Alot of what made our wedding so successful was that we stated what vision we had, and then let people contribute freely!

Remember why you are getting married in the first place, and do not forget it.

Also plan within your means, and get creative!

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links? Well… we made just about everything. I think our local craft stores helped us out the most. I also would browse Etsy daily to get ideas. I found my dress in the party section at a bridal store. Got my shoes on Ebay, and basically just looked for inspiration!

Enough talk — show us the wedding porn!:
To see the slide show, head to offbeatbride.com.

I'm sorry, but some of the stuff on Offbeat Bride is just too weird. Some of the wedding shoes? Ugly. Some of the real offbeat weddings? Kinda tacky. I love Offbeat Bride, but sometimes I just don't get you guys. -Anonymous.

We all like different things. AND THAT'S FUCKING AWESOME! Photo courtesy of lovedart. as submitted to the Offbeat Bride photo pool.

This website isn't about dictating one vision of taste or aesthetics upon my readers. Sure, we feature wedding trends when we start to notice Offbeat Brides getting obsessed with a particular vision. But part of why I continue to run Offbeat Bride is because it's an excuse to get exposed to a whole big wide range of cultures and styles and people and design outside my daily experience.

If everything on Offbeat Bride was just a reflection of my personal tastes, we'd never see any rockabillies or goths or steampunks or church weddings. OBB would be all West Coast neo-tribal forest weddings like these ones. (Love 'em — but yawn!)

If Offbeat Bride was all about Megan's personal preferences, it'd be all beach weddings, star wars couples, and gamer geeks.

So I say: bring on the "too weird"! Bring on the ugly-to-some-people! Bring on the kinda-tacky-to-some-people! Because our tastes are all different, and when some bride halfway across the globe dares to share her vision with the world and I get exposed to something new and beautiful and amazing and magical … we all win.

Her Offbeat Partner: Mike, Techie, inventor, and business owner

Location & date of wedding: The Max recording stage in Dallas, TX — January 18, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: From the theme to the attire to the food to the entertainment, it was about what we liked and wanted. OK, there was some "make the folks happy" and crowd-pleaser elements, but 90% of the wedding was creative expression of our love(s).

Built on the platform of a Jewish wedding, we picked and chose from many traditions and then adapted "the usual" with modern twists. For example, the chupah traditionally represents the newlywed's home, but we made a canopy of "stars" to show that the whole universe is our home, and that our love is bigger than any abode.

We were entertained by a belly dancer, had Moroccan food and lanterns, and used a Persian poet's words to reflect the celestial theme. Our colors were silver and gold and we asked all guests to wear something with either color to be a part of the starry ambiance. Our outfits were Renaissance-inspired and made by the bride and mother-of-the-groom. We also made the bouquet with equal parts glitter, flowers and stars. Instead of tossing a bouquet and garter, ribboned 'shooting stars' were tossed at eligible guests.

Starry cake & sparkly bouquet.

We had two aisles flanking the head table in the center of the room and no one gave anyone away! Rather than a unity candle or sand, we used all four elements in a unity ceremony that symbolized the union of two families. Instead of a giant traditional cake, we had a starry, two-layer (chocolate bottom and vanilla top) cake at the head table, and each guest got a star-shaped cupcake.

We assembled the favors ourselves: a pair of silver or gold candlesticks and a celestial charm. We provided a list of the ceremony symbols, meanings, and origins on the back of the program. The whole evening had a "soundtrack" so not a moment was in silence –even the memorial to our ancestors was accompanied by music and punctuated by the Mourner's Kaddish. We carefully selected the music to encourage dancing and bribed our guests with a raffle ticket for each song danced. Raffle prizes were all celestial themed, of course.

The couple using letters to spell out their new name.

Finally, at the end of the evening, we shocked the crowd by announcing that we were BOTH taking on a new name which we'd jointly chosen.

Our biggest challenge: Other than money, our biggest problem was getting all the lights up to create the starlit sky overhead. We consulted a professional X-mas light stringer and got permission to come in a couple days before the wedding to set up the overhead lighting. If we hadn't carefully planned out the design, it would not have worked at all leastwise in the time permitted by the venue. We are grateful that they were so helpful and cooperative. We'd never imagined how time-consuming it cold be to string around fifty strands and a handful of net lights.

My favorite moment: We had so many wonderful surprises… The venue letting us come in and decorate days ahead, the number of friends who volunteered to help, the experts who casually contributed at no cost, the priceless advice of other offbeat brides (past and future), the cooperation of incompatible family members, and the joy in the air throughout the evening.

Belly dancer.

My advice for other offbeat brides: Even if you are going to "do it yourself" always consult with experts — on clothing, lighting, theme, designs, cake, favors, whatever. They are the experts for a reason and can tell you how to avoid the worst bridal nightmares. These wonderful professionals understood we had to do it our way and helped us circumvent what might have been painful, dangerous, or costly problems.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:We made our outfits from materials were found on sale or clearance at fabric stores such as Hancock Fabrics and Joann. We got nearly all of the decorations on Ebay, Craigslist, and Freecycle.org. Other good deals were found at off-season sales for Party City and local specialty stores.

The biggest key to saving money was a long engagement with plenty of time to bargain hunt, window shop, and compare prices.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:

To see the slide show, head to offbeatbride.com.

Michele (congrats on the recent wedding!) put this simple how-to together to share with all you OBB lovelies. You can customize them any way you want… so get printin'! (and show us pics of your own special celebratory flags!)

"Yay!" Celebratory Flags
By Michele

I made these “Yay” flags for our wedding, intending for people to wave them for us as we walked away after the ceremony. They ended up being such an integral part of the evening, with everyone waving and shouting “YAY” every time we walked by! And since I added our names and the date to the back of them, they also served as the only favor we had for our guests. It is a quick and easy project- I hope you enjoy it!

Materials

• Wooden dowels – I used 1/8” diameter dowels.
• Construction paper – I used some old, sun faded construction paper in warm tones to go with the color scheme for the wedding.
• Some way to help you layout your design, computer or otherwise – I used Photoshop, but you could essentially use any program you are comfortable with.
• Craft glue
• Sewing machine set with a zipper foot

Step 1:
Cut dowels to desired length. I started with 36” long dowels and needed 100 flags for our ceremony. So, I bought 25 dowels, cut them evenly into 9” lengths, and ended up with 100 exactly. I used a pair of wire cutters to cut them, which was very easy to do, and left a minor crunched edge to the ends- but no splintered or messy edges. For a cleaner look, you can saw them.

Step 2:
Layout your design. I organized the page in 2 columns of 3 boxes to get a total of 6 flags per page. I added the text to each box, as well as crop marks to make cutting easier. Write your “yay” text (or “woot”, “yippie”, etc..) to fit into each box nicely, and justify toward the right. I chose six different fonts to write “Yay” in.

Step 3:
If you wish, make another page for the text on the back. Ours has our names and the date of the wedding. Use the same template as the front, and this time justify your text to the left so it doesn’t interfere with the edge you are going to sew.

Step 4:
Print your pages and cut your flags along your crop marks. I used a paper cutter and actually cut off the crop marks so they wouldn’t be seen.

Step 5:
At this point, set up everything in front of you to streamline your assembly: sewing machine, dowels, glue and flags.

Step 6:
Take a dowel and one of your flags. Place the flag, "Yay" side down, at the top edge of your dowel. With your thumbs, curl the edge around the dowel, leaving about .5” past the dowel. This will leave you with enough room to sew.

Step 7:
Put a dab or two of glue on the dowel and place into the fold you just made with your thumbs. Place directly onto your sewing machine and stitch down the length of your flag. The zipper foot will allow you to sew right along the edge of the dowel. When your are finished sewing the length, trim the threads close to the paper.. and voila! You have your first “Yay” flag.