(Closed) Love Me or Hate me, This is What I’m Doing! Post Your Off Beat Wedding Plans!

• KayNMonty2011
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: October 2011

I love this! LOL

Our wedding will also be under 10K. I’m sorry but spending $30-70K on a wedding is pass ridiculous to me. Even though we are in a position to do so, it just doesnt make sense when that money can be invested in our dream home!

Partial cash bar. There will be a few complimentary wine/champagne bottles at each table. Other than that, they will be paying up!

I emailed our Save-The-Date Cards

• runsyellowlites
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: April 2011

Oh and I’m with ya’ll on the budget wedding as well… haven’t gotten the final total but it was between 5-7k. Woohoo for DIY

• StuporDuck
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: January 1992

During our reception, we are not having *ONLY* dancing, because FH and I are not dancers ourselves, and we hate weddings that have nothing but loud music blaring to the point where no one can hear anyone else. We will have SOME dancing, but mostly our reception will be game show themed. Our M.C. will have 3 podiums, and we’ll be playing family feud, the Newly Wed Game, some variant of trivia, among others. We’ll have prizes too, so we will have a fun time with it.

I also have 2 dresses, and our reception is more casual, so we’re inviting people to come comfortable rather than dressed up. It’s going to be July in Washington DC which means humidity galore.

• Miss Fish
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: December 2011

I love offbeat details 🙂 I’m not as offbeat as some, but I DID just join the tribe on OffBeat Bride! (Heard about it from Miss Tattoo and I’ve been hooked ever since!)

We aren’t doing save the dates- seems like a waste of paper to me.

We’re writing our ceremony almost entirely from scratch, and there will be no references to religion.

We’re working on ways to work in our support of marriage equality issues.

I’m pretty sure I’m having a Bride’s Guy… if my fiance doesn’t steal him as a groomsman! (We’re both close with him, but Mr. Fish has way more people on his side than I do, so I’m probably going to reclaim him because his was my friend first, dammit!).

There are more… but I’m logging out of work and going HOMEEE.

• ellabee
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: July 2011

-no rehearsal dinner

-games during the reception

-doing our own flowers (live) — yes i am making my own bouquet 2 days before the wedding

-trying to work it out that we have a sword arch–but it may be a multi branch sword and/or saber arch (totally officially uncool, but we might do it anyway). (2 marines, 1 or 2 army, 1 or 2 navy– the air force and coasties we invited don’t want to wear their uniforms)

• mightywombat
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: June 2011

I like these threads. 🙂

• No registry.  This seemed to make more heads explode than anything else we’re doing put together, including not inviting aunts, uncles, cousins. (We aren’t doing it to get cash, either – we just don’t like the idea of telling people what to get us, or even suggesting that they should be getting us anything. I know, we’re weird.)
• No aunts, uncles, cousins – I don’t have any, Fiance has a million and isn’t close to any of them.  Since we’re having a small wedding (~60 people) that would have totally changed the dynamic and made it so we couldn’t have it at my mom’s house.
• No bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc.
• No bridal shower (seems silly to have a shower if we’re not registering!)
• My dress was custom designed and made for me by one of my best friends. It’s amazing. 67 separate pieces of white dupioni silk, plus the teal silk piping running throughout it.
• Serving cake AND pie. Woohoo! (Not that anyone’s complained about this!!)
• Wedding is being performed by a (non-religions) friend of the groom’s.
• No dancing – there’s not really room, and neither of us is really into it anyway.
• No hurling of flowers or undergarments.
• We wrote our ceremony, and it will be about 5 minutes long. 

There’s probably more, but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head!

• suprise84
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: March 2014

We are having a surprise wedding so that is fairly offbeat to begin with because people will be thinking it ia an engagement party until my Dad announces the engagement is off but if eveyone want to fill their glasses and move out the front, we will be getting married instead. But other stuff that is off beat

1. Its being done at my parents house

2. Not having a professional photographer, a friend of mine from university is an excellent photographer and we asked him to do it- couldn’t come at $2k for photos.

3. No STD obviously

4. Will only be doing engagement invites.

5. Probably will either wear a tea length dress or an everyday formal dress that is the right colour.

6. Only having on attendant each and my Maid/Matron of Honor will decide what she wears.

7. We will design my engagement and our wedding bands at the same time.

8. My mom and I are making the cupcakes and cutting cake.

9. I will wear flats as I am heel-intolerant

10. No registry

11. No Bachelor or Bachelorette Partys but will do something quiet with our people i.e my mom, Mother-In-Law, Maid/Matron of Honor, SIL and my Maid/Matron of Honor mom may go to a spa and Fiance, Father-In-Law Bridesmaid or Best Man, my dad and brother willk do something together. But not the traditional strippers, stupid drunk brides with condoms on their heads or anything relating to ‘One last night of freedom’.

There will be many more just because of how we are doing our wedding. 

• MonAmi
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: July 2011

@mightywombat: I love the idea of serving both cake and pie!

• mightywombat
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: June 2011

@suprise84: Yay, that sounds awesome!

@MonAmi: I know, right?  I am a firm believer in inclusivity when it comes to desserts. 🙂 

• Keisha In Love
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: March 2012

Great thread!  It is fun thinking about ways that we plan to be unique!

1. Immediate family and close friends only (about 60 folks)

2. Two good friends are doing the photography 

3. Scrabble save the dates- not b/c it is the main theme- just because we both love Scrabble

4. Our children are our wedding party

5. Probably will either wear a tea length wedding dress/ no veil- but I do want flowers in my hair

6. Asking our family-community to participate in the vows

7. We are getting married in a conservatory and our family will line the aisle as we walk toward one another.  

8. We will jump the broom! (I am really excited about that one)

9. No DJ/ no catered food at reception- family and close friends are assisting with a playlist and we are doing a Mexican taco/nacho bar (close family friend is catering)- we will also have a candy bar 🙂

10. No registry

11. Rather than a honeymoon- we are doing a “Familymoon” – we are all staying in a hotel and we are planning pre and post wedding activities that involve our kids… we plan to go somewhere by ourselves for our 1st anniversary though.

12. No Rehersal dinner or Bachelor or Bachelorette Partys- instead, we are thinking of doing a friends and family bowling nite!

• callmemargie
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: October 2011

I lovee obb!

let’s see

• 75% of my tattoos will be showing

• Fiance has a “Best Woman” instead of best man

• DIYing bouquets, bouts, corsages, centerpieces, signage

• friend is making the bridal party’s necklaces

• also spending less than 10k!
• no religion

• bocce ball at reception (and trying to talk dad into renting an air hockey table)

• quilt guest book

I feel like there are more… but I still have 4 months 🙂

• MamaHusky3
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: July 2011

some of the things i’ve been planning probably aren’t offbeat to the hive 🙂 but among my family members – boy oh boy! have they been like “what???”  they are so caught up in their own ways….lol 🙂

• 6 pm ceremony instead of during the day (my grandmom was like why so late? thats just odd..)
• ceremony and reception at the same place – a friend’s property……much different compared to the church then hall weddings my family does….
• seating chart……my family is used to just sitting wherever…
• favors instead of “souvenirs” think this but for a wedding instead….uh yea, no thanks family of mine
• made my own invitations
• no flowers…..no wedding knic-knacks from the dollar store (no offense to anyone else)
• cheescake table instead of wedding cake
• caterer instead of family potluck
• writing our ceremony from scratch and no reference to religion besides a moment for my bio-dad to say a prayer….
• first look …… my family never even heard of this and boy did this cause a fuss….
• wine and sangria – no other alcohol
• overall order of how the day will pan out …. (my aunt started lecturing about what usually happens at weddings “first its this then you have to do this after then this…….”  i’m like well i’m doing it different….
• no dollar dance and i wasn’t gonna do any dances at all but gave in cuz Future Mother-In-Law wants to dance with her son….
• no veil and my dress is getting hemmed to show my shoes off….

there’s probably more but thats all i can think of right now….

• napabridekelsey
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: August 2011

Oh, I have a bunch of things that are on this thread that I didn’t realize are offbeat! Oh well, call me different 🙂

Here’s what we’re doing that’s pretty offbeat:

• I’m wearing a vintage dress
• We’re having a cocktail reception – no sit-down dinner. (we’ll have heavy hors d’oeuvres and no one will leave hungry)
• The ceremony and reception are at my parent’s house
• The total wedding (not including honeymoon) is under $8k
• We’re doing our honeymoon before our wedding. 🙂
• We’ll be DIY’ing all of our flowers. So yes, I’ll be doing all 6 bouquets, bouts and centerpieces 1-2 days before the wedding. Oy!
• 75% of our vendors are ‘Friendors’…only the wait staff are ‘hired’ staff that are asking for payment. The rest of the friendors will get hefty tips at the end of the day!
• No veil! Just seems like a waste of money IMO. They do make for beautiful pictures though..
• No bouquet/garter toss

• Vonnegut1105
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: November 2011

This is a fun thread! We’re not doing too much that could be considered offbeat… though some of our family members may think otherwise!

– No programs (waste of money, waste of time when compared with the gajillion other things I want to do)

– No dollar dance (though I’ve not seen this elsewhere, I’ve heardd it’s fairly common!)

– Photographer is a semi-professional friend of Maid/Matron of Honor

– DJ is a friend of one of our BMs

– Brides will wear their own choice of dress styles (though all will be same designer, length, color and fabric)

– Brides will wear their own choice of shoes and shoe colors (within our color scheme)

– I’m not wearing heels (I hate them, and we’re getting married outside, and Fiance is 1″ shorter than me in bare feet!)

– No bouts

– Buffet-style dinner (common among my friends, but it’ll make our families’ eyebrows raise)

– Cupcakes instead of cake (FFIL is totally baffled about this)

– Ceremony and reception in the same place (it seems easiest to me but I’ve not been to one wedding where this has been the case!)

– Not really taking desperate measures to cover up my tattoo (small and on my back shoulder)

– No standard cardbox (using a birdcage from our caterer)

– No liquor (beer and wine only open bar)

What I like best is that a lot of this stuff that would have been TOTALLY offbeat 5-10 years ago is making lots of posters go, why is this offbeat? Yay for individualized weddings!

• darkness
• 9 years ago

• Wedding: January 2013

Perfect topic for my first post I think!!

 * Our ceremony isn’t until 9.30pm (hence my name) so we are having the dinner portion of our reception BEFORE our ceremony (shock horror! everyone thinks I’m crazy but I don’t care) and of course all of our photos will be done earlier in the day as well.

* No save the dates.

* No flowers, wedding cake, or first dance, and as few speeches as possible.

* A dress that isn’t entirely white, only cost $300, and is sold as a prom dress not a wedding dress, but it’s AWESOME!!!

* A very large number of our relatives will not be invited – we’ve agreed to only invite people that we have both spent time with during our relationship.

* Uneven bridal party, I have 3 BMs and he is having a best man only.

* No registry. However.. they are not common at all in New Zealand, so none of my friends/family will be bothered by that.