Manolo for the Brides

How could I not talk about one of the most famous brides in history: Diana, Princess of Wales. Her wedding was broadcast to an estimated global TV audience of 750 million. Brits had a national holiday to celebrate the coupling. The 20-year-old princess to be wore an Elizabeth Emmanuel designed, ivory taffeta and antique lace gown with a 25-foot train.

Now, Madame Tussauds of London, which displayed a copy of the dress after the wedding, is putting said copy up for auction. Apparently, there is a controversy brewing over whether Lady D. had the dress made as a space in case dress number 1 spontaneously combusted or was eaten by a royal hound. Some, like auctioneer Cooper Owen, say she tried on the copy on the morning of her wedding day.

Emanuel disputes this.

While the museum claims that the dress was a “spare” which Diana actually wore, Miss Emanuel insists the dress was only ever a copy made for public display and was never worn by Lady Diana Spencer.

A spokesman for the auction house, Cooper Owen, said the second dress was made in “case of any hiccup or disaster”.

However, Miss Emmanuel said: “Diana never tried the dress on, it was never a back-up dress. David and I were there, we didn’t let anybody else see the dress.

“Unless I am having a brain seizure, trying on a second dress was the last thing Diana would have done. She was so busy, we had to fit all our fittings around her schedule there was absolutely no way she could have tried on that dress. It was made particularly for Madame Tussauds.”

All that aside, I think this dress is a little…Martha Washington-y

So, after rushing to finish up a number of things on Tuesday, I traveled from Boston to Manhattan to be on Wednesday’s “Are Blogs the New Black” panel at the launch of Open Source Media.

On one hand, it was exciting! I was fortunate enough to be participating alongside the lovely Kim of i am pretty nyc and Kristen of beauty addict. We also heard the pseudo voice of The Manolo in pseudo real time - there was a delay of roughly 18 seconds that resulted in much good-natured hilarity.

On the other hand, the fourth panelist in our little group discussion (which was led by trend analyst Tom Julian) led the discussion down a rather weird path. Author and writer Elizabeth Hayt expressed her opinion that, “blogging is absurd. It’s a hobby for rich people with too much time on their hands” just before moving on to ask why blogging is so mean spirited. Her beef was that so many fashion oriented blogs do nothing but insult people’s clothing and makeup.

Unfortunately, the panel was cut short and thus ended just as I wanted to ask Hayt whether she thought there were any similarities between our publically expressing our mean-spirited opinions regarding what people wear and her publically expressing her mean-spirited opinions regarding what people do. Oh well.

I was also a little disappointed that we three bloggers didn’t talk more about the relationship we have with our readers. For me, that’s what makes blogging fun and oftentimes more interesting than plain old journalism.

But, I had a great time nonetheless and was pleased to discover today that Henway Twingo of Sense of Soot compared my relationship to The Manolo to that of the Angels to Charlie. Fantastic!

I am just not feeling this dress, worn by blushing bride Princess Sayako, 37, the youngest child of Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. According to some sources, the dress was created by a designer that regularly works for the Japanese empress. S/he created the gown to mirror the dress worn by someone named Lady Clarisse de Cagliostro at the end of an anime film called Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro.

That’s weird enough, but in the photo it looks like she is getting married in a subway station. Kerazy!

Though I’m not enamoured by the color of this organza and satin After Six bridesmaid dress, I love, love, love the style. Actually, the color doesn’t matter since it comes in fifteen other colors including a lovely dusty blue and a dashing dark lilac. Yum. Being that I’m in a hurry since I’m traveling to Manhattan to be there for the Pajamas Media launch, I’m going to list the reasons I love it and see what you, my faithful readers agree with and disagree with.

1. The halter-style top can flatter both the busty and not-so-busty ladies.

2. The A-line skirt will not reveal the true cuvature of the bottom or the hips.

3. The ribbon faux belt sits below the waist in order to give the illusion of waist where there is none.

4. Tea length = not too flashy

5. This dress need not be so tight. One size up to give the girls some room to move won’t necessarily make it look like a sack.

6. Finally, this dress does not scream, “BRIDESMAID!”

And there you have it. There only real problem is that one’s arms are entirely exposed and not everyone cares for that. Of course, I am talking about my ideal wedding here…and I still haven’t decided whether I will be a good bride or a bad bride.

My father once told me he would give me $5,000 in cash to elope. My stepmother promptly beat him upside the head with a rolling pin and screamed, “Over my dead body!” Though my stepmother dreams of helping me to coordinate my dream wedding, my father is still a frugal man and I have a herd of siblings that need food and clothing. Thus, I have known since I was in high school that I will most likely be having a do-it-yourself kind of wedding.

I plan to enlist the help of friends and family in creating a cake. I am going to utilize my grandmother’s riverfront property for the ceremony. And I am strongly considering skipping the usual DJ in favor of simply making a lot of well timed mix CDs. Cutting certain costs will allow me to rent those white wooden folding chairs I love as well as a portable dance floor and huge canopy tent. That’s why I’m already reading things like Kathleen Kennedy’s “Priceless Weddings for under $5,000.” Sure, being a do-it-myself bride will be stressful, but, hey, so is everything else!

That said, the Internet is full of great tips on how to do a wedding “on the cheap”, like these from wikiHOW:

Have your ceremony and reception in the same location to simplify things and save you money. There will be no need for limos to take you to the second location. Many houses of worship have halls that are equipped to handle wedding receptions at reasonable fees - especially if you are a member.

Ask friends to lend their talents (in lieu of a gift)by helping out with such things as invitations or flowers. Ask a friend with pretty penmanship to address your invitations instead of hiring a calligrapher. If you simplify your flowers and arrangements, perhaps a friend can assemble fresh or silk flowers which will save you hundreds of dollars.

Instead of a limo, consider a regular vehicle.

Remember that the wedding is one day at the start of a life-long committment. Look beyond the wedding day to future goals you will have as newlyweds. If you want to purchase a house in the next few years, keeping that as a priority throughout the wedding planning process will help you to be prudent about how much you spend on that one day.

Personally, I’d rather use the minimum amount of money that will buy me the maximum amount of wedding and then put the rest in a nice, stable Roth IRA. My memory of my wedding will last a lifetime and when I’m old and wrinkly, I want to have all the free time in the world to think about those memories.

And they say planning the wedding is stressful! This blushing bride apparently needed a snort before she could calm down long enough to pose for photos. After seeing how much pressure many weddings put on the poor bride, I can’t say I blame her.

A great piece in a recently issue of the Indianapolis Star asks, Does love’s sparkle require a diamond? It includes a number of heartbreaking interviews with engaged couples who were simply not taken seriously because their engagement did not begin with the man presenting the woman with a huge chunk of ice. The article got me thinking. DeBeers would have us believe that one’s commitment should equal the cost of two months salary. The first thing anyone asks a future bride is, “Can I see the ring?”

When Jordan Corbin and David Wentworth got engaged, he proposed to her with a mother-of-pearl ring that cost about $20. Corbin loved that it was an atypical engagement ring and named it her “magic ring.”

Buying a diamond engagement ring “is what a guy does when he has no imagination and is afraid you’re not going to love him,” she said.

Her family did not agree. When the couple flew to Corbin’s home in Texas, one of the first things her stepfather said was, “Let’s see the ring.” He took her hand and with a disapproving groan, threw it back down and walked away.

But what of students? People with lower incomes? Not to mention people who think that the diamond trade is exploitative and artificially jacks up prices.

I’d like to think that in this modern era, we’re all open minded enough to believe an onyx in a simple silver setting can mean commitment or even that a young couple just starting out might really rather put that those thousands of dollars into an IRA that will support them in their old age. But I guess we’re not.

Apparently weddings haven’t just gone to the dogs, but to the pandas, too. Giant pandas Lin Hui and Chuang Chuang, residents of the Chieng Mai Zoo in Chieng Mai, Thailand, were recently married in a wedding ceremony arranged by the zoo. The bride and groom both wore tuxes.

After yesterday’s rousing comment-based discussion regarding straps and strapless, sleeves, and modesty, I started looking into more modest wedding dress options*. I’ve always imagined that when I finally tricked The Beard into marrying me, I would walk down the aisle in something strapless, but I may become a short-sleeve convert. I loved what I found…with the exception of the dress above.

This mock two-piece gown with embroidered, scalloped overskirt and chapel train from Eternity Formalwear looks like it caters to brides who are planning to have a Dungeons & Dragons themed wedding or who want to assert their inner serving wench. All I can say is, Huh?

*Thanks for the tip, Jane C!