Manolo for the Brides

Now that the holiday season is upon us and our maxed out credit cards are sleeping peacefully in our wallets, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are thousands of future brides tearfully wondering just how they will pay for their upcoming nuptials. Some, of course, are lucky enough to have mommies and daddies who are footing the bill. Others aren’t so fortunate and may be grateful for a little help in the matrimonial budgetting department.

First things first, and by first things I do not mean panic. Get thee to a bookstore. Or, if the thought of buying a book makes you cry (and I know how you feel), get thee to the library.

Books like Bridal Bargains can help you find crazy bargains on everything from dresses to music to the honeymoon.

Then hit up web sites like Cheap, Chic Weddings. There, you’ll find great tips like:

• Regular candles are nice too for cheap wedding favors. Wrap in tulle and tie with ribbon. Stick a small flower in the ribbon.
• Check out the mall department stores. You might find (not in the wedding dress department) the perfect dress for you. There may be some cocktail dresses, formal dresses or prom dresses on sale.
• Don’t forget photography students in your area. Many High Schools and Colleges offer Photography Classes, and you might be able to catch a rising star at a great price.

Next, consider doing it yourself. By it, I mean anything you can put your skills to work at. Among the readership, we have a few who have dressmaking skils. Putting together favors from craft store pickings isn’t that difficult. And for invitations, which can be a big expense, there is software that lets you do it at home, like PrintingPress Platinum Software for Invitations

Finally, trim the guestlist, refuse to pay retail, ask friends for help, and whenever you start to feel a little bummed that you can’t have a dream Lady Di style wedding, think about how good financial freedom is going to feel.

They say that inside every little girl is a future bride, but how early is too early? I found this game while browsing for interesting wedding planning software:

Apparently, My Fantasy Wedding is appropriate for girls ages six to eleven. Little tykes can plan every aspect of their fantasy wedding, from the dress to the location to music. They can even design a fantasy groom…which is more than us real-life girls get to do.

But really. Do little girls need to spend their precious youth doing all the things - like tasting endless cakes and auditioning florists - that years later will cause them to develop facial tics? Personally, I think this game is marketed toward children but intended for lovelorn adults like me who fear they will never get to squeeze into that perfect wedding dress. A guilty pleasure, indeed!

After a few of you cleverly pointed out that red is an auspicious gown color in Chinese weddings and that the white wedding gown is a fairly recent invention, I decided to dig more deeply into the history and significance of colored gowns. I discovered these fun facts:

• Wearing white at one’s wedding first became popular in the 18th century. It became less a fashion and more a rule when the young Queen Victoria chose a white wedding dress to marry Albert.
• Before the introduction of the white wedding gown in America a woman just wore her Sunday best or her most treasured dress.
• In ancient times, blue, not white, was considered to represent purity and fidelity and so brides who could afford it often wore blue. Jewish brides may choose a blue gown because it embodies mystical powers.
• In Moracco, brides sometimes wear bright yellow, because it’s said to scare away the evil eye; or green, because it is the color of plants and brings good luck.
• However, some cultures saw green as unlucky. According to Wedding Thoughts, “to say a girl “had a green gown” implied she was of loose morals, because her dress would be grass-stained due to rolling around in the fields!”
• In Spain, Spanish Roman Catholic brides may wear black gowns and lacy mantillas to show their devotion until death.
• The veil’s history is mysterious. It is thought by some to have been an important part of arranged marriages, where it prevented the groom from getting an eyeful of his bride’s face before he was committed. It may have also originated as a way to protect the bride from evil spirits, to show she was spoken for, or as a figurative representation of traditional bride theft!
• During the Revolutionary War, some brides wore red to symbolize the independence the Colonists desired. During the Civil War, some brides wore purple, which represents honor and courage as a tribute to the dead.

If you’re considering a colored wedding gown, feel free to ignore this old nursery rhyme:

Married in white
You have chosen alright

Married in green,
Ashamed to be seen.

Married in grey,
You’ll go far away.

Married in red,
You’ll wish yourself dead.

Married in blue,
Love ever true

Married in yellow,
Ashamed of your fellow.

Married in black
You’ll wish yourself back

Married in pink,
Your spirits will sink.

On the subject of not dresses but dressing, I’d like to say that there is no one in the world whose personal style I would most like to emulate more than Audrey Hepburn’s. Audrey Hepburn was not only a absolutely fabulous dresser, but also charming, humble, and kind. For Christmas this year, if anyone I know is listening, I would like a stocking filled with the Hepburn style. If anyone on your Christmas list has aspirations of being not only glamorous, but also giving, engaging, and gracious, consider surprising them with one of the books, movies, or other stuff below.

How to Be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life is a tome of Audrey’s wisdom and philosophy.

Roman Holiday was Audrey’s breakthrough film.

Who could forget Moon River? Not me. Which is why I want the Music From The Films Of Audrey Hepburn CD so badly!

The Audrey Hepburn Deluxe 2006 Calendar has twelve months of Audrey!

I look at a lot of wedding gowns. Not only do I look for gowns to feature here, but I also spend a good amount of time searching for the gown I’ll someday (hopefully) wear to my own wedding. Sometimes, looking through pages and pages of these gowns, I start to think I’m going blind. Why? Because all I see is white! Pure, dazzling, blinding white!

So, to save my poor eyes and briefly step away from the all-white paradigm, I will now present images of two unusual and interesting gowns. Unfortunately, I have no idea whose designs these are. (If you do, please tell me!) All I know is that Bargain Bride will custom make them for you…usually for less than $500!

It’s your wedding for goodness sake! Get creative!

I know more brides-to-be than I care to admit. Actually, I like to admit it, but only when The Beard is in earshot and I can gush on and on about how wonderful their beaus must be. Even though I’m green with envy, these ladies are still my friends. Being that the holidays are just around the corner and that I hate pre-fab gift baskets, I devised a quirky gift basket of my own making. Here’s my recipe:

Even though they say the way to a man’s heart is through the stomach, I still think it may actually be through the pants. Bellydance With Özel Türkbas: How To Make Your Husband A Sultan will make my friends’ future husbands stand at the ready.

In case my friends are still unsure as to what makes a good husbands, An Ideal Husband will put them right. Well, not really, but hey! Romantic comedies are fun!

Popcorn to go with the movie, of course.

And, finally, How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt : The Perfect Husband Handbook Featuring Over 50 Foolproof Ways to Win, Woo & Wow Your Wife, a little something to leave around for the man in her life to find.

I recently received an e-mail from a bride-to-be who wanted to some tips on finding the perfect jewelry to go with one’s wedding gown. I realized very quickly that I haven’t touched on that subject at all and was quite shamefaced. To atone for that sin, I’m going to briefly touch on it now.

The Necklace:

According to Wed Alert, you have roughly five lengths to choose from. There’s the one to three strand choker, the thicker collar, the princess (which falls below the hollow of the neck), the matinee (which hits the top of the bust), and the opera (which falls below the bust and isn’t often a good match for most wedding gowns).

I love chokers and collars. Paired with a more modest gown, they can really shine. With a lower cut or strapless gown, however, there is often a huge gap of skin between the necklace and the dress which can draw the eye and look rather awkward. It that case, I think Y necklaces like the Swarovski Floating Y Crystal Necklace above look fantastic. With a high, turtle-neck type neckline, no necklace is needed.

The lovely Lori suggests: “making sure that the bottom of the necklace does not fall below the neckline.” This is important!

The Earrings:

There is a ton of variations where earrings are concerned and, as earrings tend to be smaller and less eye-catching, there is more room to play. But there are still a few things to consider. Smaller, stud earrings look great with looser hairdo’s or even loose hair. Longer, more dangly drop earrings look fabulous paired with updo’s. If your necklace is elaborate, keep your earrings simple, like the diamond studs in white gold above.

In the end, just remember to balance your jewelry and dress. If your dress is elaborate, keep your jewels simple. Or go hog wild with your baubles if your dress is plain. If you’re wearing a tiara, consider going earring-less.

It’s easy. No, really!

Weddings give everyone involved an opportunity to put on their Sunday best and strut their stuff. Thus, it’s easy to find guides to tell you what’s appropriate to wear to a morning wedding or an evening wedding. It’s somewhat more difficult to find a definitive guide that discusses what you should burn before ever taking off the tags to save yourself from a lifetime of post wedding embarassment. So today, I’d like to explore the “what not to do’s” of dressing for other people’s weddings.

Rule 1: Don’t wear the dress above unless you are attending the wedding of a life-long biker who’s finally decided to turn his bitch into his mama. In fact, even then I’d suggest donating this dress to your favorite neice’s dress-up box and investing in a nice set of leathers.

Rule 2: Don’t wear white. Don’t find out what the wedding party is wearing and buy a matching dress. Especially not if you’re still bitter about not being chosen as a bridesmaid. And don’t wear your old wedding dress. If the groom dumped you, get over it.

Rule 3: Don’t wear head-to-toe black, even if you’re still madly in love with the bride, groom, or officiating priest. Don’t wear your homemade “Goth” costume. Consider removing your most obtrusive facial piercings on the morning of the wedding.

Rule 4: Don’t outshine the bride. Wearing your work clothes, when you are employed as a Las Vegas showgirl is definitely out of the question. If the dress you’re eyeing is just like something you saw your favorite A-lister wearing on the red carpet last week, you may just want to consider putting it back on the rack.

Rule 5: Never, ever, ever dress like a sci-fi character or a furry. Even if it truly is who you are inside.

I’ve been a bridesmaid once and a maid of honor once. Of course, when acting as the former I was something like eight years old and, when acting as the latter, I was doing so for an out-of-state future bride whose mother was handling all the arrangements. There are apparently a great number of things that I should have been required to do. To this day, I still don’t know what any of them are. If you have been called upon to act as a maid (or matron) of honor or a bridesmaid, there are a few good books out there that will help you navigate the world of showers, dresses, bachelorette parties, and your wedding day responsibilities.

If you know a bridesmaid-to-be or are a future bride trying to wrangle bridesmaids, these books can make great, stress-reducing gifts.

In The Bridesmaid Guide, author Kate Chynoweth covers everything from how to throw the perfect bridal shower, create a touching speech, wear an awful bridesmaid’s dress with style, or support the bride on her big day.

For the hipper bridesmaid, The Bridesmaid’s Guerrilla Handbook is a funny how-to tome that will help make the pre-wedding responsibilities seem more fun than frantic.

This book - part of the Everything Series, which I absolutely adore - is practical, down to earth, and covers just about…you guessed it…everything.