The receiving line has gotten a lot of bad press over the past couple of decades. Many consider it outdated or impossibly stuffy. Alas, many of these same people consider doing the money dance and claim they ‘have to’ because it’s the only way to make sure they see all of their guests. Never mind that I can absolutely guarantee they won’t get a chance to see me that way…and I am far from alone.

In fact, the receiving line has fallen so far out of favor that when the mother of regular reader and all-around awesome lady Fabrisse took on the job of wedding coordinator at her church recently, the outgoing coordinator had never even heard of receiving lines! He had no clue what Fabrisse’s mother was talking about.

As resident etiquette mavin (and as someone who had a lovely and really quite enjoyable receiving line at her own wedding), I feel it falls upon me to discuss the whys and wherefores as well as the hows of this time-honored tradition.

So what is this receiving line all about, anyway? Why is it held? How is it done? And what about that cocktail I want to be drinking while it’s going on??? Read on, my dears, and learn.

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Wedding decor is overwhelmingly bright and vivid. Whether you’re choosing bridesmaids’ dresses, wedding favors, a wedding cake, or your bridal accessories, you’re bound to see a whole lot of shocking pinks, sly blues, eye-catching blacks and whites, amazing yellows, and even some electrifying purples. What you don’t see a lot of when shopping for a wedding are earth tones and muted colors inspired by nature. Luckily, if it’s inspiration in this particular area that you’re looking for, Rebecca Thuss has you covered.

Thuss is an award winning photo-stylist, a creative director, wedding designer and crafter who survived Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Currently, she and her husband are partners in a multidisciplinary photography and graphic design firm. I’m just glad she keeps a selection of her work up in her online portfolio so you and I can learn exactly what can be done with a few bunches of flowers, some felt, and a handful of twigs. Wedding decor looks so easy when I put it that way, no?

Remember the Waffle House wedding? How about the McDonald’s wedding? Now we have the Taco Bell wedding to go with it. Paul and Caragh Brooks said their vows and then partied down at Normal, Illinois Taco Bell where they apparently spent a lot of time hanging out.

The deets: The entire shindig cost about $200, with Caragh’s hot pink dress eating a mere $15 of the total. A friend who bought one of those easy online ordinations conducted the wedding ceremony when it turned out city hall was all booked up for the day. Wedding guests ordered food off of the regular menu. The groom’s mother, Kathy Brooks, had this to say: “This is the way to go – there’s no stress.”

I LOVE it, absolutely. Caragh and Paul obviously know what they like and what they like is Taco Bell and low-key fun. They planned and enjoyed the wedding they wanted, or as they say in the fast food industry, they “had it their way.” What say you? Love it? Hate it? If you’re not sure, there’s a short video of the couple on their wedding day below the cut.

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I was browsing my favorite wedding blogs yesterday when I came across a super wedding planning tip over on Wedding Planning in Exile. Bride in Exile wanted to mix and match letterpress printing and flat printing on her wedding invitations and RSVP cards but found that most wedding invitation printers aren’t keen on doing up matching designs in different printing styles. Not one to be deterred, Bride in Exile outlined her wants (and her budget) on Etsy’s Alchemy advertising board where buyers can post requests for custom handmade items and sellers can bid on the opportunity to make the goods. Needless to say, she got what she wanted at a price that worked for her.

Of course, the Alchemy board isn’t just for wedding stationery! You can post requests for anything under the sun, from wedding favors to custom wine glasses for your wedding reception to your wedding gown. It seems like requests get a lot of attention from Etsy sellers, making this one of those resources I wish I had known about (wish it had existed?) when planning my own wedding.

When it comes to wedding photography, the temptation to micromanage can be overwhelming. Many brides (and grooms) want everything to be perfect, so they plan and plan and plan every aspect of their weddings down to the very last detail. The problem with all that wedding planning is that no amount of planning can ensure that nothing goes wrong, and sometimes too much planning can get in the way! I’m not suggesting that you ditch your must-have photos list — it’s important to get those precious shots with grandma and the fun staged wedding party pics.

But it’s important to remember that so many of the best wedding photos are captured when the bride, the groom, the bridesmaids, and the groomsmen aren’t mugging for the camera. I think the wonderful wedding photos that win each year’s Wedding Photojournalist Association wedding photo contest demonstrate that fact.

Photo by Stacey Kane of Maine

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The WE channel comes up quite a lot here at Manolo for the Brides. How can it not, when it sometimes feels like the entire network has been forcefully stuffed into a too-small wedding gown for our amusement? The point is, shows like Rich Bride Poor Bride and Bridezillas wouldn’t exist if no one was watching them.

Now, I don’t know about you, but the appeal for me has always been something akin to nuptial schadenfreude. I can look at the screaming brides and pat myself on the back because, hey, I’m not them! And I wasn’t them! And I’ll never be them, whew.

Sarah Haskins created a Target: Women that addresses this issue so much better than I ever could… you know, because I don’t have a video camera and an editing team backing me up. Bridezilla versus Momm-Ra? “Yeah, wide load, you better get it through your obese head that you’re too fat to get married.”

I recommend watching all the way through because the ending is the best part. Enjoy!

No, I’m not talking about holding a Star Trek or Star Wars themed wedding. No, I’m not even talking about holding a Battlestar Gallactica or Dr. Who wedding. I don’t have a problem if you want to get married in full Narn battle regalia or recite your vows in perfect Elvish, or even if you choose to be married by Zaphod Beeblebrox. I will even admit a certain fondness for somewhat geeky choices like that, even though I didn’t go that route myself.

There’s a guy in Japan, however, who has taken the concept to an extreme.

Taichi Takashita has started a petition asking the government to allow marriages with cartoon characters. Not only that, inside of a week he had over a thousand signatures on that petition. Takashita claims that he has no further interest in the three-dimensional world and would like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world.

“However, that seems impossible with present-day technology. Therefore, at the very least, would it be possible to legally authorise marriage with a two-dimensional character?”

Since, in keeping with his campaign not to exist on this plane, he included no contact details whatsoever, it seems impossible to get in touch to ask whether he is truly serious in his desire to marry a cartoon character.

Whether or not Takashita is serious, though, some of the folks signing his petition clearly are:

“For a long time I have only been able to fall in love with two-dimensional people and currently I have someone I really love,” one person wrote.

“Even if she is fictional, it is still loving someone. I would like to have legal approval for this system at any cost,” the person wrote.

Here at Manolo for the Brides, we are very much in favor of marriage equality…but only with adult, legally competant partners who are able to express clearly their willingness to enter into matrimony with the partner who has chosen him/her. I seriously doubt that an anime character can do that.

If someone wants a Crayon Shin-chan themed wedding, though, well, as long as they don’t do it in the streets and scare the horses, that’s fine by me.