There’s no getting away from the fact that the economy is in the tank right now. Stocks are down, jobs are being cut left, right, and center. This is a bad time to dream of a lavish wedding day unless you’re a trust fund baby whose portfolio has avoided the worst of the market tumble.

That means chances are that you’ll have to get creative to have the wedding of your dreams. Luckily, you’re getting advice from a woman who put together a great wedding with live music and a groaning buffet for nearly a hundred people on next door to nothing.

Having a nice wedding doesn’t have to break the bank, even as broken as the banks are right now. How to do it? Take a look after the cut and see.
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I’m a big believer in making the wedding meaningful for and expressive of the couple getting married. I love the fact that friends of mine used Shrek and Fiona figures on top of their cake while the bride’s daughter wore fairy wings and strewed herbs with healing properties instead of flower petals. I thought it was great when my brother the alpaca rancher and his bride used her teddy bear as the ‘ring bear.’ I think it’s cool when couples marry in places that have personal meaning to them or incorporate their fondness for historical reenactment or classic cars or science fiction or anime or pirates or duck hunting…or nearly anything that tells you that this particular couple is getting married, as opposed to any other couple under the sun.

Then our own Never Teh Bride wrote about the Taiwan Toilet Wedding.

That got me wondering. How unique is too unique. I definitely think that getting mass-married in a public urinal counts as too unique.

So what say our intrepid readers? Do you draw your personal line at vows in a toilet or at a groom wearing Vulcan ears? Is underwater too wacky for you, or do you go as far as naked underwater vows before you have a panic attack? For that matter, do any of you find it too ridiculous that my brother had his Best Man carry that teddy bear?

Enquiring minds want to know.

When it comes to weird weddings, I found one that takes the cake. Eight couples in Taiwan took the plunge, so to speak, and got married in a “luxury lavatory” that was designed by one of the participating brides. The town mayor presided over the wedding ceremony, and there is actual footage of one of the grooms-to-be using one of the urinals.

Thankfully, the reception dinner was served in a different building.

You know how disappointing it is to watch a fashion show only to realize that there is no way in hell you would ever look good in any of the clothes that came swishing down the runway? I don’t get that feeling with Elie Saab. While I certainly wouldn’t look good in all of Saab’s beautiful gowns, there are plenty that would flatter women of many shapes and sizes.

That said, even brilliant visionaries have a hiccup now and again.

This wedding dress from Saab’s spring/summer ’08 collection is fully embroidered with guipures, sequins, and paste. A silver brocade off-the-shoulder top is balanced by a long train. Doesn’t that make it sound nice? Too bad a picture can replace a thousand words. What I want to know is what exactly those off-white bunches are… they’re scattered all over the bodice, framed by sparkly stuff. I tend to hate anything that looks like an afterthought. Was Saab thinking “The gown is done, beautiful. But how to make it better? I know! I’ll sew scrap fabric all over it!” Gah.

What say you?

We love vintage wedding gowns and vintage-look wedding gowns here at Manolo for the Brides, but what’s the bride who loves retro styles and modern frocks to do? To her I say that it wasn’t all that long ago that brides changed out of their wedding dresses and into something easier to travel in before stepping into their getaway cars and heading off to their honeymoons.

It’s not a practice one sees much these days, of course. I’ve only ever attended one wedding reception during which the bride changed out of her dress before making her exit. In that case, she put aside her bulky gown in favor of a white leather vest and white spandex leggings… if you couldn’t guess, she was a motorcycle mama and was preparing to ride away on her man’s hog. Good times. But if this vintage tradition appeals to you, why not wear a fun and flirty vintage-look dress from Whirling Turban?

Whirling Turban does have some wedding specific designs, though both of these dresses come from their regular stock. The first is made of hand-woven cotton ikat fabric subtly mixed with metallic silver fibers and a sweeping full skirt wrapped around a narrow pencil type skirt that peeps out when you walk. The second is made of the same unique fabric and features a petal bodice with pink contrast and a flattering wrap-n-tie sarong skirt. I like both… too bad I have no reason to buy either!

Manhattan to become a mecca of elopement? Maybe! Manhattan’s new Marriage Bureau is, unlike it’s drab predecessor, a 24,000-square-foot wedding palace complete with chandeliers, bronze counters, and marble columns every bit as shiny as a Las Vegas express lane wedding chapel.

You can get more than just a $35 marriage license at the Marriage Bureau, however. For $25, a clerk of the city will perform your wedding ceremony, making this (I think) the only one-stop wedding destination in NYC.

Then there are the wedding accessories. Nine bucks will buy you an elasticized wedding band complete with faux diamonds. Wedding flowers can be had for $4-7 for single stems and $25-50 for complete bridal bouquets. Forgot your grooming aides? Hand over a few bills and you’re set for hairspray, tissues, and more. You can even buy disposable digital cameras with which to take pictures in front of the City Hall backdrop shown above.

Classy, amirite? While eloping — particular in a place as lovely as Manhattan — doesn’t necessarily have to be a little bit tacky, it’s not hard to elope in Miller High Life style if that’s what floats your boat!

Movies make it seem so romantic… the engagement ring sitting at the bottom of a sparkling flute of champagne. The engagement ring suspended in a dish of mousse. The engagement ring tucked into a crisp green salad. So what’s the problem? Unless you or your intended have fingers the size of tuba valves, most of the nibbles we take are larger than an engagement ring, making them difficult to locate in many dishes and, as Gourmet reminds us, a choking hazard.

When Carlos Lopes, former managing director at the Hotel Bel-Air, in Los Angeles, set out to propose to his first wife, he planned the evening to perfection. He selected a fine restaurant. He hatched an elaborate plan. He schemed with the maître d’. And, at the desired moment, the waiter brought Lopes’s girlfriend a crème brûlée into which the pastry chef had discreetly tucked Lopes’s life savings, in the form of a diamond ring. “Only I was so naïve,” he remembers today, “that I didn’t realize you ate crème brûlée with a large spoon and not a small one.”

Smash went the crust. In went the spoon. And before Lopes could say, “Um, I have something to ask you,” his brilliant-cut one-carat surprise went sliding down his intended’s throat.

Oopsie! I’ve always wondered who first came up with the idea of putting an engagement ring into food. If you adhere to the two months salary rule, that could very well be one expensive piece of bling, and the last thing most brides-to-be want to do is have to thoroughly clean their new jewelry before putting it on. Heck, my rings (engagement and otherwise) get dirty enough from sporadic everyday wear. I can’t imagine having to use an old toothbrush to scrub crème brûlée of all things out of the tines of a six-prong setting.

Or is that just me? What do you think — are engagement rings hidden in food the height of romance or the height of fail?