Once upon a time, I imagined that The Beard and I would say our marriage vows in the offices of the closest city hall. It didn’t work out that way, but I nurtured that particular fantasy for a very long time. In my wedding vision, we were having the most frugal of budget wedding ceremonies while wearing the most luxurious of wedding attire. It would, I thought, be ever so much fun to go gallivanting about town in a wedding dress and a tuxedo. And when I say wedding dress, I mean a big, poufy, princessy number with all the trimmings!

Consequently, I was interested to see how Brides.com envisions the perfect wedding dress for the city hall bride. In one word, the answer is “short.”

Not quite as short as Vivi, a $1,050 sleeveless silk faille ivory dress with bateau neckline and pleated detail at hem by Amsale.

Most of the wedding dresses in the slide show are variations on a theme that includes dresses like Jocelyn, an off-white silk shantung Jenny Yoo Collection dress with a small key-hole in the front and a dip that dips to just above the waists. (Ooh, it’s only $425!)

I say if you’re getting married at city hall, wear whatever you want, whether that means cut-off jeans or a $10,000 ballgown. Isn’t that the whole point of getting married at city hall: Doing whatever you want (while also maybe saving a little cash)? It seems silly to me that brides would limit their attire choices to mostly short, 1950s-ish wedding dresses — as cute as they always are — when it’s so damn fun to run around in full formal dress or jeans and a sparkling tiara! In conclusion, I love the dresses, but hate the limitations implied.

What say you?

I bought my own wedding shoes from French Sole, but now I’m wishing I’d bought them from Miss Bunny.

The sweetly-monikered Miss Bunny creates beautifully decorated shoes for brides and non-brides alike — you can see a small gallery of her work at Miss Bunny Shoes. She also has an Etsy shop, though there is currently nothing up for sale therein. Shame, that! I’m in the mood to buy something beautiful!

There was a visible pseudotrend a while back that had moms and dads (and moms and moms and dads and dads) waiting to get married until their little one(s) were born. I call it a pseudotrend because I think plenty of people get married after having kids for a variety of reasons (health insurance, issues with school, circumstance, etc.), but the idea just kind of crawled into the public consciousness only fairly recently — thanks, celebrities! I’m kind of a traditional girl myself, but I figure that people get married when they want, why they want, and that’s okay by me.

The result of the pseudotrend in my social circle was the appearance of tiny, tiny flower girls and ring bearers. I’m talking about flower girls and ring bearers only just able to walk. You’d watch them sort of wander down the aisle and wonder if they’d make it. Would they lose their already shaky grip on the tools of their trade?

If you decided to reverse the usual order of things and got kids out of the way before tying the knot, think carefully before including your itty-bitty little guy or gal in the wedding party. Some very young tots find being stared at by rows and rows of grown-up people quite disconcerting — many a toddling flower girl and ring bearer has made tracks in the opposite direction rather than walk down the aisle unassisted. For those brides and grooms who simply must include a baby or toddler, I’d advise having someone familiar to the kid carry them down the aisle, perhaps one of the bridesmaids or groomsmen. Or not. The middle ground involves giving your son or daughter (or baby nieces, nephews, and such) a title and a symbolic role. You dress them up, include them in the photos, and parade them around, but they don’t actually have to do anything other than sit around and look cute… something I know from experience that babies are very, very good at!

At first glance, this silk and Italian mohair wedding gown from the White Chocolate Label by Scott Corridan is gorgeous. I love the exagerated cuffs and collar, the slightly messy drape of the skirt, and even the large, yet subtle bow at the waist.

However, upon closer examination, one notices that there is precious little preventing the world from getting a good gander at the bride’s nipples!

I suppose that one could experiment with nipples covers or wear some sort of unadorned bra underneath, but that would sort of ruin the effect of the designs in the mohair, wouldn’t it?