According to DIY eco-wedding planner Sally Steele, it takes roughly 8,000 trees planted to offset the average 200-person wedding. That’s the combined effect of invitations, travel, food, packaging, shipping costs, the manufacturing of wedding accessories, and more. Since, however, I am not entirely sure that planting 8,000 trees will do anything to fix wedding waste after the fact, my suggestion is to go as green as you can right up front, when you can actually make a difference.

If you’ll be in or near San Ramon City Center, CA on August 29th and 30th, why not stop by the I Do Eco Green Wedding Faire, which is part of the first annual Eco-Festival? The, ahem, faire will explore ll aspects of eco-friendly matrimony (even if many of them are pretty self-explanatory), including sustainable products, services, and entertainment. Plus, Glamour Closet will be there hosting a wedding gown reduc, where you can either sell your old wedding gown, bridesmaid dress, MOB dress, or flower girl dress, or score someone else’s at a fraction of the original price.

*Dresses by Annatarian

I thought I’d get a gander at the Spring 2010 wedding gowns here and there since I’m notorious at not remembering to ever post about that sort of thing. Perhaps it’s just that I need to get into the habit? I figure it should be easy to remember since looking at (and sometimes laughing at) wedding gowns is so much fun, even for those of already married. Am I right, ladies?

Anyway, the usual things dominate Carolina Herrera’s Spring 2010 gowns — all across the runway board, in fact. The Spring 2010 wedding dresses are overwhelmingly strapless, for one. Where there are straps, they tend toward the skinnier side of things. As does the bride the designers probably had in mind. But there are also some pretty neat details, like polka dots, vintage detailing, and boldly patterned fabrics. Overall, it’s a lot of fun, even if some of the gowns are a tad weird.

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The current world record holder for the longest wedding gown is held by a Romanian woman and has been since April 1, 2009. Yeah, April Fool’s Day. But it looks like there may be a new record now.

Zhao Peng of the eastern Jilin province of China had a custom gown made for his bride, Lin Rong, that will blow the Romanian record out of the water. The current record holder is a mere 1,579 meters or 5,180 feet. Lin Rong’s gown measures a whopping 2,162 meters or 7,083 feet.

Mr. Zhao enlisted family and friends, including his aunt who is a dressmaker, to help realize his dream. He said he did it because he didn’t want a ‘cliche wedding parade or banquet.’ No cliches here! At the wedding, the 200 guests took three hours to unroll the gown and pin 9,999 silk roses to it.

After the wedding, Zhao cut the gown down to 1,984.1022 meters to represent his bride’s date of birth, and sewed on 608 crystals, one for every day the couple dated.

Guinness has not yet ruled on the record-worthiness of the dress, but Zhao says he doesn’t really care how that turns out. The point was to make a romantic gesture. The bride is reported to have both laughed and cried, which sounds like a hit to me.

The groom’s mother, though, had a different take:

“It is a waste of money in my opinion,” she told Xinhua.

“Though I understand that he wants to show his love on the big day.”

First off, I’d like to apologize for the super-slow approval of comments over the past two days. NtB is off on a trek with little/no computer access…and I thought I was going to be able to check the laptop more than once a day for the past two days. Mr. Twistie and I were on a hellride to Los Angeles and back again, and I keep being pathetically optimistic that this will be the trip where we get to stretch our legs and check our emails just a bit more often.

I know, I know, silly me.

Still.

The reason for the trip was twofold. On the one hand, we were picking up an amazingly gorgeous new guitar for Mr. Twistie. It’s got a rich, full tone to it and looks superfantastic besides. It’s going to record brilliantly, and it definitely made me weak in the knees and feeling like I had a mouthful of rich chocolate mousse in my mouth when he played it. I get flavors from sound, sometimes. It’s a strange thing, but by and large I really enjoy it.

Anyway, reason number two for the trip was to visit the gentleman who was selling Mr. Twistie the guitar (He works in a music store, he’s not a luthier in his own right). Our friend Chris is one of the good guys. He’s smart, funny, talented, loyal, a good cook…he’s got a lot going for him. He’s also getting married in two months to a superfantastic lady.

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There are garters with flasks, garters with a sixpence built right in, and even garters that hold guns, but you, the bride, may not want any of those things. So how about a bridal garter that will let you hold whatever it is *you* want to keep on hand?

Pocket garters allow the bride to carry anything from the aforementioned sixpence (which should be in your shoe, no?) to a family keepsake like a deceased relative’s ring to an emergency breathmint or perhaps, for those with more *ahem* interesting lives, a cyanide capsule. To me, they look a little clunky and bulky, but as long as you’re not filling your pocket garter with lead pellets, you should be okay. They’re not meant to be displayed to all, except briefly should one choose to toss one’s garter, and then it will only be viewed in situ for a moment.

Do I love ‘em? Naw. But do I hate pocket garters for the bride? That’s also a no. I really can’t muster up much enthusiasm in either direction. What say you?

Garters, clockwise: Gunther Gifts (and elsewhere), Made By Lawrie, Agent Provocateur

First came the Katamari Damacy wedding cake, then came the complete
Katamari Damacy wedding. Aidra Frazier and Ernest Leitch were having trouble planning their dream wedding until one (or perhaps both) of them hit upon the idea of taking inspiration from the aforementioned video game. Their dream wedding came to life, complete with big headpieces, a Katamari cake, and even Katamari corsages for beloved relatives.

Of course a picture is worth a thousand descriptive words, so check out these brilliant photos taken by Idaho wedding photographer Kristin Shultz, who I would certainly want shooting my wedding if I was both in Idaho and getting married again.

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I hope that talented Jacksonville wedding photographer Corinna Hoffman doesn’t mind my sharing a couple of images with you from a wedding she shot recently. She’s one of my Facebook peeps, and I look forward to her posts, which usually contain a selection of her wedding photography. At the end of last month, Corinna posted photographs of a wedding that followed Lao traditions, and I was captivated by all the colors and the gorgeous fabrics. Have a look:

Just beautiful! And it inspired me to find out more about Lao wedding ceremonies. Traditionally, they are held sometime around 4 p.m. at the bride’s residence — the timing is key so the service of the evening meal follows the one-hour ceremony. The groom and his loved ones march to the wedding venue or park a bit away and march the rest of the way. It’s a joyful procession, with people banging drums, chanting, playing instruments, and cheering all the while.

When the party arrives, they are confronted by the bride’s relatives, who ask questions like “What is your name?” and “What did you bring with you?” The groom doesn’t do any of the answering, however. It’s the elderly relatives who wheel and deal, and it’s the groom’s job to hand over some money (it needn’t be much, apparently, and it is prepared by the groom’s family) to the bride’s family. If they accept it — and they usually do — the groom washes his feet and everyone enters the wedding venue.

Following that, the “soo kuan” starts. During this ceremony, in which the bride and groom sit alongside each other with their parents nearby, gifts are handed to the bride’s parents, the couple prays for their parents, white strings are tied to the couple’s wrist to unite them, and the master of ceremonies speaks about the meaning of marriage. Like I said, the whole thing lasts about an hour, after which the party (which may take place at the bride’s home or a function space) begins.