So before I tell you what I think of this week’s LOVE/HATE, I have a confession to make. I must confess that I’ve never been a huge fan of sweetheart tables at wedding receptions. Especially when they’re raised on a platform, surrounded by an archway of balloons or flowers, or flocked by absolutely huge wicker chairs that are not in keeping with the rest of the reception decor. I would never in a million years suggest that a bride and groom who wanted to sit apart not do it, but I think that sweetheart tables are a little silly. You don’t need a sweetheart table, however, to set the bride and groom apart.

Hmmmm… I’m torn. On one hand, these signs from The Back Porche Shoppe are cute. I like the distressed look, good for a rustic-y country wedding. And even though everyone at that wedding presumably can pick the bride and groom out of the crowd, it’s nice to set the happy couple’s chairs apart from those of the hoi polloi. On the other hand, just what does one *do* with a bride sign and a groom sign months or years after the wedding? Much more useful, I should think, would be Mr. and Mrs. signs (also sold by The Back Porch Shoppe), which could hang in one’s living room before hanging in one’s foyer before hanging over one’s workbench in the garage before being put on a table at a yard sale without selling before eventually being tossed out with the trash or given away on Freecycle.

What say you?

After a lengthy debate, the New York State Senate voted 38-24 against a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. The Marriage Equality Act was finally brought to the floor for an up or down vote today after overcoming legislative roadblocks from opponents. During the emotional debate, one of the bill’s sponsors, State Senator Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan, who is gay, said, “This legislation would merely provide me and tens of thousands of other New Yorkers with equal rights in New York State. It would make me equal in every way to everyone else in this chamber.”

My mom is a New Yorker and she’s been waiting for a really long time to marry her partner, so this just really really really gets my goat.

The eco-friendly wedding dresses of yesteryear were naught more than organic hemp silk sacks, sometimes embellished with a sash of peace silk colored with vegetable dyes. Or at least that’s the way they looked to me, since the companies and designers producing them seldom did much in the way of fitting them to the bridal models they used. Oh, how times have changed.

Check out the Natural Bridal Collection by Morgan Boszilkov on her web site and in her her Etsy store. I know that tight-fitting mini wedding dresses aren’t everyone’s thing — and Lord knows I wouldn’t wear one — but I’m rather fond of Boszilkov’s hemp silk Pixie dress.

All of Boszilkov’s wedding dresses and bridal accessories are handcrafted using luxurious and sustainable fabrics, and 5% of all her profits support environmental charities. I particularly like that some of her wedding dresses are convertible in the sense that the lower part of the skirts are detachable. It’s a great option for the bride who wants a separate reception dress but can’t really afford it, and makes it more likely that she’ll wear her wedding dress again in the future.

I appreciate versatility. I really do. I like when the brains behind wedding dress collections give us both short sleeves and long, body-hugging silhouettes and big poufy gowns, and hemlines that are all over the map. But really, what is up with the wedding fashion house Justin Alexander? How can the same name that gave us this…

…also give us what looks to be a white cocktail mini-dress with chicken feathers randomly glued on?

Did they steal the design from the Ice Capades, or what?

(But seriously, don’t let that horrorshow above stop you from checking out PURE by Justin Alexander. It combines beautiful organic silk and cotton fabrics with natural embellishments like freshwater pearls and wood beads to create a line of eco-friendly — and 99% biodegradable, huh — wedding dresses that are just divine, especially for the destination bride. Note: Neither of the above wedding dresses are from the PURE collection.)