Leave it to the Japanese to host the first ever wedding ceremony officiated by a robot. Specifically the I-Fairy, a 4-foot-tall mechanical individual whose day job is ushering museum visitors to and from exhibits. The bride in this most unusual wedding works for the company that produced the I-Fairy and wanted to use her nuptials as a forum in which to show people how our robotic overlords friends can slip seamlessly into our normal existence. “I always felt that robots would become more integrated into people’s everyday lives,” Satoko Inoue told reporters. “This cute robot is part of my company. I decided that I would love to have it at my ceremony.”

Sounds fine to me! But then you get comments like this:

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH In a few weeks the husband will laugh and the silly bride will say: but I thought the marriage was legal! This is the silliest thing that I’ve ever seen! No offence! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! At least divorce won’t be a headache! LOL!

The same commenter had plenty of other exclamation-mark filled wisdoms to share – and they weren’t alone in that – but all of the less-than-friendly feedback basically boiled down to the same thing: *This wedding doesn’t look like what I’ve been brought up to think a wedding ought to look like, so it sucks.* And to me, that says that people think that weddings are moving too far away from tradition (putting aside for the moment that so much of what we think of as traditional has only been traditional for 50 or 100 or so years).

The way this sentiment is conveyed is usually nasty, but perhaps they have a point? Is there some value in the traditional and the traditionalesque that just eludes me? I’m personally all for letting people get married in space, in the nude, hanging from hooks, or whatever else floats the bride’s boat. But then again, I’ve always maintained that a city hall wedding in jeans with no party leaves a couple just as married as a grand $100,000 affair, so in my mind, pretty much anything that falls somewhere in between and doesn’t break any laws is okay in my book.

I stumbled upon a neat little toy the other day in the form of Designer Apparel, a shopping search engine for designer (and better quality) clothes and accessories. They don’t actually sell anything – it’s basically just a way to browse for sweet stuff from shops like Bluefly and Bergdorf Goodman without having to go to each shop’s website. The price points are all over the map, though… as in, the search results might even include something I could currently afford!

Their newest little toy is a search that is designed with the mother-of-the-bride in mind. Shopping, when you’re the mother-of-the-bride is no picnic, so being able to see big bunches of mother of the bride dresses in one place is a boon to poor, overworked moms everywhere, as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps mom could treat herself to a fancy something or other from St. John. Or maybe something from Tadashi or J Kara, perhaps? The latter two are good choices for the MOB who’d rather not go into d-e-b-t.

Anyhool, when the nice people at Designer Apparel offered to help me do yet another giveaway, I said sure. For this latest contest, the prize is not a gift certificate but rather a pretty and feminine Nordstrom Bow Flap Silk Clutch. This luminous clutch could be a great gift for the mother-of-the-bride or a bridesmaid, and can be carried under the arm of by a delicate drop-in chain strap. It’s not the sort of bag you’d carry your life in, but it’s perfect for the kind of slim essentials you’d want to have with you when attending a wedding.

Win it!

Designer Apparel is offering Manolo for the Bride readers a chance to win a Nordstrom Bow Flap Silk Clutch. Love it! To enter, search Designer Apparel’s dress category in the “Sky’s The Limit” price range, and leave a comment on this post telling us which of the results you like best. Me? I am in lust with the Carolina Herrera floral jacquard ball gown, which is a mere $4,890. (And if that was the prize, I’d think long and hard about fixing the contest, so it’s a good thing it’s a clutch up for grabs instead).

For additional entries, do any of the following (and leave a comment for each):

1. As always, you can score one additional entry when you add Manolo for the Brides to your blogroll or let us know we’re already on your blogroll so we can link back to you

2. Score two additional entries when you sign up for the Designer Apparel My Sale newsletter

3. And you can pick up a whopping three additional entries when you tweet this giveaway or post about it on your own blog!

This giveaway will end at 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, June 13, and the winner – chosen via your friend and mine, the trusty random number generator – will be announced the next day. Good luck!

I’ve known plenty of guys for whom their wedding rings were the first piece of jewelry they ever really wore. For most, the option that appealed was the least ornamented one, i.e., the plain gold band or silver band or tungsten wedding band or stainless steel band. You get the picture. No diamonds. No engraving or fancy scrolling whatever. While there’s nothing wrong with that – I myself, wear a plain gold wedding ring these days – it can be a little meh. With that in mind, let me present to you a wedding ring you can play with.

Like, for example, the Gear Ring from Kinekt. Designed by Ben Hopson and Glen Liberman, it’s made of matte stainless steel, so hautement manly! And it features micro-precision gears that turn in unison when the outer rims are spun, so it gives the wearer something to do on buses and during boring phone calls and while trapped in waiting rooms. Of course, it could be just as fun on the right woman as women’s and men’s ring sizes aren’t like shoe sizes, meaning a 5 is a 5 and a 12 is a 12.

I love it. I wouldn’t wear it myself, but I love it. I don’t know what kind of care it would need to keep it turning smoothly for a lifetime, but I still love it. It’s different and maybe a good choice for the gearhead gal or guy who isn’t all that thrilled with the idea of something dripping with diamonds or polished to perfection. Maybe it would get a little grungy after a while, and that could be okay, too. What say you?

Today’s pretty little thing comes from Omnibus Driver, who pointed me toward oliviamoon. There, for a mere $15 each, brides can outfit their bridal bouquets and their bridesmaids’ bouquets with gorgeous itty-bitty monogrammed bouquet charms. Aren’t they sweet?

As I hinted at, bouquet charms aren’t just for the bride – sentimental bridesmaids love monogrammed bouquet charms because they’re not wondering whose bouquet is whose during the reception. And they do make a lovely keepsake that even people like me who think that quite a lot of keepsakes are more like throwthemoutassoonasyougethomesakes (imirite?!) will actually hold onto into the future.

And, hey, $15! All of oliviamoon’s bouquet charms have mirrored backs that make the final lipstick check a snap. Hint: They’re also good for checking for rogue arugula between the teeth at the reception. If, however, monograms aren’t your thing, there are also scads of people making memorial bouquet charms with photos that honor a deceased loved one – like those linked from JeanM – or more to the point, bouquet charms featuring any image you like, from pictures of your beloved as a child or a snap of Fluffy, who was sadly not invited to attend the wedding. There are even DIY bouquet charm kits that let you make your own using Scrabble tiles (which are included) and crafting glue!

When tattoo designer Joe Wittenberg decided to pop the question, a tattoo proposal must have seemed like a no-brainer. But unlike the last inked proposer featured here, he put the tattoo gun to his own skin after making a stencil (note that his proposal was spelled out on his leg as opposed to being written across his back).

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There’s nothing better on Mondays than to browse some sweet nuptial inspiration, especially when one is supposed to be working but is actually using that first hour of the day to unfurl one’s consciousness. What better time to gaze at something beautiful than when one is slowly sipping the morning coffee? Assuming, of course, that you’re reading this at work, in the morning! And why not? I feel like today is a great day to delight the eyeballs without a lot of distractions – so I put together an image-heavy, word-light post featuring beautiful images from chic rustic weddings that were anything but cornfed. Enjoy!

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It’s not often that I find a bridal reality show that I actually find fun and intriguing. Yesterday, though, I spent an afternoon watching Don’t Tell the Bride on BBCAmerica, and I’m pleased to say it was head and shoulders above most bridal infotainment on television.

So what’s the deal with this one? It’s pretty simple. A lovestruck – but broke – couple is chosen by the show. This couple is handed a cool 12,000 pounds to plan their wedding. The catch? They must live apart during the process and not speak to one another, and the groom does all the planning. He has four weeks to organize everything from the venue to the order of service to the wedding gown and accessories… everything for the wedding. He is allowed help from one friend, usually the Best Man, and he is allowed to add any funds to the budget that he can scrape up out of his own savings or donations from either family.
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