December, 2010 | Manolo for the Brides

Archive for December, 2010

LOVE/HATE: The ‘Sliced and Diced’ Edition

Friday, December 24th, 2010

Here we have yet another bridal model staring us down, daring us to say something… anything… about her choice of wedding day frock. This time, it’s Ian Stuart’s Harlequin, one of the gowns from his 2011 collection. According to Ian Stuart’s web site, this is a wedding dress for a “diva bride” and it features “imposing loops.” Imposing indeed! So imposing that I kind of hate it. Is anyone else imagining stuff getting in the loops as the bride walks along – particularly during the reception when who knows what will end up on the floor?

Posted in Brides, Designers, Dresses, Wedding Dresses | 4 Comments »

Brides and Bowling

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Weddings should be fun, and for a lot of brides and grooms, fun means play! There’s nothing wrong with planning a wedding that is grownup and elegant, and similarly, there’s nothing wrong with planning a wedding that’s full of crazy silly things for wedding guests to do. Like, for example, bowling. Yep, I said bowling. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if it’s yours, consider renting out a bowling alley for your wedding reception and switching out your bridal pumps for a pair of rented shoes.

(via)

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Posted in Brides, Grooms, Real Weddings, Unusual Weddings, Weddings | 2 Comments »

Inspiration: Chalkboards

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

Chalkboards are so cute and so easy to DIY that if you’re hard up for, say, table number ideas or a way to let your guests know the wedding is around back or a fun method of keeping people from swapping glasses, I’m going to suggest chalkboards. Or at least a spritz of chalkboard paint on whatever it is you fancy, from vintage frames to pint glasses to a plain old piece of wood glued to a stake. So here’s some fun chalkboard wedding inspiration to get your mind going!

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Posted in Decor, Receptions | 1 Comment »

Unfussy, Modern Wedding Cakes

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

You can’t deny that wedding cake tends to be a bit fussy, with lots and lots of detailing. Wedding cake isn’t just wedding cake anymore – it’s a centerpiece and it’s expected to be a wedding showstopper with as much personality as the bride’s gown. But what if you’re just not a fussy kind of chick and you’re part of a very unfussy couple? I recommend looking into more modern wedding cakes, a la these beauties from Sweet Sweets Cake Art.

Aren’t they just gorgeous? But you definitely can’t call them fussy or busy (even if they might stop the show, just for a moment). For a more thorough look at just how the wedding cake became what it is today, I recommend checking out Wedding Cakes and Cultural History by Simon R. Charsley. It’s a bit of an academic read, but so deliciously thorough.

Posted in Cakes | 2 Comments »

Cool Spools: Two Reception Table DIYs

Monday, December 20th, 2010

For the bride who sews, here are two reception table DIYs that use cute vintage thread spools to give table numbers and place cards a little more ooph. The first comes from Lauren of Lauren Elise Crafted, who loves all things handmade and vintage.

Putting together a thread spool table number like this one involve a wee bit of hand embroidery, a little sewing, and cutting some cork, but that’s about as difficult as it gets.

The second DIY reception project comes from Tracey of French Larkspur and can be found here. The hardest part of creating thread spool place cards is stamping all those letters of all those names, one by one by one. So not really difficult, but a bit tedious.

The results are quite pretty in both cases, and perfect for a garden wedding or a sewing and crafting themed wedding.

Posted in DIY, Guests, Receptions | 3 Comments »

Designed for Kate… What Does it Say for You?

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

(Vera Wang)
WWD ran an article this week in which they asked a wide variety of designers to sketch their dream wedding dress for Kate Middleton to wear when she marries Prince William in the spring. Twenty-nine designers leapt into the fray. They ranged from international superstars like Christian Lacoix to budget mavens like J. Crew to half the team that created William’s mother’s famous wedding gown, Elizabeth Emmanuel.

Of course Miss Middleton won’t actually be wearing any of these designs. Her choice of designer has not yet been made public, but dollars to donuts she will be patriotic and choose a British designer… one who hasn’t already made the design public.

But Twistie, you cry, what does all of this have to do with me, a simple commoner not marrying into royalty and without the budget to blow on Missoni originals?

Read on, my dears, read on.
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Posted in Celebrity Weddings, Designers, Dresses, Wedding Dresses | 2 Comments »

LOVE/HATE: The ‘Missy Messy’ Edition

Friday, December 17th, 2010

Here we have a gold taffeta wedding dress from Mooshki, and I have to say that I rather like it. But I have always been a fan of pick-ups and gathers and that sort of thing on a big poufy skirt, so (the decolletage aside) this is right up my ally. I understand that it’s not everyone’s forte, however. In fact, as I was poking around in the world of wedding blogs just the other day, I stumbled upon so many brides-to-be professing to hate hate hate all the pick-ups and gathers all over wedding dresses these days.

So today’s LOVE/HATE isn’t so much about this wedding dress, but about the aforementioned excess of pick-ups and gathers in today’s bridal fashions. There’s only so much you can do with a pick-up, which is I think why we’re starting to see things like this and this, where one looks like a cake that’s spilled over its pan and the other is just indescribable.

Seriously – what is going on in that dress on the left?

Me first, me first. As much as I love pick-ups and gathers on wedding dresses, I hate the fact that designers are continually searching for new and innovative places to put them. A little pouf? Even a lot of pouf? Fantastic. But maybe it’s time to start thinking about taking it down a notch. Right? Right?

Posted in Dresses, Wedding Dresses | 10 Comments »

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