Who isn’t selling wedding dresses these days? That’s what I want to know. Because apparently Costco, makers of fine coffins, Kirkland Signature Vodka, and massage oil by the gallon, has teamed up with bridal designer Kirstie Kelly to sell six exclusive wedding dresses.

The small line ranges from $700 to $1,400, which isn’t particularly expensive for a wedding dress, but not particularly cheap, either.

My hope? That the Kirstie Kelly wedding dresses for Costo come in huge boxes of eight. You know, for the under-represented polygamist and Liz Taylor impersonator demographics.

Hey ho, everyone!

It’s time once again to play Twistie’s Sunday Caption Madness. You all remember vaguely how this works. I post a picture that’s dreaming the night away of having a good caption. You provide your best ideas for said captions via the comment function. Next week I declare a winner and everyone does a merry virtual dance in honor of said winner.

This week’s image comes to you from the depths of my nightmares, and it looks a little like this:

Ready… set… snark!

What it is: A wedding invitation designed by Nuage Mulberry Digital Art, known for its unique custom handmade wedding invitations that are more affordable than most. What it looks like, to me anyway: Skin, stretched and dried. Not that there’s anything wrong with that if it’s a look you love! I’m just not loving it. To be fair, I do love just about everything else that comes out of Nuage Mulberry Digital Art. Just not this particular invite.

It’s pretty obvious where my opinion falls on the spectrum. What do you think? Am I judging this one wedding invitation too harshly? Am I missing the point? Or is there something of the amateur anthropodermic bibliopegy about this one?

If you’ll be serving bread with your wedding reception meal anyway – or if, better still, you and your beloved are artisan bakers – consider replacing traditional place cards with place carbs. Okay, so it was a terrible pun, but it’s still a terrific idea. Sized correctly, little loaves as place cards are DIYable and an adorable addition to your reception tables!

Image: Once Wed

In light of the continuing cold weather and the hugeslightly smaller drifts of ice and snow that are still packed in everywhere in my neighborhood, I wanted to share this photo from a 2009 winter wedding in Philadelphia. The bride and groom, Stephanie Sudzina and Anthony Campanale, woke up to a wedding day blizzard, but they didn’t let that stop them from saying their vows.

What could be worse, I wonder, than finding out that your nuptials will probably be snowed in? For this couple, it turns out, a lot of things! From a New York Daily News article written by Ronnie Polaneczky:

“We got desperate calls from a number of our vendors, asking if we were still going forward with the wedding,” says Stephanie, 35, a conference planner who grew up in Royersford. “We said, ‘Yes! Yes! People have come from all over the world for us!’”

“He told me, ‘I am going to marry you at 1 p.m. today,’” recalls Stephanie. “He said, ‘Even if there’s no one there but us. I can’t wait to see you walk down the aisle. That’s what this is all about. We’re getting married.’”

Isn’t that just fantastic? And that’s just what happened – thanks in part to the kindness of Ritz-Carlton concierge James Portner and other Ritz-Carlton staffers who went above and beyond the call of duty to put their wedding back together.

Now, granted, in the event that your wedding gets snowed in or rained out or a rock slide demolishes your reception venue and half your wedding vendors come down with food poisoning, it’s unlikely that you’re going to have the lovely people at the Ritz-Carlton at your disposal.

But no matter what unexpected tragedy befalls your wedding, there will almost always be some way to make things right. No canceling the wedding. No sending everyone home. You may not end up with exactly the wedding you were picturing in your head, but you’ll have one hell of a memory to compensate!

A lot of brides-to-be – and probably some grooms-to-be, too – get overwhelmed by wedding planning stress because they can’t stop thinking about all the ‘what ifs’. I’m guessing Stephanie Sudzina and Anthony Campanale were not that kind of bride and groom. My take is this: In the end, the more unpredictable ‘what ifs’ are going to happen no matter what you do, so quit your worrying.

If you’re currently planning a wedding, what is the ‘what if’ that scares you the most? And if you’re already married, did any of your ‘what ifs’ actually come to pass?

According to my sources, we’ll be seeing a lot more birds in weddings this year and in the following year, and I’m not talking about wedding dove releases. Which can be bad news, actually, so I’m happy to say that this trend is purely representational. Birds will be appearing on the wedding invitations you receive and the wedding cake you subsequently eat. And for brides- and grooms-to-be, your choices when it comes to all things nuptial will include a lot more aviarian options. Here are a few examples to get you thinking!

You could let everyone know that you’ll be love birds forever with the sweetly-named lovebird ring pillow – which is part of a larger collection if you’re a bride who adores birds.

From Red Light Studio, you can choose from a range of prefab or custom birdy wedding cake toppers. From the description: Unlike ceramic, or even polymer clay, these toppers are SUPER lightweight. They have a styrofoam inner core, ensuring that each topper is light enough for any cake.

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