Wearing one wedding dress? How passé! I kid, I kid… most brides I know have worn a single wedding dress, bustled as necessary, perhaps removing a bolero between the ceremony and reception. My dress was the only garb I wore on my wedding day – at least until I changed into a t-shirt and jeans after everyone had gone home.

But I do know there’s a lust for variety and showpieces among some brides, hence the very minor “trend” of buying and then wearing two wedding dresses. (Not at the same time, of course, though that could be interesting!) There are also wedding dresses with detachable trains, though I haven’t seen many lately. And according to some sources, this year and next year, more and more brides will be wearing convertible wedding dresses. Convertible wedding dresses like these from Martina Liana:

From pretty bridal gown to party dress...

The folds hide the attachments!

So, what do you think? Are convertible wedding dresses going to catch on in a big way, this year and next, or is this yet another outlier bridal style being touted as the next huge thing?

I’m inclined to say LOVE – sometimes only for the concept, not the execution – because dancing one’s bridal butt off in a full skirt isn’t all that easy, especially for the uncoordinated. HOWEVER, as much as I do love the idea, I simply cannot get behind the convertible wedding dress that turns not into a kicky party frock, but rather into disco shorts…

Words fail me...

An oh so familiar backdrop

Oh, sure, I know the wedding at home isn’t for everyone. And I’m not even talking about backyard weddings, but rather weddings that take place inside. Your house. Or maybe your parents’ house if you’re still living in a triple-decker in a town where parking is all but impossible. Why have your wedding at home? Here are seven reasons that might just push you over the edge if you’re considering having your wedding at home:

1. A small wedding that takes place right in the place where you live can be easy to plan and execute – if you have the space, that is. One thing to consider is that you may need to rent amenities – seating, linens, etc. – if you even suspect you won’t have enough to go around.

2. Getting married at home can save you a lot of money. First, there’s the fact that venue rental tends to eat up a ton of the standard wedding budget. And second, getting married at home often means a less complicated spread of refreshments, perhaps even provided by loved ones instead of a professional caterer.

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Is everyone in this photo on the guest list?

So, unexpected wedding guests. Word on the street is that there are more of them than people thing. And I’m not talking about professional wedding crashers who are just looking for a good time. I mean friends and relatives who RSVP’ed no but decided to come anyway, invitees who never bothered to send back the stamped reply postcard, and wedding guests who arrived at the reception with one, two, or more people in tow. As far as I know, there was no one at our wedding who wasn’t supposed to be there, but since ours was a backyard family affair, I didn’t pay all that much attention once the day got rolling.

If unexpected wedding guests are more common than I assumed, are people taking them into consideration when giving wedding vendors those precious final headcounts? Is it better to pay for a few more chairs, entrees, and slices of wedding cake than to have one to few of any of these things? It’s a question I have trouble wrapping my brain around because I’d never in a million years attend a wedding to which I had not RSVPed or switch my entree choice at the last moment or *gasp* bring a few cronies with me to the reception so everyone could get boozed up on the cheap. But I know not everyone is as polite as I am, hence the poll. I want to know how you’re handling the possibility of unexpected wedding guests and, I suppose, whether you’re anticipating any!

Image: djprybyl

The bride and groom leaving for...?

Delayed honeymoons are making the news these days, with people speaking out both in favor of and against them. I’m glad to see I’m riding the wave of what is apparently a trend, since four years after my own wedding we have yet to take a honeymoon (and no, family members, getting married in Florida does not make the wedding our de facto honeymoon). I feel like the queen of delayed honeymoons! Because if I delay it any longer, any honeymoon momentum we still have is going to fizzle out.

What is a delayed honeymoon? Just what it sounds like: the bride and groom (insert b/b or g/g as necessary) make their way to the exit of the reception venue, say their goodbyes, climb in to their wedding limo, and head… home? It’s more common than you may think! Plenty of couples are now going without a post-nuptial vacay for financial reasons. The destination wedding crowd often combine the ‘moon with the matrimony. And some folks are now advocating for NOT leaving for the honeymoon directly after the wedding rings are slipped on for practical reasons more than anything else.

The Pros of Delaying the Honeymoon:

• How about a chance to breathe? You’ve planned a wedding, executed a wedding, and now your next step immediately after is hopping in the car or on a jet plane? Slow down there! Why not go home, unwrap those wedding gifts, cash the checks, etc., and get your life in order before setting off?
• A delayed honeymoon can be a better, more glamorous honeymoon. Post-wedding trips may not be all they can be because couples who’ve just dropped a load of dough on a wedding may not have much to spend. When waiting means saving up, the world is your honeymoon oyster.
• When you a delay a honeymoon, you have a chance to come down off that wedding high that was at once glorious and hideously stressful. I’m not saying your wedding day isn’t beautiful, but my guess is that parts of it were anxiety-inducing, as well. A week or more of relaxation – or at least of basic everyday living – can do wonders for a person’s state of mind.

The Cons of Delaying the Honeymoon:

• Immediately after the wedding, brides and grooms tend to be in the half-lidded romance zone, and there’s something glorious about jetting off to an exotic location when there are still stars in your eyes. Going away immediately keeps things romantic that much longer.
• It’s easier to lobby for honeymoon discounts when you’re actually a very recent newlywed, and you still have that just-married look about you. Would my haggard working mama self be convincing as a starry-eyed bride? I think not.
• You may end up like me, with no honeymoon and little chance of ever taking one. After first, the assumption was we’d wait a year to go on our delayed honeymoon. My guess? Four years later, we’re no closer to honeymoon, and I’d feel pretty weird calling any trip The Beard and I took by that name.

What do you think about delayed honeymoons – are you in the pro camp or the con camp? If it wasn’t an absolute necessary would you (or did you) consider waiting to take the ‘moon?

Image: Lindsay Tan

Remember that video game wedding invitation from a while back? I’m reasonably sure that it was the first real interactive wedding invitation I’d seen – but once a good idea starts making the rounds, it’s bound to be replicated. And in bigger, badder ways, too. A quick minute brainstorming, and I’m imagining a Choose Your Own Adventure wedding invitation (which I would SO do) or maybe a scavenger hunt wedding invitation for those who had the time and the inclination. But you know what tops pretty much every interactive wedding invitation I could think up?

This one. It’s a freakin’ papercraft record player, for goodness’ sake! I’m less impressed that it kind of plays an original song written by the couple – Karen Sandler and Mike Tarantino – who sent it out than I am that you can even make a record player out of paper. That someone even conceived of this idea in the first place, and then someone – that would be designer Kelli Anderson who talks more about the whole project on her website – took that idea and rolled with it. Seriously. A papercraft record player interactive wedding invitation. Seriously… Doesn’t that just beat all?

This was the scene on a July morning in 1981 when a starry-eyed Anglophile teenager in Santa Rosa, California set her alarm for a painfully wee hour, didn’t get coffee lest grinding the beans wake her parents, tiptoed down the stairs, and turned on the television as quietly as possible so as not to wake her brother sleeping in the next room to watch the event of a lifetime: an actual British Royal Wedding of the Heir Apparent to the throne.

I didn’t watch with my analytic glasses on then. To me it was a fairy tale pageant. I was impressed with Lady Diana’s refusal to vow to obey. It was a truly gutsy move at the time. But mostly I wanted to see the dress, the flowers, the pomp and the circumstance of a royal wedding. Pretty carriages interested me more than any potential political cues I might glean about what sort of monarch Prince Charles might one day be.

Nearly thirty years later, I set my DVR the night before to record the wedding of that couple’s oldest son to another popular commoner. I got up hours after the excitement started and sat down with a steaming cup of coffee and a hearty breakfast before starting the recording. I wasn’t worried about waking Mr. Twistie since he needed to get up to go to work in a matter of minutes, anyway. I’m older, wiser, have access to better tech, and have lost a few of the stars in my eyes, though I’m still a romantic at heart.

So what did I see? What did I think of it? Read on, my friends, and see.
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