Archive for August, 2013

A Prom Dress is not a Bridesmaid Dress

Thursday, August 29th, 2013
Not A Bridesmaid Dress

Not A Bridesmaid’s Dress

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to explain this to young women who’ve been eager to buy bridesmaid dresses from the evening rack, that bridesmaid dresses are not prom dresses. It should be simple but it’s not. Look at the dresses at a site like DressFirst, and compare the two categories, and you’ll see what I mean right away.

Bridesmaid dresses are designed to make the bride the star of the show, which is completely understandable, since the bride IS the star of the show. Thus, so many bridesmaid’s dresses are unflattering, either in color or cut, or both, because the attendants cannot, under any circumstances, be allowed to show up the bride. This is not to say that the bridesmaids need to look dumpy, glum, and colorless, just that they can’t be looking overly radiant. Radiant is reserved fro the bride alone.

Prom dresses and homecoming dresses ARE designed to make the wearer the star of the show. That’s why there’s all of those sequins, and why they are cut the way they are. The best ones are designed to showcase the wearer, as if she were trophy.

So there you go, there is a reason why so many bridesmaid’s dresses are unflattering, and why so many prom dresses are not.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Closed

The Tiara

Tuesday, August 20th, 2013

Not surprisingly, people have strong opinions about anything having to do with marriages and wedding ceremonies, and one area of perpetual conflict is over what the bride should wear on her head. One school of thought, call them retrograde traditionalists, argues for the full veiling. A second, modernists and minimalists, say the bride should wear nothing but her carefully coiffed hair. A third, from the princess-for-a-day camp, advocate for diamond tiaras.

Me? Depending on the mood, I can see merits of all of three, although lately I’ve been feeling partial to the tiara, although just not the full-on, Homecoming-Queen tiara, proudly rising ten inches from the top of Mary Sue Gentry’s bouffant, but rather a more modest affair, understated and elegant, that accentuates rather than dominates the brides beauty.

Of course, you know me, I’m not willing to spend a lot of money, defined as much more than $100, on something that will likely be worn just once. (The exception to this rule being, of course, the wedding dress itself. In that case, the sky’s the limit.)

For my tiara of choice, I’m thinking about something more like this:

Alan Hannah Swirl and Crystal Tiara

The Alan Hannah Devoted Statement Pearl and Crystal Swirl Tiara, which is dramatic enough to be noticed, but not so dramatic that you feel you should be standing on a stage holding a bouquet of roses and waving to the judges. (Image via Jon Richard)

Obviously, at under $200 this piece is not made of diamonds and south sea pearls, but crystals and fresh-water pearls, which will be fine, since most of the guests at the wedding won’t be close enough to notice the difference, and since your last name isn’t Rockefeller, most of the guests won’t expect it to be “real” anyway.

Posted in Accessories, Jewelry | Comments Closed

Bridesmaiding on a Budget

Monday, August 19th, 2013

Unless you’re prepared to sacrifice many of the traditions that make American weddings so unique, keeping wedding costs at a reasonable level is hard work. Most of the stuff you find out there is either of poor quality, or poor style.

Take, for example, the bridesmaid dress. It’s an item of clothing that may, depending on the desires of the bride, may be made of an unusual color, or unflattering cut, and may most likely never be worn again. And yet, it can be a very costly thing, costing hundreds, or sometimes even thousands of dollars.

That’s why I’m always on the lookout for places that sell decent-looking bridesmaids’ dresses at decent prices. And why I usually recommend to brides that they at least consider allowing their attendants to have dresses that can be worn again, in other social contexts.

A >strapless chiffon dress with a beaded, sequin belt like this one (selling for around $100) is neither too expensive, nor too outré to be worn again.

Long, Strapless Chiffon Dress

A shorter dress, knee-length with a full skirt would be even more versatile…

Polka Dots

The average bridesmaid would be very happy to have a dress like this hanging in her closet after the wedding was done.(Both dresses above are from Jessica’s Fashion.)

So, the secret to saving money (and bridesmaids’ feelings) to spend the time searching for the right dress at the right price, and to be flexible in what you’re willing to allow your bridesmaids to wear.

Posted in Bridesmaids | Comments Closed

The Hen Party

Sunday, August 18th, 2013

The Hen Party

My American readers are likely not familiar with the English term “hen party”, which is what Americans sort of refer to as a bachelorette party. I say “sort of” because the English hen party has largely jumped the barriers of propriety and taken pre-wedding festivities to places that the tamer American bachelorette party would never go, with some hilarious and disturbing results.

The average American bachelorette party is (despite what you may have seen in the movie Bridesmaids a fairly tame combination of cupcakes, weak booze, and endless chatter, with maybe, possibly, sometimes if you’re daring, a Fabio-esque male stripper tossed in. By comparison, the English >hen party starts with costumes (see the photo above), from fairies, to devils, to escaped prisoners, to chickens (see above), with the bride-to-be getting the best costume, and a beauty-queen style sash of identification. Then, add in booze and lots of it, some goofy, ice-breaking party games, and when everyone is having fun, take the whole show on the road, head out to the nearest pub to initiate the pub-crawl portion of the festivities.

The hen party is much more rambunctious and boozy than the bachelorette party, and as a consequence is much more likely to end in tears and vomit than the average bachelorette party. It’s also much more likely to end in hilarity and good fun, too. So, next time some one mentions a hen party, think costumes and liquor, not cupcakes and squeals of fake delight.

Posted in Bachelorette Parties | Comments Closed

The Silent Disco Wedding

Friday, August 16th, 2013

So you’re planning your summer wedding and you are thinking of something different to entertain your wide range of guests for the evening. How are you going to ensure that the kids are enjoying it as much as the rest of the family? Well step forward silent discos which are the latest craze hitting weddings across the world. Silent discos have been popular at festivals for a number of years now but as people are returning from their weekend away they are looking to include those fun times into their weddings.Wedding Headphones

There are a couple of different reasons that you may want to hold a silent disco at your wedding with the most popular being to get around any noise restrictions a lot of venues have. The last thing wedding venues want to do is annoy the neighbours by having music blaring out into the small hours every weekend. Well in steps Silent Disco Direct to ensure that when the music cut off comes into play the music cuts to headphones, this means that each guest gets a pair of wireless headphones and can continue to enjoy the DJ.

The second biggest draw for have a silent disco hire is that you can run different music styles on different channels. This means that you could have some old Mo-town running on one channel, the latest chart music on another and some R’n’B hits running on the third. Each headset then having the ability to rotate through the different channels so every guest can pick exactly what they are interested in. Everyone is happy!

So if you think this is something that you could be interested in then get in touch with your local silent disco hire company and organise a wedding that will have people talking about it for months!

Posted in Music | Comments Closed