Oh, the bows and the sashes and all those little extras that can either make or break an otherwise perfectly good wedding dress! How I love to love them and love to hate them, all at the same time. Butt bows? flower barf and boob bows? Whatever this is supposed to be…

But how about something simple, like a scarf? Or a sash tied loosely around the neck? Brides in scarves! Brides in neck sashes! It’s not for everyone, but personally, I like it. Maybe I don’t love the execution in this one case, but I can picture a bride with a scarf in my head and she looks spectacular! What do you think? Could scarves and the like become an accepted accessory for brides if done right?

Image by photographers Bela Adler & Salvador Fresneda

1. Sometimes a bride-to-be will look at white wedding dresses until her eyes are threatening to go on strike without finding anything she loves because her complexion simply does not look right paired with white. And I mean *any* white. Her next stop could be the lonely corner rack with all the sad rum pink gowns and champagne castoffs, but why? There are plenty of gorgeous colored wedding dresses to choose from nowadays – and if none of them suit, there are always custom gowns.

2. Wearing a colored wedding dress can be a nod to your cultural heritage. Various shades of white may be the go to wedding gown colors in much of the Western World, but in other parts of the world, different hues are considered ‘right’ for wedding garments. For example, in China, India, and Vietnam, red is the traditional choice for brides. In the Klamath, Modoc, and Yurok tribes of Northern California, brides wore gowns woven in white, blue, yellow, and black. And once upon a time, black was the top choice for Scandinavian brides!

3. Those who don’t feel like spending big bucks on wedding garb can instead save big bucks by choosing a colored wedding dress. Gowns specifically created for weddings are priced at a premium, whereas frocks meant for parties and proms (or even everyday outfits for gown-lovers) frequently have price tags featuring numbers that won’t make your wallet cry. Worried that you won’t find a style you like because you love that traditional wedding gown look? There are plenty of colored gowns featuring the same silhouettes and styles as traditional wedding dresses.

4. While I don’t have any reason to wear a gown these days, maybe you do. I’m sure you’re thinking: Re-wearing a wedding dress sounds even sillier than re-wearing a bridesmaids’ dress. But why not? If you don’t have the same dress dying skills as the lovely Toni, you can up your chances of having the opportunity to wear your big day frock again if you choose a colored wedding dress over a white one. You can get even more mileage out of your colored wedding dress by choosing one that can be altered into a cocktail-length dress after you say your vows. Or starts as a cocktail length wedding dress!

5. Including colored wedding dresses in your list of possibilities widens your range of gown choices – particularly if you’re also open to a variety of silhouettes. Sure, you can find colored wedding dresses that are identical to white wedding dresses, but you also have your choice of elegant ballgowns and sleek, simple evening dresses. And the more choices you have, the more likely it is that you’re going to find a wedding gown that is close to or even exactly like the dress you’ve been picturing in your head.

Yes, this is a shameless Oscar Tie In article.

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford both won that coveted statuette… and then had their marriages end. They aren’t alone, either. The same can be said of: Sanrda Bullock, Liza Minelli, Halle Berry, and Faye Dunaway.

In fact, the Best Actress Oscar curse has been much discussed over the years, with observers noting that winners of that particular award are more likely to divorce within the next few years than any other Oscar winner. But now the rumor has been investigated and found to be true by Sue Moon and Tiziana Casciaro of the University of Toronto and Colleen Stuart of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for their paper The Oscar Curse: Status Dynamics and Gender Differences in Marital Survival.

Moon, Casciaro, and Stuart have found that Best Actress winners are about 1.68 times more likely to divorce than non-winners. Winning the Best Actor Oscar doesn’t seem to have a similar effect on men, incidentally.

So what does that mean for this year’s nominees? Well, the only one who is actually married (though Natalie Portman is engaged) would appear to be Nichole Kidman. If she wins, we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed for her and hubby Keith Urban.

I know, I know, there’s already been a Missy Messy edition of LOVE/HATE, and none too long ago, either. But I have a thing for messy wedding dresses – or what you might say are wedding dresses that aren’t perfectly polished. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I rather like torn hems and uneven bows and that sort of thing. Particularly when it’s surprising because every other element of the wedding and the bride’s wedding day look is just so.

This Kate Towers dress isn’t advertised as a wedding dress, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be one! Just for the record, I heart Kate Towers dresses, which are mainly ruffly and girly, but not in a prim and proper way. There’s definitely that homemade look about them – a really amazing professional homemade look that I certainly can’t replicate at home with my own sewing machine. Personally, I love this dress, which is made of soft gray hand-dyed raw silk chiffon. It’s romantic. But what do you think? Is it *too* raw for a wedding?

Not too long ago, the awesome Boston wedding photography firm KLC Photography sent me a selection of engagement photos taken in different locations around the city and MA – and I think they constitute a perfect illustration of the fact that there’s no one right or wrong way to do an engagement portrait session. Locations? Be as serious or as silly as you want to! Indoors or outdoors, your choice. Close ups… action shots… it’s all up to you and the photographer you’ve chosen to work with. (Hint: Share your ideas, but don’t be afraid to take your photog’s recommendations!)

Not everyone has engagement photos taken, of course. But if it’s something you’re planning on checking off your pre-wedding to-do list, have some fun with it like these couples did!

Here’s a future bride and groom at deCordova Sculpture Park, posing on some of the art. It would be tons of fun to run around 35 acres with a photographer. Maybe even a great way to relieve some wedding planning stress!

Here’s a couple kissing on the Charles River esplanade – this is my absolutely favorite of the bunch! I’m sure you and your sweetie could think of *plenty* of places to get your smooch on, no?

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I thought of this edition of LOVE/HATE after reading this post over at Encore Bride – she talks about and includes pictures of getting ready with her groom. Are those gasps, I’m hearing? I know some people will gasp at the notion of a bride and groom (or bride and bride or groom and groom) getting ready for the wedding in the same room. That means no big reveal of the wedding dress or whatever the marrying parties have chosen to wear and no sweet ‘first glimpse’ reaction shots at the beginning of the wedding ceremony. “It’s tradition!” some people will say. But come on… so many of today’s couple’s live together before getting hitched, or at least have intimate knowledge of one another. At this point, so much of tradition is just play acting.

The big reveal? Should be entirely optional. If a couple wants to keep what they’re wearing secret until the wedding ceremony and sleep apart and so on, fab. And if a couple wants to share a bed before the big day and dress in the same space, also fab. I LOVE the idea of a couple who’s comfortable with the idea sharing tie tying and dress zipping duties! Frankly, it sounds like a lot of fun, and maybe even less nerve-wracking than being in a room full of friends with a photographer, not knowing what your other half is up to. What do you think? Would you get dressed with your sweetie on your wedding day?

Image: Cholmondelly

via Mail Online
This is Helene Manca, now Mrs. Joe Glass. This is one of the nine wedding gowns she wore at her wedding and reception. That’s right, nine wedding gowns in one day.

In point of fact, this is the gown she wore for the ceremony. As the day wore on into the early hours of the next day, she changed her clothes for: her arrival at the reception, cocktail hour, banquet, the speeches, cutting the cake, the first dance, dancing, and the 2:00am disco. Each gown was worn anywhere from a measly thirty minutes to as long as two hours.

How did the lady wind up with so very many wedding gowns? Read on, my friends, read on.
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