Manolo for the Brides

I love that inspiration can come from anywhere, anything, or anyone. Just yesterday, The Beard and I were at one of our local beaches, swimming, soaking up the sun, and looking for beach glass. Amid the sea junk, The Beard found a mussel shell that was a vivid blue outside and a beautiful silver on the inside. After inspecting it for a bit, he said — and I was so damn proud at that moment — “Wouldn’t these make great wedding colors?”

To The Beard I say, “Here you are, my dear.”

Moving clockwise-ish from the top left, there is a Nicole Miller stretch taffeta dress, the Amaya pump from LAUREN by Ralph Lauren, a blue chalcedony sterling silver ring from Overstock.com, an invitation from Leigh’s Wishing Well, a JS Boutique cutaway shoulder gown, a hydrangea centerpiece, a deep blue aisle runner, and a hydrangea bouquet.

A lovely combo, yes?

For Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens, it was love at first sight. And that love? Well, let’s just say it was way too potent to keep to themselves. Sprinkle is an internationally known multi-media artist, a former porn star, a Ph.D. sexologist, and “a pivotal player in the 80’s ’sex positive feminist movement,”’ whatever that means. Stephens is a professor as well as a “an inter-media artist who works in sculpture, video installation, photography, web based media, performance art and home renovation.”

Together, they are two artsy people who have unsurprisingly turned their desire to tie the knot into an nuptial art project spanning years. Love Art Lab — achtung: sound — is where the pair documents the weddings they’ve had since 2005 and presumably where they’ll document the weddings they will have in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Each year’s wedding is based on one of the seven chakras…the latest one was green.

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I have it on good authority that the hot colors being adopted left and right by those planning weddings for later in the year are yellow and gunmetal gray. Gunmetal? Bring it on, especially in the dresses! Yellow in the frockular area? Um…I can’t say I’m a fan. A brief looksie reveals gowns that are playful to the point of being juvenile. Add to that the fact that yellow was associated at some point in history, according to Snopes, with lying, unfaithfulness, and oath breaking.

And lets not forget this little rhyme: “Married in yellow, ashamed of your fellow.” Now that’s how you condemn a color, folks, at least as far as bridalwear is concerned.

But all is not lost, for there are a thousand and one ways you can incorporate the happiest of all colors into your wedding palette. Flowers are an obvious choice, seeing as how Mother Nature saw fit to create oh so many lovely yellow blooms. A yellow cake…it’s a thought. How about some yellow stationery, done four different ways?

This lovely set from Crane’s includes invitation cards, inner and outer envelopes, reception cards, and response cards, and weighs in at $456.00 for just the invites.

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I’m not feeling very wordy today, so get ready for a post full of surprisingly colorful pictures of wedding dresses. Threadhead Creations is another one of those eco-conscious clothing makers I’ve discussed in the past, but its custom gowns surpass anything I’ve seen before.

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Over at Manolo for the Home, I talk about how overwhelmingly blue the furniture and design world has been as of late. Seriously — looking at Bluefly, I’d say that a good 85% of the blue dresses could easily be integrated into the photo shoots in my stack of more recent home decor rags. Now I’m a blue fanatic. In fact, I’m kind of surprised my wedding colors were brown and gold rather than blue and silver. Life’s funny like that, I guess.

Aren’t these blue dresses beautiful? Wouldn’t they look lovely on a gaggle of giggly bridesmaids?

Usually I’d take dresses like these and match them with something like a cake or flowers or place settings, but I’m in a weird mood. As it turns out, you can match your bridesmaids to your port-o-johns if you’re so inclined.

Just…wow…

There’s a rather hypnotic tool over at brides.com to help you determine your wedding/reception color palatte. It’s called the Color Studio. You click your mouse on the color wheel, it spins around, and then spits out a fairly random combination of colors for your consideration.

I don’t know about you guys, but an easily amused person like me could play with this for hours.

Oh, and my favorite combination I landed on was Magenta, Purple, and Orange. Mmmm, tasty colors, but not for the faint of heart. Don’t worry, though, if your taste runs subtler than mine. You could also (and I did once) land on Silver, Blush, and Pearl.

Another table? I know it hasn’t been that long since I wrote about Social Courture’s put-it-together yourself all-inclusive tables, but Carolyne Roehm’s tables rely less on tea lights and her retail store carries real silver and silver plate, unique dinnerware, and pretty glassware. While no one but the very well off will buy them to grace tables at a reception site, I could see purchasing part or all of this set for an in-home wedding and then treasuring the pieces for years thereafter.

The cake was created by fabulous New York cake designer Sylvia Weinstock, who has apparently been called the da Vinci of cakes. By whom, I don’t know, but there ya go. Roehm asked Weinstock to reinterpret her wonderful green eyelet wrapping paper–and it better be wonderful, considering it costs $18 for three sheets.

And for something a little different, if you want an invitation to what Cocktails by Jenn (a pre-mixed drink gift set company) is calling the ultimate bachelorette party, go here and enter for a chance to win a most-expenses paid weekend excursion to Las Vegas. The trip includes round-trip airfare, deluxe hotel accommodations for two nights, a catered private party, spa services, VIP nights on the town and one-of-a-kind gift bags. Sounds good to me–good luck!