I’m totally in love with this year’s Reem Acra bridal collection, which includes this absolutely gorgeous strapless satin full-skirted gown with embroidered bow detailing on a multi seamed bodice. While some of the gowns contain slightly risqué elements – can you say plunging neckline? – they are, for the most part, extremely tasteful and highly detailed without resorting to tackiness.

The model, however, I could do without. She looks as if she just got off of a month-long bridal magazine binge and is about to announce to her bridal party that anyone who can’t follow her directions will be shot on sight.

Manolo says, the Manolo he must recommend to the super fantastic potential brides this beautiful t-strap shoe from the Vera Wang. It is now on the sale, almost 50% off of the regular price!

P.S. If you are not the bride, but like this shoe, it is also available in the light brown color.

Being that I like to believe that we are becoming a more thrifty and ecologically minded people, I also like to believe that the large number of used and new wedding gowns for consignment are the result of generous souls rather than divorced or cold footed ones.

Craiglist, EBAY, Freecycle, and other sites of that ilk have become a goldmine for enterprising and frugal brides, young and old alike, to find everything from shoes to dresses to favors to funny shirts for the bridesmaids. And I applaud that.

The thing that sticks out in my mind, however, is the rather large numbers of wedding dresses being sold by owners who say the dress has never been worn. The typical reason involves the blushing future bride finding a dress she liked better. While a few of the dresses in question leave no question as to why she would want to change her dress selection, such as this one, which from the back looks like an overdecorated meringue tart:

Most of them look rather stunning, like this Casablanca Bridal number:

I just don’t understand it!

After seeing Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons inkjet-printed silk gown with giant velvet bow and cake-shaped headpiece modeled by Katie Holmes in W Magazine, I am almost glad to see that Holmes and her shortstack beau have decided to postpone their nuptuals in favor of creating mini scientologists.

Manolo says, here you see the Rene Zellweger in the beautiful-if-perhaps- inappropriate- for-the-beach-wedding Carolina Herrera wedding gown with her new husband the Kenny Chesney.

The Manolo he is hoping that the hunky country doofus husband, he wore to the ceremony something the little more formal than the untucked white shirt and the grey pants.

Still, the Manolo he could not be happier for the loopy Rene Zellweger and her ersatz cowboy with the hat too big for his head. And, likewise he can only approve of the intimate, romantic nature of the ceremony and the way the Rene she managed to keep the loathesome papparazzi at the great distance.

May they long be happy.

Manolo says, there is the picture from Reem Acra bridal show in the New York on the day before yesterday.

Here’s an article about Monique Lhuillier one of my favorite bridal designers.

Monique Lhuillier has quickly gone from bridal designer to red carpet sensation.

That jade goddess gown on Diane Lane at the Golden Globes? It was hers. Britney Spears’ strapless, princess mermaid wedding dress? Another Lhuillier frock.

You can’t quite call her an overnight success, though. The petite Lhuillier, who was raised in the Philippines, has been interested in fashion as long as any 33-year-old could be. She knew in high school that she wanted to pursue a fashion career, so when it came time for college, Los Angeles’ Institute of Design and Merchandise was an easy choice. Her studies focused on bridal and eveningwear.

Lhuillier says she loves the intimacy of working with young women who are excited, nervous and in love all at once. “With bridal, I feel a huge responsibility for my customers. I really feel like when the whole event is done they’re my friends. We bond that much. It’s beyond the dress; I’m responsible for making their dreams come true.”

In 1996, she made a sample collection of eight gowns and brought them to a trade show. She picked up five stores right away. Six months later, and with another trade show under her belt, Lhuillier began to build up a following. She added evening wear in 2000 and opened her own store.

Here are three of my favorite Monique Lhuillier gowns. Note closely the way shoe uses lace.

Lhuillier brings a concern for sumptuous materials and workmanship which evokes the Old World. Yet her dresses which are at once traditional and romantic, remain utterly stylish and glamorous.

This sensibility is particularly evident in her lace creations. This is not your grandmother’s lace dress. Look at the how that middle gown shows off the model’s figure. Rather than piling frou-frou lace on top of satin, she’s created a form-fitting lace sheath which is both flattering and provocative.

Is it any wonder that Hollywood starlets have been turning to Monique Lhuillier in droves for both their bridal and evening wear?

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