Manolo for the Brides

Is it just me, or do the winning entries in the Cheap Chic Toilet Paper Wedding Dress contest get more elaborate and more amazing every year? Used to be that the wedding dresses looked like toilet paper. Now they just look more and more like wedding dresses!

This year’s winner is Ann Kagawa Lee of Honolulu, Hawaii with her wedding dress inspired by Gone With the Wind and origami. And of course she didn’t stop at weaving together an amazing gown that in my humble opinion is freakishly detailed… no, she also put together a matching hat.

As per the rules, the whole shebang was crafted using only toilet paper, tape, and glue. And I thought I was kind of crafty! The video below talks a bit about the contest, and displays some of the winning gowns in better detail. This year’s entries really are off the chain.

No, not that kind of back, though plenty of brides (including me) are blessed in that department. I’m talking about subtle details that draw attention to the flipside of wedding dresses, like these appearing on gowns in the J. Crew Weddings Fall 2009 catalog.

Yes, the pseudosash goes all the way down on this wedding dress. My one issue with this otherwise chic dress as a whole is that I think many of us would have to order it five sizes too large in order to fit our bosoms in the bodice! Thanks a lot, J. Crew.

I like the polished and elegant back of this wedding dress more than I like the front, which is sort of messy looking.

This dress is quite pretty overall, and for once, my mind is not interpreting a peekaboo lace strip as “bra strap.” This is a good thing. However, being that this is only one image, I’d have to see the dress in person before I’d give it a second thumbs up.

All in all, the fronts of these wedding dresses can’t hold a handle to the backs, mostly because the fronts are rather plain. Then again, guests spend a great deal of time looking at the back of the bride during the wedding ceremony unless the couple has chosen a circular seating arrangement so maybe J. Crew is on to something.

It’s no secret that I love gathered skirts on wedding gowns. Twistie, on the other hand, longs to grab the nearest iron! But my love does come with a few caveats… the gathers have to look sort of natural, rather like one has been enjoying an impromtu picnic in one’s wedding gown on the morning of the ceremony. And the skirt itself must be full enough to facilitate that aesthetic.

There is another sort of gathered skirt (usually found on the bridesmaid) that I’ve come to hate, if only because it does not fulfill my requirements for a messy-but-not-too-messy full skirt. Take a gander at these bridesmaids’ dresses from Raylia Designs:

Now is it just me, or do these skirts look like someone put a tube sock on a ferret and let it roll around for a while*? You know what I mean — the ferret does a little breakdance and the sock gets all skootched up around its midsection. It’s not very attractive on the ferret or on the bridesmaid!

*Dear PETA: Don’t hurt me. I swear the ferret was having fun.

No matter what the economic situation, one thing is for certain: people will still get married, and most of them still want at least some of the trimmings. Chief among these trimmings for many brides is the wedding gown.

It’s no mystery why this should be. The wedding gown is an iconic piece of clothing filled with emotional meaning.

The fact also remains that it’s one extremely expensive piece of clothing.

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Brides looking for wedding gowns that can be described as eco-friendly have more than a few options. My favorites by far are buy a secondhand wedding dress, re-purpose a secondhand dress, or have a wedding gown made for you by a local seamstress who’s using sustainable materials. But you know what? Eco conscious though you may be, you and your perfect secondhand dress may never cross paths. For whatever reasons, re-purposing a gown or even having one made might be impossible.

In that case, there’s always shops like Green Union. In addition to a range of green and/or ethical wedding favors, accessories, and stationery, they carry a handful of very pretty wedding gowns.

Tammam White is a bridal collection handcrafted in House of Tammam’s fair trade atelier in India. The wedding dresses are made with exclusively developed fabrics including organic-certified wild peace silk, sustainable bamboo satin, and 100% organic fair trade cotton satin jacquard and linings. The two wedding dresses above are a long satin wedding coat dress with vintage button detailing and a simply chic gown with a luxe gold sash. Both could use a some alterations, but with them would look stunning on the right brides.

Once upon a time, I imagined that The Beard and I would say our marriage vows in the offices of the closest city hall. It didn’t work out that way, but I nurtured that particular fantasy for a very long time. In my wedding vision, we were having the most frugal of budget wedding ceremonies while wearing the most luxurious of wedding attire. It would, I thought, be ever so much fun to go gallivanting about town in a wedding dress and a tuxedo. And when I say wedding dress, I mean a big, poufy, princessy number with all the trimmings!

Consequently, I was interested to see how Brides.com envisions the perfect wedding dress for the city hall bride. In one word, the answer is “short.”

Not quite as short as Vivi, a $1,050 sleeveless silk faille ivory dress with bateau neckline and pleated detail at hem by Amsale.

Most of the wedding dresses in the slide show are variations on a theme that includes dresses like Jocelyn, an off-white silk shantung Jenny Yoo Collection dress with a small key-hole in the front and a dip that dips to just above the waists. (Ooh, it’s only $425!)

I say if you’re getting married at city hall, wear whatever you want, whether that means cut-off jeans or a $10,000 ballgown. Isn’t that the whole point of getting married at city hall: Doing whatever you want (while also maybe saving a little cash)? It seems silly to me that brides would limit their attire choices to mostly short, 1950s-ish wedding dresses — as cute as they always are — when it’s so damn fun to run around in full formal dress or jeans and a sparkling tiara! In conclusion, I love the dresses, but hate the limitations implied.

What say you?

At first glance, this silk and Italian mohair wedding gown from the White Chocolate Label by Scott Corridan is gorgeous. I love the exagerated cuffs and collar, the slightly messy drape of the skirt, and even the large, yet subtle bow at the waist.

However, upon closer examination, one notices that there is precious little preventing the world from getting a good gander at the bride’s nipples!

I suppose that one could experiment with nipples covers or wear some sort of unadorned bra underneath, but that would sort of ruin the effect of the designs in the mohair, wouldn’t it?

For today’s saucy, sexy, and extremely slinky edition of LOVE/HATE, I’ve found a gorgeous example of an overbust corset in a basque style that features a fab black lace overlay matched with a skirt that screams va-va-va-voom. Done entirely in silk dupioni, it is a creation of Fairy Gothmother in London.

My verdict? I would have needed about six layers of Spanx to ensure a smooth silhouette under that fishtail skirt, and the whole thing would have scandalized my very conservative paternal family, whether worn at a wedding or not at a wedding. And maybe it’s not the most wedding-y of wedding dresses, though it is available in bridal white or ivory for those who prefer that over blush pink, jewel red, jade green, or royal purple. But still, I’m entirely in love (as if you couldn’t already tell).

What say you? Too sexy for a bride? Just sexy enough?

Before I hit you with this week’s LOVE/HATE I have to clarify something. I love Stephanie James Couture wedding gowns. Many, if not most, of her designs are a nod to the 1950s and 1960s, without being at all costumey, and almost all look great on a wide range of bridal body types. That said, have a gander at this dress:

Um, no. You’re aces, Stephanie James, but no. So much not to love, from the uneven layers to the multicolor petticoat to the whatever that is just above the model’s derriere. At least the petticoat can be had in any combo of colors, so I might have found the silhouette somewhat palatable in a different color scheme. And I have to admit that it is a creative design. But in general, this dress earns a mild HATE from yours truly.

What say you?