Two years ago, Offbeat Bride declared that mustaches were hot. That may have been, but the fervor either hasn’t cooled or the trend has come around again or mustaches are just now making their way into the mainstream. Because you know what? I am seeing more and more mustache wedding gear, from the recently posted mustache wedding stationery set to wedding pictures that feature everyone from the bride and groom right on down the line wearing fake ‘staches.

Being that it’s bridesmaids week here at Manolo for the Brides, I had to, of course, find a snap of bridesmaids sporting the mustache look. (And now, of course, I can’t find the photo source so if anyone happens to know, speak up.) I personally am pretty cool when it comes to being silly – act my shoe size? No prob! – and I love the idea of asking people to participate in zany reception activities. But I know plenty of people out there endeavor to be way more dignified in their daily lives than yours truly. So I want to hear from bridesmaids: Should brides and grooms take those folks into account when they ask their attendants to play dress up in the wedding pics? Or since bridesmaids and groomsmen technically have the right to say nay, is it okay to require that props be used in the photos?

Forget boudoir photography for brides because there’s apparently a whole new way to show off your Future Mrs. So-and-So panties on film! I’m talking about in the bridal chamber, post-makeup but pre-dress, perhaps while you wait for your mom to finish straightening your train. Picture this: You’re sipping a mimosa in your bra and underpants, while your wedding photographer hovers around snapping shots of you and your bridesmaids. The question is, do you keep those photos? Did you even want them? Are you going to care when they end up in your photog’s online portfolio?

According to the Wall Street Journal, of all places, in these salacious days of baring it all, more and more brides are letting their wedding photographers take pre-wedding pictures that look an awful lot like they came from a boudoir photography shoot instead of a wedding.

For the many brides who have been living with their fiancés for years before taking the leap, mugging for risqué shots can be a way of playing up the irony of donning a traditional dress. “The white gown and veil is a kind of performance or drag — like Madonna in her video for ‘Like a Virgin.’”

What now? I’m all about brides (and grooms, too, rawr) having pictures of themselves in their undies taken on the morning of the wedding, but I think that framing it as some empowering blow aimed at traditional wedding culture and gender roles instead of just harmless fun strikes me as a little weird. I can’t say I hate the idea of the pre-wedding bra and panties shots, but I would suggest leaving them out of your coffee table wedding album. And maybe also your online gallery. Sexy and lucious as you no doubt are, your family and friends might just not care to see you in your bridal underwear.

Thoughts? Should the bride’s choice of panties be left to the imagination or is there a place for that sort of thing in today’s wedding album?

Photograph by Ron Capobianco

In case the novelty cake toppers featuring the bride dragging the groom to the altar or the much less common groom dragging the bride to the altar, we now have those wacky toppers in stunning reality in the form of staged wedding photos.

You know, just in case the stereotype of women having to trick men into getting married was prevalent enough. Oddly enough, I couldn’t find any images of a real groom dragging a real bride to the altar, which might have something to do with the fact that forced marriages are alive and well in many parts of the world, and more often than not, it is the bride who is the unwilling participant.

My take: Hate. Hate, hate, hate. This is one so-called funny stereotype I wish would just die already because the fact that it’s still around and has made its way into wedding photo albums doesn’t make anyone look good. What say you? Am I just being a fuddy-duddy, or what?

Being that I’ll be performing my mom’s wedding ceremony in October – can I get a squee? – I thought it might be prudent to start collecting tips on how to write a wedding ceremony. What with my never having written one before. In my search, I came across the how-to sneeze page on A Practical Weddingg, which happened to include a tutorial dealing with writing a wedding ceremony. Sweet!

Now this is where I say that I feel for brides-to-be nowadays because there are a lot of wedding planning how-tos out there, many of which deal with DIYing this or that element of the ceremony and reception. It’s not easy to wade through them and truth be told, a lot of them are pure crap, which is why I’m gonna help a girl out and say that if you are thinking of DIYing wedding flowers, reception music, your wedding vows, or your catering… or even DIYing your entire wedding, handling your own wedding photography, and making your wedding dress, check out Meg’s awesome DIY wedding planning how-tos over at A Practical Wedding. You’ll definitely be glad you did!

A while back, the magnificent Megan had this to say:

You know what I would love to see? A post about and with lots of photos/poses where the bride is taller than the groom. That’s sort of a “common but unusual” thing and I think many people aren’t sure how to handle it. Do brides still wear heels? Are photo poses different? Do they embrace it? And so on.

Easy-peasy, I thought, there are probably hundreds of photos of taller brides posed with shorter groom out there since tall ladies do marry compact gents. But, no. I thought wrongly. The problem is not that there aren’t brides who are taller than their grooms, but rather that so many couples and/or wedding photographers go to great pains to hide what everyone can clearly see.

So instead of hundreds of photos, I found one great photo, some really crap photos, and then hundreds of blog posts and forum discussions all about how to hide the fact that the groom is shorter than the bride. Here are some highlights:

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There’s a scourge of headless brides, grooms, bridesmaids, and groomsmen on the loose, so watch your backs! I kid, I kid… though there is a scourge of headless wedding snapshots reminiscent of those terrible obesity article sidebar pics that feature anonymous, headless overweight people who are supposed to let the American citizenry how fat we all are. Not, of course, that most of the brides, etc. in Headless Horseman style snaps are carrying around extra poundage – not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind – it’s just that the photographs are thematically similar.

I’m in the hate camp on this one – with apologies to wedding photography studio STUDIO:castillero, which is awesome overall. It’s just that I’ve been seeing a lot of headless wedding parties recently, and I’m not sure why. Is it so the viewer is compelled to focus on the wedding dress, tuxedos, bridesmaids’ dresses, and whatever bridal accessories can be seen in the shot? It’s not that there’s anything wrong with this kind of style of wedding photograph, I suppose. I just don’t get the appeal, myself. How about you?

As you research options for your wedding, you’ll read and hear a lot about making your day ‘timeless.’ I’m here to tell you this is not something you can truly have.

Your wedding will happen on one specific day. Your choices will be affected by what is available to you at that time. What kinds of dresses are available? What food is popular? What colors? What techniques are popular in photography? What techniques are even available? Every single one of these questions and dozens more will determine as much about what your wedding looks like as your personal taste does.

And you know what? That’s okay.
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