(Image via The Breathtaking Bride)

Shopping for a wedding gown can be one of the most exciting, and one of the most frustrating parts of planning a wedding.

It’s exciting because you’re getting to play dress up with wildly luxurious dresses, the like of which you will probably never wear again. It’s exciting because finding that just right dress makes the whole thing seem real for the first time to a lot of women. It’s exciting because salons pamper brides.

It’s frustrating because it’s rare that a bride has the budget for the really spectacular gowns. It’s frustrating because sometimes it’s hard to know which gown to pick… especially when choosing between gowns that look an awful lot alike. It’s frustrating because everyone you bring with you has an opinion, and sometimes it’s the polar opposite of yours, which leads to second-guessing and fear of making a bad decision.

And then there are those oh-so-helpful guides to choosing the right gown for your figure flaws.
(more…)

Money doesn’t grow on trees. Weddings aren’t necessarily cheap. In fact, the average wedding in the US, according to statistics, costs roughly $26.542 today. That’s a lot of money.

But there’s a funny thing about average statistics: they reflect all weddings and none, not any one specific wedding.
(more…)

There’s still something off-putting about the Internet where brides are concerned. Sure, they read the bridal blogs – and thank goodness for that! – and use Google to find all of the reception sites in and around their zip codes, but plenty of brides still balk when it comes to buying certain things online. Wedding gowns, for one, which I can totally understand, though at the same time, many brides who wouldn’t buy their wedding dress online totally ask their bridesmaids to buy their dresses online.

Another area where brides tend to shy away from buying online is wedding flowers. Part of that, I’d wager, is that there’s not a zillion shops selling wedding flowers by mail. Favors online? No problem, you have an almost infinite number of choices. Wedding shoes online? The sky is the limit! Bulk fresh flowers online? Even then it’s no problem – there’s Fifty Flowers, for example, and Grower’s Box (a personal favorite of mine). Most of the sites selling bulk flowers don’t, however, arrange them for you, so unless you’re keen on giving DIY wedding flowers a go, you’re mostly out of luck.

…but not entirely out of luck!

(more…)

As you probably already know, I’m a huge fan of Bluefly for bridesmaids’ dresses and even wedding gowns. Shopping there makes so much sense to me — for what you pay, you get a beautiful dress with a good name attached and oftentimes pay less than you would at the bridal salon. Yay!

At some point in the not-too-distant past, Bluefly opened the Wedding 2.0 section of its web site. While I hate the whole ’2.0′ thing, I like the way you navigate it. First, you indicate whether you’re attending the wedding or in the wedding party, then you either choose what sort of wedding it is or your role in the wedding party. Finally, Wedding 2.0 presents you with a number of options. It’s not perfect, natch. I pretended to be a size 12 bridesmaid looking for a yellow dress and got two results. Slimming down didn’t help, either. And if you’re larger than a size 14, you’re out of luck all over the map, apparently.

All the same, it makes it a teeny bit easier to shop on Bluefly for wedding-wear. Not enough to get excited about, but that’s not going to stop me from featuring some lovely wedding-ready dresses and gowns later this week. Of course, I’d also love to hear about your favorite online shops that carry wedding appropriate gear for guests and members of the wedding party. Have at it in the comments!