It’s Mother’s Day, and this seems like a good time to bring up a topic we haven’t talked about very much of late here at Manolo for the Brides: moms.

The conventional wisdom about mothers and weddings is that it’s a time mostly spent trying to take over the plans, living out her never-quite-met dreams of romance. The same conventional wisdom assumes that she will spend the rest of her natural born days trying to poke holes in the marital relationship in order to save her precious, perfect child from that fiend (s)he married.

Are there mothers like that? You bet your sweet bippy there are. I’ve met a couple and they are the stuff of legends about monsters under the connubial bed.

The good news is that these monsters-in-law are actually a pretty tiny minority.

But what about the care, feeding, and etiquette rules for dealing with more reasonable maternal parents?

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Last night I had a movie night with a good friend. We went the chick flick route and wound up the evening with Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow. I must admit that Mr. Knightley’s proposal is one of my favorites. I love that he recognizes that he, his love, and their future life together are not without flaw. In particular, I love that he tells Emma that it is their combination of imperfections that make them perfect for one another.

My father had another way of putting it. He used to tell people that my brother the alpaca rancher and his lady had ‘saved two perfectly normal people.’ I’m pretty sure he said the same thing about me and Mr. Twistie. What’s more, I’ll actually agree with him. Mr. Twistie and I are both somewhat acquired tastes, for those among you who know your Gilbert and Sullivan.

I find my reaction to these facts kind of amusing in light of an article I read yesterday that discussed an article set to be published in the July issue of the journal Psychological Science. It seems that psychologist Daniel Molden of Northwestern University did a study on romantic couples and their perceptions of one another to see how that would affect the strength of the relationships.

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Save us a chocolate egg or three!

Remember when stills of a possible SATC wedding gown were released in anticipating of the SATC movie? What I remember is how terrible Sarah Jessica Parker (as Carrie Bradshaw) looked in that Vivienne Westwood creation… No offense to the sassy Miz P, who’s lovely, of course. It’s simply that pulling off a wedding gown with prominent bosom cups requires that one has an actual bosom. She did not, leading to cups that were definitely half empty.

That said, I am a fan of the gown itself, which boasts exaggerated lines and sculptural details likely too extreme for many. And I’m not alone. Its popularity may have inspired Westwood, who now makes custom versions of this wedding gown available for $15,000+. Is it worth it? Well, plenty of wedding gowns sell for around $15,000, so it really is up to individual brides to decide if they’d like to be Carrie for a day. Do note, however, that if you’re planning to order this gown from the Westwood boutique in London, you need to do so at least six months in advance.

A shorter reproduction of the original gown costing $9,875 sold out on net-a-porter.com, but may become available again in the future.

Teeny Manolo scooped the news that I had my baby girl, but I wanted to share one of the first pictures of Paloma right here on Manolo for the Brides.

We’re doing wonderfully, though at a mere 34 weeks, Paloma is currently bunking in the NICU until she learns to do the things that many full term babies can do right away. We’re very much looking forward to the day that she can come home and I can start fostering a love of all things wedding in my daughter!

Photo credit goes to the fantastic cahla

It’s Valentine’s Day, one of the most popular days of the year for both proposals and weddings.

Whether you’re newly-engaged, newlywed, just dating, an old married person of either gender…whatever the state of your current relationship, I think I just found the picture that sums up what NtB and I wish for you all:

May each and every one of you have the sort of love and devotion shown in that picture.

Yes, everyone, it’s time once again to play Twistie’s Sunday Caption Madness! You all know the rules: I post a funny or bizarre picture, you all give me your best captions via the comments section, and next saturday I declare a winner.

And what image do we have in store for you today? Take a gander at this one.

Ready…set…snark!