Oh, and feel free to treat this as a Twistie’s Saturday Caption Madness. I’ll declare a winner next saturday in addition to my usual article for the day. Why? Because I can wait to see what you come up with for this one.

And because of the fun. It’s all about the celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of superfantasticness.

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.

Love, hate, love, hate… just kidding! This week’s LOVE/HATE should really be entitled LOVE/LOVE because, really, is this not just a wickedly stunning wedding photograph? Taken by Mark Kostel of Kostel Photo in Toronto, this picture of a bride deep in thought just floors me. I mean really, you lucky Candadians!

What say you? Is this is striking as I think it is?

I think you also have to love a bride and groom who have a sense of humor. As much as I love a good solemn wedding ceremony, I believe wholeheartedly that there is plenty of room for horseplay and general merriment at wedding receptions… and even in ceremonies. I cracked up during mine, for example, because I couldn’t read part of the wedding vows I’d so carefully written down. Oops! When I paused and squinted at my sheet of college ruled, you could hear guests shifting uncomfortably in their seats. But when I lost my you-know-what, everyone else had a good laugh, too. My advice to brides and grooms everywhere? Don’t be afraid to have fun!

Teeny cheeseburgers are getting kind of played out, but I think they’d make a great addition to a backyard barbecue wedding. These are easy to DIY if you’re planning on having the grill play a central roll in your reception eats, but remember that you’ll have to designate someone to man the fire.

For those brides and grooms with the dough to drop, oysters prepared and served three (or more ways) can hit the spot, especially at a reception taking place on or near the water. One word of caution, however. Make sure your oysters are fresh, lest you send your wedding guests home with more than just a wedding favor… in this case, a nasty case of food poisoning! (via, yummy)

I’ll admit to having no clue what these are, but if I saw them at a wedding reception, I’d be charmed. Provided they were meat free, which I hope they are considering that this appears to be some sort of liquid puree. Meat puree? Cold soup?

For the totally trendy, there is candied bacon. Bacon, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years, is the hottest of cured meats. If candied bacon doesn’t float your boat, there are always bacon cookies or bacon pops. Just add bacon, as in “_____ wrapped in bacon” or “burnt sugar bacon _____,” and you’re all set.

Beef sushi. Say it with me now: Beef sushi. I would have digged on this so hard back when I was a carnivore. That’s a touch of wasabi and mayo, with a couple of chives, on top. (also via)

And then there’s this, which is delightfully simple — a little salmon, some veg, and a bit of roe. It just goes to show that presentation is just so important when it comes to food.

Which leads me to recommend that if beef sushi and mysterious purees served in shot glasses don’t have a place in your wedding budget, that’s no reason to sacrifice gustatory style. You can always choose simple reception starters and main dishes, but request that your caterer jazz up the presentation. This could cost a little more, but you may be surprised to find that your chosen vendor is happy to get a chance to play with your food.

Send in the Clowns (as sung by Judy Collins) is a ballad from Act II of A Little Night Music. In it, the character Desirée reflects on the ironies and disappointments of her life. Uplifting!

You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ by The Righteous Brothers… for the quickie wedding followed by the extra quickie divorce, perhaps?

When the groom requests Just a Gigolo by Louis Prima, watch out! You might also want to reconsider if the groom requests this pimp cup.

The Lady Is a Tramp as sung by Frank Sinatra could be perfect for the bride sporting a Corinthians 13:4 tramp stamp.

And as far Verdi’s ‘La donna e mobile’ (Rigoletto) as sung by Carlo Bergonzi, well, the lyrics speak for themselves: “Anyone who trusts her is always wretched; he who opens his heart to her is lacking in caution.” Damning much?

My personal favorite — which sadly did not make the top five — is and shall remain I Will Survive, which is a fun song to act out, but rather more appropriate for sweet sixteens and block parties than for weddings. Whenever I maintain such a thing, there are always the detractors… those who think I’m just an old fuddy-duddy who’s trying to keep all the cool bridesmaids and groomsmen from acting out all the parts of Paradise By the Dashboard Light, but really now. Were I a bride, I might feel a tad odd hearing my groom singing that her’s praying for the end of time so soon after he vowed to love me forever.

Anyway, if your wedding is going to take place in the warmer months, it’s important to take that into consideration in your plans. Of course, it does work the other way, too. After all, just a couple weeks ago I saw a woman on Bridezillas insist on having an outdoor wedding and a strapless gown in December…and she didn’t live below the equator! Not Smart on an epic level.

But today I’m talking about heat. If you plan to marry in warm weather, make sure you look after not only your own comfort, but that of your guests. If marrying indoors, double check that there is a functioning air conditioning system. Ask to hear it in action, so you know whether or not it’s going to drown out the ceremony.

If marrying outdoors, consider supplying hand-held fans and/or complimentary sunscreen to your guests. Think about having the bridesmaids carry parasols instead of bouquets. Encourage festive sunhats. Oh, and consider having the men in light linen suits instead of dark, heavy tuxes. Avoid heavy satins and lots of layers for the ladies. Light fabrics like organza, eyelet, and linen are your friends. Don’t bother with gloves unless they’re very lightweight. Wear strappy sandals and show off your best pedicure.

Indoors or out, make very sure there are plenty of non-alcoholic beverages. Alcohol dehydrates the body, and so does heat. The combination means that liquor hits faster and harder. Keep everyone well hydrated. If you’ve got a big barrel of lemonade, an Italian soda bar, or waiters circulating with glasses of ice water as well as champagne, that should make it enticing to guests.

Avoid heavy foods with thick sauces, but make sure there’s plenty to go around. Appetites are sometimes fussy in hot weather. Fewer things seem appealing, but we need to eat just the same. Oh, and safety first: make sure that cold foods are being kept sufficiently cold. You don’t want guests going home with food poisoning!

A little thought can go a long way toward keeping your (and your guests’) cool in hot weather. And that can go a long way toward creating a day your friends and family will remember fondly for years to come.

So what to do now? How to take the reins?

Sometimes a good place to start is by figuring out what you don’t want. It’s surprising how few of the expected trappings of weddings are actually required, either legally or spiritually. So if you’re not wild about white, you don’t have to wear it, and if you have no interest in identical bridesmaids’ dresses, you can tell them to pick their own (hint: do give some sort of guidance lest you wind up with a situation like the one I saw once where the MOH decided to express her contempt for her sister’s wedding by wearing a slinky black jumpsuit with lots of decorative zippers and the highest heels I’ve seen not worn by a ‘working girl’). You can decide that your ‘theme’ is just ‘wedding.’ Cake is an option for dessert, but not required.

Once you know what you don’t like, though, you find that you’ve got even more options than you realized at first. Don’t panic. This is where you start to winnow down those options by figuring out what you do like, and what you do want, and what really is indispensable to you and your intended.

Try sitting down and thinking about how you want people to feel at your wedding. Do you want them to be wowed by your surprises? Impressed by your elegant taste? Relaxed by your simple hospitality? Amused by your whimsy? There pretty much isn’t a wrong answer here. This is your wedding, and it should reflect your priorities. Just make sure your intended is happy with the same feeling, because it’s not just your wedding.

Knowing how you want people to feel automatically sheds inappropriate options. If you want an unexpected spectacle, you necessarily have to either reject or adapt all the expected trappings. If you’re going for traditional pomp and circumstance, then you’re not even going to look at the latest trendy accessories. If you want an informal, relaxed atmosphere, why on earth would you bother with a sit down dinner with lobster and caviar?

Just start with the overall feel, and you’ll be amazed how easily your eye starts gravitating towards ideas that fit that feel. Things that don’t fit will be quickly identified and easily rejected.

As with finding the love of your life, feelings are the best place to begin.

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.

The bride (known on Flickr as offwithyourtv) and groom should roll it around until they encounter other wedding cakes in order to make a massive megacake.

But instead, they’re going to cut it. I have to admit that until I found the picture below, I was unsure as to how this wedding cake would be portioned out to guests. (Would you look at that dress!)

The answer: Start from the top and work your way down. Looks good, no? It makes me crave cake, in fact. The moral of this post is, of course, that anything done fabulously will be fabulous even if others might consider it weird or geeky or too outlandish for a wedding.