April, 2011 | Manolo for the Brides

Archive for April, 2011

A Look At the Only Piece of the Royal Wedding I Care About: Kate Middleton’s Wedding Dress

Friday, April 29th, 2011

You may have noticed that I haven’t given anything but the tiniest amount of coverage to the royal wedding. You’d think I’d be salivating about the royal wedding, reading all the speculation day and night, but surprisingly I’ve been rather ‘meh’ about the whole thing. I think it has something to do with the fact that, as a couple, I feel rather bad for Kate and William. Their wedding was a State event, not a personal one. Will they remember it forever, fondly? I do hope so. Is it the wedding Kate and William would have wanted under different circumstances? Who knows, but when most people imagine a fairytale wedding, their daydreams seldom involve hordes of people and hundreds of wedding guests invited out of obligation.

But enough of me, always the cynic. The one royal wedding detail that I really cared about? THE DRESS! I’ll admit to really looking forward to finally seeing Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, designed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, and I was not disappointed. She wore a long-sleeve lace, ivory, and satin wedding dress with a modest 8-foot train and a lace-edged veil paired with a tiara borrowed from her grandmother-in-law. Pics or it didn’t happen:

Congratulations are, of course, in order!

Beautiful!

A bit of a nod to *that* royal wedding dress (I think you know what I mean)

And in case you are under a rock and haven’t seen any of the coverage, here’s a taste of things:

(Oh, and hats. I definitely care about royal wedding guests’ hats, so look for a post about that in the near future!)

Images: Us Weekly; E!; NPR

Posted in Celebrity Weddings, Real Weddings, Weddings | 13 Comments »

LOVE/HATE: The Open Book Edition

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Are you part of a crafty couple? Because one couple out there made mini wedding invitation books (seen here) to send out to all their guests and they turned out pretty spiffy! Kind of the opposite of the traditional ecru wedding invitation with a single color of ink, so most certainly not for everyone, but I know for a fact that some of my readership is def. on the funky side!

Is your love an open book?

Wonder what the fine for not returning it is?

For the second week in a row, I’m going to have to go with L-O-V-E. I wouldn’t have had the graphics skills to pull these off or the money to hire someone else to make them for me, but I wouldn’t have said no if someone in my life had wanted to hook me up with kooky wedding invitation books!

What do you brides and brides-to-be think about these book wedding invitations? Too busy? Or just the right amount of busy?

Posted in Alternative Ideas, Invitations, Keepsakes | 3 Comments »

Wedding Cakes In Ruffles and Pleats

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Just a little bit of quickie wedding cake goodness today because I am swampity swamped at the moment. But not too swamped to go looking for some sweet ruffled wedding cakes for you to drool over. Seriously, aren’t these just gorgeous? I love how they take their inspiration from wedding dresses – it’s such a great way to pull a look together, but so unusual at the same time.

What fem wedding cakes are wearing this season

Ruffled wedding cakes via: Inside the Life of the Cake Girl; The Twisted Sifter; Artisan Cakes; Maisie Fantaisie; Nicky Grant

Posted in Cakes | 3 Comments »

CakeShooters: Tasty, Hilarious, and Awkward

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

When it comes to wedding cake alternatives, everything from milk and cookie buffets to pies to balls of smooshed up cake and icing has gotten that precious 15 minutes of fame we all covet. Where do you go after tiered stacks of doughnuts? Wedding cupcakes are so over… kidding, cupcakes will never die, but still. How about the Hostess wedding “cake” that was suddenly everywhere five years ago? The sundae bar has been done. Cookies, check. Mousse? Check. So where do brides and grooms who are looking for wedding cake alternatives go from here, anyway?

According to one source, the next big thing in wedding cake alternatives is… CakeShooters.

A quick shot of cake

What's the mess potential here, do you think?

The nice thing about CakeShooters is that they can be shipped anywhere in the U.S., so you don’t have to wait for a retail location to open up near you if you are simply lusting after this particular wedding cake alternative. And there are vegan and gluten-free options, too. The not so nice thing, at least as I see it, is that the CakeShooter, true to its name, is a wee tiny little mouthful of cake that costs $3 a pop. I could down about 30 of them, judging by my past experiences with wedding cake, so if you’re a big cake fan, you may want to opt for some other form of cake kitsch. Then there’s how silly people look eating them, which is neither here nor there.

My verdict? Better for a kid’s party than a wedding.

Posted in Alternative Ideas, Cakes | 2 Comments »

The Bridal Hood as a Veil Alternative?

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Ever since I bookmarked this bridal hood from Etsy seller Mata Hari’s Daughter (who creates uh-may-zing stuff, fyi), I have been just dying to know what you gorgeous people think about the look. Is the bridal hood the wave of the future or a relic of the past that should not be unearthed? Would you wear one on your wedding day as a bridal veil alternative?

Admittedly, it is elegant!

From the sale page description: “Melt hearts in this exquisite art deco inspired veiled headdress. Veils are 26″ in length and hand beaded along the bottom edge with silver lined glass seed beads and Victorian cut steel beads. The frame is built over milliners wire to support the fluid tulle and frame the face.” And the price? $285

Could you pull it off?

I don’t know if I could pull off the look, frankly. When I try to picture myself in a bridal hood, the image that forms in my mind is very costumey. But at the same time, isn’t the wedding ensemble by its very nature a costume? So maybe it wouldn’t look so out of place after all!

Posted in Accessories, Veils | 2 Comments »

Inspiration: A Scrabbled Themed Wedding

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Wordsmiths and word lovers planning wordy weddings, heads up! Scrabble can play a role in your nuptials if you, like me, love this particular game. Seriously, game themed weddings? Yes, please! What you’ll find below is by no means a full collection of all the scrabble theme weddings ideas out there, but my goal is to get you started. Your imagination – and your wedding budget, I guess – can fill in the blanks as you put together theme wedding based around this classic game. You can even DIY this one with bags of Scrabble tiles!