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Gorgeous Flower Ideas for Your Wedding

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There is a goldmine of flower ideas out there if you just know where to look. Rather than trolling through the same old galleries that you have looked at before here are a couple of new and wonderful site I have run across recently.

Wedding Flower Ideas. This one from the UK is just chock-a-block full of great ideas for anywhere you could possible want flowers from the ceremony to the cake to a really big collection of bouquets. I hope you have an hour or two to invest.

Asiel Design This company out of California is both a design service and floral company. Wait until you see their portfolio. Their site describe Linnea Asiel as what you would imagine if Pablo Picasso and Tim Burton had a love child. That pretty much sums her style up. Be warned, the opening page has music and I could not find any way to turn it off; so if you are at work (no, not you) hit mute before you open it.

The Flower Expert Once you have found all these beautiful flowers you may want to know just what they mean. This handy online flower encyclopedia will have the answer for you. Again, I hope you have a few hours to invest because this is another site that I could wander around on for a while.

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Guest Book Alternatives

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I helped work a lovely wedding this weekend. Lovely bride, lovely venue, beautiful décor, kickin’ lounge area, everything was lovely except the plain boring unloved guest book that went unnoticed. One of the most intimate and personal memories you will have from your wedding is the memory of those you cared enough about to ask to join in your celebration. So celebrate them already!

Rather than a plain boring guest book that will most likely go completely unnoticed and probably lost in a year do something different that you will keep out and alive for years to come. Here a just a few ideas for fun and interesting guest book alternatives.

Photo Mat. Yes I know it has been done to death but I still see them left off to the side at receptions and barely written on. How about you have it brought out and announced during the toasts to let your guests know that their presence means enough to you that you want to remember it always.

Wedding Quilt. This is for the bride that is an avid seamstress or has one in the family. Have a stack of quilting squares and a fabric marker for guests to sign. After the wedding have the signatures embroidered over and then have the squares make into a quilt. Yes it is a huge project but also a family heirloom.

Wishing Tree. Have the guests write a note of their best wishes on a decorated hang tag (so very Martha) and tie them to an arrangement of tree branches for all to enjoy. After the wedding you can add them to your scrapbook. If you are having a fall wedding use paper leaves instead of hang tags and make a collage out of them to frame for your wall.

Christmas Ornaments. Provide Christmas balls and markers for your guests to sign and place on a tree. It will start your ornament collection and each year as you decorate your tree you will relieve the memories.

Unglazed Pottery. I know you have seen the platters that you have your guests sign, well take that a step further. Go to one of those paint your own pottery studios and pick out a platter or other serving piece that really suits your style. Add a nice underglaze then have your guests sign it. Take it back to the shop and have it fired for a truly one of a kind memory saver.

Guest book for life. Instead of a small traditional guest book either hand craft a large scrap book or personalize a ready made one like this one from Jam Papers with your names or monogram and use it for every party or dinner you host through out your married life. Be sure to get one you can add pages to as it fill up. Include menus for each event and you will have a recorded history of all your entertaining. Too cool for the uber-hostesses among us.

Be creative and think outside of the box and you may just end up with a guest book that you will enjoy for all the years to come


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World Heaviest Wedding Gown

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In another installment of the “What Planet Are These People Living On” thread I bring you this from the UK courtesy of Bridal Wave. (Is it just me or does this stuff always come from the UK?)

At 425 pounds, this is thought to be the heaviest wedding gown on record. My question is why would you? According to the original story in The Daily Mail the dress had 30 layers of fabric, a 60ft train and 30,000 crystals. Created by Nico’s Dressmakers, in Liverpool, England it tipped that other scale at just over $31,000.! Again I ask, on what planet are these people living?

The diminutive 16 year old bride topped out at 5’3” and according to published reports spent most of her reception seated due the weight of this monstrosity. Because of the weight of the train it reportedly took 10 of her friends to PUSH her up the aisle.

Ok, why? Why not get a gown you could actually move in? How I would love to see the video of this. You devotees of YouTube please keep your eyes peeled and let me know if it turns up. I want to see them push this up the aisle.

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The Fun in a Hyper-organized Wedding

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Back in September I posted the first installment in the saga of the Michigan wedding that friend of the Dish Courtney Hammons had the pleasure of participating in as a bridesmaid rather than the highly qualified wedding planner that she is. Well I finally wrangled the rest of the story out of her.

Let’s see if you find bits of this as funny as I do. The commentary at the end is purely my own; sometime an outsider sees thing a little differently. At least there weren’t any bomb scares at the wedding. Read Part I here and Part II here

Wedding Day – Sept 15th

7:30am and my mom is knocking on my hotel room door – I am being told that it is time to go get ready for a 5pm ceremony. Seriously what is wrong with this picture?1 So out I go in my powder blue sweat suit (that matches my mom, sister and all the other bridesmaids!!!)2 Once at the house of the parent’s of the bride the fun begins! I guess when you are doing hair and make-up on 18 people you got to start some time.3 Mom is first so that she can go back to the hotel and take care of my niece. It’s amazing that even when she get’s her hair done it looks just like she did it. Mom is back to the hotel with my sister and I settle in for a day of lounging around. By 1pm everyone is done with hair and make-up and we begin the task of getting everyone dressed. All the dresses are hung alphabetically (did I tell you we had to ship our dresses ahead of time)4 Some dresses are to big and others are to small but in the end everyone is in their dress and ready to help the bride put on her one of a kind bridal gown. She looks gorgeous and is so happy to be marrying my brother. The flowers arrive and I all can say is please consider the size and weight when choosing bouquets! The bride’s bouquet came in at 10lbs can you imagine that for the next 10 hours.5 Pictures went without incident at the house and once everyone was loaded into the 2 limos and the Bentley off to the ceremony. A beautiful ceremony it was but the pictures afterwards took FOREVER! Not only were we a hour late to the reception we somehow managed to miss the sunset shot. Now let me take a moment and explain the reception one room was for dinner and the other room was for the band and dancing. So we have everyone enter the dancing room for announcements, first dance (which the band did not know!!) and the father daughter dance. We than move everyone (250 plus people) to the dinner room and than towards the end of dinner we ask everyone back to the dancing room for the Horah and the mother son dance! Anyone else see some challenges here!6 Well that’s it! After a year of planning, parties and excitement it was all over in a matter of 8 hours! Off to Belize went the bride and groom. And back to Tennessee came my husband and me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  1. Do you have any idea how exhausted everyone is going to be by the end of this day? Sure the bride and groom are off to sleep it off in Belize but the rest of the world has to get back to their real lives.
  2. Please, please tell me they did not have “Bridesmaid” embroidered across the butt. Please.
  3. Ok if you subtract the two mothers and the bride that leaves 15 attendants. What! you asked your entire sorority to be brides maids???
  4. I don’t even know where to start. Hung alphabetically? OK then, that takes being organized to a new level. Add to that the “ship our dresses ahead of time” thing, which was so the mother could install identical bustles and you are bordering on obsessive. Can some one explain to me how long of a train a bridesmaids gown has to have to require that it be bustled?
  5. Piece of cake. You only thought that the reason a bride must spend the year before their wedding lifting weights was to tone their arms, it’s really so they can lug around 10 pounds of flowers in addition to the weight of their dress. Never forget that it’s not just a wedding – it’s a marathon. Train, train ,train!!!
  6. This is the one that cracks me up. I can only picture this crowd of 250 rising as a single unit and shuffling from room to room, sitting in unison and then repeating again and again. Reminds me a very well dressed, multicolored giant amoeba.

I am glad that Courtney survived with her marvelous sense of humor in tact.

I want to hear your tales of wedding excess, leave them in the comment section so we can all share in the joy.

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I’m In Love….

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With my new necklace/tiara/headband!

You didn’t think that I could go to three different markets and not come home without buying a little something for myself did you??

This time I had to order the piece I wanted and yesterday it arrived. If you read Wedding Dish then you know that I just love the beautiful things that Mandy Grennan at Tigerlilly designs. This year I decided to treat myself to one of her pieces, the gorgeous 20 strand gold and Swarovski crystal piece above.

What I love about the tiaras from Tigerlilly is that they are convertible. Do you see that little chain at the back? It is detachable, transforming it from a tiara/headband to a lovely necklace that you can wear anywhere. I mean come on, you may love your tiara but just how often are you going to be able to wear it after your wedding? Some of the tiaras in the collection come with a chain and others have to be sent back to Mandy to be retrofitted most all are convertible. I say that is a win/win; stunning tiara for your wedding/lasting memory that you can wear for the rest of your life. Score!

Thanks Mandy.

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Shout Out to Modern Bride

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I want to give a very public shout out to the folks at Conde Nast.

I just received the December 2007 issue of Modern Bride and I was blown away by the photo editorial on page 76; “Four Dresses Under $900”. I have been saying for practically forever that there are gorgeous gowns at all price points but you wouldn’t know it to read the bridal magazines. If the only information you have is what you see in these books you are left to believe that wedding gowns start at around $2000. That is so not true! There really is a gown for every budget, just go to the salons and look. Well finally somebody gets it. Thank you Conde Nast for listening

What you don’t know is the part that the Dish may or may not have played in this. Last July your Wedding Diva had a rather public discussion with a representative from Conde Nast at a conference in Philadelphia. As he stood there presenting the survey of the American Bridal market that the publisher produces every year I just couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. When the slide stating that the mean purchase price of a wedding gown in America is $1296 I asked why that was NEVER reflected in the gowns chosen for editorial. Suffice it to say that by the time this little discussion was over I had the microphone and everyone at the conference knew where I and the salons in attendance stood.

Every now and then when you protest loudly enough somebody hears you.

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If Its Sunday Then It Must Be Nuts

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Of course it was. Sunday was a blur.

We started with the Gala show at the Waldorf, them Reem Acra, Monique Lhuillier, Pricilla of Boston then Claire Pettibone and finally Junko Yoshioka. In between I took time to visit with friends at Tigerlilly, Veil Trends, Kelly Chase and Mon Cheri.

Let me start by giving you two trends that have carried through all three markets. First and most important is a return to soft romantic gowns in soft sheer fabrics layered one over another to add texture and dimension. You can still find heavily structured bodices in some of the collection, notably Pricilla of Boston and Reem Acra but even they had some soft lovely layered gowns.

Look for shoes to take on greater importance as the gowns lose structure. Quite a few gowns with shortened hems, anywhere from the ankle to the knee, showed up in the collection. If this catches on it may become a real option for the bride not bent on being a princess for the day.

The one thing that I notice when I come to couture market is the fabrics. Brides always ask me why some gowns are so much more expensive than others. The answer is the fabrics. You can almost always find a gown in a similar style in another lower priced line than the top designers. What set these gowns apart is the sumptuous fabrics. These fabrics scream out to be touched; they drape better and hang more beautifully. When you go gown shopping look at some of the high end gowns in person; photos don’t tell the whole story. Go to the salons and touch them, look at the way they reflect light differently, take note of the way they fall. Our Grandmothers knew the difference; I think it is high time that this generation learned.

Another mark of a top end gown is the quality of the beading and embroidery. The patterns are matched perfectly, the beads are fully attached and the appliquéd lace is not just left hanging on the edges. All of these things take time and attention to detail not found in a less expensive imitation. They may sound like little details that you can live with out but they are the things that take a gown from nice to exquisite. Take the time to look at the difference before you do something silly like order a designer gown for $200 over the internet. Discover the differences the real thing has.

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Wedding Channel Couture Show

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Yes my friends, it is that time of year again. Your wedding diva is off to New York to feel the buzz and see all the pretty things.

I didn’t get in until late yesterday and only had time for one show, Carmela Sutera. Gorgeous! It was feminine and soft and romantic. Bits of little girl ruffles and bows done in a very grown up way. Oh and the fabrics!!! If you have never seen a cotton pique used in a wedding gown then you have to see these gowns.

Then it was off for dinner and fun with dear friends. Susi Rogol and Tracey Llewelyn with Bridal Buyer Magazine are in from London. We were joined by the fabulous Rani Totman, her sweet hubs and Tarsame her right hand. All together an even dozen feasted the night away.

Today is Sunday and if you have been following the Dish for a while then you already know…it is insane. I can’t even remember where all we are going. I know Reem Acra, Claire Pettibone and a new Japanese designer that Susi has just raved about. There is also a launch party for the launch of Get Married on Lifetime. I’ll have a full report by tomorrow.

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