Marriage & Wedding Planning

A wedding is very special occasion in every woman’s life. In the wedding, the bride gives the most importance to her wedding dress. A wedding dress or a wedding gown is the dress worn by the bride exclusively during the wedding occasion. The importance and the design given to the wedding dress may be due influences from the culture, region and religion.

When we look back in history, marriages were more of a union between people. This could be families or even countries. The brides where hence given prime importance for they would represent their family or country. Thus the dress worn by the bride also became more important. Brides from an elevated class wore rich fabric of different colors. The wedding dresses where made of variant colors and layers of fur. The materials used were velvet or silk.

Over a period of time the wedding dress style also changed. Previously they were of any color except black, which signifies, mourning and red. The association of wedding dresses with white came only with the marriage of Queen Victoria in 1840. Victoria had worn a white gown for the marriage. Once the official wedding photograph was published, everyone started to use a white wedding dress in honor to the choice made by the queen.

As time passed this became mandatory that a wedding dress must be of white color. People then started to relate the white color of the dress to a symbol of virginity though it was not related in anyway.

The design of the wedding dress has also seen many changes. In the early 1920’s the wedding dress was short in the front and with a long train in the back. This continued till the end of 1940 where the design changed to the long full-skirted design.

Today the wedding dress is accepted as a statement of tradition. When making a choice for the wedding dresses, you may have to consider some of the following points. First of all choosing the right fabric is very important. Wedding dresses are available in materials such as silk, chiffon, crepe, crape etc. take a note of the climate when you want to select the clothing material. You cannot choose to wear a heavy fabric in the middle of a summer or a light chiffon dress in the winter. Check out which material suits you the best.

Decoration of the dress is also very important. Some prefer to have embroidery or patterned work on the dress while others prefer lots of sparklers and crystals embedded on the dress. Shaping of the wedding dress is available in different styles. There is no rule about the dress shape and it is left to the choice of the bride. So you can try a few designs and decide upon which makes you look perfectly gorgeous.

To buy a wedding dress you can walk into any of the bridal shops or boutiques. There are shops that are specifically dedicated for bridal dresses. Surfing the Internet is also a good idea as it can give you a clear picture about the various designs, cost and other factors to help you make your choice.

Once the wedding is over, you may choose to preserve the dress for the rest of your life to remember that memorable moment for the rest of your life. You may even choose to give it out to another bride on her wedding day.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Searching For a Special Wedding Dresses

There are lots of different wedding dress available. However, some bride-to-be may find that it is not that easy to find their dreamed gown, especially when they need to go for some plus size wedding dresses. In fact you can still have a lot of choice in order to get your dreamed wedding dress.

Tips for Shopping for Plus Size Wedding Dresses

In fact shopping for plus size wedding gown will be similar to shopping for other dresses.

First of all, if possible, you should try to find a shop that you can try the dresses on. It will be better than just imagining what you will look like when you put the gown on.

Besides, you should feel comfortable when you are wearing the dress. There is no point to find a plus size wedding gown which you do not feel comfortable when you are wearing it.

Besides shopping from bridal shops or department stores, you can also find a designer to tailored made for you. However, you should allow more time to have it finish. Tailored made items will usually take a longer time to finish than ready made ones.

Websites You Can Shop for These Gowns

There are some websites you can visit in order to find plus size wedding dresses.
http://www.sydneyscloset.com/asp/category.asp?categoryid=50
http://www.igigi.com/shop/
http://www.plussizebridal.com/
http://www.houseofbrides.com/home.php?cat=507

Source of images: http://www.plussizebridal.com/

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

A Vintage Gown

A bride got married on 1 Sep 2007 in UK. What is special about the wedding is that the wedding gown of the bride has been used for four generations. The bride, called Charlotte Middleton, is indeed the sixth bride who wore the wedding dress. From the news website, I learned that the gown was made in Hong Kong, in 1910. You can read more about the news from http://www.dailymail.co.uk under the title “Bride is the SIXTH in her family to wear 100-year-old wedding dress”.

A Wedding Dress has its own meaning

I was talking about the advantages of choosing a vintage gown. One of the advantage is that it can possess another layer of meaning if it is also the gown your mother wore in her wedding. I found that in the case of Ms. Middleton, it is even more meaningful since it is a gown which has been used for four generations in her family. This is a real case that a gown which has its own meaning can be better than an expensive designer wedding dress. It will be even more interesting and meaninful if it can be used for another hundred years.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

An Exciting of wedding dress

There are many different styles of wedding gowns. Some are more traditional and some are fashionable. However, if you are tired of a white gown, you can consider a more exciting one.

In fact, I found the website of Fairy Fashion when I was searching for some designer gowns. Although they provide gowns in white color, I think their other designs are more interesting. Their gowns can make you feel like a fairy tale.

Make your guests feel like attending a wedding in a fairy-tale

If you would like to make your wedding like a fairy tale, you can take a look at this website and get your ideas. And I am sure that your guests will feel like attending a wedding which can only happens in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

Source of Photo: http://www.fairyfashion.de

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

A vintage gown can be a unique one

You will certainly need a gown for your wedding. There are a lot of choices and I would like to talk a little bit about one of these choice - vintage gowns.

A vintage gown can indeed very stylish and looks more unique and beautiful than the new designs. Another plus of a vintage gown is that it is usually cheaper than a new one (I bet it is because a vintage gown is a used one). In fact, the price of a vintage gown ranges from $300 to $3000. Besides, the vintage gowns I refer to are mainly gowns made after the 40’s. Because the gown deteriorates over time, it will be nearly impossible to have a wearable gown which is made in the 19th century.

Tips to buy a vintage gown

If you are going for the option of vintage gown, I will suggest you remember the following points:

1. Stick to a shop which is of good reputation.
2. If alteration is needed, it will be probably going down instead of going up.
3. Never order it if you do not know the condition of it.
4. Never buy a gown with stains.
5. While trying the gown in a shop, try it delicately.
6. Ask for every detail (e.g. size, condition, and ask for a lot of photos of the gown) if you are ordering from an online shop.

You may also consider making a new one which reproduces the vintage style. However, as a designer myself, I will rather stick to a real vintage one since it delivers a quality that cannot be described with words.

Some reference for you

For your reference, below are some websites that you can find some vintage gowns. Again, I do not sort them by countries because I am not trying to recommend any of these shops. I would only like to give you some ideas of these gowns.

http://home.att.net/~design-house/alt_vintage_gowns.htm
http://www.vintagewedding.com/
http://www.gownbarn.com/
http://www.vintagestyleclothing.com/

Source of Photo: http://home.att.net/~design-house/alt_vintage_gowns.htm

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Every girl dreams about their dream wedding, and would get very excited when dressing up with the gown and exchanging wedding ring. After visiting shops after shops, they usually find it hard get the right gown for the big day.

How should a bride choose the gown? It is very obvious that the best way of choosing the gown is by fitting out. You will never know whether it looks good if you do not put them on. However, there are still some criteria for you to evaluate each gown in order to help you to make the right decision.

The skin color of the bride

The skin color of the bride will greatly affect how the gown visually looks like. A bride with lighter skin color would have much more choices. Both white gown and evening dress with darker color will give the bride a very sharp appearance. For brides with darker skin color, however, it will better for her to do some make up before fitting out. Otherwise, it cannot reflect the what the bride will actually look on the wedding day.

If your skin is really dark in color, don’t forget to put some make up on your shoulder and forearm or else you would find it quite disappointed even if you have tried thousands of gowns.

The body shape of the bride

The body shape of every bride is different from one another, some may be taller and some may be shorter. No matter what the body shape is, a happy and delightful bride will always be the most beautiful bride in the world.

A bride should be able to find a good wedding gown by firstly reviewing her own body shape. A bride needs to understand what is good and what is bad about her body shape.

After reviewing the body shape, she should find a wedding gown which will accentuate the beauty of her body. Therefore, it is very important for her to find a gown which will show up all the beauties of her. It would be good if she would do some exercises six months before the wedding day. By doing that she will have better body shape and it will make the process of choosing wedding gown much easier because she can have a lot of gowns to choose from.

Estimate the budget

One of the many ways to find the perfect wedding gown for a bride is to have a designer to tailor made the gown. It would be perfectly fit and the design will be perfectly showing all the beauties of her nature and body. However, she should bear in mind that the budget may be a lot more than she initially planned for. She should discuss with the gown company to see if they would do modifications for her.

There is no short cut in finding the right gown for the wedding day. The key is to look around and compare as many as you can. Then the bride should go for fitting out. It is always good to have female friends accompanying the bride to have fitting out. They can give the bride a full and more objective review of how she looks with the gown. Then she will not find it too hard to find the dream gown for the big day!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites