Disney-inspired wedding gowns

Thanks to Kirstie Kelly, every bride can emulate the Disney Princess she grew up worshiping. From the adventurous and elegant Snow White to the vibrant and impulsive Ariel, bring out your strongest suit.

Some samples...

Ariel:


Belle:

World's most expensive engagement ring...

...rests on the fourth phalange of Melania Trump. The 12 carat emerald-cut diamond ring is valued at somewhere between $480,000, according to Diamond Cutters International, and $2 million, according to the tabloids.

I wish I may, I wish I might.

Naming a star in a distant galaxy for your loved one has gained popularity over the years and is the perfect way to tell your new spouse how they mean the world to you... literally. Register using the Ultimate package at the International Star Registry and you will receive a personalized star chart in a 20" X 16" frame and a match wallet card imprinted with the star name and coordinates. Pick any star name of your choice, but observe the following caveats:

* You may enter up to 35 characters
* ALL UPPER CASE does NOT look good on certificates
* Star names are screened for profanity or inappropriateness (star names are published in our book)

Just keep in mind that you are paying $139 (plus shipping and handling) to name a star; as the ISR will grudgingly admit on it's FAQ page, you don't own the star and the scientific community will not recognize your star name. But you will have that nifty plaque.

Make your wedding a video game adventure

If only life were a video game. Now at least your wedding can be.



If you don't have any video game designer friends, I'm certain you could bribe Greggman into making a special video game just for you and your beau.

Bridal Bling

This is the world's most expensive wedding dress:

It was designed by Renée Strauss in Beverly Hills, who worked together with Martin Katz Jewelers to create this silky gown that is lined with thousands of diamonds.

It costs appoximately $12 million.

Worse than a kidney stone.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend, but what about her stomach's?


Last October, this diamond-frosted delicacy was named the world's most expensive wedding cake. It was created on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills exclusively for the Luxury Brands Bridal Show and is valued at $20 million. The cake was not edible.

Today's X-treme Wedding Venue: back in time

Get married at the Scarborough Renaissance Festival.

This Scarborough faire has three options for unforgettable wedding ceremonies, but the cream of the crop is the Royalty Package. At $3,500, this package includes:

• Free admission for the bride, groom, and 50 tickets for your attendants and guests
  
• The services of a licensed officiant in Renaissance attire
  
• Reserved Wedding Garden and a private reception pavilion, with live period music during the ceremony and reception
  
• A beautiful Bridal Bouquet of the bride’s choosing with up to eight bridesmaids’ flower garlands of the bride’s choice
  
• A magnificent Renaissance feast including your choice of two main entrées (one entrée per person), two side dishes and assorted fresh-baked breads, as well as domestic beer & assorted wines
  
• A pair of Limited Edition Scarborough Goblets presented by King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn
  
• Sword Arch by village color guard
  
• A special bottle of Scarborough Mead for the newlyweds to toast their first anniversary
  
• Two Friends of Faire Season Passes
  
• Festival resource list for costuming, bakers, printers and photographers
  

Let's just hope the goblets are the only resemblance to Henry VIII, aye?

A Catering Must.

Foie gras (the livers of overfed fowl) is a luxurious addition to any matrimony's menu. If you're hosting your wedding in Chicago, however, you'll have to find a more humane hors d'oeuvres.

The American Wedding

The average American Wedding costs about $26,000 according to The Wedding Report, an online database of wedding statistics and market research for the wedding industry. The report says surprising things about who's paying and who today's brides and grooms are. How do you measure up?

Avg. Engagement Time: 17 Months
Avg. No. of Guests: 167
Avg. Bride Age: 26
Avg. Groom Age: 28
Average Budget: $14,250
Destination Weddings*: 11% (251,964 people)
Outdoor Weddings: 36% (824,608 people)
Weddings at Church: 53% (1,214,006 people)
Weddings at Hotel or Country Club: 22% (503,927 people)

* Originating from this location.

Estimated Weddings in 2007: 2,290,578

2007 Who Pays

Description	percent	# Weddings
Brides Parents	57	1,305,629
Grooms Parents	31	710,079
Bride & Groom	79	1,809,557
Sponsored Wedding	1	22,906
Other	3	68,717

* Numbers not equal to 100% due to multiple contributors

2007 How They Will Plan
68 percent of women use Bridal Magazines to plan their weddings, while 81 percent use internet resources and 88 percent rely on family and friends.

Only 17 percent use a wedding planner.

Most Expensive Celebrity Wedding

According to MSN.com...

Liza Minnelli & David Gest

Estimated cost of the wedding: $3.5 million


"Oscar-winning entertainer Liza Minnelli wed producer David Gest in March 2002 in New York City's Marble Collegiate Church. The over-the-top nuptials featured Best Man Michael Jackson and Maid of Honor Elizabeth Taylor. Among the 500 or so guests at the reception were superstars Diana Ross, Lauren Bacall and Mia Farrow. Backed by a 60-piece orchestra, Tony Bennett entertained VIPs, who feasted on a 12-tier wedding cake and received personalized favors encased in satin candy boxes embossed 'Liza and David 4 Ever.' (The pair divorced the next year.)"

Read on to see the 20 Most Expensive Celebrity Weddings.

Your life on display

Display your wedding album in a new and imaginative way through Titus Kana.

All prints are made from ultra-high resolution digital files and are fully retouched, meaning you can forget about the zits you failed to cover up on the big day — and maybe also about the extra 20 pounds you weighed, depending on how you tip. Prices for individual photos range from $8 per 4x6 print to $75 for 18x24s.

If Wedding Bashers knows Bridezilla, however, we know it takes more than a mounted portrait on the wall to satisfy her. Fork over $2,000 (next month's rent?) and relish in a custom-designed 60-page coffee table-sized account of your wedding day, down to the boogers hanging from cousin Jimmy's airbrushed nostrils.

Fit for Royalty

In honor of Queen Elizabeth II's 60th wedding anniversary, BBC News has released 60 facts about the royal couple's wedding, from the number of attendees down to the arrangement of the flowers on their wedding day.

Our ten favorite facts:

1. While most women are lucky to get Grandma's hand-me-down diamond, Elizabeth's platinum engagement ring was crafted using diamonds from a tiara belonging to Prince Philip's mother.
   
2. Two-thousand guests were invited to their wedding on November 20, 1947. That's a lot of thank you notes!
   
3. Some of the better-known guests included the King and Queen of Denmark, the King and Queen of Yugoslavia, the Kings of Norway and Romania, and the Shah of Iran.
   
4. The bridesmaids' bouquets were composed of white orchids, lilies of the valley, gardenias, white bouvardia, white roses, and white nerine.
   
5. There were 91 singers at the wedding, made up from the Abbey Choir, the Choir of HM Chapels Royal and additional tenors and basses. They sat in the organ loft as the choir stalls were occupied by various dignitaries.
   
6. Elizabeth's wedding ring was made from a nugget of Welsh gold from the Clogau St. David's mine, near Dolgellau.
   
7. The Royal couple received over 2,500 wedding presents, including a piece of crocheted, cotton lace made from yarn personally spun by Mahatma Gandhi. The central motif reads "Jai Hind" (Victory for India).
   
8. The official wedding cake measured nine feet high in four tiers, with painted panels featuring both families's coats of arms, and included the monograms of bride and groom, sugar-iced figures to depict their favourite activities, and regimental and naval badges. The cake was cut using the Duke's Mountbatten sword, which was a wedding present from the King.
   
9. Although he was the Queen's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh was not crowned or anointed at the Coronation ceremony in 1953. He was the first subject to pay Homage to Her Majesty, and kiss the newly crowned Queen by stating "I, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship; and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks. So help me God."
   
10. With the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, the Queen became the first reigning Sovereign to give birth to a child since Queen Victoria, whose youngest child, Princess Beatrice, was born in 1857.
    

Field of dreams

Serious sports fans can pay homage to their team of choice like this couple, who recited their vows on the Seahawks' 50-yard-line.

Your wedding can save the planet!

With Al Gore preaching daily about the dangers of global warming, you have to admit that environmental awareness isn't just for Hippies anymore. Now there's something you can do:

3 WAYS TO PLAN A GREEN WEDDING

1. Plant a tree. Request that each guest, as a wedding gift, donate to charity or plant a tree in your honor. Not ready to give up that ceramic knife set or Uncle Mike's savings bond? Then take the initiative to plant a tree or donate $1 toward a charity of your choice for every guest that attends. The Arbor Day Foundation is one of many groups you can use to plant much-needed trees around the country.

2. Save the birds. While it's a myth that rice will explode in a bird's stomach, rice is still unhealthy for some North American birds, and wedding guests can easily slip on the grains littering the floor as you and your groom take off into the sunset.

• Native (local) wildflower seeds or freeze dried petals
  
• Ecofetti (biodegradable confetti)
  
• Blow bubbles from recycled containers
  
• Waving ribbon streamers can provide a festive send-off
  

Ecostudio warns that birdseed is a good alternative to rice "ONLY if you are having a city wedding, or will be tossing birdseed in a landscaped yard. Most birdseed mixes contain non-native plants and throwing these seeds in a natural location such as a nature preserve or state park can cause damage to the ecosystem."

3. Use recycled paper. Whether you're ordering invitations, setting out place cards, or putting together a wedding scrapbook, be sure to order products created from recycled paper. SealandSend, for example, produces eloquent economical invitations on 100 percent recycled paper.

Poise-onous tip.

Wedding etiquette can be tricky — and naturally poise and grace are the first things on the mind of a new bride on her wedding day. Wedding planners like rules and if you do too, Soiree Special Events will teach you the most important part of your picture-perfect day: How to hold your bouquet.

Clearly women have been messing it up for centuries, blighting their wedding albums with poorly placed flowers! Don't let that expensive bead work go to waste because you held your bouquet over your head and not against your crotch. If you don't look like you have to pee, you're not doing it right.

So ladies, pay close attention: you are supposed to hold it like a golf club, not a tennis racket.

Your new wedding pose will assuredly score you points with the grandmother who complains you aren't photogenic enough.

She's a brick ... bride.

Modern brides are taking celebrity trends to a whole new level. In the fashion of stars like Jennifer Garner and Amanda Peet, 1 out of 6 brides today is pregnant at the altar, according to MaternityBride.com.

Today's bridal boutiques are understanding of the waist-expanding trend and top designers are doing their best to ensure that you are a knocked up knock-out at your wedding. CBS's the Early Show with Amy Kean highlights designer Reem Acra as one such specialist.

So fear not the bridal bump — even a pregnant bride can shake off the stigma in a designer gown on her special day.

X-treme Wedding Venue of the Day: Safari

Have a safari wedding.

Your guests won't be the only animals at your safari wedding outside Johannesburg. Enjoy two weeks in Southern Africa including an all-stops luxury wedding at Victoria Falls. The tour begins with your wedding and a five nights room and board at The River Club. Transfer by light aircraft to Kasane and on to Jao for 2 nights and Mombo for three nights - both of these luxurious lodges provide some of the best "game viewing" (read: animals!) in Botswana. Then fly to Cape Town and stay at the Relais & Chateaux Cellars hotel for five nights. Cost per person is approximately $8,512 plus $660 for the wedding at The River Club.

Top 5 Party favors: The Knot

The Knot is known for its unique and interesting wedding resources. Here are Wedding Basher's top 5 favorite wedding reception favors:

#5

Nothing says "Reproduce!" like the Bucket of Love Seed Favors;
$138.00 for 100 flowers

#4

If alluding to garden vegetables is your game, the Two Peas in a Pod Salt and Pepper Shaker favors are right up your alley — or aisle. $3.50 each for fewer than 24 favors

#3

For recovering flower children: These Incense Gift Boxes include 12 incense sticks and matching ceramic burn plate. $7.95 each

#2

Show your guests that you are muy caliente — in more ways than one — with Personalized Hot Sauce bottles at every table. $31.95/pack of 12

#1

Remember that origami fortune game? Kick it up a spacadelic notch with this Fortune Cookie Box and write individual fortunes for your guests! $7.95 each

Today's X-treme Wedding Venue: Raven's Nest

Usually when couples speak of getting married in Las Vegas, images of Elvis, neon, and bad decision-making come rushing to mind. Friends and family will get a whole new impression, however, when you're lifted by helicopter to the "Raven's Nest" of the Valley of Fire.

This $2,899 package includes round-trip limousine transportation from your hotel to the helicopter terminal, your wedding ceremony at the "Raven's Nest" high above the valley floor, the minister's fee, a fresh rose cascade bouquet and groom's matching Rose boutonniere, the services of a professional photographer, and a champagne celebration for you and all your guests.

Today's X-treme Wedding Venue: underwater

Have a scuba wedding.


Though you may not want to be featured on "The Gordon Elliot Show" like this pool-confined couple, a scuba wedding can be romantic and exhillarating. Go to Hawaii with Beach Weddings Hawaii and your scuba ceremony can be accompanied by the blowing of the conch shell, traditional Hawaiian music, and an exchange of leis. Following the blessing of rings, put on your scuba gear and submerge yourselves in 30 feet of water, with the Rev. Dard Aller presiding.

"Whales, dolphins and turtles as well as colorful reef fish, are often the witnesses as you write out on your pad "I do" and exchange the rings," their website says.

...Just look out for stingrays, lest your wedding day turn into a Steve Irwin reenactment.

Package Price: $795: Includes marriage license assistance, ceremony that starts on land and concludes underwater, 2 Plumeria leis for the Exchange Ceremony, and a full-color keepsake certificate.

MSN's Top Ten Most Daring Wedding Gowns

MSN and The Knot present their Top Ten Most Daring Wedding Gowns in this slideshow presentation. Further proof that women really want to look like Barbie on their wedding days.

The gowns range in style from the slim-figured flapper look to the full-bodiced princess look, but Vera Wang's violet mermaid-skirted gown takes the cake for weirdest new bridal classic.

Chronicle Feature: Wedding Invitations

These creative, high-end invitations will impress your guests. Spending $150 a piece for pop-up invitations will mean even your 3-year-old cousin will be able to read it.

How much are you willing to spend for invitations to your wedding? Is what you spend important? Why?

Signature Wedding Cocktails

Go one step further with wedding personalization by creating your own signature cocktails that will let your guests know exactly where they are (until they've had a few too many).

About.com suggests that your drink names be "fun and flirty," with examples like Love is in the Air, Wedding Belle Cocktail, and Sealed with a Kiss.

How sweet. Instead, enjoy these cocktail ideas courtesy of Wedding Bashers:

The Lazy Maid
Memorialize your best friend's laissez-fair approach to the bachelorette party.
2 oz. Coconut Rum,
1 oz. Peach Schnapps
1 oz. Vodka
1 oz. Cranberry Juice

Mix everything in a blender with ice. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry.

Drunken Aunt Judy
She's already flashed all your guests doing the Electric Slide. Now, drink to her health and continued embarrassing family moments.
1 oz. Gin
1 oz. Southern Comfort
1 oz. Vodka
1 dash Grenadine

Add the alcoholic ingredients to an icy glass. Add a dash of grenadine on top.

The Wandering Groomsman
Wondering why all the boys are high-fiving and your bridesmaids look pissed? Find out with this smart party-starter.
1 shot Blackcurrant Cordial
1/2 pint Hard Cider
1/2 pint Lager
1 shot Vodka

Mix and serve in a pint-size glass.

Today's X-treme Wedding Venue: the sky

Have a skydiving wedding.



And of course, if you are going to skydive, you have to do it right. Las Vegas Extreme Skydiving's VIP wedding package offers limousine service from your hotel and culminates with a chilled champagne toast with your new partner and friends after your skydive. Their expert video service will ensure that every moment of your special day is captured from your in-sky ceremony to your individual skydives to all post-jump festivies.

Complete wedding packages start at just $1299.

Bridezilla watch: Lawyer bride sues florist

The New York Post

October 16, 2007 -- A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but hydrangeas of the wrong color allegedly stank up a Manhattan couple's wedding.

Elana and David Glatt have filed a $400,000 suit against an Upper East Side florist, charging it caused them "extreme disappointment, distress and embarrassment" on what was supposed to be the greatest day of their lives by providing the wrong-colored hydrangeas for their Aug. 11 nuptials.
Continue this article.

Today's X-treme Wedding Venue: Bedouin Cave Weddings

Get married in a cave.

Fly to Petra, Jordan and let tour owners Ismael Helalat and Kamal Al Shaban plan your wedding in the Bedouin tradition:

"As you see the soft red colors of the Petra mountains, you find yourself immersed in a warm and tranquil feeling, that may only be found in the paradise of this mountains," the tour website declares.


At up to $700 a head (not including airfare) the candlelit cave wedding will bedazzle your spelunking friends and family and give them a taste of nomadic Arab traditions — complete with your choice of mock-kidnapping, horse racing, or camel racing during the wedding.

Take the "A Wedding is a Day - A Marriage is a Lifetime" tour.

DIY: Make your own wedding bands

They always say that if it's not done right the first time, do it yourself. Bypass step one and enroll in one of New York Wedding Ring's exclusive DIY workshops.

You and your fiancé(e) can craft "simple" bands of platinum, palladium (diet platinum), or one of five shades of 18k or 22k gold (white, yellow, rose, green, or peach), in prices ranging from $1200-$2250. The modest price tag covers the cost of the metals, sales tax, and the approximately 7-9 hours of back-breaking labor it takes to make your rings with professional guidance.

For an additional $850 fee and some cleverly hidden costs, design your own customized look in one to two workshop days.

Dressing a Groom's Best Friend

Wedding Bashers normally wouldn't urge you to follow Nicole Ritchie's example, but the starlet's choice to include her shih tzu Honeychild and her pomeranian Foxxy Cleopatra in her wedding festivities brings up a valid point: Where can a bride find canine couture to dress her furry guests?

The solution is The Wagging Tale in Santa Monica, California, where Ritchie recently picked up a tux and a bridesmaid's dress for her haute hounds.

This pet tuxedo includes a harness ring to easily attach a leash and ranges in sizes for dogs weighing between two and 30 pounds. $65.

The Wagging Tale also specializes in luggage, collars, leashes, hair clips, doggy furniture, and even holiday costumes for those extra members of the family.

New from Monique Lhuillier

Designer Diva Monique Lhuillier's Spring 2008 collection is hot off the assembly belt. Her new spring line proves that nature is in. (To save you from the agony of browsing to the mind-numbing 5-second loop of muzak on her website, we've posted some of our favorites below.)

Take for example, the stunning number 11 of 25.
Fly away in a dress so ruffly that it might as well be made from real feathers. Perhaps Lhuillier gathered inspiration for this collection by gazing into Magic Eye posters. If you squint, the head of a koala should appear. It's perfect for that location wedding in the Outback.

Number 3, on the other hand, is the perfect attire for reciting your nuptials at the ICE CHURCH. After the wedding, recycle the jacket into a shag rug, a vintage lampshade, or donate it to Locks of Love to be turned into toupees.


Twelve proves that bedsheets aren't just for Halloween anymore. Make the drapery look even classier with lanky hair, bare feet, and wavy sticks attached to the back of your head. Your friends will think it's nouveau.


If you can't get enough of the ruffles, gown 23 was meant for you.

I swear, there's a body under there. Whatever you do, leave your carry-on poodle/chihuahua/shih tzu at home. It might get lost.

And finally, 19 belongs in a fairy tale wedding.

The question is whether our bride is the rag-bedecked Cinderella or the floaty-robed Fairy Godmother. Frankly, she looks more like an enchanted Douglas-fir. It's too bad this dress is part of the spring collection. Lhuillier should reintroduce it next Fall, with taffeta garlands and Swarovski crystal ornaments.

Today's X-treme Wedding Venue: ICE CHURCH

Get married at the ICE CHURCH.

Wedding extremists thinking of marrying abroad should consider booking their formal affair at the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, the world's first and finest ice hotel. Say your I Do's at their patented ICE CHURCH, which is melted down and rebuilt every year in a new style. This year’s ICE CHURCH is a round, domed structure held up by five pillars of ice. Stay at the ICE HOTEL and choose between "warm accomodations" such as a cozy Swedish chalet and "cold accomodations" (snuggle on your wedding night inside thermal sleeping bags upon a bed of ice, snow, and reindeer skins in your negative-five-degree Bridal suite:


If Sweden is too Norse for your Bridal needs, skip the arctic circle and prepare your passport for the Hôtel de Glace in Quebec. A short plane ride away, Canada is Europe Lite for those who want to stick close to home.