Offbeat Wedding Week: Wedding Dresses

There's a wide variety of wedding dresses for a wide variety of brides. I love these offbeat dresses!

From elaborate styles to dying to adding a simple belt, there are so many ways to make your wedding dress what it is... Yours! 

What did you do to make your dress unique and one-of-a-kind?

Photo Credits:
http://offbeatbride.com/2009/12/colored-crinoline-vintage-dresse
http://www.capitolromance.com/2012/07/17/capitol-wedding-victoria-curtis-offbeat-rock-roll-northern-virginia-wedding/
http://detailweddingdress.blogspot.com/2010/01/wedding-dress-with-unique-color-black.html
http://offbeatbriom/2013/04/california-retro-wedding
de.c
http://offbeatbride.com/2013/01/grey-and-white-wedding-dress
http://offbeatbride.com/2013/01/easy-custom-dress
http://offbeatbride.com/2012/12/australia-baby-postponed-diy-wedding
http://offbeatbride.com/2012/10/bc-forest-wedding

Gorgeous Wedding Gown with Back Butt

Found via Style me Pretty

I love this dress, and when I saw this post on Style Me Pretty's Facebook, there were gazillion of ladies posting about how gorgeous this dress is, and I agree, it's pretty spectacular.

However........

Someone should have fixed this, the zipper has created a back butt I am sure her photographer can help minimize the look and appearance, or get rid of it all together...

The way to minimize or eliminate back butt on the day of your wedding, is to have your Maid of Honor, Best Woman, Best Friend, Mom, Janitor, Wedding Planner, whoever, slide their hand down your back and smooth it, slide their hand from side to side... and ta da no back butt!

Love the Gown, sad about the back tush.

Do It Yourself Bustle

Via Wedding Bridal Blog

A train on your dress can be an elegant touch to any bride’s wedding gown, but can also get in the way during the reception while she’s trying to break it down on the dance floor! A simple solution can be to bustle your gown, and you don’t have to pay the huge fee for the seamstress. (what’s not to love?!) I've had two brides do, a DIY Bustle... if you feel up to it, here are the steps.

After many different experiences with bustles of all types, I’ve found that Side, American, and French are the most popular (but any option is a gorgeous one!). It really just depends on the gown and utilizing the style that fits you best!

Here are some instructions for your basic bustle from Ehow:

1.       Add three buttons to the back of your dress. The buttons will hold the train of your dress up, creating a bustle. The buttons should match your dress, and blend will with any embellishments. Pearls and beads will also work well.

2.       Sew the buttons on the back of your dress (at the waistline) with your needle and thread. Sew a button at the center of your waistline, and one on either side. The distance of the buttons will vary depending on your size. But you want the buttons about an inch in from your sides.

3.       Attach the three strips of material to the bottom of your dress. When sewing, create little loops. To create a loop, sew both ends of a single strip of material to the the underneath of the dress, leaving the middle section loose. Sew one loop at the center of the dress and the other two on either side. Once again, how far apart your make these loops will depend on the length of your train. In general, the loops should be about an inch or two in from the sides.

4.       Lift the back of the train, and fit the middle loop over the center button. Repeat with the left side, then right to finish the bustle

Make sure that you ask your seamstress which bustle is best for your dress- she has worked with a ton of different styles, so she will definitely have some great advice for you.

Good luck!

Have any of you tried a DIY Bustle?

Wedding Gown under $50

We cannot pass up a good great deal, so we had to tell you as soon as Broke Ass Bride let us know.

Wedding Gowns under $50! Holy Cow!

Under $50!

And they are pretty!

Were you thinking about a being a 2 dress bride, but didn't think you could swing the cost of two gowns... well now you can!

 It's a limited time offer, from The Limited, so check it out!

What are you waiting for?

Go!

Corset Back Wedding Gown

Me tying a Corset Back.... photo by Damon Tucci

I think that having a corset back on your wedding gown is gorgeous! I don't play favorites, buttons are beautiful too!

But when you have a corset back, there are 32 different ways to lace a corset and they all work.... your dress sales person will do it one way, your alterations seamstress will tell you another, the designer of the dress may have had another in mind... and your planner, well, she does it every weekend. And knows some great ways to lace you up!

These are my hands lacing up my sister's wedding dress. You want it to look pretty, but at the same time, a corset is function it needs to hold up the dress (amongst other things) in the gown for the night. And it will losen with movement, humidity, sitting, standing, breathing, so if it needs to be tightened once throughout the wedding evening that's okay.

My point of all this, is to trust your planner when she's lacing you up, and also budget some extra time (usually 15 minutes) to make sure you are in, it's straight and it looks pretty.

It doesn't have to be like this:

Me pretending to pull on Summer's Corset Hard - Photo by: Pure By Lindsey

Royal Wedding Trends: Attire



Photo Courtesy of ABC News


More controversy on the Royal Wedding, Kate's Maid of Honor, her sister Pippa,  wore White! Gasp! Holy Cow! Shut the front door! The world is coming to an end.

Now that you are breathing again. We think she looked lovely. Her dress was simple, elegant, and fit her beautifully! With you sister becoming the future Queen of England, would it have mattered if she wore a bathrobe? Probably not. All eyes are on Kate...so Pippa wearing white, is a fashion trend that we like.

It shows that the bride the confident and understands that color is just that. A color.

And a quick note on Kate's dress, the leaves were a beautiful suprise. Love the Chantilly Lace and then beautiful clean lines! Can't wait to see more of this!

If I could do IT again

I often talk about getting married again, well, not getting married to a different man...the same man, I love John, and I couldn't imagine my life without him.

But if we could do our wedding over again, what I would do differently... you know I'd hire a photographer, I've talked about that before.

But what about what I would wear?

Definately not WHAT I ACTUALLY wore... because that was anything but timeless... can you say helllllllllloooooooo 80's!

I mean, big, everything...

I'd probably be a two dress bride.

Maybe?

We’re Starting a Movement – No More Ugly Hangers!

You’ve spent so much time in search of “The One”… the one perfect wedding dress, that is. So why would you then hang your gorgeous gown on a hideous hanger?! Join us in our movement to ban ugly plastic hangers! Pretty ones will make your wedding dress photos oh so lovelier, and the great thing is you can customize them to your taste. We were inspired by these wire dress form photos on Pure Photography by Lindsey.  And these from Etsy are personalized with your new name or monogram!

Come on, join our movement - your dress deserves it!

Written by Awesome-tastic Intern Heather

(MasterPiece Weddings and its affiliates have not been paid for, for this post)

Color Controversy

Most girls dream of walking down the isle in a big white dress. It's one of the only consistent wedding traditions. Now we see most brides leaning towards an off white dress and every once and awhile a modern bride comes along who wants to make a statement. Her statement just happens to fall in the midst of a white tradtion. She goes against the grain and wears a colored dress:

{source}

{source} {source} {source}

So for our bride readers out there who are leaning towards the colored dress trend, we say to stop and think first.

Disadvantages:

• You may not be the only one wearing your color.
• You can always wear a colored dress.
• What color will your bridesmaids wear? Colors are harder to pair up together.
• When can you honestly wear another big white dress again?

Advantages:

• Colors compliment most skin tones better than white or ivory.
• Don't have to worry THAT much about staining your dress.
• You're the bride, so you will stand out regardless of the color of your dress.
• A colored dress can incoprorate your color scheme and vision more.

So how far is too far for a pop of color? Do any of you brides plan on wearing a colored dress? And do any of you traditional brides think it's going too far?

What's behind the Veil?

I personally feel that a veil totally and absolutely makes a bride..... well, a bride. I mean not every brides wants to wear a veil and that's totally okay!

But personally, you can get dressed up in a White Couture Gown, and a tiara any day! I mean I wear that to work on a normal Wednesday... but when you put on a veil, you are totally and absolutely without question, A Bride!

But when you put a piece of tulle on a clip - it can cost you a pretty penny! Sometimes in upwards of $300!

Here's a budget sensible alternative - I've had my brides use one particular store on eBay for a while, and have not yet been disappointed!! She always delivers a beautiful product, and can customize the colors if you need her too!

{image by Photography by Rebecca}

Do the Bustle....

Why is it that the most common mishap is a broken bustle? Either the bustle doesn't stay up, or a button breaks off, or a guest steps on the back and it tears off.

Keep in mind the loop underneath the dress is NOT a bustle, this is just there to hang the dress on a hanger... it's not really there for you to hold the back of your dress all night. Sorry!

I know it happens to the best of us - I've found that the most likely candidate to stay up is a french bustle with double knots tied underneath- and trust me, I've seen all kinds of bustles, some with over 50 pin ups and sometimes up to 70 all numbered!

If a bustle does come down, I've found that diaper pins work best on keeping the dress pinned up. It's a must in my wedding bag!

And if you don't know what a bustle is or why it's used - a bustle is what you do to the back of the gown, so that it becomes a floor length gown, no matter how long that beautiful train is. You basically can pin up, pull under or hook around.