Thursday, March 25, 2010

How to Make a Custom Wedding Veil

Whether you are going for a goth wedding, plan on having a white wedding dress with a colored trim or are planning a lime green wedding, custom wedding veils might by up your alley.

There are three things you'll need:
Fabric for the veil
A large barrette, hair comb, or head band
glue gun
embellishments optional

The Fabric

The fabric can be anything, if we're going custom. Traditionally, you would go for a sheer fabric. But you could go for lace of fishnet, or even netting. You could dye your fabric if you can't find it in the right shade, but dyeing can produce unsuspecting results, so if at all possible, find the right shade the first time.

Barrett, Hair Comb, or Head Band

How you want to attach the veil to your head depends largely on how you want to do your hair. If you want it definitely down, and head band would be a nice choice. If you want it up and want to wear your veil through the reception, you can attach the veil to you hair clip. If you think you'll want to take the veil out for dancing, a hair comb that you can easily pull out without ruining your do might be the best option.

Embellishments

The simplest embellishments would be flowers. I would go fake, even though that can be lame, just because it would be so un-pretty if they were crushed. Another simple possibility would be pearls of glass beads.

Fun embellishments come with more outrageous outcomes. Really, the sky is the limit with what you can attach to your veil. You don't have to attach anything at all. Have fun and keep it personal.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Black and White Wedding Is Facebook Official

This is a cute video of a black and white wedding where they go facebook official. The groom pulls out their cell phones after the minister pronounces them married so that they can update their relationship status to married. Too cute!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Black Wedding Bands for Men

After dreaming about those black engagement rings and bridal rings, I was moved to check out some black wedding bands for the groom. They are so gorgeous. They have a lot of varieties and I just picked out a couple to showcase here.

Most grooms aren't overly involved with all of the intricate details of wedding planning. Some play along and will hold your purse as you shop, nod in agreement over your choices. Others give the bride free reign over the wedding ceremony, taking the traditional role of planning the honeymoon instead.

One thing they probably do want a say over is their wedding band. Wedding bands are the one piece of jewelry that they will wear day in, day out for the rest of their lives. They'll want something that is compatible with their work, especially if the do labor work or work with their machinery. They'll want a color that will blend with their style and the rest of their wardrobe. Here were some that I found.

Black Engagement Rings and Sets

Since writing about black wedding dresses, I've been dreaming of an entirely goth wedding. I'll get to the white aspect of black and white summer weddings eventually, but I'm in a black mode.

The black stoned ring is an amazing concept. Unlike the dress, the ring is something you will be living with every day for the rest of your life. Besides the choice in groom, the choice in ring is the most lasting.

White diamonds, like white dresses, are the classic, traditional thing to do. But just because everyone else does it that way doesn't mean you have to. It's not set in stone, so to say. Stones come in every color imaginable, and if you want to step outside the box with your wedding ring, there are a few options.

For black stones in your wedding ring, there are onyx stones and black diamonds.

Black Diamond Engagement Rings

Ever wondered what black diamonds are? Are they color treated diamonds? Or do diamonds come in all colors? Or just some colors?

Black diamonds are real polycrystalline diamonds. They are harder to cut and polish than white diamonds, so they may have undergone some treatment, making them slightly less "natural." They are naturally found in Brazil and in Central African Republic and are more rare than white diamonds. They are generally priced the same as white diamonds.




This is a princess cut black diamond, three stones. It is set in 14k white gold. From the reviews, it looks like this has been used by several people as their engagement ring. Stunning!




I love the pebbly look of this fancy black diamond engagement ring and wedding band set. It is set in 14k white gold. All of the stones are a fancy round cut.




This is a classic diamond solitaire in the not so classic black color. It is set on 10k white gold.


Onyx Stone Engagement Rings

Onyx is a semi-precious form of chalcedony which has alternating straight bands of color, most commonly brown, red, white, and black. Chalcedony is the group name for a large family of stones, all of which form from silicon dioxide, also known as quartz. In order to be classed as chalcedony, a stone must be milky, and translucent to transparent, often with layers or bands of color. The color of onyx, as with other forms of chalcedony, is created through impurities which seep into the rock as it forms.


This oval onyx is surrounded by white diamonds set 14k white gold.


These three onyx, square cut in the middle, are also flanked by diamonds. They are set in 14k white gold.



These three round black onyx stone are set in 14k white gold. The ring has a nice bridal feel to it.

If you are looking for a black wedding ring or engagement ring, there are lots of options to choose from. Be creative, think outside of the box, but remember you'll have this ring on your hand forever.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Black Wedding Dress

I am in love with black and white weddings and the first question in a themed wedding is how far can you stray from a white wedding dress. Well, a black wedding dress is about as far as you can go, and it is perfectly acceptable.

White has always been a symbol of purity. It has been a religious symbol in weddings for centuries. In more recent decades, it has shifted from a symbol of absolute sexual purity to simply a symbol of virginity. Even more recently, it's just been the traditional wedding dress color and one cannot determine one's level of purity based on wedding dress color.

Even if you are truly a religious person, you are in no way bound to the color white for a wedding dress. White is not mandated as a dress color in any ancient religious texts that I know of. More likely, wedding garb was colorful and vibrant. There is also no mandate in any established religion that the dress must be white. Sure, you will find some older ladies in the church shocked by such radical ideas, but it is your day.

So, is a black wedding dress right for you?

You don't have to be goth to want a black wedding dress, although goths are the trendsetters in this arena.

It might help to be a little goth inside, though. Many people have hidden obsessions with black and there is so much that can be done with it.

As the bride, the decision will be ultimately yours, of course, but asking the groom his thoughts might be wise. Most grooms don't have intricate fantasies of their wedding day- wedding night, maybe, but not the actual ceremony. If he is more traditional and does not want to stray too far from the beaten path, that will be something to consider.

Also, the bridesmaids would probably be wearing black as well, unless you put them in white, which would be a fun twist on the black and white themed wedding.

Black Wedding Dress Selection

At this point, black wedding dresses have not taken off, yet. David's Bridal had no black wedding dresses, although there was a beautiful white one with black accents.

Where to find your wedding dress

You might not find a black wedding dress as all. But you can easily find a black prom dress that will surely be fancy enough, and many are stunning.

There is also a larger variety of black bridesmaids dresses to choose from, but many of those have shorter skirts that are not puffed out with toole. That is why I would go for a prom dress myself. A quick Amazon search landed me these results that could work beautifully as wedding dresses.


I love the fairy-princess look of the black sheer on the skirt. Although I could see this well sported by a true goth, I think any black adorer would be happy to walk down the aisle in this. The small picture doesn't show it, but the top is a little sparkly, which gives away it's prom roots, but it is not gawdy. Also, because it is a prom dress, the size range does not go to plus-sized.



This red bridesmaid dress also comes in black. The part that is shown as red here is black with the same black satin accents. Where this is a bridesmaid dress, or intended to be, there are not the same size restrictions. It is strapless, which is perfect for a dream black and white summer wedding.



This gown is also shown in red, but it has a gorgeous black counterpart. It is black satin, with a thin sash around the waste and it is strapless. Again, this dress is for the prom or for a bridesmaid, so it has an upscale look.

A side note on not wearing a dress that is made for a bride is that a prom dress or bridesmaid dress will be significantly less expensive than a bridal dress.

Good luck finding that black wedding dress.