Fan-tastic fashion accessory

If you are planning a destination wedding in the sun, and are worried about keeping yourself and your guests cool,  Boda Boutique has a great new selection of wedding fans that will do just that without putting a kink in your bridal look.   The white fans come in affordable paper, fabric or lace to suit all budgets and bridal styles.

Luxury Lace Bridal Fan

Keep cool on your wedding day with this beautiful Spanish fan.  Made of wood and lace,  this elegant fan won't look out of place next to your gown.

€29,00

Fashionable Flower Fan

Wooden fan with a modern print of pink flowers on the fabric.

€6,50

 

Sandalwood Fan

These lightweight fans are made of cut-out wood and have pretty sunflowers.  They are subtly frangranced with Sandalwood, and each fan comes in it's own organza pouch.  Large enough to keep all of your guests cool at a hot wedding in Spain, Cyprus, Italy or Greece.

€3,50

 

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Maggie Sottero

What I love about Maggie Sottero is that they offer such a wide range of styles, to fit any budget. While other designers focus on the luxury market (that wonderful combo of rich and thin), Maggie gowns offer couture style to brides of all shapes, sizes and means.

The Maggie Sottero collection gowns are undeniably glamorous, with plenty of diamante embellishment, embroidery and ruched fabric. Or, if you are looking for something simpler, the Destinations collection is made up of slinky, streamlined designs ideal for a wedding by the pool, or on the beach. In the Sottero & Midgley collection, the brand has teamed up with designer Kelly Midgley to create a line of dresses that explore exquisite and contemporary fabrics.

The collections also offer more colour choices than most, with dresses available in champagne, ivory, gold, as well as subtle shades such as 'blush' and a silvery 'oyster'.

Maggie Sottero is available at bridal stores throughout the world, and there is a handy store locator on their website.

More Resources:

View all the dresses at MaggieSottero.com

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The White Stuff - Finding Accessories for your Wedding

So you have found your perfect gown, and probably bought a veil in the bridal store too, but I am constantly astonished at how few boutiques stock other accessories such as shoes and bags to complement a wedding gown sale.

Not only is it bad business sense, but it is downright inconvenient for a bride who then has to tour her local shops, or spend hours online searching for a white bag that doesn't resemble a satin gymbag from her school years (á la most feeble online offerings) and the perfect pair of white kitten heels.

Well girls, here at WFF we have done some of the searching for you, and hope that the following can give you at least a place to start:

Wedding Shoes:

For the ultimate in style, check out Hen UK for handmade designer bags to suit any bride. From small and discreet to bold and beautiful.

Why not try artist outlets such as Etsy.com to find a designer who can create you a special, one-off bag to match your dress? Not only will you have an exclusive design, but you will get the warm fuzzies from supporting someone in their trade.

The Accessory Boutique offers a nice range of handbags in the UK, along with a collection of wedding shoes and other accessories. Wedding Mountain in the US has an even larger range of purses and shoes, some of which are dyable so that you can buy matching ones for your bridesmaids.

Shoes

It is a bit easier to find shoes than bags, with plenty of online specialty shops offering shoes for brides. From pumps to kittens to killer, Bellissima Bridal Shoes has one of the largest collections on the web, and we have to thank them for including some thoughtful pedicure goodies on their site too. Oooh, and they also have some nice bags, letting you kill two shipping-costs with one purchase.

Hen UK gets a second nod for their wonderful collection of white shoes for brides. Handmade, all shoes are comfortable and fashionable, something that us girls know from painful experience is not a common combination. They even have an amazing pair of bridal boots for those of you getting married in colder climates.

I have mentioned them before, and I will probably mention them again, but the reason I love Gina shoes so much is simply because they have such a great range of designs for brides. Whether your gown is long or short, voluptous or slinky, traditional white or glittering bronze, there will be a shoe for you.

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Pushing the boundaries of fashion - that Thom Browne wedding dress.

Gender confusion is nothing new to the world of fashion. Chanel practically started riots when they started a trend for tailored suits for women in the 50's, men in the 80's sported more eyeliner than women had ever dared to use, and the 90's saw a general androgynous ambiguity on the catwalks. Yet Thom Browne still managed to cause a bit of a stir at Fashion Week, with his Spring/Summer 09 show featuring plenty of skirt/trouser combos, and even a wedding dress.

The wedding gown outfit worn by a male model that was the finalé to Thom Browne's Spring/Summer tennis themed show, has been one of the most talked about designs of Fashion Week so far. Although there may not be a waiting list to purchase the outfit, my guess would be that enough designers will have taken note of the design for us to see tailored white blazers with black trim filtering into high street stores in time for Spring 09.

In a world where a general malais of 'been-there-bought-the-Tshirt' threatens to dampen creative thinking, (if it has all been done before, why bother?) fashion designers are one breed of artists who continue to inspire us anew.

While Thom Browne's sensationalist collections aren't designed with the average high-street consumer in mind, they challenge us to look past the limits of conventional or current clothing rules to find our own sense of style. And that is what couture fashion is all about.

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Rosa Clara

Rosa Clara is one of the biggest names in European wedding fashion, despite only starting the company in 1995. The brand has over 50 boutique's in Rosa's home country of Spain, with others scattered throughout the rest of Europe, South America and Mexico.

A new venture in New York is set to propel the fashion house into the high-end wedding market in the US.

Founder, Rosa Clara, was inspired to create gowns that changed the world of bridal fashion, and offered women a wider range of styles. Since then, she has revolutionized the wedding dress design industry, raising the bar for designers to come up with elegant yet interesting dresses, combining cutting edge fashion with a nod to the traditional roots that are essential to a wedding.

She has designed dresses for some of the most famous female celebrities in Spain, including Paulina Rubia, and Shaila Durcal.

The 09 collection from the fashion house boasts work by some of the famous designers in the world, such as Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld and one of my personal favourites, Jesus del Pozo. These designers have continued the company's trend of creating couture dresses for women who lust after something to express their own unique style, without being too flamboyant.


More Resources:

Rosa Clara, official website. (English and Spanish)

View Rosa Clara catwalk images at Wedding Style Magazine

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Got that sinking feeling? Avoid it with heel protectors.

We all know that beautiful high heels come with their drawbacks, one of which is that horrible sensation when you step onto a lawn, a beach, or someone's luxury linoleum flooring and feel your heels slowly sinking into the soft surface. The result- dirty, damaged shoes and holes stabbed into the lawn.

That's why I love the heel protectors sold by companies such as Solemates.com and PrettyPinkToes.co.uk These easy-to-use little gadgets slip onto your heels to stop you from sinking into soft surfaces. Keep your heels out of cracks, cobblestones and gaps in grates and don't worry about breaking or damaging a heel again.

They are also great for preventing damage to wooden floors and lino. Even better, they can easily be decorated with diamante, pearls, crystals and beads to personalise them.

Ideal for garden or beach weddings, or locations with expensive or old flooring. Many venues not even allow stilleto and other high heeled shoes for fear of damage to their flooring - with these little gizmos you can safely wear any shoes you please!

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Trash the Dress

It is often said that women never look more beautiful than when they are in their wedding dress. For most of us, it will be the most expensive dress we ever own and perfectly tailored to our shape. Our wedding day will one of the few times we have our make-up professionally applied, and a stylist will take several hours to coiffe our locks to perfection. All this considered, it seems a shame that we only have one day of photo ops.

While pre-wedding bridal portraits can capture the look, poses are usually basic and traditional, constricted by fear of damaging the dress before the big day.

This is where a Trash the Dress photo shoot comes in.

The idea behind Trash the Dress is to create high-fashion, stunning images, with the bride in the role of top model. Without the worry of damage, stains or tears, the photographer has a no-holds-barred freedom to work with the bride on creative poses in any environment.

Want an urban shoot? Perhaps a beach location? In your favourite spot in the woods? How about that field of wildflowers? Or perhaps you can show off your passion for horses, motorbikes or any other hobby that would create visually interesting images?

Photographers involved in the Trash the Dress idea are highly talented and creative, and enjoy finding ways to create meaningful and beautiful images by thinking 'outside the box'.

So if you don't plan on wearing your wedding dress again (and we hope you don't) and want to get the most out of it before it is stored away forever, give one of the Trash the Dress photographers a call, and throw caution, and your veil, to the wind!

Resources:

Read more about Trash the Dress by award winning Segerius-Bruce Photography

Trash the Dress Website (UK)

Trash the Dress Website (US)

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Bridal Jewellery of the Year Award

Bridal Jewellery of the Year award at the UK Jewellery Awards 2008 was won by Fameo.

The company presented two bridal collections, Tsarina and Imperial. Designer and company director Louise Davies, said that she believed the appeal of the collections were their sense of romance, and "timeless vibrance".

The Tsarina collection features soft pink pearls encapsulated in a network of fine gold with sparkling diamonds. The collection is bound to turn heads, noticeable because of it unique look as well as it's beauty.

Credit cards at the ready girls. . .

As with all exceptional jewellery designs, this collection comes with a luxury pricetag, with prices starting at 385 GBP for a pair of earrings, and reaching 3330 GBP for their necklace.

The more contemporary Imperial collection features baguette cut pink morganite stones and princess cut diamonds in asymetrical patterns. Perhaps the name of one of their pendants 'Shattered Chandelier' best describes the overall look of the collection, with the feminine pink colour of the morganite and traditional classicism of diamonds is offset by the quirky, modern layout of the stones. Prices start at 1255 GBP for their stunning ring, up to 6480 GBP for their 'Shimmering Dance' necklace.

See the collections at www.fameo.co.uk

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