Blogs

Bridal's perennial favorite accessory: the flower. We're swooning over these floral-embellished gowns, perfect for the garden wedding. Floral accents have a super feminine feel, which works wonderful for bridal. We love the soft texture flowers imbue to any gown. This style is ideal for a spring or summer wedding. Here, a few faves from White by Vera Wang, Reem Acra, and Mia Solano.

—Naima DiFranco

Forget sparkling diamonds — the most grand proposal gesture of all might also be the most practical!

ERA Real Estate surveyed 1,000 people in committed relationships and found that 50% of female respondents in their 20s would rather forgo a diamond engagement ring and put that cash towards a down payment on a house. (In fact, 18 percent of participants said they had already skipped getting a ring for this very reason.) Interestingly, there appears to be a generational gap with this perception: only eight percent of women in their 50s and two percent of women in their 60s agreed.

Photo Credit: iStock

Furthermore, from those surveyed in the ERA study, 89 percent said their love bond was strengthened by buying a home together. With rising housing costs, socking away every little bit counts — according to U.S. Census data, the median sales price of new homes sold in the U.S. was $260,100 in January 2014. Factor in an unstable job market, student debt, and another potentially huge purchase to save up for — the wedding! — and our dollars are stretched now more than ever before. 

Oprah Winfrey's generosity is legendary — we're still kicking ourselves that we never got a chance to visit her talk show in Chicago (who could forget when her entire audience received new cars?). Now she's outdone herself once again by gifting the dress off her back to one lucky Twitter fan from Atlanta!

Brandi (who goes by the name @snobabi23) sent a funny tweet to the media mogul gushing over the stunning Brian Bennier dress that she wore on Essence Magazine's cover. Ask and ye shall receive:

To her surprise, a package arrived in the mail just one week later:

We can't wait to see a photo of Brandi on her big day! Props to her for scoring a wedding gown with such fascinating history.

Photo Credit: Twitter

Plus, read about another unbelievable wedding dream that came true recently.

Unleash your inner princess dreams with a frothy layered ballgown. Layers are incredibly graceful because of the way they flow and sway gently as you glide down the aisle. With the light airiness of a layered ballgown, you will appear to be floating on air. We love this style paired with an elegant dreamy veil. Soft waves in the hair add a modern edge to this look.

The key to looking good in a layered ballgown is ensuring the waist is tight and fitted. This gives you a gorgeous hourglass look. Here a few of our favorite frothy ballgowns by Watters, Oleg Cassini for David's Bridal, and Ella Rosa.

—Naima DiFranco

The sub-freezing weather makes me want to stay inside with comfort food and candlelight. Here are some ways to put a cozy spin on evenings at home. 

Le Creuset Heritage French Skillet
Growing up with this storied heavy-duty enameled cast iron cookware, the classic ombré-orange “Flame” was always my favorite color, but I’m now quite partial to “Quince,” pictured here (also available in “Flame” and “Cherry”). The skillet is based on a pan from Le Creuset’s design archives ($99.99, williamssonoma.com).

Dansk Kobenstyle Casserole
Vintage Kobenstyle pieces have been selling furiously on eBay, so thank goodness Dansk saw fit to bring back this groovy line of Danish cookware. Bonus points: The lid can also be used as a trivet for serving (from $80, dansk.com).

Birdkage Shibori Mini Bib Apron
These aprons are so gorgeous, I’d not only wear this for cooking, I’d keep it on for the finished meal — the perfect hostess-with-the-mostess wear ($90, birdkagestyle.com).

I am super excited to share that I lost another five pounds last week and broke through my plateau (finally!), bringing my total weight-loss to 50 pounds so far! I am officially more than halfway toward my goal of 135 pounds, and I couldn’t be happier. Now that spring time is just around the corner, it’s time to buckle down and complete my journey.

To break through my plateau, I just kept up with my workouts and have been eating healthy. I’ve also been trying to add strength training into my workouts, which I believe helped. I’ve been doing my routines from Bonne Marcus twice a week on top of our weekly training session. Diet-wise, I've continued trying to cut down on my carbs and sugar while making sure I get a ton of vegetables and proteins in. My favorite recipe from last week was Spinach and White Bean Soup from Fitness Magazine. It's so easy to make because all you need to do is throw everything into your slow cooker. It's the perfect meal to bring to work for lunch — it's full of vegetables and kept me full until I got home for dinner. 

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Messina / Courtesy of Lauren Conrad via Instagram

One thing we're most excited to see at Lauren Conrad's upcoming wedding is what she'll choose as her wedding gown. The former Hills star has made a name for herself as a fashion icon since the show went off the air, and she's a designer in her own right as well. She recently shared her top tips for finding your dream dress on her blog, and we couldn't agree more with her guidelines. Here, Conrad's three mantras:

1. Don't knock it 'til you try it
We hear this tip over and over from designers: A dress can look completely different on the rack than it does on your body. And even if you have your heart set on certain silhouette, keep an open mind and try on other styles as well — you never know what'll look best until you try it on. "I always imagined myself in an elegant ball gown with lots and lots of tulle. But just for fun, I decided to try on some sleeker, more sophisticated gowns when I was dress shopping," Conrad wrote. "I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the sleeker dresses and realized that I should stay open-minded during my dress search."

A wedding may take months or even a few years to plan, but sometimes fate can lend a hand. Just ask Maria Simpson and Matthew Chamberlain, whose love story began at Bungalow, a bar in California, and culminated with a courthouse wedding in New York City. Their last-minute nuptials on Feb. 20th came together so serendipitously that it made us believe in fairy tales again.

The odds were stacked against them from the beginning, including a 13-year age difference (she's 22 and he's 35) and living thousands of miles apart (she's originally from California and is now based in New York; he's originally from England and now resides in Cali). What got this couple through all of these challenges (and then some) was the unwavering belief that they were destined to end up together — no matter what. 

When they began discussing their future, Matthew suggested that they apply for wedding competitions to help alleviate some of the financial stress that lay ahead. They were selected to compete in Bridal Guide's Race for the Rock cityHunt in NYC, which came as a relief, and Matthew made plans to fly out from Los Angeles. However, things got turned upside down when Maria's father had a heart attack a few days before the scavenger hunt was supposed to take place; Matthew rushed to his aid and spent the night in the hospital with him. Once Maria's dad was stable, they decided to move forward with the race.

How would you explain your career to a three-year-old? Wedding photographer Chris Thornton decided to stage a wedding photo shoot using his toddler's toys to help him understand!

The whole Toy Story gang joined Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head for their charming wedding celebration.