wendylady2 AWFUL WEDDING DRESSES







SPRING 2011



Spring is in the air - the blossom is all coming out and the sun is at last shining, and therefore this is the traditional time of year to be thinking of your forthcoming wedding, and so it follows that this is also the best time of year for us to go and see what not to do...



Betcha thought that there wasn't a lot else to say on the subject of Awful Wedding Dresses after last year's post, didn't you....

Well, that's most assuredly not the case...









First off, I'll start with the best of this year's 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings' from Channel 4's documentary, as a lot of readers of this blog won't have seen it yet...should it appear in your local TV schedules, be sure not to miss it !!



BIG FAT GYPSY WEDDINGS



You all no doubt recall the Chav Weddings from my two previous posts of course - well, our very own Channel 4, here in the UK, made a big, and extremely popular documentary this year, all about the Romany way of life and culture, including of course, their wedding customs...and it got simply everyone talking non-stop about the latest episode and how utterly over the top, and ultimately trashy and cheap they all looked, even though they cost in excess of hundreds of thousands of pounds to put on...imagine Katie Price on speed and you get the picture !!



Well, having seen the intriguing documentaries about their lives and cultural customs, and researched quite a few of these weddings now, I can categorically say that I am still totally freaked out about how much they cost and how over-the-top trashy they look...



It matters not a jot to me that all the girls are devout Catholics, and stay virginal until they are married - well, bully for them !! Pardon me for pointing this out, but what does that matter if they are kept at an uneducated level, barely being able to read or write, and are expected to be married off into a life of servitude and drudgery, totally under the rule of their husband for the rest of their lives...

I mean - c'mon people - is this the twenty-first century or the fourteenth ?!!



After the documentaries were screened, some of the families featured in the programmes decided to sue Channel 4 for the way they were portrayed, claiming that they couldn't now get work, and couldn't now book function rooms for these events as people were totally biased against them directly as a result of the programmes - well, call me cynical, but they rather dug their own graves, didn't they ?!! The documentaries were totally factual, and showed us their way of life in all its glory - what's to sue for ?



Still, the weddings are amazingly entertaining - I love them for all their extravagant, showy, and totally tacky vulgarity - long may they continue !!

So here, feast your eyes on this little lot...



BRIDGET & TOMMY



Bridget is your typical teen Gypsy bride, with a penchant for a massive bank-busting dress, a diamanté tiara that looked like the Russian Crown jewels, and a veritable army of bridesmaids - all in deep pink dresses, and all just as huge as the bride's dress...







Here she is with her Matron-of-Honour, the chief bridesmaid...







And the rest...







JOLENE & MICHAEL



Jolene chose shocking-pink combined with black for her wedding party scheme, with her bridesmaids dressed a bit like Spanish riders in their black top hats and huge skirts, which bore more than a fleeting resemblance to Victorian riding habits...actually, this was one of the most attractive wedding schemes in this documentary as it veered away from the usual tack-fest show of wealth and was at least interestingly original...







She still had no less than ten bridesmaids and the biggest dress you have ever seen...this one was all white lace and trumpet sleeves with a massive stand-up collar like one of Elvis's more showy stage outfits...







Check out also the mother of the groom in her dark pink outfit with a spray-on tan and the tighter-than tight skirt !!







JOAN FUREY & PATRICK



Joan Furey was a teensy bit older than your average Gypsy/Romany/Traveller bride, in that she was all of 22 years old and had held down a job before she got hitched - practically unheard of in the community, and almost considered too old for marriage compared to the usual age of 16 or thereabouts... she had one of the most over the top weddings in the documentary.







Her huge dress - which had 7 net underskirts - was trimmed with heart-shaped Swarovski crystals. There was a final layer of satin, covered in yet more crystals, and a 20ft train. It's not easy to move around with so much fabric attached, and Joan had a hard time getting into her glass Cinderella coach...



Her bridesmaids were bedecked out in turquoise and white versions of her own dress, with what looked like belly dancer's bodices with netting panels and corset boning down to the frilly layers of the skirt !!











Her 20 foot train looked like a mound of soap bubbles as it was carried by her bridesmaids behind her...







After only a year of married life, it transpires that Joan has filed for divorce from Patrick, even though she is now expecting his baby...

She admits that the wedding should never have taken place, and that she should have trusted a nagging doubt following their engagement.



'I’ll always regret marrying him,' she told the Press. 'I’ve torn up my wedding photos and I’ve sold my dress. We clashed endlessly over little things. We simply didn’t get on, didn’t understand each other and couldn’t communicate.'



Divorce is rare among the travelling communities, and she is now back with her parents who live in Manchester, while the baby is born...



SAM NORTON & PATRICK LEE



Sam Norton is a little different from the rest of these teen brides in that she isn't herself from any kind of travelling family - she is marrying into a way of life that will see her willingly settle down into a round of cleaning, cooking and having babies with her new husband Patrick...

She was very intent on having their wedding in the best Traveller-community style just to prove that she had accepted their way of life if nothing else...for one thing, she was determined to have a typical traditional wedding dress...







By 'traditional', of course, Sam meant over-the-top fairytale princess, and her 20st ( that's 280 lbs !! ) of multi-layered chiffon gown was exactly that...the pink creation had 24 petticoats and an 8ft train. It was embellished with mechanical butterflies on the bodice and UV lights in the veil and under the skirts, all powered by 12 batteries stowed under the petticoat.







Extraordinary - talk about the fairy on top of the Christmas tree !! Sam would not disclose how much her family spent on the dress, because 'gypsies don't talk about money', but admits it cost 'thousands'.



















Her bridesmaids were all decked out in baby pink and black in the best trashy style - oh look - I feel a check-list coming on...



Corsets - why, of course - check !!

Lacings in contrasting colours - check !!

Butterflies to match the bride's dress - check !!

Mini-skirt length with full length veil-like trains at the back - check !!

Huge bows all over their bums - check !!



Oh, it's all so predictable ...



RED-NECK & CAMOUFLAGE-THEMED WEDDINGS



Now then, here's the thing...

I guess that the nearest American equivalent of the European Traveller / Gypsy / Romany wedding - purely in the sense of the rest of the population looking on in totally gob-smacked fascination at the sheer low-down vulgarity of it all, would perhaps arguably be the Southern states Red-neck wedding - including the hunting fraternity, who like to bear arms, just in case they run across the odd dangerous deer, and think that the Confederate flag is a good idea for a wedding theme...these are people who wear camouflage print clothing for almost everything they do...including getting married !!



Remember - not all the people who happen to live in one of the Southern States are like this, just as not all gypsies are illiterate or trashy...it's a simple truth, but an important one for all those people who are reading this and thinking "How dare she..."



GENEVA & KYLE



Geneva and Kyle decided to celebrate their wedding in true Red-neck style, and had camouflage print pretty much everywhere, except notably the bride's dress, which appeared to be quilted dark green...just lovely !! I'm particularly impressed with the round white flowers in each quilted point - the whole dress looks like it has been upholstered in the best Chesterfield tradition...







You will also note straightaway, of course, that the camouflage-print used is not the conventional dark green and brown blotches army-style, but what they call oak-forest camouflage, which mimics lots of branches, twigs and leaves...







Here is another couple who went for the same sort of thing...this time, they used the orange highlights as a contrasting detail to give the whole event some much needed bright colour !! Orange is traditionally used to warn other hunters that there are humans in range of the shooting...







For the men in the wedding party, it's apparently not always obligatory to wear a smart suit, even though it's a wedding...







For all those men who may be reading this and who are dreading the wearing of a tux to their own wedding, don't even think about going down this route instead - trust me, bare chest plus camo-dungarees is not a Good Look !!







Here's one bride who went for reversible dresses for her bridesmaids - and you all know what that means ?

They can wear them afterwards...hurrah !!

I bet they're just thrilled...







Camouflage wedding dresses and, indeed, the whole camouflage wedding theme seems to be so popular down South, that I question the sanity of most of the Southern States population where this is concerned !! Can it really be true ? How many of you have been invited to a wedding like this ? Be honest now...







A camouflage wedding dress offered for sale and a similarly decorated cake...I rather like the deer's heads as a wedding cake topper...







The Groom's party in their best oak-leaf camo print suits with orange waistcoats, shirts and ties...



Of course, not every Red-neck wedding is all about camouflage print...there is also the small question of the Confederate flag - does anyone really still use this flag as a rallying call ? I can't quite believe this - the States have after all been United for some time now...pardon me for stating the obvious !!



This sequinned Prom dress is also being offered for sale as a wedding dress on some sites...







For the Groom and his party, there is also the option of Confederate-flag tie and braces - or suspenders as Americans call them...







So - what does the Red-neck girl wear for her wedding night under her wedding dress - well of course, what else - camouflage undies and even camo pasties...







The Red-neck site's own caption for these was "Nothing like a camo dress to bring your soldier to attention" which made me laugh out loud...



CHEAP TRASH



So what do I mean exactly by cheap and tacky - it's all so relative, isn't it ? What one likes in a wedding dress is such a personal thing,don't you think ? However, there are some designs which I reckon everyone agrees are simply so awful that they really shouldn't be allowed to be out there on the web without some comment from me...



You may well remember some of this range being featured the first time I wrote about wedding dress horrors...well you will be ecstatic to learn that they still exist apparently, and there are more...they are all just as ghastly as the first little lot...







Aren't they marvellous ?!!



This time around, I also discovered a wonderful website called DresSale.com, which has done that supremely irritating thing of running the two words together, resulting in a wrong spelling for at least one of them...this site has some amazingly awful dresses for sale and so I thought that I'd share some of them with you in this post...

I have also included the price where possible, so you can see what utterly cheap trash they really are !!



The first dress up is a marabou-trimmed ballerina affair, costing all of $137, which unfortunately has been photographed in such a way that it looks like she is sitting on the loo...







$126 will buy you this corset and suspenders design - just to give the Groom a bit of an idea about what may or may not be in store for him later on in the evening...come to think of it, this bodice bears more than a passing resemblance to some of the Gypsy wedding dresses above - what fun !!







$136, and this delightfully cheap white satin affair can be yours...I have to say that I really dislike all that fussy ruching up the front of the skirt, and the black stones around the neckline are just that bit too much...







$137...well, this one's not too bad, if you have no objection to Pepto-Bismol pink...or the fact that it looks like every little girl's Prom-dress fantasy...







The last two dresses in this section aren't from DresSale.com, and so I can't enlighten you as to how expensive they are, but let me reassure you that you would probably be able to afford them...should you so desire !!



This one looks just like a giant garter around the knees...sorry, but once you see that, you really can't see anything else !!







Here's one for the Romany wedding - only you'd have to exchange that skirt for one that is three times the size - the bodice however is perfect !!







OVER-EMBELLISHMENT



The other thing that knocks a wedding dress over into ''Awful' territory is when it has been over-embellished somewhat in the execution stage ...too much of everything is just as bad as not enough !!



Here are some more delights from DresSale.com...



$115...this dress, for instance, involves far too much carpet !!







$133...for this price, it has far too much black everywhere, in my opinion, especially around the hemline !! There's just something that doesn't quite work about white net over black...







$136...this dress should have had a simple black lace over-skirt to match the bodice, say down to the first set of handkerchief points maybe - but no - instead, the designer just went overboard with the fiddly bits of lace all drifting down over the hips, giving this dress an annoyingly fussy appearance...









$137 UK-style - hmm, what is 'UK style' exactly ? That's how the site describes this pink dress with its huge fabric flowers somewhat randomly fixed all over the dress...to the best of my knowledge, our dresses don't look like this necessarily !!







$159...I just love this !!

I mean, what on earth, possessed the photographer to ask the model to pose as if she is inspecting her own armpit ?!!



Anyway, in addition to the strange pose, there is far too much turquoise beading here - it looks so cheap and plasticky...and I think it's the extra turquoise flowers all around the hem and down the edge of the veil that's actually doing it ! If it weren't for all that cheap embroidery, the waistline beading would look far better quality!!







$159...Black and white is quite a new fashion in wedding dress designs and it can look amazing - original and a good variation on the classic white look...here, however, it doesn't work at all. The main reason is the big round embroidered flowers right on the tip of each boob - and they're not even equally placed !! One's slightly higher than the other, which gives her a slightly uneven look...very bad !!



How much better this would have looked if it had a flower right in the centre of the Empire-line bodice...







As to other over-embellished dresses, here are a few from elsewhere on the internet, which look like they need to have some things taken away... this one, for instance, has far too many flowers decorating the bodice - or at least too many colours...I would personally lose the lemon colour and maybe the palest pink shade too...







Oh my Gawd - far too many feathers !! Quite like the kinky boots though !!







Actually, this is a copy of Yuna's wedding dress from 'The Final Fantasy', and it's a pretty good copy too - here's the original:-







Thank you to



This one has far too much pleating in too many fussy little sections...







And this one has far too many red poppies sprinkled all over the skirt and bodice...and the model looks about twelve - is this even a wedding dress ? Oh no, this is a bridesmaid dress...oh well, same applies...







THE DEEPLY STRANGE



This section is where I have dumped everything that is so totally out there that I really don't know where else to put them - they deserve a category all of their own, in my opinion !!



So, here I give you the Shower-curtain dress...





Now, I know that a lot of you really like the quasi-Medieval Elven-styling from the LOTR movies, and adapting this type of design for a wedding dress seems to be a very popular thing to do, especially if you are hoping to theme your wedding along those lines...and yet, and yet...



$132 - well, I'm sorry, but her sleeves simply appear to have split their seams...they will be supremely annoying all evening - trust me !!









Perhaps you could ponder instead on the feather sprigs all over this amazing creation...bare midriff and all...







Of course, we shouldn't forget the ever-resourceful Etsy folk, who have contributed so generously to these Awful Wedding posts in the past...here, I present :



ETSY HORROR No 1







She has priced this monstrosity at $150 - is she having a laugh ? Is she crazy ?!! This dress has clearly been rehashed together from all sorts of old bits of lace, doilies, tablecloths that have been worn through, and for all we know, old bits of underwear...so in the circumstances, I think $150 may be a little generous !!



Here's another bit of 'deeply strange' madness...





I mean, really - WTF ?!!



Next up is another Etsy gem, because the 'weddings' tag is rich with promise - simply rife with random bits of old tat on there, which no-one in their right mind would pay any money for, never mind good money...



ETSY HORROR No 2



This is really odd - a minty-green cotton bed-jacket in the style that little old ladies wear, accessorised with a fresh green cabbage...







Don't ask me why, but the lady wearing it has mysteriously decided that one of those cabbage leaves would make a great little hat...







This was listed as a "Wedding Shrug - Romantic RenaissanceTea-rose vest with 3/4 Rococo baroque sleeves."



It's only $35 - go on, you know you want one...



ETSY HORROR No 3



My choice of the Etsy delights stretched to one more item - this amazingly awful, made-to-measure wedding-dress, created solely out of random design crochet circles in white cotton thread on a satin background...







I mean, why wouldn't you want on ?!!



These last three in the 'Deeply Strange' section are just about the best in my opinion - they hit the mark right on the money, so to speak...

The first is this couple who decided to do away with the convention of actually wearing clothing at their wedding - well, I mean, why would you when you have the option of body-paint ?!!...







This last lady might as well have been wearing body-paint too, as her dress certainly left something to be desired ...I mean - this is a wedding dress - really ?!!









I came across this amazingly funny wedding party rather late in my selection process and threw them in here because they are undoubtedly the strangest of the lot...







DESIGNER DROSS



Of course, it's not only the DIY crowd who come up with the worst designs - sometimes the professionals cock it up big-time too. Just check out this little lot...







Jean-Paul Gaultier...he was obviously having a bit of a moment in both these collections...mind you, he is a bit of a head-case sometimes !!







Oscar de la Renta...Oscar isn't so much of a crazy head-case - he is normally pretty level-headed and usually produces some seriously beautiful designs, but in this case, I think the fur skirt may be a bit much...







Tsai Meiyue...Chinese fashion designer Tsai Meiyue produces some really amazing creations for her show during Chinese Fashion Week, and this one really caught my eye for its sheer whackyness...







Vera Wang...even the normally elegant Vera Wang can have a distinctly off-moment...







Victorio & Lucchino...Spanish design duo Victorio & Lucchino went a bit crazy with this seaweed-like creation - and I'm not at all sure about that lacy cap tied under the chin...







Yohji Yamamoto...of course, the whole crazy wedding dress design category is led by Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, who decided that a bride should really carry her own wedding canopy with her at all times during the ceremony...



WEDDING TROUSSEAU STUFF



Traditionally, the Wedding Trousseau consisted of all the fabrics a bride would need to create her own wedding dress, and her own going away outfit to wear when she leaves on her honeymoon, and included too all her accessories, jewellery, make-up, lingerie and other bits and bobs for a well-equipped wedding ceremony, reception, evening party and subsequent honeymoon...it used to also include all the linens for her actual married life with her new husband, including bedlinen, table-linen, bath-towels, tea-towels and underwear etc, etc



I have collected in here, all the other stuff that comes under this heading - everything that isn't actually a wedding dress specifically, but is still worthy of a mention !!





How about the swimming-cap with veil attached ...







Or these white lacy platform clogs...a must-have for any bride for comfort and a bit of a rise...



What about the lingerie - well, instead of making this site a bit of a porn-fest, I have selected the single thing that I found that was really daft...here I give you the veiled thong...in both long and short versions !!









In addition to the veiled thong, I also found this wedding bikini, just in case you get drunk and can't seem to remember your wedding vows - this will remind you !!







Now then - this must be the absolute ultimate vulgar wedding trash item from the Etsy site - I'll just post the picture and tell you that it costs $195, and is lovingly hand-made of course...







It is of course a ring-pillow for the ceremony, but maybe not one that you would like your six-year old ring-bearer to carry up the aisle...and yes - it is exactly what you think it is !!



So much for the brides, what about those poor creatures, the Bridesmaids...they have endured so many undignified dresses in the name of keeping Bridezilla happy over the years, haven't they ?!! Be honest now - how many of you actually liked that dress you had to wear when your best friend tied the knot?...



Just to make you feel better about the whole sorry affair, here are some bridesmaids from times gone by, who all freely submitted their embarrassing photos to various websites across the web, with a view to sharing their single most hellish day on earth, with like-minded and sympathetic people - *snerk...



BRIDESMAIDS FROM HELL



I shall start with the Swinging Sixties...well, not quite so swinging for some, as you will see...

As some of these dresses may be from the early 70s, I've grouped the dates together, as it's quite difficult to date them exactly sometimes...



LATE 1960S / EARLY 1970S



Oh my Good Lawd - Laura Ashley had a lot to answer for, hadn't she ?!!

Eau-de Nil green floral full-length dresses, all frilled right up to the neck and down to the wrist with green satin sashes and frills all down the front too - and not forgetting those huge bows in their hair - what was the bride thinking ?!! Ghastly...







Adam has just remarked that the bride in this photo below, doesn't look quite right - has she had a head transplant ? Her head looks a teensy bit too big and slightly detached from the body - I think we should be told !!

Her bridesmaids however are right enough, but what a drab dress they were made to wear - this looks like the homespun kind of dress that the Amish wear over there in Pennysylvania......







Now then - these dresses do actually match the curtains...don't they ? Well, not quite, but they are so close...yes, definitely another design from the decade that taste forgot !!







More floral freakiness from the 70s - I'm just so glad that this large scale floral print is done, aren't you ?!! I am liking the bride's waterfall veil though...







Now then - here's a wedding photo to conjure with - how about these guys in their black and white tweed, and pink outfits ?!! And the hair - oh my God, the hair...







There's nothing quite like a Christmas wedding...Santa bridesmaids are just the thing !!







LATE 1970S



This is the time when the 'Gone With the Wind' dresses were all the rage, just for a very short time...







Aaargh - this is painful...more GWTW hatefulness...





Far too much fussy flouncyness, in my opinion - but unfortunately, this wasn't confined to the very late 70s - oh no - the 1980s were just around the corner...



1980s



Hmmm, I detect a definite theme running through all the 80s dresses - remember those Austrian Blinds we were all hankering after for our windows ? I certainly remember them, because I was making them for private customers and they used so much fabric !! Well, the dresses weren't much better...











So much satin, so many flounces with little bows - so little taste...

All this turquoise and powdery blue not to your taste ? How about a little gold lamé then ?...







As you can see.faces have been blurred out or chopped off altogether to protect the innocent...not by me, I hasten to add !!



1990s...



To the last decade of the 20th Century then, and as you can see, the general taste level didn't get any better...I remember having a dress rather like this, but I was about thirty pounds lighter than these ladies...









Now then - if you are thinking of getting married yourself, there is a very good sound reason why your bridesmaids shouldn't wear white - unless you will be wearing a colour, of course...how else will the Groom pick you out of the crowd ?!!







This is a very strange wedding group - all the bridesmaids are wearing butterfly wings...and, oh my God - patchwork dresses...well, they're actually layers of different fabrics hanging down in triangles giving a somewhat patchwork-like effect - and that's good enough for me !!







GRUESOME GROOMS



Of course, it takes two to wed - something you could easily forget when you browse around the wedding websites - they all seem to be so totally geared to what the female contingent will be wearing - it seems that there is tons of choice for the bride, bridesmaids and the happy couple's mothers, but not that much for the men...



So, if you are stuck between going for the traditional black tux and secretly wanting something a little more, let's say, original, and can't quite decide on what the men involved should be wearing...well, here are some interestingly daft ideas for the men that maybe should be given an extra wide berth !!



Approach with caution...







On the whole, buttonholes should bear some vague resemblance to a proper flower, and not a toddler's craft project - or indeed, a baby vegetable...



When it comes to suits, the black tux is the classic choice for very good reasons - first of all, it doesn't quarrel with the bride's dress, which may well be white, but could also be any shade of pastel or even red or black...therefore the Best Man's and the Groom's respective outfits should let the bride shine - she should be the centre of the fashion attention, but the men should be ultra-smart even though the wedding may well be taking place on the beach - there's no excuse for not bothering...



Generally, the accepted best practice is to introduce the same colour as the bridesmaids are wearing into their outfits via the bow-tie and buttonhole - this makes for a very good co-ordinated look for the whole wedding party. The Bride's bouquet will also have elements of the same colour in the flowers too...



However, she may take it into her head that co-ordinating the ties and the flowers with the colour theme of the wedding is simply not enough - and their entire outfit should be the same colour - this was a very popular fashion back in the 1970s actually, as many of you will remember...however, it should be done with a modicum of common sense. Just take a look at these two and think again...











Liberace would be proud...

Of course, white for the Groom is also a popular choice, but behold - it could magically transform your prospective husband into the 70s Waiter from that cheap Italian Bistro down the road - you know, the one that stuffs its candles into empty Chianti bottles...







It's also getting very popular to be very casual with the men's attire, particularly if you are opting for that ever-attractive beach wedding idea...but would you really want your wedding photos to look like you're on some cheap package holiday ?...







Of course, you could just let the men wear what they want - but you may possibly end up with photos like this...







THEMED WEDDING IDEAS



In last year's wedding post like this, I covered an awful lot of ground where themed weddings were concerned, mainly based on popular films, and TV programmes...and so this time I thought I would take a brief look at the idea of period costume-themed weddings, since they are the next most popular idea, what with re-enactment societies and Renaissance Faires gaining immense popularity over in the US and in the UK, and even across Europe various costumed festivals take place every year with thousands of people getting all dressed up...



MEDIEVAL ERA COSTUME



This is one of the most popular eras for the costume-themed wedding - possibly because of the 'Lord of the Rings' style of the costumes...I really like this era for dresses actually, and this is the general era of the Festival that takes place in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic that we attend every year in June - we get dressed up, along with the entire town, and indulge in a whole weekend of spit roast barbecues, jousting tournaments, parades through the town, and pints of the locally brewed Budweiser beer...marvellous !!











CERI & SIMON'S TUDOR WEDDING



This is amazing - from the





"Ceri decided to have a themed fancy dress style wedding based very loosely around Tudor and Elizabethan times. These wedding photos show it was a huge success. Ceri picked a wide time span for her guests to choose a character and was relaxed if they veered off slightly into another era as Robin Hood and Maid Marian did!







In fact she even did this herself. Her dress was intended to be in true Elizabethan style, but she and the London dress designer decided that her figure was better suited to a skirt style of a much later period and it pays homage to C18th panier skirts rather than the Tudor farthingale skirt. The bodice does show Elizabethan influence in the styling, but the main thing is that it is a glorious poppy-red silk dress that suited Ceri."







The girl in the turquoise dress beside her is also a little out of time - her dress is slightly too early for Tudor - however, never mind, fashions didn't change that exactly anyway !!

Don't they make a great couple ?!!











Here's Queen Elizabeth I in her amazing white dress...

and below, her father Henry VIII...













This is a perfectly marvellous example of a historically themed wedding, staged in a beautiful setting and with willing participants who really entered into the whole spirit of the day - beware though that if you are thinking about this kind of theme, not everyone will necessarily want to dress up in historical costume...



JO & TONY COX'S 1940s WORLD WAR II WEDDING



This is turning out to be quite a popular wedding theme this year, what with all the Union Jacks being flown everywhere on various merchandise ranges, and the whole 'Make Do and Mend' ethos being very much in keeping with our modern re-using and recycling practices...

Here's one couple who really went for this theme in a big way. Their attention to detail was exellent...



Bride and groom Jo and Tony Cox turned their whole wedding ceremony into a World War II tribute. Friends and family came dressed in army fatigues complete with helmets and replica guns while Tony sported a smart American airforce officer's uniform. Jo, who wore a 1940's style white wedding gown that she fashioned herself, turned up to the registry office in a US Army staff car to the sound of Lancaster Bombers.







A timed black-out heralded Jo's arrival as a haunting recording of Neville Chamberlain's radio speech announcing war on Germany boomed around the wedding suite. The sounds of Luftwaffe bombs and the Blitz then played out before an all-clear siren signalled the start of the ceremony.



Jo's two sons; Michael, 13 and Jack 9, and Tony's two boys Richard, 15 and James, 12, acted as ushers while Tony's daughter Sophie, 10, was one of the bridesmaids.



After the service, held at Hartlepool Town Hall theatre, guests moved to the reception hall, which had been kitted out as a war time ball room. Union Jack bunting and red, white and blue decorations everywhere gave the hall its patriotic flavour...











I love this theme and feel that it is very much in keeping with the whole Royal Wedding street party feeling everywhere, and also in tune with the whole fashion for vintage recycled clothing and the village fete feel...





I love themed weddings, but I would add a word of caution - you may feel in years to come that your wedding was more of a fancy-dress party than a ceremony to celebrate your getting hitched, so if you fancy a themed wedding, make sure that it's a theme that really means something important to you and your husband to be...



This is the first post for Wedding Month being celebrated on this blog - be sure to keep track of the next one...actually, my next post will be looking at the latest couple of red carpet awards ceremonies that have just taken place in the US, but after that I will be returning to my Wedding Month theme !!





Spring is in the air - the blossom is all coming out and the sun is at last shining, and therefore this is the traditional time of year to be thinking of your forthcoming wedding, and so it follows that this is also the best time of year for us to go and see what not to do...Betcha thought that there wasn't a lot else to say on the subject of Awful Wedding Dresses after last year's post, didn't you....Well, that's most assuredly not the case...First off, I'll start with the best of this year's 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings' from Channel 4's documentary, as a lot of readers of this blog won't have seen it yet...should it appear in your local TV schedules, be sure not to miss it !!You all no doubt recall the Chav Weddings from my two previous posts of course - well, our very own Channel 4, here in the UK, made a big, and extremely popular documentary this year, all about the Romany way of life and culture, including of course, their wedding customs...and it got simply everyone talking non-stop about the latest episode and how utterly over the top, and ultimately trashy and cheap they all looked, even though they cost in excess of hundreds of thousands of pounds to put on...imagine Katie Price on speed and you get the picture !!Well, having seen the intriguing documentaries about their lives and cultural customs, and researched quite a few of these weddings now, I can categorically say that I am still totally freaked out about how much they cost and how over-the-top trashy they look...It matters not a jot to me that all the girls are devout Catholics, and stay virginal until they are married - well, bully for them !! Pardon me for pointing this out, but what does that matter if they are kept at an uneducated level, barely being able to read or write, and are expected to be married off into a life of servitude and drudgery, totally under the rule of their husband for the rest of their lives...I mean - c'mon people - is this the twenty-first century or the fourteenth ?!!After the documentaries were screened, some of the families featured in the programmes decided to sue Channel 4 for the way they were portrayed, claiming that they couldn't now get work, and couldn't now book function rooms for these events as people were totally biased against them directly as a result of the programmes - well, call me cynical, but they rather dug their own graves, didn't they ?!! The documentaries were totally factual, and showed us their way of life in all its glory - what's to sue for ?Still, the weddings are amazingly entertaining - I love them for all their extravagant, showy, and totally tacky vulgarity - long may they continue !!So here, feast your eyes on this little lot...Bridget is your typical teen Gypsy bride, with a penchant for a massive bank-busting dress, a diamanté tiara that looked like the Russian Crown jewels, and a veritable army of bridesmaids - all in deep pink dresses, and all just as huge as the bride's dress...Here she is with her Matron-of-Honour, the chief bridesmaid...And the rest...Jolene chose shocking-pink combined with black for her wedding party scheme, with her bridesmaids dressed a bit like Spanish riders in their black top hats and huge skirts, which bore more than a fleeting resemblance to Victorian riding habits...actually, this was one of the most attractive wedding schemes in this documentary as it veered away from the usual tack-fest show of wealth and was at least interestingly original...She still had no less than ten bridesmaids and the biggest dress you have ever seen...this one was all white lace and trumpet sleeves with a massive stand-up collar like one of Elvis's more showy stage outfits...Check out also the mother of the groom in her dark pink outfit with a spray-on tan and the tighter-than tight skirt !!Joan Furey was a teensy bit older than your average Gypsy/Romany/Traveller bride, in that she was all of 22 years old and had held down a job before she got hitched - practically unheard of in the community, and almost considered too old for marriage compared to the usual age of 16 or thereabouts... she had one of the most over the top weddings in the documentary.Her huge dress - which had 7 net underskirts - was trimmed with heart-shaped Swarovski crystals. There was a final layer of satin, covered in yet more crystals, and a 20ft train. It's not easy to move around with so much fabric attached, and Joan had a hard time getting into her glass Cinderella coach...Her bridesmaids were bedecked out in turquoise and white versions of her own dress, with what looked like belly dancer's bodices with netting panels and corset boning down to the frilly layers of the skirt !!Her 20 foot train looked like a mound of soap bubbles as it was carried by her bridesmaids behind her...After only a year of married life, it transpires that Joan has filed for divorce from Patrick, even though she is now expecting his baby...She admits that the wedding should never have taken place, and that she should have trusted a nagging doubt following their engagement.'I’ll always regret marrying him,' she told the Press. 'I’ve torn up my wedding photos and I’ve sold my dress. We clashed endlessly over little things. We simply didn’t get on, didn’t understand each other and couldn’t communicate.'Divorce is rare among the travelling communities, and she is now back with her parents who live in Manchester, while the baby is born...Sam Norton is a little different from the rest of these teen brides in that she isn't herself from any kind of travelling family - she is marrying into a way of life that will see her willingly settle down into a round of cleaning, cooking and having babies with her new husband Patrick...She was very intent on having their wedding in the best Traveller-community style just to prove that she had accepted their way of life if nothing else...for one thing, she was determined to have a typical traditional wedding dress...By 'traditional', of course, Sam meant over-the-top fairytale princess, and her 20st ( that's 280 lbs !! ) of multi-layered chiffon gown was exactly that...the pink creation had 24 petticoats and an 8ft train. It was embellished with mechanical butterflies on the bodice and UV lights in the veil and under the skirts, all powered by 12 batteries stowed under the petticoat.Extraordinary - talk about the fairy on top of the Christmas tree !! Sam would not disclose how much her family spent on the dress, because 'gypsies don't talk about money', but admits it cost 'thousands'.Her bridesmaids were all decked out in baby pink and black in the best trashy style - oh look - I feel a check-list coming on...Corsets - why, of course - check !!Lacings in contrasting colours - check !!Butterflies to match the bride's dress - check !!Mini-skirt length with full length veil-like trains at the back - check !!Huge bows all over their bums - check !!Oh, it's all so predictable ...Now then, here's the thing...I guess that the nearest American equivalent of the European Traveller / Gypsy / Romany wedding - purely in the sense of the rest of the population looking on in totally gob-smacked fascination at the sheer low-down vulgarity of it all, would perhaps arguably be the Southern states Red-neck wedding - including the hunting fraternity, who like to bear arms, just in case they run across the odd dangerous deer, and think that the Confederate flag is a good idea for a wedding theme...these are people who wear camouflage print clothing for almost everything they do...including getting married !!Remember - not all the people who happen to live in one of the Southern States are like this, just as not all gypsies are illiterate or trashy...it's a simple truth, but an important one for all those people who are reading this and thinking "How dare she..."Geneva and Kyle decided to celebrate their wedding in true Red-neck style, and had camouflage print pretty much everywhere, except notably the bride's dress, which appeared to be quilted dark green...just lovely !! I'm particularly impressed with the round white flowers in each quilted point - the whole dress looks like it has been upholstered in the best Chesterfield tradition...You will also note straightaway, of course, that the camouflage-print used is not the conventional dark green and brown blotches army-style, but what they call oak-forest camouflage, which mimics lots of branches, twigs and leaves...Here is another couple who went for the same sort of thing...this time, they used the orange highlights as a contrasting detail to give the whole event some much needed bright colour !! Orange is traditionally used to warn other hunters that there are humans in range of the shooting...For the men in the wedding party, it's apparently not always obligatory to wear a smart suit, even though it's a wedding...For all those men who may be reading this and who are dreading the wearing of a tux to their own wedding, don't even think about going down this route instead - trust me, bare chest plus camo-dungarees is not a Good Look !!Here's one bride who went for reversible dresses for her bridesmaids - and you all know what that means ?They can wear them afterwards...hurrah !!I bet they're just thrilled...Camouflage wedding dresses and, indeed, the whole camouflage wedding theme seems to be so popular down South, that I question the sanity of most of the Southern States population where this is concerned !! Can it really be true ? How many of you have been invited to a wedding like this ? Be honest now...A camouflage wedding dress offered for sale and a similarly decorated cake...I rather like the deer's heads as a wedding cake topper...The Groom's party in their best oak-leaf camo print suits with orange waistcoats, shirts and ties...Of course, not every Red-neck wedding is all about camouflage print...there is also the small question of the Confederate flag - does anyone really still use this flag as a rallying call ? I can't quite believe this - the States have after all been United for some time now...pardon me for stating the obvious !!This sequinned Prom dress is also being offered for sale as a wedding dress on some sites...For the Groom and his party, there is also the option of Confederate-flag tie and braces - or suspenders as Americans call them...So - what does the Red-neck girl wear for her wedding night under her wedding dress - well of course, what else - camouflage undies and even camo pasties...The Red-neck site's own caption for these was "Nothing like a camo dress to bring your soldier to attention" which made me laugh out loud...You may well remember some of this range being featured the first time I wrote about wedding dress horrors...well you will be ecstatic to learn that they still exist apparently, and there are more...they are all just as ghastly as the first little lot...Aren't they marvellous ?!!This time around, I also discovered a wonderful website called DresSale.com, which has done that supremely irritating thing of running the two words together, resulting in a wrong spelling for at least one of them...this site has some amazingly awful dresses for sale and so I thought that I'd share some of them with you in this post...I have also included the price where possible, so you can see what utterly cheap trash they really are !!The first dress up is a marabou-trimmed ballerina affair, costing all of $137, which unfortunately has been photographed in such a way that it looks like she is sitting on the loo...$126 will buy you this corset and suspenders design - just to give the Groom a bit of an idea about what may or may not be in store for him later on in the evening...come to think of it, this bodice bears more than a passing resemblance to some of the Gypsy wedding dresses above - what fun !!$136, and this delightfully cheap white satin affair can be yours...I have to say that I really dislike all that fussy ruching up the front of the skirt, and the black stones around the neckline are just that bit too much...$137...well, this one's not too bad, if you have no objection to Pepto-Bismol pink...or the fact that it looks like every little girl's Prom-dress fantasy...The last two dresses in this section aren't from DresSale.com, and so I can't enlighten you as to how expensive they are, but let me reassure you that you would probably be able to afford them...should you so desire !!This one looks just like a giant garter around the knees...sorry, but once you see that, you really can't see anything else !!Here's one for the Romany wedding - only you'd have to exchange that skirt for one that is three times the size - the bodice however is perfect !!The other thing that knocks a wedding dress over into ''Awful' territory is when it has been over-embellished somewhat in the execution stage ...too much of everything is just as bad as not enough !!Here are some more delights from DresSale.com...$115...this dress, for instance, involves far too much carpet !!$133...for this price, it has far too much black everywhere, in my opinion, especially around the hemline !! There's just something that doesn't quite work about white net over black...$136...this dress should have had a simple black lace over-skirt to match the bodice, say down to the first set of handkerchief points maybe - but no - instead, the designer just went overboard with the fiddly bits of lace all drifting down over the hips, giving this dress an annoyingly fussy appearance...$137 UK-style - hmm, what is 'UK style' exactly ? That's how the site describes this pink dress with its huge fabric flowers somewhat randomly fixed all over the dress...to the best of my knowledge, our dresses don't look like this necessarily !!$159...I just love this !!I mean, what on earth, possessed the photographer to ask the model to pose as if she is inspecting her own armpit ?!!Anyway, in addition to the strange pose, there is far too much turquoise beading here - it looks so cheap and plasticky...and I think it's the extra turquoise flowers all around the hem and down the edge of the veil that's actually doing it ! If it weren't for all that cheap embroidery, the waistline beading would look far better quality!!$159...Black and white is quite a new fashion in wedding dress designs and it can look amazing - original and a good variation on the classic white look...here, however, it doesn't work at all. The main reason is the big round embroidered flowers right on the tip of each boob - and they're not even equally placed !! One's slightly higher than the other, which gives her a slightly uneven look...very bad !!How much better this would have looked if it had a flower right in the centre of the Empire-line bodice...As to other over-embellished dresses, here are a few from elsewhere on the internet, which look like they need to have some things taken away... this one, for instance, has far too many flowers decorating the bodice - or at least too many colours...I would personally lose the lemon colour and maybe the palest pink shade too...Oh my Gawd - far too many feathers !! Quite like the kinky boots though !!Actually, this is a copy of Yuna's wedding dress from 'The Final Fantasy', and it's a pretty good copy too - here's the original:-Thank you tokhaoskomix for pointing this out...it still has too many feathers though for a real wedding dress, which I don't doubt it is, since it came from a wedding website - although it isn't nearly as awful as this next one...This one has far too much pleating in too many fussy little sections...And this one has far too many red poppies sprinkled all over the skirt and bodice...and the model looks about twelve - is this even a wedding dress ? Oh no, this is a bridesmaid dress...oh well, same applies...This section is where I have dumped everything that is so totally out there that I really don't know where else to put them - they deserve a category all of their own, in my opinion !!So, here I give you the Shower-curtain dress...Now, I know that a lot of you really like the quasi-Medieval Elven-styling from the LOTR movies, and adapting this type of design for a wedding dress seems to be a very popular thing to do, especially if you are hoping to theme your wedding along those lines...and yet, and yet...$132 - well, I'm sorry, but her sleeves simply appear to have split their seams...they will be supremely annoying all evening - trust me !!Perhaps you could ponder instead on the feather sprigs all over this amazing creation...bare midriff and all...Of course, we shouldn't forget the ever-resourceful Etsy folk, who have contributed so generously to these Awful Wedding posts in the past...here, I present :She has priced this monstrosity at $150 - is she having a laugh ? Is she crazy ?!! This dress has clearly been rehashed together from all sorts of old bits of lace, doilies, tablecloths that have been worn through, and for all we know, old bits of underwear...so in the circumstances, I think $150 may be a little generous !!Here's another bit of 'deeply strange' madness...I mean, really - WTF ?!!Next up is another Etsy gem, because the 'weddings' tag is rich with promise - simply rife with random bits of old tat on there, which no-one in their right mind would pay any money for, never mind good money...This is really odd - a minty-green cotton bed-jacket in the style that little old ladies wear, accessorised with a fresh green cabbage...Don't ask me why, but the lady wearing it has mysteriously decided that one of those cabbage leaves would make a great little hat...This was listed as a "Wedding Shrug - Romantic RenaissanceTea-rose vest with 3/4 Rococo baroque sleeves."It's only $35 - go on, you know you want one...My choice of the Etsy delights stretched to one more item - this amazingly awful, made-to-measure wedding-dress, created solely out of random design crochet circles in white cotton thread on a satin background...I mean, why wouldn't you want on ?!!These last three in the 'Deeply Strange' section are just about the best in my opinion - they hit the mark right on the money, so to speak...The first is this couple who decided to do away with the convention of actually wearing clothing at their wedding - well, I mean, why would you when you have the option of body-paint ?!!...This last lady might as well have been wearing body-paint too, as her dress certainly left something to be desired ...I mean - this is a wedding dress - really ?!!I came across this amazingly funny wedding party rather late in my selection process and threw them in here because they are undoubtedly the strangest of the lot...Of course, it's not only the DIY crowd who come up with the worst designs - sometimes the professionals cock it up big-time too. Just check out this little lot...Jean-Paul Gaultier...he was obviously having a bit of a moment in both these collections...mind you, he is a bit of a head-case sometimes !!Oscar de la Renta...Oscar isn't so much of a crazy head-case - he is normally pretty level-headed and usually produces some seriously beautiful designs, but in this case, I think the fur skirt may be a bit much...Tsai Meiyue...Chinese fashion designer Tsai Meiyue produces some really amazing creations for her show during Chinese Fashion Week, and this one really caught my eye for its sheer whackyness...Vera Wang...even the normally elegant Vera Wang can have a distinctly off-moment...Victorio & Lucchino...Spanish design duo Victorio & Lucchino went a bit crazy with this seaweed-like creation - and I'm not at all sure about that lacy cap tied under the chin...Yohji Yamamoto...of course, the whole crazy wedding dress design category is led by Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, who decided that a bride should really carry her own wedding canopy with her at all times during the ceremony...Traditionally, the Wedding Trousseau consisted of all the fabrics a bride would need to create her own wedding dress, and her own going away outfit to wear when she leaves on her honeymoon, and included too all her accessories, jewellery, make-up, lingerie and other bits and bobs for a well-equipped wedding ceremony, reception, evening party and subsequent honeymoon...it used to also include all the linens for her actual married life with her new husband, including bedlinen, table-linen, bath-towels, tea-towels and underwear etc, etcI have collected in here, all the other stuff that comes under this heading - everything that isn't actually a wedding dress specifically, but is still worthy of a mention !!How about the swimming-cap with veil attached ...Or these white lacy platform clogs...a must-have for any bride for comfort and a bit of a rise...What about the lingerie - well, instead of making this site a bit of a porn-fest, I have selected the single thing that I found that was really daft...here I give you the veiled thong...in both long and short versions !!In addition to the veiled thong, I also found this wedding bikini, just in case you get drunk and can't seem to remember your wedding vows - this will remind you !!Now then - this must be the absolute ultimate vulgar wedding trash item from the Etsy site - I'll just post the picture and tell you that it costs $195, and is lovingly hand-made of course...It is of course a ring-pillow for the ceremony, but maybe not one that you would like your six-year old ring-bearer to carry up the aisle...and yes - it is exactly what you think it is !!So much for the brides, what about those poor creatures, the Bridesmaids...they have endured so many undignified dresses in the name of keeping Bridezilla happy over the years, haven't they ?!! Be honest now - how many of you actually liked that dress you had to wear when your best friend tied the knot?...Just to make you feel better about the whole sorry affair, here are some bridesmaids from times gone by, who all freely submitted their embarrassing photos to various websites across the web, with a view to sharing their single most hellish day on earth, with like-minded and sympathetic people - *snerk...I shall start with the Swinging Sixties...well, not quite so swinging for some, as you will see...As some of these dresses may be from the early 70s, I've grouped the dates together, as it's quite difficult to date them exactly sometimes...Oh my Good Lawd - Laura Ashley had a lot to answer for, hadn't she ?!!Eau-de Nil green floral full-length dresses, all frilled right up to the neck and down to the wrist with green satin sashes and frills all down the front too - and not forgetting those huge bows in their hair - what was the bride thinking ?!! Ghastly...Adam has just remarked that the bride in this photo below, doesn't look quite right - has she had a head transplant ? Her head looks a teensy bit too big and slightly detached from the body - I think we should be told !!Her bridesmaids however are right enough, but what a drab dress they were made to wear - this looks like the homespun kind of dress that the Amish wear over there in Pennysylvania......Now then - these dresses do actually match the curtains...don't they ? Well, not quite, but they are so close...yes, definitely another design from the decade that taste forgot !!More floral freakiness from the 70s - I'm just so glad that this large scale floral print is done, aren't you ?!! I am liking the bride's waterfall veil though...Now then - here's a wedding photo to conjure with - how about these guys in their black and white tweed, and pink outfits ?!! And the hair - oh my God, the hair...There's nothing quite like a Christmas wedding...Santa bridesmaids are just the thing !!This is the time when the 'Gone With the Wind' dresses were all the rage, just for a very short time...Aaargh - this is painful...more GWTW hatefulness...Far too much fussy flouncyness, in my opinion - but unfortunately, this wasn't confined to the very late 70s - oh no - the 1980s were just around the corner...Hmmm, I detect a definite theme running through all the 80s dresses - remember those Austrian Blinds we were all hankering after for our windows ? I certainly remember them, because I was making them for private customers and they used so much fabric !! Well, the dresses weren't much better...So much satin, so many flounces with little bows - so little taste...All this turquoise and powdery blue not to your taste ? How about a little gold lamé then ?...As you can see.faces have been blurred out or chopped off altogether to protect the innocent...not by me, I hasten to add !!To the last decade of the 20th Century then, and as you can see, the general taste level didn't get any better...I remember having a dress rather like this, but I was about thirty pounds lighter than these ladies...Now then - if you are thinking of getting married yourself, there is a very good sound reason why your bridesmaids shouldn't wear white - unless you will be wearing a colour, of course...how else will the Groom pick you out of the crowd ?!!This is a very strange wedding group - all the bridesmaids are wearing butterfly wings...and, oh my God - patchwork dresses...well, they're actually layers of different fabrics hanging down in triangles giving a somewhat patchwork-like effect - and that's good enough for me !!Of course, it takes two to wed - something you could easily forget when you browse around the wedding websites - they all seem to be so totally geared to what the female contingent will be wearing - it seems that there is tons of choice for the bride, bridesmaids and the happy couple's mothers, but not that much for the men...So, if you are stuck between going for the traditional black tux and secretly wanting something a little more, let's say, original, and can't quite decide on what the men involved should be wearing...well, here are some interestingly daft ideas for the men that maybe should be given an extra wide berth !!Approach with caution...On the whole, buttonholes should bear some vague resemblance to a proper flower, and not a toddler's craft project - or indeed, a baby vegetable...When it comes to suits, the black tux is the classic choice for very good reasons - first of all, it doesn't quarrel with the bride's dress, which may well be white, but could also be any shade of pastel or even red or black...therefore the Best Man's and the Groom's respective outfits should let the bride shine - she should be the centre of the fashion attention, but the men should be ultra-smart even though the wedding may well be taking place on the beach - there's no excuse for not bothering...Generally, the accepted best practice is to introduce the same colour as the bridesmaids are wearing into their outfits via the bow-tie and buttonhole - this makes for a very good co-ordinated look for the whole wedding party. The Bride's bouquet will also have elements of the same colour in the flowers too...However, she may take it into her head that co-ordinating the ties and the flowers with the colour theme of the wedding is simply not enough - and their entire outfit should be the same colour - this was a very popular fashion back in the 1970s actually, as many of you will remember...however, it should be done with a modicum of common sense. Just take a look at these two and think again...Liberace would be proud...Of course, white for the Groom is also a popular choice, but behold - it could magically transform your prospective husband into the 70s Waiter from that cheap Italian Bistro down the road - you know, the one that stuffs its candles into empty Chianti bottles...It's also getting very popular to be very casual with the men's attire, particularly if you are opting for that ever-attractive beach wedding idea...but would you really want your wedding photos to look like you're on some cheap package holiday ?...Of course, you could just let the men wear what they want - but you may possibly end up with photos like this...In last year's wedding post like this, I covered an awful lot of ground where themed weddings were concerned, mainly based on popular films, and TV programmes...and so this time I thought I would take a brief look at the idea of period costume-themed weddings, since they are the next most popular idea, what with re-enactment societies and Renaissance Faires gaining immense popularity over in the US and in the UK, and even across Europe various costumed festivals take place every year with thousands of people getting all dressed up...This is one of the most popular eras for the costume-themed wedding - possibly because of the 'Lord of the Rings' style of the costumes...I really like this era for dresses actually, and this is the general era of the Festival that takes place in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic that we attend every year in June - we get dressed up, along with the entire town, and indulge in a whole weekend of spit roast barbecues, jousting tournaments, parades through the town, and pints of the locally brewed Budweiser beer...marvellous !!This is amazing - from the www.fashion-era.com Ceri and Simon chose to have a Tudor themed wedding:-"Ceri decided to have a themed fancy dress style wedding based very loosely around Tudor and Elizabethan times. These wedding photos show it was a huge success. Ceri picked a wide time span for her guests to choose a character and was relaxed if they veered off slightly into another era as Robin Hood and Maid Marian did!In fact she even did this herself. Her dress was intended to be in true Elizabethan style, but she and the London dress designer decided that her figure was better suited to a skirt style of a much later period and it pays homage to C18th panier skirts rather than the Tudor farthingale skirt. The bodice does show Elizabethan influence in the styling, but the main thing is that it is a glorious poppy-red silk dress that suited Ceri."The girl in the turquoise dress beside her is also a little out of time - her dress is slightly too early for Tudor - however, never mind, fashions didn't change that exactly anyway !!Don't they make a great couple ?!!Here's Queen Elizabeth I in her amazing white dress...and below, her father Henry VIII...This is a perfectly marvellous example of a historically themed wedding, staged in a beautiful setting and with willing participants who really entered into the whole spirit of the day - beware though that if you are thinking about this kind of theme, not everyone will necessarily want to dress up in historical costume...This is turning out to be quite a popular wedding theme this year, what with all the Union Jacks being flown everywhere on various merchandise ranges, and the whole 'Make Do and Mend' ethos being very much in keeping with our modern re-using and recycling practices...Here's one couple who really went for this theme in a big way. Their attention to detail was exellent...A timed black-out heralded Jo's arrival as a haunting recording of Neville Chamberlain's radio speech announcing war on Germany boomed around the wedding suite. The sounds of Luftwaffe bombs and the Blitz then played out before an all-clear siren signalled the start of the ceremony.Jo's two sons; Michael, 13 and Jack 9, and Tony's two boys Richard, 15 and James, 12, acted as ushers while Tony's daughter Sophie, 10, was one of the bridesmaids.After the service, held at Hartlepool Town Hall theatre, guests moved to the reception hall, which had been kitted out as a war time ball room. Union Jack bunting and red, white and blue decorations everywhere gave the hall its patriotic flavour...I love this theme and feel that it is very much in keeping with the whole Royal Wedding street party feeling everywhere, and also in tune with the whole fashion for vintage recycled clothing and the village fete feel...I love themed weddings, but I would add a word of caution - you may feel in years to come that your wedding was more of a fancy-dress party than a ceremony to celebrate your getting hitched, so if you fancy a themed wedding, make sure that it's a theme that really means something important to you and your husband to be...This is the first post for Wedding Month being celebrated on this blog - be sure to keep track of the next one...actually, my next post will be looking at the latest couple of red carpet awards ceremonies that have just taken place in the US, but after that I will be returning to my Wedding Month theme !! Tags: weddings 57 Witnesses

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