Birdcage Veils - Drama, Drama, Drama

One of my favorite fashion icons is back and I am so giddy about it I think I'm making my friends crazy. I love birdcage veils. They are mysterious, glamorous, and absolutely dramatic! There's so many great styles and samples out right now that I have to share.

With a birdcage veil there's different ways you can use them to add that dramatic effect to your wedding gown, or an evening gown too! (Can you say bachelorette party?)

You can look sweet and innocent with your veil (attached to a headband), or you can say ultra chic (attached to a simple comb). Or you can scream glamor with a vintage jeweled hair clip. Use feathers for fun flair, or just a simple strip of veil across the eyes for incredible mystery. Shake it up a little and make your birdcage veil your something blue! There's so much out there honey.

Some great veils I found include some sweet samples from Birdcage Veils. For the big and dramatic, try out Castle Bride (yum). You can also get some great veils from Hat Veils and My Wedding Veil.

And if you're feeling super DIY - a birdcage veil is incredibly easy, and inexpensive, to make.

But what dress do you wear a birdcage veil with? My first tip - just throw it on and see if it works with your dress. Overall, though, they look better with slinkier dresses (mermaid, sheath, etc). If you've got a nice vintage dress you're at a home run - dresses from the 20's to 50's look great in these cute little veils. I've also seen great pairing with corset dresses and lace gowns.

Yesterday I watched a fun movie - Fantastic Four 2 - and Jessica Alba had a great pairing of a birdcage veil with a floor length veil attached to her bun. It looked beautiful with her sheath dress with a little belt.

So try it out! Call your bridal boutique before you go and see if they have a sample veil you can try on with some dresses. Or just grab a half yard from the fabric store and pin it on as you're out the door.

Bottom line - birdcage veils can offer you all kinds of attitude for your bridal look. It can add any flavor of mystery, glamor, innocence that you want it to. One thing you're going to be guaranteed - an incredible dramatic entrance.

Amazing Accent for your Bridal Bouquet

Last month I was watching an episode of the 'Martha Stewart' show and was shown a new flower decoration technique that caught my heart and immediately convinced me to have my own bridal bouquet decorated this way.

In order to add accent to a bouquet of gorgeous Ecuadorian roses, Kevin Sharkey, Martha's editorial director of decorating, added 3 different methods of glittered roses.

Now, first breath, sounds a little funny, but believe me - they are amazing. Add a couple of these accented flowers to your bouquet (don't feel limited to roses) and it adds some amazing bling without the price tag.

There were 3 methods used to decorate these flowers (watch them in this video).

1. Spray the roses with a diluted glue and shake on glitter (matching color shade).

2. Brush diluted glue to the tips of the roses and shake on glitter (matching or slight contrast).

3. Dot on clear glue and shake on glitter (matching or contrast - you pick!).

The results are fantastic. Martha herself remarked that the third method made the roses look decorated with real jewels. And with bouquet bling being so popular right now, here's a fast and simple way to add such beauty without a massive cost.

Top Ten Tips to an Easily Green Wedding

More and more brides are jumping on the go-green bandwagon for an earth-friendly wedding. There's lots of ideas out there on how to have an uber green wedding, but some ideas are so outlandish, and other, well...what are some other ideas?

Well I'm glad you asked! Here's 10 easy tips for a green wedding:

1. Have your ceremony and reception at one location. Not much, I know, but you're saving your guests from having to drive to another location, and you only have one map you end up needing to put with the invitation. Saving on gas, trash, and money!

2. Have your wedding during the day. Use that natural sunshine as your lighting, and you're using less electricity to keep your party running.

3. Serve a family-style meal at the reception. Family style means less plates being used, which is less water and soap for washing, less chemicals in the water. And if you are using one-use plates and utensils, serving family style means less garbage after everything is over.



4. Use digital invitations. Websites like evite.com are coming up with more and more lovely email invitations that are definitely wedding-y. Everyone's on their email anyway, so be creative, surprising, and save money and paper.

5. When you have to buy something, buy it from a local, low-impact vendor. Weather it's your gown or aisle decorations, if you have to purchase an item, find a local vendor that uses organic and low-impact processes to create the item you are buying. Organic doesn't always mean they recycle, so find reviews on companies and make and educated decision. Local also means you're not paying for an item to be shipped from a separate location, which means less pollution from trucks and airplanes.

6. Use recycled rings and jewelery. Something borrowed is a great tradition, saving you money, and saving the environment from pollution caused by mining, chemicals, and the processes it takes to create jewelry. For your wedding rings, look to your family heirlooms, or buy rings made from recycled gold and stones by artists such as GreenKarat.com



7. Use local flowers for your bouquets and decorations. Work with a florist that will use organic, locally grown flowers that are native to your wedding's location. And don't use out of season flowers either as they are force-grown in hothouses with lots of chemicals and 24 hour artificial sunlight. Yuck.

8. Recycle everything. From leftover food (give to a local shelter) to your dress (give to Brides Across America, a program that donates gowns to couples in the military), the flowers (use for both the ceremony and the reception then gift to your church, cemetery, etc). And ask your vendors to do the same - ask your caterer to recycle his leftover foil, and your florist to use a compost for leftover clippings.

9. Don't do a huge wedding. It'll also save you money. Simple and sweet is a great way to go, spending less on decorations and custom this-and-that's. The environment gets less needing to be cleaned, trashed, transported, and stored.

10. Actually make the effort! Don't just set out to do it, actually do it! And tell your guests all about it! Tell them that you're planning an eco-wedding and you'll be surprised at the amount of help and support you'll get. Your family may end up coming up with some great ideas you never thought of!