I know, I know....Gown Bridal Chic

Where the hell have I been? I have no excuses. I have let the blog lapse. BUT, my wedding dress obsession has NOT lapsed, in fact it has only gotten worse. And in the meanwhile, while I've been lax on my blogging duties, there have been many wedding activities going on, two friends getting married, a new show on TLC called "Say Yes To That Dress" which is a MUST every Friday night for ANY woman who considers herself even slightly interested in wedding dresses.

So let's catch up on the news:

Friends getting married:

I am still looking for a pic from one friend's wedding, but in September yours truly flew over to Europe, Vienna to be precise, for a proper Austrian wedding. The bride, who I met for the first time (friends with the groom), is one of those beautiful, Ralph Lauren catalog women, who not only happens to be pretty and nice, but also has taste.

She wore a gorgeous Pronovias gown, which had a little jacket that she wore during the traditional (with a twist) Catholic ceremony.




After the ceremony, the happy couple hosted all of us at the most beautiful restaurant-great view of Vienna:


I usually do not comment on wedding decor, etc, but this wedding had a theme I absolutely LOVED-berries! Every table was a different kind of berry (we were strawberries) and everyone got a little jar of jam and even a live strawberry bush with little green unripened berries on them to take home. I did not bring one home, cause well, you never know if our government has decided live bushes pose an unidentified security threat and I might not be able to board the plane home, but regardless, I thought it was genius....


Back to the dress. At the wedding, the bride took off the little jacket to reveal a very classy two-strap gown. Interesting fact-according to Austrian tradition, the bride is not to take the veil off during the entire evening, including the ceremony, and has her veil removed by her mother when only the last guests of the evening remain (I may have gotten some of the details of this wrong as I happened to be one of the last, and drunkest, guests remaining...). Once the mother removes the veil, the bride is now officially not just a daughter, but a wife.





Now ladies, I know there are some eagle-eyed readers out there who must have noticed there was some bowage on this gown-a little bow on the front, and a bow right across the back, and you all know how this blog generally feels about bows, but let me just say, that if the girl in you just has to have a bow on her gown, this is the way to go. Small, not overwhelming to the gown, does not detract from the bride herself.


Oh, and I guess being inspired by a bride who wore a dress Style Diva could not knock, I have been seeing pretty dresses everywhere. While browsing DC Craigslist for FUGLIES to show you people, I instead got distracted by a not-so-fugly, which led me to the site for Ristarose Couture
and found some amazing pieces, including one I am now in love with and which is currently the front runner for a dress I would actually wear to my own wedding one day (photos below from Ristarose website).

This is the new love of my life:




And the rest aren't so bad either:







(the one above is called "Carmen")
And of course, for the girl that just HAS to be different on her wedding day: