Wedding Style

From simple to extravagant, short to long, and sheer white to palest blue, all oozing sexiness, romance, and so much more!

#1: Off-the-Shoulder Necklines

This one is among the favorite trends for wedding dresses this season – ultra-feminine and classic. The idea is for the bride to come off as both playful and regal. The fact that the hottest neckline is considered timeless just adds to its appeal. For brides who love the idea of a little V-neck wedding dress, there’s a plethora of figure-flattering design options, including the illusion high neckline and cap sleeves as well as adding a slightly bohemian touch with fabric shoulder streamers.

Designers to look out for: Christos Costarellos, Victoria Kyriakides, Jenny Packham, Oscar de la Renta, Kelly Faetanini, and Carolina Herrera.

#2: Colors

No longer restricted to the traditional white, wedding dresses now embrace colors while owning up a sophisticated and pretty look. Seen on the runway were exciting shades of gray, gold, pink, blue, and even mint green. While they won’t one up the classic white, they nevertheless prove you don’t have to wear white to your wedding. Seriously, you have our verdict: totally romantic and fresh transformations. In fact, they can even be treated as a wedding centerpiece and dictate the color palette and style of your entire wedding!

If you crave a bridal dress that emphasizes your personality and is essentially unique, you’ll fall in love with the trend following these designers: Hayley Paige, Monique Lhuilier, Naeem Khan, Sarah Nouri, Jenny Packham, Alvina Valenta, Kelly Faetanini, Houghton, and Theia.

#3: Crop Tops and Cutouts

It’s not just a plunging neckline that makes a statement and steals the show for modern designers. For an equally racy and cool look, 2015 fashion trends give us jumpsuits, belted shirtdress, crop tops, fun jackets, miniskirts, and…pants! Again, this is exactly the alternative you need to stand out from the rest who are wearing the conventional or tested ball gown of yesteryears. Quirky pumps or slip-on sneakers are completely your choice.

Two-piece wedding dresses are effortless and comfortable to dress with, giving the girl the sexy and delicate appearance she wants on her big day, while making it easy to “change” from the wedding look to the reception host in a moment. Designers of interest include Tara LaTour, Monique Lhuillier, Vera Wang, and JJ Mende.

Some like Anne Bowen, Delphine Manivet, and Houghton get serious with pretty, cozy sweaters, cropped coats, and winter outerwear to layer their collection. Plenty more like Rivini, Leanne Marshall, Anne Barge, Alvina Valenta, Chistos Coastarellos, and Kenneth Pool have their collections sport geometric cuts waist, under the neckline, along the silhouette’s sides, or on skirt with or without a lace insert.

#4: Capes and Capelets

What’s a wedding without some drama? Well, you can have one, but on your own terms this time! This year’s wedding dress trends include wearing capes while walking down the aisle. It’s a good option too for brides who want or have to cover up but not by committing themselves to sleeves or veils. Whether you’re a fan of superhero-styled ones or the classic coatlike, this 2015 fashion trend has got your back.

Some of the designers to ace up floor-length capes in a major way are Jean-Ralph Thurin, Badgley Mischka, Theia, Mira Zwillinger, Naeem Khan, Alberta Ferretti, Watters, and Angel Sanchez.

#5: Exclusive Fabrics

Another  of this year’s wedding dress hot trends is the use of unique fabrics like stardust lace, leather, cotton pique, or puckered jacquard, to make up for mesmerizing nuptials. Others still opt for breezy fabrics while some use see-through and revealing creations with sheer sleeves, open backs, and couple of single layers of tulle – strategically placed of course – on the catwalk.

Show some skin and set the town abuzz wearing sensual dresses from Romona Keveza, Hayley Paige, Judd Waddell, Amsale, Marchesa, Vera Wang, and Reem Acra who believe in brides more interested in highlighting their sexuality than a demure style.

#6: Party Fringe

Need something playful enough to dance at your reception in style? You may want to check out the latest wedding dresses coming from Hayley Paige and Naeem Khan. Feminine embellishment, whether they’re the tuft at sleeve or waist, or dusting lightly on the skirt, are a delight to sore eyes with the movement and shimmer they bring to any dress. Other designers of note include Jim Hjelm, Aria, and Sassi Holdord.

#7: Turtlenecks and Collars

Women who’d be saying ‘I do’ this fall and winter will applaud the creativity of designers in coming up with this form of high necks and majestic sophistication as part of the traditional wedding gown.

Favorite designers include Oleg Cassini, Marchesa, Pronovias, Delphine Manivet, Houghton, Claire Pettibone, Gemy Maalouf, and Maggie Sottero.

#8: Reimagining Florals

This isn’t your average flower pattern on a wedding dress. This time around, fashion trends celebrate oversized floral embellishments, adding another dimension and literally jumping off the fabric for a futuristic wedding look.

Some of the best looks for this dress are from Mira Zwillinger, Jim Hjlem, Marchesa, and Elizabeth Fillmore.

#9: Deep V

Finally, the one that ruled above the rest – the deep V. We had a dress that can easily be transformed into a red carpet winner for how the iconic neckline plunged all the way down to the waist.

Whether it were Inabal Dror’s longe-sleeve lace with a high front slit, Carol Hannah’s layered dress, Houghtons’ silk long-sleeve and floor-length dress, Angel Sanchez’s sleeveless crepe sheath and embroidered lace, or Mark Zunino’s beaded A-line tulle with nude details, style divas have a lot to catch up with this season.

Shortly after we became engaged…

I had the opportunity to travel to many countries off the beaten path with Fiance. Vietnam, stop number seven on our itinerary, had much to see and do; but we were told one thing that was an absolute must was to visit one of the many seamstress shops in Ho Chi Minh City and have garments custom tailored for us at an amazing price.

So I decided to have THE most important garment I will ever wear in my life made right there in Vietnam, to certain specifications I had in mind based on what I knew about my wedding plans:

1. The venue was highly likely to be an exotic beach.
2. 50 guests, tops.
3. My budget would probably be pretty meager.

Fast forward. Our venue is a landlocked microbrewery, there’s 125 individuals on the guest list (so far), and my budget has inflated to keep pace with my ever-changing tastes.

Ergo, I’m less than enamored with the dress hanging up in my closet right now. I’ve been battling my desire to stay under budget with my desire to wear, well, a wedding dress. The first twinge of buyer’s remorse hit me when I returned home from my travels and realized I missed out on the mother-daughter bonding experience that is wedding dress shopping. My mom wasn’t very subtle about her disappointment, although to her credit, was genuinely happy that I had something so unique and personal. Our conversation prompted me to suggest that perhaps we could go to one bridal salon and try on a bunch of dresses for fun.

That bridal salon was Kleinfelds. BIG mistake.

I chose the most stunning of dresses on the racks

I felt fabulously elegant playing dress up that day in exquisite ball gowns and couture mermaid dresses. I fell in love with a lace fit and flare silhouette that I knew would make jaws drop, and my consultant zeroed right in on exactly how I was feeling. She topped it off with a long veil and rhinestone headpiece, and I felt more bridal than I ever had wearing my Vietnamese dress.

My practical self won out over my emotional self that day and I left with no dress. But the damage is done. I’ve had a taste of what a wedding should feel like and I want more.

I happened to be talking to one of Fiance’s recently wedded co-workers a few months ago, and asked her about her dress. “Well,” she shared, “it’s a funny story, but I actually had two for my wedding…” She proceeded to tell me about falling out of love with her first dress. “Everybody has two dresses,” she said. “It’s just nobody tells you that.”

I tested her statement  with a friend who is designing our invitations. She revealed she also had two dresses for her wedding, but chose to use one for the ceremony and the other for the reception.

Perhaps I have found a way to have my cake and eat it too.

Ok… How many dresses do YOU have for your wedding?

I’d like to allow my attendants to choose any dress they want, as long as the dresses are all the same length and color. Are there any drawbacks or things to consider? I want to make sure they all enjoy and look good in the dresses they’ll wear (and have to pay for!).

Having bridesmaids coordinate, rather than match exactly, is one of today’s most important wedding trends. As you’ve noted, letting the attendants choose their own dresses is an easy way to make sure that each woman has a dress that suits her body type and personal style-and that she truly can wear again.

Keeping the hem lengths and dress colors consistent is an excellent place to start. Now, imagine for a moment that you’ve specified “floor length, royal blue.” Just looking at today’s popular bridesmaid styles, you could have one bridesmaid show up in a shiny satin tank dress, a second bridesmaid appear in a blue velvet top with a bouffant taffeta skirt, and a third bridesmaid arrive wearing a flowing blue crepe dress with an empire waist. These women seem to be attending three very different weddings.

So how do you avoid bridesmaid fashion chaos without inflicting a bridal stranglehold on your attendants’ personal style?

Start by defining the general mood of the wedding, so that your attendants understand the occasion they’re dressing for. If your tone is night-time elegance, the appropriate look is long, slim dresses with short or no sleeves. Your attendants can still decide if a narrow skirt or a slim-cut A-line is the best way to achieve a slender, elegant, polished look; likewise, they can choose their own favorite necklines and sleeve variations.

The general mood of the wedding goes part way toward narrowing your attendants’ choices of fabric. “To shine or not to shine” is an important question, as shiny and matte fabrics rarely look good together and seldom seem to be equally formal or informal. Worse yet, a shiny hunter green and a matte hunter green are seldom the same color. Do you want to see your attendants in velvet, crepe, shiny satin, matte satin, floaty gauze, or a matte fabric with a cotton or linen finish? Fabrics within the same family of weight and shine go a long way toward providing a coordinated look.

Next, narrow down the range of colors. Since there is no industry standard for “navy blue” or “hunter green,” telling attendants to pick a single color can be risky. There are several ways to reduce this risk. First, you can choose a color and fabric combination that minimizes the likelihood, or at least the visual impact, of differences in shade. While black is not yet a universally accepted color for bridesmaid dresses, many brides have had success with asking their attendants to each wear a black velvet dress of the attendants’ choice. Similarly, white and off-white daytime dresses in a cotton-type fabric tend to visually blend together regardless of differences in shade.

Second, you can specify a range of coordinating colors rather than a single color. Most dusty pastels go well together, as do most jewel tones, most autumn tones, and most bright pastels. A range of colors from white through ivory to beige also looks coordinated. This plan reduces the likelihood that two bridesmaids’ different interpretations of “pink” will clash horribly-and if they do, you can always put a blue attendant between them. For inspiration on coordinating color schemes that are stylish right now, head for a major department store. You can look for a placemat set that expresses your wedding them-or that you just plain like-and use that as the basis for mixing colors, or you can look in the scarf section for inspiration on this year’s fashionable looks.

Third, if having “the same” color is really important to you, consider going shopping with the bridesmaids or ordering all dresses from one manufacturer, so that they can choose different styles that come in roughly the same fabric. Major bridesmaid dress manufacturers often create several different dresses that can potentially coordinate.

Fourth, get a fabric sample, paint chip, crayon, or good look at the bridesmaids’ dresses before you choose flowers for their bouquets. You can use your flower choices-and any ribbons dangling from the bouquets-to help unmatching dresses coordinate. The right flowers can make even a “difficult” combination like light pink, bright pink, and peach into a coordinated look.