Jaclyn & Terry were married November 8, 2008 in Oakville Ontario. With 250 guests, the couple was able to keep to their budget by prioritizing.  The splurge: photography. The save: DIY invitations, favors and smart cake and centerpiece shopping.

Here’s their photographer’s (Tiffany from life images.) take on how the couple made their wedding their own.

When we met Jaclyn & Terry, we instantly loved them.  They are warm, funny and extremely talented artists.  They told us that they were going to try and incorporate their artistic skills into the wedding to personalize the day as well as help meet the budget.  The first thing we saw was the invitations.  They were so beautiful.  Totally personalized and you could tell they were handmade.  Jaclyn told me she actually really enjoyed this part, doing just a few each evening.

In the months leading up to the wedding, we learned a lot about this couple.  Terry is a huge “Dukes of Hazard” fan.  Instead of incurring the expense of a limo, Jackie secretly aquired the services of a replica General Lee car to transport them to the reception.  What a great surprise for Terry and an awesome way to get cool photos!!!

At the reception, I could help noticing the very cool, funky “Mad Hatter” cake the couple chose.  They later told me they found a photo of a cake on the internet and asked Mary Lou from Wild Flower cakes if she could do something similar.  For just $400, it turned out beautifully and along with the center pieces, really made the reception decor come together.  The center pieces were rented from the venue saving the couple 1/2 of what they would have paid to purchase them.

As a thank you, the couple gave each guest a personalized mug (discountmugs.com – $0.99) with homemade candies inside.  The cutest little drawing of the couple was on the mugs & the candies were made by Jaclyn’s new sister-in-law.

I was really impressed with Jaclyn & Terry’s ability to pull together such a beautiful wedding on a tight budget.  The day went smoothly and everyone in attendance had a wonderful time.

Photography by life images.

Like I’ve said before, I’ve changed my tune about carnations.  I used to think of them as filler flowers, but I’ve seen more and more examples of how they can really be beautiful.  Not to mention budget friendly.

Here are some great examples of carnations, that thanks to Twitter, I recently saw on Project Wedding. Carnations look best tightly bunched. And I think monochromatic is best.  At 55 cents a stem wholesale, they really can’t be beat.

If you have a great carnation example, please send it to me and I’ll post it for others to see.

Wow, what a crazy week I’ve had! Well, more like a crazy yesterday. All of my stuff from Indiana arrived in a moving trailer, and it was up to my roommate and me to get it all up to the apartment. So I’m pretty pooped, even today. But I got all my old bridal magazines! I love looking through bridal magazines…well, love/hate. Have I talked about this before?

Martha Stewart is pretty much the only bridal mag I buy, because I love all her ideas and her style. The problem is, the magazines give me an unrealistic picture of what to expect for my wedding–like, what I need to have, and what I can expect to pay. Here, let me flip to a random page of this season’s Martha Stewart Weddings and we’ll see if I can demonstrate what I mean.

Okay, here we go. Page 120, which covers the invitations for the Perfect Palette wedding. Beautiful, custom, letterpress invitations. Actually, there are only three pieces to this one–the invitation, the reply card, and the thank you note. But in the notes off to the side, the stationery is listed as $2,500-$3,500 for a set of 100. Seriously! Maybe I’m cheap. But I really can’t afford to spend half my wedding budget on stationery. I really wish I could, but I can’t.

Actually, I was thinking about stationary this week. I finally picked out the exact Pantone colors for the wedding. If you don’t know what Pantone is, it’s a color system that graphic designers and printers use to make sure that the hues they use will always be exactly the same. Here is what I have:

So yes…the purple might change a bit, now that I look at it. But anyway. Then I made a beginning sketch of an invitation idea yesterday, but when I look at it today, all I can think is “Blah!” I could really make it crazy, but it depends on how picky my and Jarrod’s parents are about wording, what with them splitting the bill and all. But here is my sketch. Those are birds at the bottom, can you even tell? Sigh.Well, anyway. I’ve got until October until I really have to start worrying about this. My big question is, do I make it all cohesive? Especially if I am designing the cake? No, I’ll figure it out. This wedding stuff! Sometimes I just want to elope. But not really. Well, sort of.

Karen Tierney from Studio Trousseau is back with more great information and advice.  This time, she offers her expertise about how to find the wedding dress that you look and feel your best in.  Not only does she share a great overview of fashion history, but she also helps dissect the “if you are”, “then you should wear” information which is abundant – and sometimes confusing.  If you have a “how do I make my….” question, this post is for you!

“In preparation for writing this blog, I did a little research of my own. There are many good web sites (this one included) on the subject that say that if you are shaped like ‘this’  then you should wear a gown like ‘this’ or conversely, avoid a gown like ‘this’. I think these are very useful tips and should be taken into consideration. But… what if you don’t quite know what your shape is? Or you are a little of this and a little of that?

For example, under the blanket category of ‘Pear shape’, what if you are 5’ 10” with a bust of 31 and a hip of 40? or 5’ with the same measurements? What if you have a long waist, or a short waist, or long legs or short legs…you get the idea…the possibilities are sort of endless with the shapes of a figure. Then when you factor in weight, age, personality, and desired effect and it can be overwhelming. No wonder brides go a bit mad with this process!

I began thinking about what information I could offer that is unique to my background (history and design) and thought of 2 areas that I might offer as some additional or ‘alternative’  advice.

First, I want to talk about body styles and an abbreviation of fashion history for a moment. In just the last 110 years fashion has embraced many different ‘styles’ of bodies. These should all sound familiar and perhaps you can relate to one or another.

To start, at the turn of the century (1890–1900), women were heavily corseted giving a ‘wasp’  sort of shape. Much of the style was left over from Victorian times. Black was popular because England’s Queen was in mourning. Long waists, large busts pushed up to reveal a décolletage. Hips were in. If they weren’t very busty they used bust augmentation or padded their gowns.

Queen Victoria died in 1901 and everything changed. It was a new century and a new world, the industrial revolution created many jobs for women. Suffragettes were pushing for rights of women. There were new studies about the detrimental effect of corsets, and the benefits physical activity. Bicycling became very popular so they needed clothing they could move in. The dresses became very soft, colorful, shorter, with many layers and beautifully feminine.

By the 20s women chopped their long feminine hair off into ‘bobs’. Fashionable waistlines were down around the hips or none at all. Small athletic bodies were in fashion. Small busted, straight up and down…no curves.

Then, the Depression hit and no one was buying new clothes. At that point the movie industry was in full swing and they did their best to offer an escape from peoples difficult lives.  Art Deco was popular too. The lines for fashion became long flowing gowns cut on the bias (at a 45 degree angle from the straight grain of fabric) draping over tall thin small busted, small-hipped bodies.

In the 40s, it was World War I I that changed fashion. Cutting fabric ‘on the bias’ was considered wasteful and the ‘uniform’ look was all the go. Men’s clothes for women…after all women were doing men’s work. They wore padded shoulders, square and tailored suits…even for weddings. Shapely, but sturdy bodies were popular.

In the 50s, when men returned from the war, it was a time for women to be very feminine: back to small waists full skirts. Think Donna Reed.

Then starting in the 60s everything started repeating. 20s, 30s 40s…designers started recycling the last 50 years of fashion, going through them one by one until they all are now being used…lucky for us! We have endless possibilities so we aren’t limited in what we choose.

So this is my point; ask yourself, what body style are you or what style from history do you relate to? This may be more than just body type. Perhaps there is also a ‘look and feel’ you like. 50s retro is very popular now …at least in California. My suggestion is to go looking in fashion history books and see what women wore that had a body style like yours and find out how designers best worked with those shapes. What seems to be currently popular isn’t always best for your body so don’t be afraid to try something different.

Next: Perhaps this is just me, but when some says you should do this, my first question is why.

I want to discuss the ‘whys’  in how advice is given for different body styles. There are universal design principals that help to address space and shape issues …all fashion designers use them. One principle that I feel is important in fashion has to do with ‘line’, it’s called ‘Continuation’. You already know this, so it will not be new. I just want to point out how you can apply this principle to make your own judgments for dresses on your body.

Everyone knows that if you wear horizontal stripes, it makes you look wider, yes? This is a perfect example of continuation. As the eye moves along the lines, it mentally makes it longer or ‘continues’ the line because of eye momentum.  Lines also divide space.

Okay, what does this have to do with wedding gowns?

Let’s take a look.

It’s really very simple. If you want to make something look longer and possibly thinner, you use a line along the area. Conversely, if you want to shorten an area, put a line across it. A line can be an edge of a neckline, the entire length of the dress, a waistband, hemline or shape of a skirt. It’s anything that causes your eye to travel. If you want the eye to stop, use a circle. They act like a target. This could be a flower, decoration, or bow.

If you have broad shoulders and you want to make them look smaller, don’t wear an off the shoulder, or strapless gown that creates a line from side to side at your shoulders. Diverting the direction of the eye and choosing a halter which leads the eye vertically is probably a better solution for you.

If you are short, and want to look taller, don’t cut your body in half with a waistband. Use one continuous narrow silhouette, like a 30s style bias cut slip dress.

If you are very tall and very thin, and you want to look shorter, divide the body up with a waistband and a flowing skirt that gives you more shape.

If you have a very shapely body and you want to look less so, don’t use a lot of puff to your dress. Keep it simple and elegant with straight vertical lines, no waistbands or broad skirts.

Now you notice that in each one of these, I said ‘you want’.  If you like looking very tall, short, shapely, or broad shouldered by all means go for it!

Most advice given is based on getting you to some universal idea of what is good line and beauty all ‘designed’  to make you look great. But one of the things that many advice columns don’t take into consideration is how you want to present yourself. What does the dress say about you and your choice to marry this man on this day? It’s a good thing to try to identify.

How do you do this? I advise all my brides to do their homework.  Go to large bridal salons and try on as many different styles as possible. Look at fashion history books. Think about how you want to project yourself…in other words …what is the statement you are making about you?  You might be delightfully surprised with what you discover in the process!

And finally: the key to looking REALLY beautiful?  Smile and by all means, whatever you decide to wear, wear it with complete confidence!”

Karen’s next topic will be: A series on what to do if the pre-owned gown is too big for you. First, looking for a dressmaker to help you.

About: Karen Tierney of Studio Trousseau specializes in restoration, alterations of vintage to modern wedding gowns, custom gowns and corsets in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a background in historic costuming, Karen can offer many options to make the gown unique to you using attention to detail and traditional french tailoring.

Karen is a regular contributor to the PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com blog.  You can find all of her expert advice in our Alterations section.