Find of the Day: Filigree Earrings

Going for the drama, Glamour Girl? Check out these detailed Filigree Earrings by Veriska. They're just $28.

The Fern Leaf Bangle

This gorgeous creation was crafted by Emily Elizabeth Jewelry. It's called the Fern Leaf Bangle but there's more to it than meets the eye. Its designer was inspired by Marilyn Monroe (who would be considered plus-size by today's standards) in the movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." The bangle is offered in non-adjustable and adjustable versions. The non-adjustable style is ideal for larger wrists and can even be worn further up the arm.

Getting a Grip: Bridal Clutches

If you haven't heard by now, clutches will be all the rage for brides in 2010. But there are lots of shapes and styles to choose from that are clutch-like with various amounts of ornamentation. Just a few examples:







Grace Stardust Clutch


Blue Tux Satin Clutch


Aria Clutch Purse


Elizabeth Beaded Clutch Handbag


Coloriffics Clutch




La Regale

Haute Mamas!

In the last few weeks we’ve looked at wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses. But what about dresses for the mother-of-the-bride or mother-of-the-groom? It’s important to remember that the mommies want to look great, too! A bride-to-be recently asked me if there was a place where her mom to try on different options for the wedding. I suggested she try David’s Bridal, where her mother could try on a variety of affordable dresses in a range of sizes.

Sophisticated Mom

Ultra-Modern Mom

Couture Mom

Glam Mommy

David’s is also having a sale right now, with some gorgeous gowns going for as low as $79. See more mother of the bride dresses. And if you decide to stop into David’s with your mom, please be sure to come back and let us know how it goes!

Wedding Gown of the Day: BridalTM

This gorgeous lace and chiffon creation is sold by BridalTM. May be worn with, or without, sleeves.

Pearlicious Bridal Necklace

Amorous Duchess Pearl Ivory Necklace
by TianaCHE
$48.00

Ways Real Brides & Grooms Save Money

Need a few more tips on saving money as you make your trip down the aisle? Get some ideas from this post by guest blogger Cara Davis, author of "Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot."



- Cara Davis

Many brides and grooms contributed their money-saving tips to my book. I’ve compiled some of my favorites to give you ideas on how to plan your wedding the cheapest and most creative way possible.


DRESS & ACCESSORIES

* Buy your shoes online, or at a store in the mall which tend to be cheaper than bridal salons. – Maisie, Deland, Florida
* There are places that will rent a designer gown for the day and do alterations to fit exactly. Just like you plopped down the $5k for the Vera Wang but at only a 10th of that price. – Joanna, Southern California
* I skipped having my hair and make-up done. One of my girl friends is a great at hair and she did mine on my wedding day. This saved money and time because we had no appointments to rush to. Instead of paying someone to do my make-up I took that money and just bought new make-up and did it myself. Then I had all new stuff for the honeymoon. – Jaime, Cleveland, Tennessee
* Find a wedding thrift store to find odds and ends. I got my crinoline at a wedding thrift store and saved a ton of money. Wear fake jewelry. My earrings, necklace and bracelet cost me about $50. It was gorgeous and I was bling blinging. – Maya, Orlando, Florida
* I found a brand new knockoff designer gown for $229 on eBay. (Really, it's not as scary as it sounds). I also found many of my accessories (tiara, veil, necklace) as well as a flower girl dress, basket and even artificial rose petals on the auction website. – Alison, Ozark, Missouri
* Lots of people I know blow $700 (average) to $1,000+ on their wedding dresses – a dress that looks surprisingly like everyone else's who had a wedding that particular year. I'm having my dress made. The material cost $100, and my dressmaker said she'd make it for $100, so for $200 I'm having a non-traditional, black velvet (I'm getting married in November) and white chiffon, 1940's Hollywood glamour inspired dress that will fit me perfectly and will look like nobody else's. – Bridget, Rochester, New York
* If you are looking for a way to save your wedding party money, you can always pick a color and then have each girl pick a dress in that color. Some people might be concerned about picking the wrong shade of a color, but as long as you have three or four different shades of a color it is really difficult to clash – everything blends. Also, guys can wear suits. If they are too young to have a need for one yet and don't own one, then it is a great time to buy one. Every guy should have a suit in his closet. – Carey, Easley, South Carolina
* We bought our wedding bands during Valentine's weekend because every jewelry store was having a big sale. Most jewelry stores have big sales around holidays. – Jen, Lake Mary, Florida

FLOWERS

* If you love stephanotis, you're in for some sticker shock – they're extremely popular, and extremely expensive. Ask your florist to get a white hyacinth plant instead. The individual flowers look almost exactly like stephanotis, but the whole hyacinth plant is less than four individual stephanotis. – Rachel, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
* You can get roses at Sam’s Club or Costco for pretty cheap, much cheaper than from an actual florist. – Amanda, Nashville, Tennessee
* When doing your flowers yourself, less is more. Not less flowers, just less types. Pick a great flower, like Gerbera daisies and that’s it. – Joanna, Southern California
* Using the florist at a local grocery store can get your wedding flowers that look just as good the local florist shop. If you're a little squirmy about that, you can check a reference or two from weddings they've done. – Janine, Washington D.C.

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEOGRAPHY

* Look for photography students who have some experience, and are working on building up their portfolio. As long as they have some good shots under their belt, and you can schedule in a bit more time for photos, this should work. (My husband is a photographer and he did our photos: He set up the pose, set the camera settings and had my mom snap the shot with the remote.) – Alexsis, Denver, Colorado
* I knew I'd probably never watch a video, so I had a friend videotape our wedding for nothing. And I was right ... in seven years, I've watched it once. – Hannah, Lebanon, Indiana

DECORATIONS

* We borrowed many of our decorations for the ceremony from already-married friends. – Alison, Ozark, Missouri
* Use decorations that your church has. My church had a lot of extra plants and decorations that were perfect for my wedding, which I just borrowed. The total for decorating the location for the ceremony cost me a total of $30! – Maisie, Deland, Florida
* A great idea for an inexpensive guest book is to buy a journal and felt-tip markers, so that rather than everyone just signing their name on the line, they can write you wedding wishes as well. Barnes and Noble and has a huge selection of journals with blank pages as do craft stores. – Russanna, Lynchburg, Virginia

PRINTED MATERIALS

* If there is a university close by, call their print shop and ask if they print initiations. We are getting 200 invitations, response cards, and vellum papers printed for $25.00 by the print shop of a university in our town. – Russanna, Lynchburg, Virginia
* We're making our own invitations from those prepackaged kits you can buy at any office supply store. We're doing all the invitations for $80 and they're actually kind of pretty. – Amanda, Nashville, Tennessee
* You can send your guests an invitation on a CD. Instead of having to print invitations, just make a video inviting guests to your big day. It saves on money, it’s creative, and guests get to see your face. You can include reply cards inside, along with directions, and the other things. – Liz, Lansdowne, Virginia
* For our invitations, we asked friends who were recently married if they had any old invitations. We gathered about 200 and took out the tissue paper. I went to a local paper store and purchased invitations for about $25. I made my own invitations, maps, RSVP cards, and then put the tissue paper as an insert. They looked really good and cost me less than $25, saving me about $200 to get them printed. – Bo Lane, Keokuk, Iowa
* For thank-you cards, order printed ones that match your invitations that just have your names on them. I still use our extras for quick notes. – Kelli, Ona, West Virginia
* Instead of typical wedding announcements, we did postcards. We used a picture and designed a postcard as an invitation. The cost to have post cards professionally printed was a fraction of the cost to invitations. Also, postcard stamps are cheaper too! To RSVP, we had a web address people emailed their responses. Everyone thought it was cool! – James, Phoenix, Arizona
* I made my own program, where I got creative and included the meanings behind some of the traditions and other things in the wedding (i.e. english ivy). I knew my friends and family were going to be seated for a while before the wedding started, so I wanted them to be entertained! – Hannah, Lebanon, Indiana

CEREMONY

* Use recorded music instead of live musicians. We burned all of our ceremony music onto a disc and played it over the church's sound system. We got to incorporate all of the songs that meant so much to us and it only cost us the price of the blank CDs. – Mindy, Seymour, Indiana
* To add a special personal touch, my friends wrote and performed a song (written specifically for Luke and me) during the ceremony. My brother played the violin...which took care of the music...and it was all relatively cheap because everyone wanted to do something at my wedding. – Maisie, Deland, Florida
* Plan your wedding in December when all the decorations are out for Christmas. It saves on cost of flowers and decorations. – Kristen, St. Charles, Illinois

RECEPTION

* We decorated the reception hall ourselves, and had a blast! We borrowed wicker furniture and silk trees from grandmas and friends to make a large empty room seem cozy. – Hannah, Lebanon, Indiana
* Choose a caterer that includes linens. They are very expensive to rent from a linen company. – Krista, Atlanta, Georgia
* The 99-cent store all the way! My best friend who got married bought these really cool curved glass frames and put pictures they printed at home in each one as a part of the centerpiece. Each table had different pictures. They were a beautiful (and cheap!) addition to their tables’ centerpieces. It only cost them about $25 for the frames and the pictures. – Erik, Visalia, California
* Make a playlist on an iPod with all the music you want, rent some speakers and a PA system, plug in the iPod, and hit play. Let the music play in the order of the playlist, or hit shuffle. – Peter, Tarzana, California


FOOD

* I’ve been to a couple of weddings where the reception was potluck. It was very creative and a neat way to have the community, friends, and family chip in and make your wedding day even more special! – Laura, Cincinnati, Ohio
* We are opting for a candlelight dessert reception. We are saving several hundred dollars by not having a formal dinner and the different choices for desserts give guests a laid back feel, however the candlelight gives a somewhat formal atmosphere. – Russanna, Lynchburg, Virginia
* We arranged the catering and bought all the drinks ourselves from a wine wholesaler. – Anne, Reading, UK
* Nix the liquor and go with a buffet. Cutting the open bar saved me a ton of cash and it kept my in-laws from thinking I was a heathen. While a buffet was not as nice as having a meal served to my guest it saved me about $10 per head and it provided more food options. – Jaime, Cleveland, Tennessee
* My wife and I did a ticket system where we only allowed guest to have two drinks each. This was classier than the “cash bar” concept, cheaper than “open bar” and promoted responsible drinking. – Amos, Indianapolis, Indiana
* Skip the dance, booze, etc. that inflates the expenses of the reception and after. – Grant, Alberta, Canada

CAKE

* Using a grocery story bakery is much cheap than a caterer. – Jaime, Cleveland, Tennessee
* I know of a couple that had a bakery fiasco and ended up serving donuts and chocolate milk, because it suited them better. – Joanna, Southern California
* Serve a doughnut cake: A doughnut cake is where you pretty much stack doughnuts up as high as you like to make a big “triangle” of sorts, or just use a tiered tray. Then you decorate as you please. – Liz, Lansdowne, Virginia
* Cupcakes are a hot new wedding trend and can be better on the budget. – Joanna, Southern California

FAVORS

* My wife and I gave CDs as a gift for our guests. We took some of our favorite songs from our relationship together and created two different CDs each with a different cover. If you use iTunes to create the CD, you can even have it print out a CD cover with track listings. We made 300 for about $275, less than a dollar a gift! – Tim, Norwalk, California
* For our send off, we are purchasing about 300 sparklers around the 4th of July for about $20. This is much more cost effective than bubbles or rice and will really add light and color to our goodbyes. – Russanna, Lynchburg, Virginia