How to Make a Courthouse Wedding Special

Article from http://living.msn.com/love-relationships/weddings/how-to-make-a-courthouse-wedding-special

DON’T skip the invitations
Courthouses are great for time-crunched brides. Though you might be in a rush to get this “I do” thing over already, do the right thing and properly invite your guests. A “We’re getting married! Come!” phone call won’t suffice. You’ll be tempted to cut corners here, since courtrooms are small and only about 10 guests will be allowed to attend. (So much easier to just send a group text message, right? No!) Take a few minutes to create and send an online invitation. E-invites are totally OK, but chose one that looks like it’s suited for a wedding, not a Super Bowl party. When choosing your invitation design, says Tutera, select one that’s beautiful and personal. “You want it to set the tone for the day and reflect your and your fiancé’s personalities.” Of course, if there’s time, mailed invitations trump emailed ones any day.

DO wear a killer dress
My niece Carrmen wore a shades-of-gray BCBG stunner — tiered and ruffled, cocktail length with a sweet ribbon belt. Best part? She scored it on sale. The day of the wedding, her best friend, who’s a costume designer on Broadway, fashioned a short ‘n’ sassy over-the-eye veil using French hat netting and bobby pins in fewer than 10 minutes! Like Carrmen, many courthouse brides forfeit traditional gowns for cocktail dresses in anything but white. But Tutera told me he thinks wearing white is a great way of making sure you enjoy every last drop of bridal bliss on your big day: “A woman only gets to be a bride once, so I really do like the idea of white — from a traditional bridal gown and veil to a shorter casual white dress with a great hair accessory, even a gorgeous white skirt or pants suit.” Don’t let the security line (it’s a courthouse, remember? Expect bag checks and conveyor belts) or the staid accommodations (the room you get married in will probably look like a castoff from the set of The Office) keep you from being a jaw-droppingly fabulous bride.

DON’T nix all the flowers
No wedding is complete without them, says Tutera. Your must-haves are a bouquet (for you) and boutonniere (for him). Bonus points if you spring for corsages and boutonnieres for all your guests, whom you’ll likely be able to count on two hands. With such a small number, your guests are like your wedding party. So, why not let them feel special?

DO get a good photographer
Ask a guest with a professional-level camera and the skills to match to capture the story of the day — from the “bride getting ready” scene in your living room to your stylish departure from the scene. (Think Marilyn Monroe emerging from the courthouse arm-in-arm with husband Joe DiMaggio on her wedding day.) And why not get great pics of you looking fabulous as you wait in line at security check? A courtroom might not have all the “chuppa and glamour” of a big ceremony, says Tutera, “but the photos captured during the nuptials should be about you and your groom, and the moment, not the walls behind you!” After the quick “I do”s, head to a nearby municipal haunt for a more scenic backdrop — a park or historic building, a favorite cafe or street. Let your guests tag along and get group shots!

DON’T forget to ask for help
Ask your most congenial friend to get there early and play hostess for the day. “Since you can’t be in three places at once, a host or hostess is a great way to ensure someone is at the location to make your guests feel welcome and know they’re in the right place,” says Tutera. Your guests will likely be in a waiting area for a bit, so the hostess’s job will be to smile and make friendly introductions, keeping the energy high and joyous.

DO have an awesome reception
It could be a sit-down dinner or a cocktail party in the private room of your favorite restaurant later that evening or a casual gathering at someone’s home immediately following the ceremony. Whatever you do, allow yourself to be properly feted with “to the happy couple!” toasts and celebratory reflection.

The bottom line: Scaling back needn’t mean skimping. Don’t be afraid to still have all the wedding-y stuff you always wanted — the ring pillow or petal toss, the “love is patient, love is kind” Biblical reading. Yes, there are likely more time restraints with a courthouse ceremony but you can still squeeze in one or two special touches. Also: Don’t forget to send thank you cards, and slip in one of the group photos as a keepsake!

Wedding Emergency Kit

A wedding day is hectic enough without any emergencies, but a bride can be prepared for almost any need that arises with a simple wedding-day kit.

No matter how meticulously you plan the flowers, the music and the seating chart, your wedding day has a way of throwing a curveball _ such as when your college roommate, seized by a moment of OMG-I-can’t-believe-you’re-getting-married! enthusiasm, accidentally sloshes her red wine onto your wedding dress.

Wedding planner Mindy Weiss, who has orchestrated the weddings of celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, Gwen Stefani and Hilary Duff, has witnessed enough such mini-crises to bring a Tide stain-lifting stick to every job. Also helpful to have on hand, Weiss said: safety pins to reattach a bustle that has been torn at the seams while dancing.

Weiss, who sells a 24-item “SHEmergency Kit” ($30 at shopmindyweiss.com) to help brides handle common mishaps, suggested essential items to include in a wedding-day survival kit – and we added a few product suggestions.

Folding hairbrush with mirror: For quick makeup, teeth and hair checks, this tiny compact can be a lifesaver. $8 at sephora.com

Hand lotion: Cracked knuckles and ashy elbows don’t stand a chance against L’Occitane’s shea butter mini hand cream. $10 at loccitane.com

Mending kit (including safety pins): A zippered pouch with sewing essentials can rescue a torn veil, your groom’s loose buttons and myriad other clothing malfunctions. $10.50 at rei.com

Double-sided garment tape: Hide bra straps, execute a last-minute hem and keep fabric (and body parts) in place with the varied sizes and shapes of double-sided tape in the Lacebugz wedding adhesive pack. $12.95 at senselingerie.com

Shoeshine wipes: For a last-minute buff, the Synovia Instant Shine Sponge gives gleam to any color and style of shoe. Also consider getting disposable shoeshine wipes to take care of those muddy heels. $5 at nordstrom.com

Stain remover: Someone, somewhere will spill something, and whoever has the Tide to Go instant stain remover will be the hero. $3.29 at walgreens.com

Deodorant wipes: You may never hug as many people as you do on this day, so smell fresh without fear of white residue. La Fresh has deodorant wipes, though its standard wipes (pictured) may also come in handy. $3.99 for pack of six at lafreshgroup.com

Breath freshener: You may never kiss as many people as you do on this day. $5.49 for a pack of two at drugstore.com

Facial tissues: Catch tears before they bring down your mascara. This site has lots of fun wedding-themed tissues. $1.65 at platesandnapkins.com

Lint remover: A quick pass of Scotch’s mini lint roller over a bridesmaid dress or groomsman suit will pick up any stray hairs and flecks. $2.49 at cvs.com

Other items to include:

  • Earring backs
  • Hair spray
  • Emery board
  • Pain reliever
  • Adhesive bandages/blister bandages
  • Clear nail polish
  • Nail polish remover
  • Lip balm
  • Dental floss/toothpicks
  • Static remover
  • Clear hair elastics
  • Drinking straws

MSN editors contributed to this report.

Is There Life After Modeling? Karolina Kurkova, Angela Lindvall, and Coco Rocha plot the future of their relevance.

Karolina Kurkova

(Photo: Ben Hassett; Styling by Ludivine Poiblanc; Hair by Akki; Makeup by Alice Lane for Jed Root Inc.; Manicure by Tracylee for Tim Howard Management. Kurkova wearing Uniqlo turtleneck, available at Uniqlo, 666 Fifth Ave.; 877-486-4756.)

High above New York on the 21st-floor balcony of the Cooper Square Hotel, German television is filming Karolina Kurkova teaching ten aspiring models how to walk a runway. “It literally looks like we’re walking on skyscrapers!” the Czech native, 27, says in enthusiastic English that later will be partially dubbed over in German. The girls, plucked from a Deutschland-wide search, at least pretend to understand.

Battling stiff winds and language barriers, Kurkova demonstrates three runway walks: high fashion, couture, and “show,” which basically means pretending to wear giant Victoria’s Secret wings—a technique in which Kurkova is quite expert. Then, to the delight of the Teutonic producers, she gets her heel stuck between floor slats. Her fumbling to free herself is a moment that, along with the many times she bursts into tears eliminating girls, will be played on repeat in stridently dramatic European promos.

The show, called Das Perfekte Model (The Perfect Model), is Kurkova’s first step toward building the kind of career that keeps a model in the spotlight after shoots have dried up. The greatest post-modeling successes in the past decade have been Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks. And not surprisingly, Kurkova and her producers are billing Das Perfekte Model as a toned-down, “documentary-style” counterpart to Klum’s second-best-known TV-hosting gig: the megahit Germany’s Next Topmodel (itself derived from Banks’s Top Model juggernaut).

See Also:
What Becomes of a Legend Most?

By James Lim

Looming in the background of every model’s career, even one as thriving as Kurkova’s, is the inevitable fear: aging out. The thirst for fresh faces in modeling is so intense that the Council of Fashion Designers of America has issued a plea for designers and modeling agencies not to let girls under 16 walk at New York Fashion Week. Not everybody complies.

So what’s a woman shunned from a girl’s world to do? Try acting (Milla Jovovich, Amber Valetta, Charlize Theron, Cameron Diaz, Tyra Banks), play music (Karen Elson, Irina Lazareanu, Banks again), become a photographer (Helena Christensen, Banks again), start a beauty line (Miranda Kerr), start a yoga line (Christy Turlington), start a clothing line (Kate Moss, Erin Wasson), start a jewelry line (too many to count), start a furniture line (Cindy Crawford), get a bachelor’s in comparative religion and Eastern philosophies (Turlington again), run a charity (where to begin), run for Estonian Parliament (Carmen Kass), marry rich (Stephanie Seymour, Christie Brinkley), or become the First Lady of France (Carla Bruni).

In dance, another industry ruthless in spitting out its genetically gifted workers, there’s actually a foundation for “career transition” funded by the Newhouse family. Modeling has no such safety net. “You’d be stupid not to think you have a shelf life,” says Iman, 56, who now runs a $25 million cosmetics company. “I knew I had to become a brand. And that brand was me.”

But the trick for Kurkova and two other models who are thinking hard about their futures—Coco Rocha and Angela Lindvall—is how to build a populist brand without screwing up their still-active careers as high-fashion models.

Put another way: Can a QVC line ever coexist with the cover of Vogue?

The youngest of the three is Rocha, age 23, who’s big enough she got a shout-out in a Kanye West song; Tyra Banks has called her “the queen of posing.” Rocha thought “modeling was just going to be a summer thing and then I’d go home,” she says. “Then I went to Asia. Then I worked with Steven [Meisel].” Now she even has friends like Karlie Kloss, 19, arguably the most famous face of her generation, joking that girls in Rocha’s class (“the old-lady crew,” as Rocha calls them) have stuck around too long. Yet Rocha is convinced she’s found modeling’s holy grail for longevity: social media. “Once I started making noise, I thought, I’m not going anywhere.”

Making noise certainly worked for Heidi Klum, 38, who started her career in 1992—too late to be a supermodel and too curvy to be a waif. Clothes “would get stuck on my boobs,” Klum says. She wound up doing catalogues until she “nagged and nagged and nagged” Victoria’s Secret. She got a publicist, who helped her get Sports Illustrated, which led to Leno, which proved she could do TV, which led to Project Runway and her becoming far more influential in fashion than she ever was as a model.

It also worked for Cindy Crawford, 46. Against her agents’ advice, she took an unpaid job as the first host of MTV’s House of Style, which gave her a new, large, male fan base that led to a huge campaign with Pepsi. “I definitely made a choice to go more all-America,” she says. “I felt that was my brand.”

Here are some Inet Giant Ads that have been recently posted

Classifieds posted by Darius Cordell

Occupy Fashion Week: Hipsters plan stylish protest

There may not be anywhere else in the world that separates the “99 percent” from the “one percent” more visibly than New York Fashion Week.

Glitzy fashion mavens flock to runway after runway, clad in thousands of dollars worth of clothing during the bi-annual gathering of the fashion world elite.

The clothes that glide down the runway are easily worth more than some of the “99 percent” make in a year. So naturally, Occupy Wall Street protesters are planning to infiltrate the Calvin Klein runway show on the final day of Fashion Week, Gawker reports.

On Thursday, after the occupiers head to the Lincoln Center for Klein’s 2 pm show, they plan to convince 99 attendees to apply dripping, red eye makeup and wear it into the show. The makeup is meant to represent the student occupiers who were pepper-sprayed in the face last year at UC Davis in California.

Occupiers will also present their own “fashion show” outside of Lincoln Center, which, presumably, will feature the latest in trash bag couture.

If they can’t convince 99 high-profile fashionistas to paint their faces, the group plans to “shut down” the final 3 p.m. show.

“As occupiers, we don’t really understand that world the way the people in the fashion industry do,” Occupy Wall Street organizer Justin Stone-Diaz told the site.

As people in the fashion industry, they probably do not understand that world the Occupy Wall Street protesters do.

Are plus size Wedding Dresses priced higher due to more fabric?

There are some that would believe that one bridal design is the same cost for anyone who orders it.  But that is not always the case.  What some people do not recognize is that when you are making plus size wedding dresses there is a huge difference between the fabric that is used on a size 2 in comparison to the fabric that is used for a size 22.

Not only do you need to use more fabric but if the garment is heavily embellished….you have to use more beads and lace.  Not to mention it will take longer to bead 3 yards instead of one.

So with that in mind is it fair or right to charge more for plus size wedding gowns?  many would argue yes, but there is a small percentage that says no.  I guess it depends on who is paying for it and who is doing to the work to have the item created.

Here at Darius Cordell Fashion Ltd we have always charged based on the amount of work or assistance that was need or that it involved.  So if it took 20 hours to create a full figured garment and only 8 hours to make the smaller version then to us it only makes sense that the smaller version is less in cost.

NY Fashion Week: Twitter is the place to be

With New York Fashion Week well underway, here are the latest updates on how fans from across the globe can enjoy a slice of the action via social media innovations by the likes of Jason Wu, Diane von Furstenberg and Tommy Hilfiger.

US department store Nordstrom‘s website is live streaming its first New York Fashion Week runway show February 10, with Jason Wu’s presentation set to go live at 13:00 EST.

Customers will have front row access to Wu’s Fall 2012 ready-to-wear presentation, and fans can also get involved via the designer’s preparatory tweets before, during and after the show.

Taking the Twitter interaction to another level is Tommy Hilfiger — the label will be staging a “Twitter Model Walk” for its menswear show at 17:30 Friday, releasing images of its Fall shoe collection as they hit the runway. This follows British fashion house Burberry’s lead, after the brand posted photos from its Spring 2012 line on Twitter seconds before they debuted on the catwalk last September.

Another innovator is Diane von Furstenberg, who has partnered with iPhone video app Viddy to distribute 15- to 30-second videos of looks from her February 12 show via Facebook and Twitter in synch with the catwalk unveiling.

New York Fashion Week runs until February 16.

Prom Night: How to Look, Dress, and Be Your Best For Your Prom

Prom is the most exciting night in a girls’ high school career. The night is filled with expectations of what to wear, who to go with, and what to do after prom. The stakes are high, the pressure is on, and Faviana is here with the perfect solution for every girl going to prom 2012.

Faviana, one of the nation’s premier womens’ dress designers, is here to help teens navigate this exciting, stressful time of year with the publication of their first free e-book, Prom 2012 Night: How to Look, Dress, and Be Your Best.

Prom Night is the go-to guide for prom season. This e-book will solve many prom dilemmas. The e-book answers questions such as “what is the perfect gown for my specific body type?” to “do I really need to pay a hairstylist?” to “how soon is too soon to shop for a dress?”

“Prom is one of the biggest nights in a girls’ life. The minute they get asked, so many questions go into her head. Faviana is there with the perfect dress, but this year we want to take it a step further and make the dress only part of their experience. We want to help girls’ not only look great, but have a great night. This e-book will help them prepare, avoid disasters, and have a great time.” Reports, CEO Omid Moradi

Here are some tips to the perfect prom night:

  •     Want to save money this prom season how about DIY flowers or learning the make-up counter culture.

Most makeup counters or large cosmetics stores have on-staff makeup artists who are happy to help you whip up a look for free.

  •     Afraid of problems occurring once at the prom? If you pack your purse with the right stuff, any problem can be fixed. Some items that should be included in your prom emergency kit: a tide stick, clear nail polish, double-stick tape, gum, flip flops, and other items that will help keep the prom a perfect night.
  •     For the perfect prom hair look, try a pretty pony. You can turn a simple ponytail glam in a few easy steps. First, brush your hair and flatten with a dab of gel or quick squirt of hairspray. A few minutes with the curling iron can make beautiful waves of the loose ends.

For more tips, ideas and trends check out Prom 2012 Night: How to Look, Dress, and Be Your Best For Your Prom, a handy, downloadable guide that will walk teens through many aspects of prom in a fun, easy-to-follow manner. The e-book consists of timelines, checklists, fun quizzes, and even astrological advice! Don’t miss out on this crucial guide to prom night 2012.

http://www.fashionnews.com/2012/01/10/prom-night-how-to-look-dress-and-be-your-best-for-your-prom-2/#more-7684

Its Time for the Mother of the Bride says Couture Dress Designer Darius Cordell

This is the time of the year where the mothers of the wedding party begin to panic because they have delayed in finding the perfect dress for the occasion.  We get a ton of emails right about now saying please tell me what mother of the bride dresses do you have in stock that you can ship now.  Well at Darius Cordell Fashion ltd there is no need to panic.  All we need is about 4 weeks to create the perfect gown for the party.  There is a rush fee however but still it is worth it to have a made to measure garment that is special to you and no one else.  So if you have waited until the last minute and your bride is getting married this summer don’t fret.  There is still time to have a designer create a spectacular evening wear piece for you.  To see some of our past mother of the bride gowns please visit our main site at www.DariusCordell.com

Fashion News: Designer Darius Cordell is offering Totally Custom Wedding Dresses and Couture Gowns

Darius Cordell Fashion Ltd has been around since the late 90′s.  Most of the designs that were offered in the beginning were pageant or evening wear pieces.  The company now offers totally custom wedding dresses for their brides to consider.  You simply provide us with the preferences of what you want.  We then sketch them out for you to obtain your approval.  Once the design has been approved that is when we start production.

Some brides think it is easier to work from a photo image.  So when the process starts for custom wedding gowns we can either work from your photos or some of our previous ones from the darius cordell couture collection and then make changes to it.  Some brides find that to be much easier.

Even though most of the items in the current collection begin near $500 the pricing begins at $1200 for custom pieces.  The more details the cut and the more handwork that is involved the higher the cost.

If you are not local to us it is not an issue.  Custom designs from Darius Cordell Fashion Ltd can still be made for you long distance.

For more info  on the process and to inquire further simply go to DariusCordell.com

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