Last weekend, at the wedding of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, something of a style statement was made: Ivanka choose to wear a gown with sleeves. (Full disclosure: It was an orthodox Jewish wedding, so sleeves, depending on the rabbi doing the marrying, are sometimes required.) Immediately on Monday morning, Cathy Horyn, fashion critic of the New York Times declared that sleeves are now where it’s at for wedding gowns. Don’t know about you (though you should let me know in the comments!), but I love that Ivanka deviated from every other bride out there (Hollywood, or not) and went with a different neckline. As Horyn said, “We’re so used to seeing brides in strapless dresses that Ms. Trump’s gown made a fresh statement.” Is this the beginning of the end of strapless? God, I hope so ... When I went wedding gown shopping, I explicitly said, “no strapless”—what did I get? Strapless, strapless and more strapless. Honestly, are there any other options out there? I don’t mean to be an angry dress try-er on-er, but help a girl out—with straps, please! Even bridal gown guru Vera Wang is all for sleeves. When asked if she’s excited for a sleeve/strap revival she mentioned: “Nothing would make me happier. I’ve been doing strapless dresses for 15 years. It’s tiring.” What about you all, are you over the strapless bridal look or consider it to be the perfect classic wedding style? [NY Times]

I’m not even engaged and I frequently have thoughts like, “I have to tone my upper arms so they look skinny in my wedding dress!” How screwed up is that?!?! A blogger who actually is engaged and “sick and tired of seeing ads for ‘wedding weight loss,’” started up a blog where brides of all sizes can contribute wedding pics. We hope it’s a relief for blushing brides-to-be needs who’re sick of all the body-hating noise from shows like “Bulging Brides.” [This Is What A Beautiful Bride Looks Like]

Weddings can get kind of crazy. Sometimes daddy drinks too much and makes an awkward toast, or your great grandmother shows up and misplaces her false teeth while you’re cutting the cake. Other times the bride slaps a cop and spends her wedding night in jail. Wait, what!? I know it sounds crazy, but that is just what happened to a bride in Barcelona. The reception got a little wild and the bride and groom’s families started fighting. When the cops arrived to break it up, the newly wedded woman grabbed a po-po by the neck and smacked him. So much for sex on her wedding night. A jail cell is hardly a honeymoon suite. [NY Daily News]

Say you’re getting married.  Maybe you’ve had a few serious boyfriends before. Perhaps you were even engaged to one of them. Or you might have just had a series of one-night stands that never turned into more than a few steamy stories you told the girls about over a pitcher of sangria. 

Would any of your former flames make their way onto your wedding invite list? The subject has spawned divisive debates, countless chick flicks, and a memorable episode of “Friends.”

Attending a wedding when you’re lusting after the groom (or bride) is probably not a good idea for your own sanity.  But for ladies who see exes as friends, rather than as dangerous reminders of a rather fun pre-wedding life, inviting anyone from an office crush to a former fiancé seems normal.  Read the arguments after the jump and share your thoughts in the comments!

Yesterday, I came across a wedding story in the Washington Post that caught my eye: “In the End It’s a Fairy Tale.” Who doesn’t like a happy ending? It was the wedding story of interior designer Kerilyn Fox, 34, and chef Peter Russo, 38. The bride describes their path to the altar as “part fairy tale, part ‘Jerry Springer’ episode.” They were together; they broke up. He proposed; she turned him down. She moved in with another man; finally, she left the other man for Russo. Fox says they were “meant to be,” adding, “In the end it’s a fairy tale. I’m marrying the man of my dreams.” The story is accompanied by a photo slide show, and while they seem like a happy, well-matched couple, I couldn’t help but notice Russo looks to be morbidly obese. That got me wondering: Would you marry the man of your dreams ... if he was obese? Put your thoughts in the comments. 

NOTE: The Washington Post requested that we take down the photo. So we did.

Talk about revenge gone seriously wrong. A woman in Kuwait was incredibly mad about how her ex-husband treated her. So when she found out he was getting remarried, she decided to set the female-only tent at the wedding on fire by dousing rags in kerosene and lighting them up. (In Kuwait, the men and women are separated into different tents during nuptials.) We’re not exactly sure what she thought would happen, but the tent instantly went up in flames. About 43 women and children were killed, and another 52 were injured. The bride was OK, but her mother and sister died. Some people were even trampled as everyone rushed to get away from the flames. [Guardian UK] — So, so incredibly sad.

My husband and I are married not because I said, “I do,” but because he said, “I’ll do it.”

Once upon a time, couples got engaged, picked a venue and sent out save-the-date cards. Cards morphed into postcards and magnets, and these days, the trendy way to announce you’re getting hitched (and we’re invited) is a video save-the-date. Usually the videos are set to some sort of Michael Buble song and feature hazy shots of the couple, but recently, I saw a new favorite—it’s a stop-motion video by about-to-be-marrieds Haley Smith and Jason Harmon. Totally sweet! (And rather eco-friendly, too.) So, are you all over the whole video wedding invite phenomenon or do you think it’s too non-traditional? [Design Sponge]

Bachelor and bachelorette parties have become synonymous with wild and reckless nights, the details of which are slightly obscured when describing it to significant others later. Movies like “Bachelor Party” and “The Hangover” paint the occasion as a shame-inducing free-for-all of alcohol and bawdiness, but it hasn’t always been that way. The origins of bachelor and bachelorette parties are remarkably tame when compared to the ones we know of today, so how did this once-low-key event get transformed into the craziest night of a groom- or bride-to-be’s life?

Wedding planning ‘tis always a bit of a hassle. Despite hours upon hours of meticulous planning something is bound to go wrong. Grandma gets drunk, the ring boy swallows the wedding band, the maid of honor locks herself in the bathroom crying about how she looks like a fat cow and won’t come out. There are so many tiny details which will inevitably get screwed up, but the hair and makeup is usually a pretty straightforward process. Not so for bride Shivani on her wedding day. It was almost lights, camera, action time when Shivani and her sister skedaddled over to the Cleopatra Day Spa Beauty and Slimming beauty parlor for their pre-arranged 3:30 appointment. That’s when disaster struck.

I laughed so hard I cried this weekend, courtesy of “The Hangover.” (Did you see it? It was the blood brothers scene. OMG, so funny.) Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper are so hilarious as three friends who lose the groom-to-be during a wild bachelor party in Vegas.

Worth the $12 ticket, sure, but now I want to see a before-the-wedding “buddy flick” with women.

Yeah, we’re less likely to kidnap Mike Tyson’s pet tiger. (Yeah, that’s actually a plot point of “The Hangover.”) But it doesn’t mean we don’t party hard when one of our girls is getting hitched. Hollywood has a history of doing movies where brides-to-be and their friends look like bridezillas and obsessive wackjobs. But we’re real women. And we’re not all real crazy! And we want a movie about the female version of the wild bachelor/ette party antics.

I’ve made it easy on you, Hollywood: I’ve outlined my entire dream movie—director, plot, cast, soundtrack—for you, after the jump:

Just when you thought there couldn’t be anymore hoopla involved with getting married, the wedding industry strikes again! The WE channel, in conjunction with Cablevision, is launching a 24-7 channel on all things bridal. Because we don’t get enough of the terrifically terrible ladies on “Bridezillas” and are just dying for more shows like “Amazing Wedding Cakes” and “My Fair Wedding.” I sometimes sit and watch some of the wack job bridezillas chicks and think, Really, why are you marrying a man you are being this horrible to now? And, That’s your mother, she’s paying for all of this, let her wear what she wants! One bride-to-be (pictured, above) got out a scale and made all of her bridesmaids step on it, on national TV, to make sure they all weighed more than her. Sometimes I scream on the inside at the grooms—Get out while you can! Soon, there will wedded (non)bliss 24 hours a day. Great. [NY Post]

Honesty is always the best policy… except when you lead a double life as a porn star. Haylie Hocking thought she knew everything about her fiancé, personal trainer Jason Brake. The 27-year-old bride was just weeks away from her wedding when she discovered Jason spent more time in the buff than getting buff. Haylie’s friend started searching online for a male stripper for the bachelorette party and came across a video of a man who seriously resembled Jason getting raunchy with another woman. Turns out, Jason was a porn star on the side, and wasn’t training people in the gym like he told Haylie. Not surprisingly, Haylie canceled the big day. Hey, nobody wants to introduce Mr. Porno as their husband, at least not without a little warning. [Telegraph] 

Oh, but Haylie is not the only one to discover something shocking about her significant other. After the jump, other people whose jaws hit the floor when they found out the truth.

For our July wedding, my fiancé and I have decided to write our own vows. Of all the wedding preparations, I’m pretty sure this aspect will the most challenging — with the exception of breaking the news to my heat-intolerant mother that the ceremony would be held outdoors at noon in the middle of summer — if only because it’s so personal. While sharing my thoughts in a public forum isn’t such a new thing for me, I’m not so used to reading those thoughts out loud to a group of close friends and family on a highly emotional day. I hope I don’t choke! The other day, as I was thinking about what vows I wanted to make as a wife, I started thinking about a different kind of vow — the kind I’d like to make to the public. So, after the jump, I bring you the 10 vows that I make to you, as I begin my life as a married woman.

This week, I received a letter from a woman who’s having commitment issues about her friend’s wedding. Here’s what she has to say about her cold feet:

“I met up with my old college roommate to celebrate her engagement. Although I hadn’t seen her in years, when she asked me to be a bridesmaid, I totally said yes. Clearly, I was drunk. The worst part is, now I’m remembering what a friggin’ control freak she is. I’ve pretended to give a hoot at countless dress fittings and didn’t even complain that the dresses she picked for us were hid and $500. But now she wants her bachelorette party to be a week long vacay in Vegas. I’m not made of moolah, or time off from work. I know this is like he most special day of her life. But it’s not mine and I want out! Can I quit? She’s already driving me crazy and her wedding isn’t til October. I do still want to be her friend, just once her bridezilla days are over.”

I realize how lucky I am to be married to a great guy who I love. That being said, I am always worried about losing myself in his world, losing my independence, and becoming a watered down version of myself. First, we change our names, then we change our city, then we change our eating habits—you get the picture, right? So, how do I address my concerns? I constantly try keep myself in check and, so far, I believe it’s worked. Just being aware is half the battle. Here is my marry-but-don’t-morph checklist for a successful marriage:

The first year of marriage is the hardest, I’d been told many times by my friends. While I wasn’t sure if I was prepared for the uncertain road that lay ahead, I certainly felt like I’d gotten fair warning and couldn’t expect to be surprised by the challenges that would come once I entered marriage. Once the wedding is over, it’s the two of you, making a life together, and that’s not easy for anyone.

So, I felt ready to encounter squabbles and misunderstandings and the taking-for-granted that comes when you know someone really well and expect to be around them for a long time. When something came up, I could tell myself, “OK, this is normal.”

But there were some other parts of newlywed life that bummed me out, stuff that I never thought would have mattered to me ... until it did. 

One thing I learned before I got married is that nobody loves to talk about weddings more than women who just got married. They’ll grab on to any socially acceptable opportunity to relive their experiences. Now, I’m one of those women who’s full of tips on how to get through your wedding day. One day, maybe you can pass a few of these dos and don’ts on to the next girl when you go to blab about your wedding.

Before my husband and I could have a Catholic wedding, we had to attend Pre-Cana. It’s like Driver’s Ed. for engaged Catholic couples. In theory, it’s a great idea. Couples are counseled en masse on a wide-range of topics, including compatibility and conflict resolution within marriage, the theological meaning of marriage, and Catholic rules couples might like to follow (like those regarding birth control). But we weren’t too excited about the prospect of our Pre-Cana.