Happy Monday afternoon, babyloves!  Ok, before I share Jessica’s furious search for the perfect thingie to wear on her head when she gets married, I simply HAVE to touch on the wedding of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his longtime love, the gorgeous Dr. Priscilla Chan.  They wed on May 19th in a private backyard ceremony on his estate in Palo Alto, CA – where he lives with his now wife – and the wedding day was actually a surprise to the guests, since they thought they were attending a party to celebrate Priscilla’s graduation… 

Priscilla’s laser cut floral gown is by none other than Claire Pettibone… and you guys know how I feel about Claire Pettibone, sooo… :)  The gown is adorned with matte sequins, has a silk lining, illusion jewel neckline and signature sheer back.  (And, since I know you guys like to know what you’re dealing with… the gown is priced at $4,700.)

Anyway, I think she looks freaking SENSATIONAL.  What do you think?

Oh and by the way, Mark updated his Facebook timeline about it, naturally.  Cuteness.

K, take it away, Jess!

Hiya, Jessica here! I hope everybody had a great mother’s day last week… that is giving or receiving motherly gratitude. My mother’s day started by being kicked out of bed at 6ish a.m. by my little guy as honey-poo slept blissfully. Who, as I was geting up to use the bathroom, moved into my designated 12 inches of bed space. I then proceded to climb into my daughters bunk bed where I passed out on top of a mound of stuffed animals. I awoke with a neck that is only capable of turning 40 degrees. Yep.

Anyways……….. I’m kind of calling out for help here. Not about my lack of a decent nights sleep, but about head-gear. Bridal head-gear that is. THE CHOICES THE CHOICES!!! I’m losing it… it’s. too. much. I am a girl, after all, who loves to play dress up. And what is your wedding day if not the ultimate dress up opportunity?!?! I do not want to miss that opportunity! I had thought I wanted a long but simple mantilla veil. A modest edging of lace, something complimentary to my dress. Then I started to modify that idea with sort of a juliet cap look, kinda like this:

And then….. I started to fantasize about doing something more dramatic ala Grace Kelly or more recently Kate Moss. Maybe a full blown lace cap or a simpler net cap embellished with a halo, or crown or or or or.. ahhhhh!!!!!! I mean its your wedding day, you should go all out fantasy couture right? When am I ever going to be able to don a golden wreath of orange blossoms over a cathedral length veil and get away with it? But my dress is lace overload.. so I should keep it simple right? You see my dilema.

I’m just so goo-goo for it all. There is so much good fun head fluff out there right now it hurts my fashion bone. Here are a few of my faves, and as you can see I’m all over the place from classic to crazy. help. me.

The above and bellow are from Twigs & Honey a current obsession. And if you don’t know, now yah know   … uhhh now yah know.

A bit more understated from BHLDN and Ruche’s line.

I found the following gems on etsy by Erica Elizabeth Design. The first is my favorite, I love her delicate wax floral wreaths.. eehhh!

Now for a bit of fun.. Louis Mariette. I had the pleasure of trying on a few of their amazingly couture pieces in person and wow if your daring this is the way to go. I had poop luck trying to find good pics so instead here is Moi trying to look Vogue and a fantasy piece. Enjoy.

I bet this whole thing would be a lot easier if I could try all these goodies on with my dress, but alas I can not. I can’t even try ANY veil on with my dress because uhmm… its not “in” yet and uhmm…  its still needs a top (for those of you just joining us I ordered a strapless dress that I’m giving a victorian-esq top, indeed). So no such luck. I do have a pretty good idea what I’m doing with my hair, something perfectly messy and effortlessly chic. Something like this:

I may twist the braid up and pin it if I do a full fledged veil during the ceremony. Yah know, to keep it classy.

I will leave you with this next image as it is perfection and an awesome way to do a head piece with a simple veil.

So, thoughts please…?  not on the photo of me, you can keep those to yourself. But in general, what strikes your fancy? Have I lost my marbles? Do you feel my pain? What did you do? (Can I see pictures?)

Thank you for your time, this was therapeutic :)

xoxoxox, Jessica

(Alison here again!  Jessica is one of our fabulous Real Bride Bloggistas, and she’s planning her Fall 2012 vintage wedding.  Jessica is the coolest, and if you dig her half as much as I do, you can also check her out over at The SoupChic on Facebook.  Note: thoughts expressed in guest posts are not necessarily the opinion of The Knotty Bride.  Simply put, we encourage free speech.)

images from the top: SIBO Designs / next 4 – twigs & honey; images by Elizabeth Messina / top 2 and bottom left bhldn, bottom right ruche / next 3 – Erica Elizabeth Design on Etsy; images by Melinda Kelley & Yuna Leonard / left- me, right Louis Mariette / top right glamcheck.com, top left east side bride / bottom left, bottom right / bottom image via vogue

Oh, is it Friday evening already?  Wow.  Ok, first things first……. shout out to my pops, whose bday is today.  Happy Birthday, Dad.  I love you like a daughter. ;)  You really are the best.

Ok, so this morning I saw something PRETTY FUTHER MUCKING INCREDIBLE.

To her credit, Cassie, one of our newer bloggistas who you’ll remember debuted here on TKB with a post about farting – lol – brought it to my attention.  What she told me, was that there is a comic out about Ryan Gosling.  More specifically, it’s a super hero Ryan Gosling comic.  Keep your pants on and put your finger away, it’s not what you think.  Cause if you’re me you’re thinking, “gosh; if someone took it upon themselves to be the person credited with creating a super hero comic about Ryan Gosling, well then surely they’ve taken the task to heart.  SURELY they’ve worked tirelessly to depict Ryan as he is seen through the eyes of those who love him.  Surely, SURELY, this person has drawn Ryan Gosling in a way that honors the huge gym commitment he makes.

… SURELY.”

Well it turns out, whoever drew this comic totally wants Ryan Gosling dead.  Because the illustrated version you’re about to see of The Gos is a beyond totes inaccurate depiction.  BEYOND, beyond.  Here look, judge for yourself:

Let’s start with the obvious issue… the muscles are all wrong.  In that there are NONE ON HIS BODY.  He is Ryan Gosling not Topher Grace.  Second, the girl in the picture isn’t orgasming off his mere touch.  Third, I don’t understand the 70s office attire.  He is a sex symbol and actor, not an extra on the set of Office Space.  Fourth, lobster claws for hands.

What do you guys think–  Decent drawing of Ryan?  Or total fail on the WannaBangum Scale?  If you ask me, on a scale of 1 to 10, this drawing is not making me wet.  (Well ok it’s making me a little wet; but that’s just because seeing his name is 60% of the journey.)

Here’s the thing.  We as a society are most drawn to this manboy for three distinct reasons:

• he seems emotionally present/available and compassionate to a fault,
• he seems mysteriously emotional, and
• his thick, thick arms make our girl parts cry.  With emotion, cry with emotion I mean.  Of course.  They cry so hard with emotion, you guys.

So that’s why this comic is kind of a buzzkill for me.  Though, to the artist’s credit, I will note that he is depicted as pretty quiet and mysterious in the comic strip, so that’s essentially accurate.  But again, the muscles.  The musculature is everything with this guy, so where is it.  The biceps, the triceps, the exquisite firmness of his thighs, his derriere and the way he walks around with it high up in the air, as if to taunt me, beckoning me with his str– ok, wait… what was I talking about again?  I have completely lost my train of thought.

Let’s get to these dresses, shall we?  And in a new kind of thingie I’m starting today, sort of as a thank you to everyone who gave me song suggestions this week, I’m going to recommend a tune called ‘Give Me Love’ by Ed Sheeran (from a recent Victoria’s Secret commercial) to play for your listening enjoyment, whilst you scroll through the images below which are here for your visual enjoyment.  Because in my personal experience, music mixed with pretty, lovely things = mental orgasm equivalent to watching 10 minutes of a Ryan Gosling film in private.  (Any of the ones in which he does not have a receding hairline.  Receding hairlines are totally fine by me just not on my picture-of-virility adonis Ryan Gosling, that’s all I’m saying.  It is my picture-of-virility adonis, not yours; I get to have it the way I want it.)

FYI, the dress designer is Collette Dinnigan.  I lucked upon her on Pinterest recently, as one of her dresses was pinned from the lovely this is glamorous, a blogger who shares my affinity for the Elie Saabs and Valentinos and de la Rentas of the fashion world.  Ok now be prepared; below are pretty much all the dresses Collette Dinnigan has probably ever made in her life, because I went a little overboard with the loving.  But you cannot blame me, dahlinks, all the dresses are mahhhhvelous.  I’m dying to know what you think of them.  The wedding dresses, the cocktail dresses, anything.  Me?  Oh I am obsessed with them in a very unhealthy way.  I want to buy two or three of them, escort them home in a Hummer limo, get all of us drunk on a bottle of Louis Roederer’s Cristal, arrive at my place, burn the Hummer limo to the ground because those Hummer limos are f**king BULLS**T, and then after the car-bonfire go upstairs, and you know just cuddle with all the dresses on the couch proving what a kind, considerate person I am and how I’m not just in it for the sex, and then wait until one of the dresses suggests “threesome?” and then just try on the s**t out of them.  Try on the MFing S**T out of them…

uhh, NSFW pose:

thug life pose:

dat aasss:

:: these ones are just freaking cool ::

:: wedding dress time ENGAGE ::

:: more wedding dresses that make me hot for collette ::

Ok so here’s what I’m wondering… do you agree with me on the Ryan thing or am I alone in this.  Lemme know.  And, WHAT IN THE WORLD DO YOU THINK OF THESE FROCKS.  I don’t know if I’d say I love alllll of them like I would my own children, but there’s a good chance that a heaping handful of them are the kind I’d take home to momma.  There’s just this general girly daintyness, with a dose of strength, all rolled up into each one of them.  And I like that.

Happy Friday, buddies!  May the fourth be with you.

xoxo  - Alison

webcomic: Gosling & Booker, via Refinery 29 / dresses: Collette Dinnigan

Gooo-deeevuhningah.  It’s totally nighttime right now, because these personal posts always take me forever.  Oh and we’re totally gonna get to these dresses in a second, promise.  (Maybe not a second.)  But first, this.     

I’m a big Claire Pettibone fan… I mean honestly who isn’t, I’m not reinventing the wheel here.  Whether or not they’re your specific style, her gowns are the stuff of dreamscapes, and it’s hard not to ogle and admire their delicate details and playfulness with color.  They are nothing if they are not deeply inspired… which they are, and in a big way.

The images of these gowns were some of my personal faves to arrive in TKB’s inbox.  And the plan was that I was gonna write what I was feeling today like usual, whether or not it was related to the gowns, and then share the dresses.  Done and done.  And then all hell broke loose, because I read Claire’s brief story about the inspiration for her latest collection which I’ve included below and invite you to read right about now:

“My grandmother was quite the 1920’s bohemian… her first husband was a rum-runner during prohibition, and was mysteriously killed in a “motorcycle” accident. She never talked about him, and I was a grown woman when my mom shared the scandal that my grandpa (her father) was not grandma’s first love. I’ve been thinking about Anna Mae, and looking at the photos of her second wedding that we all thought was her first. She wore a beautiful mauve scalloped silk dress with a velvet sash at the hip, round spectacles and stylish Mary Jane’s. Grandma has long passed, but I have her wedding dress, the intricate embroidered linens she made by hand, her gold rimmed china with delicate painted roses… and a good dose of her free spirit.  The sweet and simple details of our heirlooms: lace linens, golden lockets, fine china, don’t they make lovely inspiration for a wedding dress?” — Claire Pettibone.

Uhhhhh.  I don’t know about you, but this is incredible.  A designer who feels free enough to share her life’s truths with us, with such ease and wonderment, is a designer after my own heart.  When I read passages like that one above, a breeze of crisp, fresh air fills my lungs with life, lingers a bit to make its mark, and then breathes new life into my surroundings when I finally exhale.  Designers like Claire inspire me, mind, body and soul.  Bambino also feels this way.  Breathes new life into him, too.  I think it even has this special effect of making him think his old toys are all brand new.  It’s either the life-air or the ‘being a dog.’

Now, if you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I tweeted an inspirational quote I heard while watching Bethenny With A Baby And Marriage Difficulties or whatever the title is of her latest spin-off of her other, previous spin-off.  In the episode I watched, Lucy Danziger, Editor-In-Chief of SELF chatted with Bethenny before her cover shoot for the magazine.  Bethenny was frazzled, more than normal.  Like all of us, she was having an emotional reaction to the trouble of balancing it all and keeping up appearances.  And in their conversation about life and keeping it together and the difficulties we all face as human beings, Lucy told her this:

“If people aren’t willing to be vulnerable and say, ‘I have these weaknesses and here is how I overcame them,’ then we can never teach each other.”

What Lucy said to Bethenny was on another level.  It’s like, *the key* to living a life with purpose.  You just really have to make yours count.  And that doesn’t mean you have to join the Peace Corps, though of course I encourage you to if that’s your jam.  Here’s what it means to me– it means not putting up a front.  So, for example, I’m the editor of TKB, right?  It means that when someone asks me how I do it, I tell them “very difficulty.”  I don’t tell them running TKB is cake walk, because helllllls no it isn’t.  It’s WORK.  And I’m still learning.  I have questions every. single. day. about how I can improve this or that.  Blog speed.  Key words.  SEO.  I have no interest in saying to people that I know exactly how to do everything in my field, because what’s the point of that?  No one knows everything, and we’re all learning how to do things and get by in this life.  And to feel that appearing like you’re always totally happy and always totally in the know, is to rob yourself of useful learning and bonding experiences that can arise from being able to speak without restraint about any little thing that’s bothering you or you’re facing.

I wish people would stop trying to keep it together in a presentable enough way, just for the sake of appearing like they are good at keeping it together.  What is the point of that, like, ultimately?  A lot of us spend so much time wanting to come off happy all the time.  Wanting to appear that we feel bright and cheery every single day.  Wanting to seem completely in control all of the time.  When we’re not.  No one is.  No really, like NO ONE is, every day!  It’s simply not human to have zero challenges in life, or zero flaws in your character.  It took me a long-ass time to realize that, by the way.  And I certainly still don’t have all the answers, obvs.  I just have the fortune of counsel of some very good women and men in my life, from whom I’ve learned a few of the essential truths of how to live life in a way that won’t make it so challenging, emotionally, every day.  At base, it’s really all about letting go of the need to look like you have all of your s**t together, and embracing the realness of one simple thing: that we’re all struggling in this world, and that all of us want to be happy.  (Not look or appear happy, be happy.  So why are we spending so much time trying to get the ‘appear happy’ part down?  Looking or appearing happy is not a legitimate goal a person should have, yet I find it’s the goal of a crapload of people in this world.)  So you wanna get there?  Well it forreals starts with having your s**t together and figuring out how to appear happy!  hahaa, nah, I’m just kidding.  Just tryin to lighten the mood, it’s pretty heavy, my bad :)  So but yeah, achieving happiness forreallyreal starts with keeping it real.  You know, keeping it really real.  Like, sharing what’s *really* going on in our personal lives with people we feel we can trust.  Omigod I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how critical some conversations with friends have been to my life, when I’ve told them the truth about an issue Honey and I were having, or an emotional reaction I was having that I wasn’t sure was the right reaction to have.  Friends will open up LIKE CRAZY if you open up to them.  And ohhhhh the things you’ll learn from each other!  Magical.  Truly magical.

I happen to bare my soul here on the blog a bunch, it’s one of the ways I keep it real, but obvs. you don’t have to do it on a blog.  It’s about the conversations you have with friends, or with loved ones (or even with yourself– being honest with yourself is often a challenge but it can be incredibly eye-opening).  You’d be amazed how connected you can feel with a person in a single moment, when the two of you realize that, for example, you’ve both had moments in life where you’ve completely fallen apart emotionally over your own appearance.  Or how you both might feel that you don’t know how to communicate with your significant other, or that you feel that you and your fiance argue differently, and so you never feel like you get anywhere when you have a disagreement, and how infuriating that is to you.  Trust me, there are a lot of people who are just. like. you.  In almost every way.  If you’re feeling something, a gazillion people before you and after you have and will feel that same way in their own lives.  Just decide to say it out loud and see what happens.

I HAVE GONE ON LONG ENOUGH, HAVEN’T I?  WOWZERS.  But I do want to know, if you’re willing to tell me– have you had moments like this?  Where you’ve bared your soul to someone you know and felt relief over the shared experience?  Whether with a friend, or with a family member.  Have you had a parent or parent figure in your life who has kept it real with you, and helped you become comfortable with your own truths, because they were comfortable enough in their own selves to keep it real with you and tell you they’ve been there, done that, and learned from it?  DEEP, deep stuff, I know.  I know.  I’m a little heavy today, forgive me.  Blame Claire?  No, don’t blame Claire, blame me for getting all thoughtful about a simple little story she told us about her super cool grandma.

Ok forreals, you’ve suffered enough at the hand of my verbal diarrhea; here we go with the dresses that started it all…

waverly:

viola:

eloquence:

grace:

(seriously, dying over this one.  DYING.)

haviland:

So, here’s what I’m wondering…

1) Do you have any fave dresses, or fave details?

2) Have you ever sat down with a parent, a parent figure, a grandmother or grandfather, or really anyone who’s important to you and has contributed to shaping your life… and had one of those *eye-opening* conversations with them?  Do you feel like you’ve learned important life lessons from your relatives/loved ones, that you wouldn’t really know, at least right now, had you not had that opportunity to speak about real life, or maybe insecurities, or difficult pasts, or any other not often discussed types of issues in life?

The conversations I’ve had specifically with my own mother, about her past and the things she has gone through, good and bad, have been essential to molding the person I have become, and continue to grow into.  There are truths about life that, if she hadn’t revealed to me in willfully vulnerable moments that what I’m feeling or doing is normal BECAUSE SHE FELT IT OR DID IT, TOO – honestly, you just can’t believe sometimes how much goodness can come out of telling someone your truth.  You just, it’s unbelievable.

I wonder if you feel me on this.

I’m super interested to hear what your thoughts are.  Or anecdotes, or experiences.  You know, if you care to share with me.

xoxo  - Alison

images provided by Claire Pettibone

I love it when someone tweets me and twitter shows me exactly where they live.  It’s really useful information to have if I’m in the mood for killing someone that day.  Thank you, technology.  (*she says with a serious face, illustrating intent*)

And if you think I’m kidding, I am as serious about this as these Kardashian faces are serious about being Kardashians AND THEY ARE SERIOUS.  (FYI they are really very serious about it.)

Haha just kidding, I meant to say I’m THIS (<== click it) serious about it.

O__O

oooooo-KAAAYYYYYY.  Moving. right. along.  It’s Friday afternoon and DOY, Bridal Week happened, as you know, and to a couple of the shows the lovely Isabelle of Isabelle Selby Photography came with me, ably taking care of the exquisite-runway-photo-documentation side of things, while I took care of the drinking-I MEAN, the socializing-I MEAN, the networking and observing side of things.  She’s all pictures, I’m all talk-WAIT.  That doesn’t sound good at all.  Here: I’m good at sitting in chairs and observing people walk down runways in attractive outfits.  Ok not better, that was not better at all.  Whatever I’mma just get to the photos right now.

Here’s parto numero uno of what we saw in the flesh.  Please put on your goggles because your eyes are about to explode and honestly I don’t want your eye guts all over my blog, thank you very much.

The always lovely Elise (you might remember her from TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress at Kleinfeld; she’s a Pronovias vixen now) shared with us all of the dresses backstage, and here are the delicious, fluffy details Isabelle caught while we were all collectively gushing…

Lady in Red (not Teresa from Real Housewives– this lady’s from the news, though I can’t remember her name or her network, of course) was positively freaking over some of these dresses, and if you had been there as all of this was unfolding, you’d have been freaking out just the same.  I was freaking out under Isabelle as she took this pic; in fact I’m a little shocked she was able to remain so steady to shoot these shots because my body was moving a lot with physical reaction.

:: runway ::

CLOSER

CLOSER

oh we can’t get closer?  oh, OK WELL THEN MORE OF IT FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES

these are just such fun dresses to watch flow down this runway aisle, y’all.  I seriously wish you coulda been there.

I mean…

ENHANCE

Little story before I beg you for your feedback:  yesterday afternoon someone tweeted the link to a ‘desert wedding’ post I wrote like forever ago and I clicked on it (of course) and when I scrolled down I saw it had one of my ‘A Day in the Life of Bambino‘seses, but it was a super-back-in-the-day Life of Bambino installment, so it was heavy on the random acts of violence he was so well known for during his puppydom.  We hardly ever give him a stuffed toy anymore that isn’t disembody-proof because of how many stuffed animals have *gone to live on a farm* at his hand.

Ok here, I’ve got to share it, I just– how can I not at this point.

Yeah.  So it just made me think about how a puppy could like, just start punching me in the face, or hold me up at gunpoint and I would still be like, awww how cute.  What a cute puppy this is, he’s holding me up at gunpoint, awww.  I wonder who taught him how to empty a magazine into someone’s skull, so cute.

You know?

Anyway, WHADDYA THINK?  About anything, really.  I just wanna hear your feedback, like, in general.  The dresses are a good start.  hey, do you like the fact that they were inspired by The Great Gatsby?

Oh and also, SEE?  I’m super not-tan.  Super not.  And that’s ok! :)

xoxo  - Alison

*all images taken by my kickass partner in bridal market crime, Isabelle Selby Photography

Thanks to Pronovias for the good times and the pretty dresses, and wanna shout out a special thanks to Tatiana & Grazia from Wedding Salon for always throwing the best preview runway parties; thanks ladies!

Isabelle Selby Photography is a member of Vendor Love.  Click here to view this listing, or explore the guide.