Wedding ring

My friend Abbey went to a wedding recently and couldn't stop staring at the bride's ring. Don't you love this cluster ring?

Do or Don't: A house registry

Hatch My House lets you create a wedding registry to save up for your dream home. Your guests give you parts of the house--two bedroom windows or a front door, for example. Thoughts? Kind of brilliant, but would you do it? Now we've seen everything!

P.S. More dos and don'ts...

(Thanks, Karaugh. Boots photo by Stephanie)

Would you wait to kiss until your wedding day?

When Andrew and Carissa fell in love, they decided to wait to have their first kiss until their wedding ceremony...
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Do or Don't: Honeymoon registry

After Alex and I got hitched almost three years ago, we went on a two-week honeymoon to Italy and Greece. To help afford our splurgy trip, we skipped the regular household registry and instead created a honeymoon registry. We signed up with buy-our-honeymoon.com (don't worry, guests never see the tacky name!). Then Alex and I spent a fun evening listing our trip plans, restaurants, hotels, even sun hats. Happily, our guests seemed to be into it, and it made our honeymoon possible.

Thoughts? Do or don't? You can see our actual registry below...
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Cheese wedding cake

Speaking of offbeat weddings, this Australian couple served a cheese wedding cake. Be still my heart.

What kind of dessert will (or did) you serve at your wedding? We went with chocolate-chip cookies.

P.S. More on cheese:)

(Photos by Jonas Peterson)

Do or Don't: Colorful wedding dresses

Thursday pop quiz! What color wedding dress would you wear, if white weren't an option? Here are your choices...
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A French countryside wedding

Would you have a destination wedding? This French countryside wedding will make your heart swell...
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9 simple wedding rings

Last fall, I wrote a post simple wedding rings, and since then, I've come across a few more that have taken my breath away. Here are 9 beautiful rings that are pretty enough to wear on their own...

1. Braided ring, $348.
2. Black oval ring, $250.
3. Blade of grass ring, $495.
4. Black diamond ring, $710.
5. Heart ring, $200.
6. Infinity hug ring, $193.
7. Diamond band, $520.
8. Speckled band, $330.
9. Bateau ring, $980.

Thoughts? What's your wedding ring like? Mine's a thin gold band. xoxo

P.S. 6 more wedding rings.

(Graphic design by Jennifer Hagler for Cup of Jo)

Will you cry at your wedding? (Did you?)

Before we got married, Alex told me something that made my jaw drop...

One evening, we were chatting about whether we thought we'd cry during our wedding ceremony, and Alex admitted that he hadn't cried since he was ten years old. "Guys are taught to hold in tears," he explained. "As a little kid, you don't want to be labeled a cry baby by your friends. I quickly learned to be stoic." And that lesson stuck: He hasn't shed a single tear since then, even when his father died.

I couldn't believe it. (I would be embarrassed to know how many times I've cried since I was ten.)

So, when our wedding day arrived, I wasn't surprised that Alex stayed lovely and strong through his wedding vows, and I broke down while saying mine. It was such an intense and moving moment, and I couldn't make it through the words without my voice cracking. (In fact, every makeup artist I know says their #1 beauty tip for brides is to wear waterproof mascara!)
More weepy brides...
Weepy grooms...
And don't forget the dads! :)
What about you? Who is more likely to cry at your wedding: you or your partner? Or do you think you'll both be equally dry-eyed or weepy? If you're already married, how did it go down? I'm so curious!

P.S. 10 funny wedding moments.

(Photos by Max Wanger (including ours), Dixie Pixel, Kelly Benvenuto, Jessie Holland, Lynn Michelle; Brandon Kidd and Ventola Photography, via Green Wedding Shoes, Belle Rempert via Ruffled; and James Moes, and photos, cropped, by Audrey Hannah and Sarah Maren, via Ruffled)

How big can your wedding kiss be?

Before Alex and I got hitched, I wondered if our wedding kiss should be big or small. In the end, swept up by the emotion of the day, we just went for it! And it felt awesome!

Would you do a big kiss? Or keep it small and grandparent-friendly? If you're married, what was your kiss like? Here's some lovely wedding-kiss inspiration...
P.S. A Swedish island wedding, and two rad City Hall weddings...

(Photos by Max Wanger, Jess + Nate, Our Labor of Love, Mikael Olsson, James Mountford, Lauren Ross, Bayly & Moore, Anastasia Volkova, Olivia Leigh Weddings, Kyle Hale and Boutwell Studio)

Ombre balloons

Our mom is turning sixty this year (!), so we're starting to brainstorm ideas for a family party. These ombre balloons are great, don't you think? You just blow up six balloons each of slightly different colors, that's it!

(Photo by Jenny)

Wedding in Italy

This pitch-perfect Italian wedding has made the blog rounds this past week, but, in honor of this travel-themed week, I wanted to share my favorite photos...
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Graduate save-the-date

My sister's friends Becky and Danny made this amazing save-the-date video for their wedding. It was inspired by the final scene of The Graduate. Aren't they geniuses?! I love their faces at the end.

(I posted this four years ago, but wanted to repost because it's so awesome.)

French wedding dresses

Aren't these the most ridiculously beautiful French wedding dresses? So ethereal and romantic.

By the way, Glamour.com just wrote that the time between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day is "Engagement Season," since so many people propose at that point. Is anyone thinking they might get engaged?

P.S. My wedding dress, how to do your wedding hair, and other jaw-dropping wedding dresses.

(Thank you, Florence)

Photo booth proposal

Pete wanted to propose to his girlfriend Shannon, so he went to a Mexican restaurant and spelled out his his proposal in a photo booth. And it was harder than it looks: "He told me he only had the exact change for five strips," says Shannon, "because he didn't realize they were $3 each, so he was really nervous that he was going to mess up the order of the letters. Thus him making a 'Oh my god, I hope I got this right' face in the last photo." Pete then stuck the strips on their fridge, and Shannon discovered it while they were cooking pasta. How sweet is that?

P.S. 10 more genius proposals.

10 unforgettable wedding moments

The most memorable wedding moments often come when you least expect them. Here are ten amazing moments, a few of which were actually mistakes!

Putting on the dress.

A groom's first look.

Enraptured.

Sweet kisses with old-fashioned veils.

The most beautiful dress (maybe tied with this and this:)

"Irene and Alison rode the freight elevator up to the roof to make their grand entrance, but the lift got stuck for about five minutes. (The band played the 'Wedding March' on repeat till they finally emerged.)" Eeks! Here, they're dancing the hora. -- New York Weddings

"We choreographed a dance to 'If There's Such a Thing as Love," by the Magnetic Fields. But we hadn't practiced with Mary wearing her dress; plus, we were nervous and maybe a little intoxicated. The dance was falling apart; then her veil fell off when I dipped her. Our friends started cracking up, and we just made up our own dance. It ended up being one of our favorite moments of the wedding." -- our friends Austin and Mary

"People kept asking me if I was going to do a split; it's my signature move. I was like, 'Absolutely not!' But later there was a dance-off with break dancing and an older gentleman spinning on the ground. That set off the happy endorphins. I did the split and Ninja Turtled out of it on my back." -- Kim Zatina, New York Weddings

Sparklers at Rob and Susan's wedding.

What was your favorite moment of your wedding--or any wedding you've been to? :)

(Photos by Ali Harper, Rob Meyer, Tec Petaja, Braedon Weddings, SNAP, Jenna Walker and Lauren Ross, via Snippet & Ink; Lynn Michelle, via Glamour; Sarah Tew, Our Labor of Love, Jess + Nate)