Wedding Dress

It seems you can buy just about anything at discount retailer Costco. Now, brides visiting the Costco store in Howard County next week will be able to buy a wedding dress designed by Kirstie Kelly. The four-day trunk show will be held from Aug. 18 through the 21 st at the store at 6675 Marie Curie Drive in Elkridge. The retailer says gowns will start at 40 percent off retail price. Not keen on buying a dress next to gallons of mayonnaise or 300 pairs of tube socks for $10?

“Let's try that one first,” I said, pointing to the craziest wedding gown the saleswoman had selected for me. It was tight through the hips, with geometric ribbon designs that started on the bodice and trailed down through the choppy tulle skirt. It was an avant-garde kind of wedding dress you might wear if your reception was at Sidebar in Downtown Baltimore or the Renaissance Festival - a little punk, a little medieval. It wasn't remotely my style, but I wanted the first dress I tried on to be memorable and this certainly fit the bill.

There is only one reason to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and turn on the television, and that's the dress. The well-kept secret of what Kate Middleton will wear when she weds Britain's Prince William early Friday morning (our time) will finally be revealed when she steps out of the limo with her father, Michael, and I want to see it in real time. No DVR for me. No "Dateline" recap. No Google photos. I want to be able to say I was there when the world got its first glimpse of Kate in her wedding dress.

Wedding date: March 9, 2013 Her story: Julie Zuramski, 34, grew up in Lutherville. She works in sales at National Envelope. Her father, Joseph, is retired from sales, and her mother, Josephine, is a real estate agent for Long & Foster. His story: Matthew Shevlin, 38, grew up in West Conshocken, Pa. He is an employee benefits consultant for Engle-Hambright & Davies in Philadelphia. His father, Joseph, is a vice president for the Eastern region of AMG Resources and his mother, Kathleen, is a teacher.

Modern wedding gowns come in various styles, colors and prices. But no matter what they look like, they all have one thing in common: the bride's sentimental attachment.It's because of this attachment that many brides choose to wear their mother's or grandmother's wedding dress.These heirloom gowns require special handling from the time they're removed from their storage containers to the time they're put back into them. And the older the dress, the more challenging the restoration and cleaning process.

LOS ANGELES -- Months of planning have gone into the wedding. It is going to be picture-perfect. Then, at the 11th hour, either the bride or bridegroom ducks out of the picture.What happens to the wedding gown? All that silk and lace? All that money?In the case of actors Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland, who said "we don't," a Beverly Hills shop is storing one surplus gown."It was ready for a final fitting," says Michelle Trafficante, a partner in Tyler Trafficante. Now, "everything's just sort of on hold."

It was so different from the first time. Some of the women polished off yardwork minutes before zipping into their wedding gowns, which had to be retrieved from crawl spaces, scooped off playroom floors or unscrewed from airtight preservation boxes where they'd been entombed for years. Oblivious children did not appear to notice that, on an ordinary weekend afternoon, Mom suddenly materialized in shiny white shoulder bows, sweeping the kitchen floor with a silken train instead of a broom.

What price do you put on love?The U.S. Customs Service tags it at $133.62. That's how much Jane L. Metcalf has been told she must pay to retrieve her mother's homemade wedding dress sent from her native Australia.Government actions left the bride from down under in tears after a customs agent in Los Angeles placed a value of $743 on the garment made by Miss Metcalf's grandmother for Miss Metcalf's mother's wedding 30 years ago.The Postal Service then refused to deliver the dress unless Miss Metcalf, 27, paid the duty of $133.

You can find the ads on almost any given day at the back of the classified section in this newspaper, somewhere between vending machines and wheelchairs. Wedding gowns. Size 2 to size 22. Some with veils, some without.Some used, some not."Never worn, never altered." That's the code, the lines we read between. Stood up? Bolted from the church like a runaway bride? Tragic accident, unexpected consequences? "Never worn, never altered."You know there's a story embedded in those four words, if only you dared to ask.We dared.

“Let's try that one first,” I said, pointing to the craziest wedding gown the saleswoman had selected for me. It was tight through the hips, with geometric ribbon designs that started on the bodice and trailed down through the choppy tulle skirt. It was an avant-garde kind of wedding dress you might wear if your reception was at Sidebar in Downtown Baltimore or the Renaissance Festival - a little punk, a little medieval. It wasn't remotely my style, but I wanted the first dress I tried on to be memorable and this certainly fit the bill.

One of the many benefits of receiving that long awaited engagement ring is the ease of daily accessorizing. I have always admired the girls who can effortlessly and flawlessly pair the perfect necklace/scarf/belt with a simple outfit, instantly elevating it from boring to stylish. But as much as I compliment and admire these embellishment- savvy ladies, I don't foresee myself ever having the patience for that extra 30 seconds to latch onto my daily routine. I also have a small problem called "champagne taste on a beer budget" where almost every piece of jewelry that catches my eye is comically out of my price range.

Remember in Clueless when Dionne asked Cher if she were suffering from buyer's remorse and, looking horrified, Cher said no? Well lucky you, Miss Horowitz, because I certainly am.  Knowing nothing about wedding dress shopping, I was surprised when in February, a week after my engagement, my stepmom insisted we begin the search. We visited a total of two places, and I had my dress deposit down in less than a month.  I love my dress. I can't really detail it here because my fiance wisely reads this blog (Hi, Rob!

It seems you can buy just about anything at discount retailer Costco. Now, brides visiting the Costco store in Howard County next week will be able to buy a wedding dress designed by Kirstie Kelly. The four-day trunk show will be held from Aug. 18 through the 21 st at the store at 6675 Marie Curie Drive in Elkridge. The retailer says gowns will start at 40 percent off retail price. Not keen on buying a dress next to gallons of mayonnaise or 300 pairs of tube socks for $10?

Walking down the aisle seems to have been a form of exercise for Marjorie Merriweather Post, who got married four times. An index to changing fashion trends, her wedding dresses are at the heart of the exhibit "Wedding Belles: Bridal Fashions from the Marjorie Merriweather Post Family, 1874-1958. " This compact fashion show offers the perfect excuse to visit Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens, the northwest Washington estate that stands as a testament to the cereal heiress' taste.

There is only one reason to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and turn on the television, and that's the dress. The well-kept secret of what Kate Middleton will wear when she weds Britain's Prince William early Friday morning (our time) will finally be revealed when she steps out of the limo with her father, Michael, and I want to see it in real time. No DVR for me. No "Dateline" recap. No Google photos. I want to be able to say I was there when the world got its first glimpse of Kate in her wedding dress.

Shanesa Debruin and her fiance promised each other in high school they'd marry if both were single at the age of 30. But when it came to the wedding cake, it was love at first sight. "We saw a picture online, and we just knew," said the 32-year-old Catonsville resident. When she marries Aaron Snowden in August, the graceful swags that drape her cake will be the wine color of the calla lilies in her bouquet. Gladys Thompson has been married for 50 years. But when she and husband Clyde Thompson Jr. renew their vows on Flag Day at Wayland Baptist Church in Baltimore, it is the cake from SugarBakers in Catonsville - with roses dusted in gold, gold pearllike trim and gold ribbon - that will steal the show.

LONDON -- Samantha Shaw, a 30-year-old designer whose clothes are worn by a coterie of Britain's younger high-society crowd, is designing Sophie Rhys-Jones' wedding dress for her upcoming royal marriage to Prince Edward, Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son.Like his brothers' brides, Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson, Edward's betrothed will be wearing the creation of a relatively unknown designer. And like her predecessors, Shaw is keeping the dress under strict wraps until the June 19 wedding.

Jill Andrews Bell may design wedding gowns, but she's the antithesis of a bride.In her Canton studio, she's more likely to wear black Converse sneakers and a skirt made of upholstery fabric than satin pumps or a silk sheath. "People look at me and they don't believe I make wedding dresses," says Ms. Bell, 26, who has worked in New York and London.But in the heart of the marrying season, she's more concerned about her creations than their creator. Some days, she's lucky to have time to throw on a T-shirt and shorts.

Kathy Scholl slipped a long, striped, silk skirt onto a homemade dress form while her friend, Betsy Lehmann, added the top to the black, gray and brown outfit. Lehmann maneuvered the sleeves and Scholl adjusted the shoulders on the mannequin before they stepped back and gazed at the result. "The back of the skirt has a gap, and we're going to have to figure out how the front closed when it was worn," said Lehmann, of Phoenix. "It's definitely from the Civil War era," said Scholl, of Forest Hill.