All My Love Things

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The magical ball gown has always been a popular choice among brides, but with the release of Cinderella and Frozen Fever happening this week, the princess-style gown is back at the forefront.

Fictional characters Cinderella and Princess Elsa will be hitting screens on Friday, and in celebration of their return,HELLO! Online has taken a look at Alfred Angelo's 2015 Disney-inspired collection.

The design team have been releasing a Princess range for the past five years, but this year saw the addition of the hotly anticipated Elsa gown – an immediate hit with brides wanting to channel their inner royalty.

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The Elsa gown features beads to make it glisten like sunlight reflecting on snow

"As Frozen Fever has swept the nation, our Elsa-inspired gown certainly lives up to our brides' expectations," said Kirsty Voce, director of UK operations and customer service. The Elsa is a softly flared sheath gown that has been dramatically beaded to glisten like sunlight reflecting on freshly fallen snow.

The dress, which also features a sweetheart neckline and a dramatic Watteau train, is for the "artistic bride with playful charm."

The Cinderella is inspired by the new Disney film, set for release this month

"All of our Princesses are popular and unique in their own way, each telling their own story," added Kirsty. "They offer each bride the opportunity to truly feel like a princess on their magical day."

The collection includes gowns inspired by Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White to name a few – and suit different brides' personalities.

Other characters included in Alfred Angelo's range include Princess Jasmine (pictured), Sleeping Beauty and Snow White

This year is particularly exciting for Alfred Angelo, who have introduced colour into the collection. Now each style comes in the colour associated with that particular Princess as well as the traditional ivory and white.

"We're bringing the majesty of colour to create yet another dimension to the magic of Disney's storytelling," said Kirsty. "Now brides can imagine their very own 'happily ever after....' in colour!"

Now brides can imagine their very own happily ever after in colour

The gowns, which are just as popular as Mr Angelo's other main collections, were on display at The National Wedding Show earlier this year.

Other trends to hit the runway included the more flirty and sassy tea-length wedding dresses, reminiscent of Fearne Cotton's gown, and the traditional lace designs as fronted by the Duchess of Cambridge. Bridesmaids dresses by Ghost and Jenny Packham at Debenhams also showcased exquisite old Hollywood glamour styles.

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While some wedding traditions are lovely and make for lasting memories, others feel forced, dated and altogether irrelevant.

Interestingly enough, many of the expectations and traditions that we consider integral to getting married are actually the invention of savvy advertisers. Here are five you may not have known about:

1. Diamond engagement rings prove your love.

The engagement ring wasn't always mandatory -- and it wasn't always a diamond. Then, in 1938, the De Beers diamond company launched an aggressive marketing campaign to make the engagement ring a "psychological necessity" for any couple who wanted to get married. The De Beers campaign swayed popular opinion through events like organized lectures at high schools across the country promoting the importance of the diamond ring. And it worked: diamond sales rose 55 percent in the United States from 1938 to 1941. In 1947, they launched the slogan "Diamonds are forever," and by the '50s, De Beers advertisers were pleased to note that young people were delaying their marriages until they could afford a ring.

2. So you'd better spend two months salary on it.

De Beers was also responsible for the conventional wisdom that a man ought to spend two-months' worth of salary on an engagement ring. Their successful ads in the late '40s used catchphrases like, "You can't look at Jane without telling me she's worth two months' salary. Just look at her". De Beers even set various standards around the world; in Japan, three months' salary was advertised. They also promoted the "surprise engagement" after their marketing research determined that men chose more expensive engagement rings when they went shopping without their wives.

3. A guest must buy the couple a nice gift, selected from a wedding registry

You may think that giving the new couple a place setting or knife set is the height of politeness, but for most of human history, wedding guests weren't socially expected to bring gifts unless they were family or intimate friends. Gifts were typically humble house necessities, like linens. Then, in 1924, Marshall Field's, now Macy's, created the first wedding registry and many retailers followed suit to encourage guests to purchase luxury goods, like fine china and silver for the new couple. Today, about 96 percent of couples register for gifts.

4. Your dress should be ornate, enormous, white, and you must only wear it once in your life.

Queen Victoria first made the enormous white wedding dress a thing in 1830, but for a long time, only the very wealthy wore the style. Up until the 1930s, women would often get married in dresses they already owned or buy new, reusable dresses in darker colors that wouldn't stain. The white, full-skirted "once-in-a-lifetime" wedding dress likely originated with department store bridal salons in the late '20s, who saw the money-making potential of marketing expensive dresses that women would never wear again.

Before then, wedding dresses had typically followed fashion hemlines of the moment, but the bridal industry attempted to "maximize profits by promoting more expensive floor-length gowns." That ideal wedding dress was promoted throughout wedding magazines and advertisements. In the '60s, the Bridal Apparel Association even commissioned studies that attempted to prove that a white wedding dress made for a more stable marriage.

5. If you spend enough, you can buy your "perfect wedding."

If having the perfect wedding seems impossible to achieve, that's because it's an imaginary standard. As Cele Otnes and Elizabeth Pleck wrote in "Cinderella Dreams,""The idea of the perfect wedding is not age-old, but instead was created by the bridal industry and eventually accepted by the public," and likely was first popularized in the 1920s. In the years that followed, they note, "the word appears in the founding statement of every bridal magazine or bridal association..." and was used to advertise everything from wedding menus to bachelorette parties. While weddings had previously been homemade, often humble affairs for most Americans, the quest for "perfection" necessitated tons of spending.

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I’m always a little jealous of California’s year round sunshine. It offers up the perfect weather for an al fresco affair, even in the Fall. And Beaulieu Garden couldn’t be a more stunning backdrop with it’s garden finery and canopy of twinkling lights. It’s made even more so at the hands of Atelier Joya, Stacy McCain Event Planning and loads of pretty images by Elle Jae. Click here for even more.

From The Bride…I had no idea Morgan was going to propose. It was the morning of my grandmothers birthday and we got up early to take our bulldog, Dexter for a hike along the beach in Half Moon Bay. We were supposed to be at parents house for an early bbq that afternoon to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday. Dexter loves the water and the beach and was dragging me towards the water and Morgan was walking very slowly behind us. I finally stopped to ask him if he was feeling ok and he had already taken the ring box out of his pocket. He asked me if I would marry him and Dexter and I laughed and said yes. He asked me again if I was sure and I said yes. He said “good, because all of our friends and family are going to be at your parents today to celebrate”. Turns out, I was the only one who didn’t know he was proposing. That afternoon was so much fun because it ended up being a surprise engagement party with our closest friends and family…….
When Morgan and I got engaged, we both immediately knew that we wanted to be married in the Napa Valley. We wanted to invite our family and friends to not only celebrate with us on our wedding day but spend the weekend with us and enjoy all that Napa has to offer.
Our weekend began at the Andaz Hotel, located downtown Napa, surrounded by restaurants, shopping and the Napa river all within walking distance. Our family and friends were greeted with a goodie bag and map of downtown with places to see and visit during their stay. We wanted to spend as much time as we could visiting with everyone who traveled to celebrate so we had an open cocktail party instead of a rehearsal dinner on the patio at the Andaz.
The day of the wedding, our guests were shuttled to Beaulieu Gardens, a private estate located in Rutherford. We chose this venue for its obvious beauty and with its many different gardens, we were able to move the party from one area to another, creating a “roaming party” feel.
The overall theme or aesthetic of our ceremony and reception was a natural-rustic Napa feel with pops of glam. Farm wood tables with sequin runners and mercury glass, hanging tea lights from over head, just made everything look so rich glamorous without taking away the already beautiful landscape from the venue. It was perfect clear fall evening and we had placed throws on all the ladies chairs for them incase they got chilly. We wanted everyone to feel like they were included and had the best seat in the house so we had couches and lounge areas set up near the reception area and dance floor to give it a more intimate feeling. Instead of a guest book, we had photo album on one of the coffee tables for everyone to sign and write messages in. That was fun for us to read though the next day.
We still wanted it to be fun and personal and at the end of evening, we wanted our friends and family to leave thinking that it was the best party ever. We chose Pop Rocks as our band because we loved their energy and we wanted everyone to dance. We had late night snacks passed for guests during the last hour of dancing to keep the party going. At the end of the evening, our guests were shuttled back to the hotel and we invited all of our guests who weren’t ready to go to bed yet, to join us after hours for some sushi and cocktails next.

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All My Love Things

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