By Kate Wilson

Vintage weddings have always been a romantic and classy concept for that big day. Turning to an old retro style and creating an attractive and elegant wedding theme is always a great way to make your wedding day memorable.

For a vintage wedding, first you need to decide which era you would like to follow.  A retro styled 50’s vintage wedding brings a sense of glamour, traditional style and classiness with it.  

1. Venue & decorations

Use popular flowers like peonies.  Have fun -- put a soda fountain near the dessert section and car-decorations from the 1950s to transform your venue into a perfect retro destination.  Let your guests know about the theme so that they can dress appropriately.

2. Retro wedding dress.

Pack in the vibrant style of the 50’s with simple but elegantly-cut short dresses with volume and clean lines made from exotic silks with intricate lace detailing. Headpieces, veils, beads and jewelry details can help in completing your retro look.

3. Music.

Don’t overlook the music – play energetic retro rock. Turn to Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly.  There are great upbeat songs to choose from in the 50’s era for your first dance song.

Bring the 50s energy to your wedding and enjoy an unusual, fun vintage wedding.

Kate Wilson is a blogger at WeddingClan, a question and answer site for weddings.

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By Elizabeth

Time for some fall wedding invitation inspiration.  Our friends at Minted.com, an online wedding stationery store, share with us some of their favorite wedding invitations for the fall.  

(Courtesy of cadance paige design, love letters, design lotus, pottsdesign, oscar & emma, and paper plains) 

These invitations were designed by independent graphic designers from all over the world.  If spring and summer brought us upbeat bright colors, in style for the fall are elegant darker colors with artistic maple leaf backgrounds.  

What do you think of these designs?  

Check out more of Minted.com’s beautiful wedding invitations.  They offer one of-a-kind wedding invitations, save the dates, and bridal shower invitations.

Disclosure: Shiny Orb, a search site for wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

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By Jennifer

Our featured bride this week is definitely going to have a beautiful flower girl. Her dressing room is decked out with great dresses for flower girls and junior bridesmaids picks. Have you thought about what dress your flower girl will be wearing?

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By Jennifer

Today's featured dressing room is... jenny's!! (How cool, we have the same name. Almost. Maybe?) Her dressing room has a broad range of dresses but I noticed that 6 of them are one-shoulder gowns. One of them is even a one-shoulder short dress! Perhaps jenny is a fan of these great looking dresses?

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By Jennifer

One recent Shiny Orb visitor put together this fabulous room of celebrity inspired dresses. Which one's your favorite? Would you wear it as bride or guest?

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By Jennifer

Today's featured dressing room has a great collection of mother of the bride dresses. Or are they mother of the groom dresses? You ever wonder why they're called mother of the bride dresses when the groom's mother might also need a great dress? :)

Slate or deep purple would look great with so many color palettes, don't you think?

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By Jennifer

As I was browsing Shiny Orb today, my mind drifted away from wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses over to reception dresses. The reception dress should be just as important as the wedding dress, don't you think? After all, the reception will be going all night, people will be taking tons of pictures, and as the bride, it's another opportunity to stand out and be the center of attention. :)

Me, personally, I'm a fan of bright, vivid colors when it comes to evening gowns. I love how Tony Bowls dresses are so elegant and so dazzling at the same time. These floor length evening gowns look spectacular. I have to admit that dresses from the Tony Bowls Collection can cost a pretty penny, but that pretty penny sure gets you a pretty dress! What's your favorite Tony Bowls dress?

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By Jennifer

Which little girl doesn't dream about being a princess? After seeing a real royal wedding last Friday, I'm sure little girls everywhere have started dreaming of marrying a prince. For now, though, I came across these adorable flower girl dresses from the Disney Princess collection. Amazingly, they are only $40 each! Super affordable! So, how about letting that special little girl in your wedding party dress like a princess?

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By Jennifer

Hope everyone had a great Easter! Easter always reminds me of bunnies and spring and... green grass! Today's inspiration is a selection of short and sweet, green bridesmaid dresses. Okay, the last one is not so short but I love the color!

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By Jennifer

Last week, I featured no-nonsense, no-poof wedding dresses. This week, I found a dressing room of wedding dresses with awesome tiered skirts. Those who are opting for the sleek sheath look need not apply but those of us who love the elegance of the princess wedding, these tiered dresses are fabulous!

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By Jennifer

Ying puts it very simply: less volume, please.

Have you checked out all the no nonsense wedding dresses at Shiny Orb?

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By Jennifer

I'm back from a brief disappearance! I am quite excited to showcase a huge selection of wedding dresses handpicked by Eileen for Eileen's Boudoir. I found Eileen's dressing room on the list of featured dressing rooms and her room does not disappoint. I love that her wedding dress picks showcase a wide choice of big skirts. I had no idea that they came is so many styles. There's big and layered, big and poofy, big and lacy, big and satiny, big and everything. Enjoy this inspiration board!

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By Jennifer

Today's inspiration board is a collection of Allure Bridals wedding dresses. I love the elegance that comes with lace details or that classic eggshell white.

Some of my favorite Allure dresses include Allure Bridals Style No. 8767, Allure Bridals Style No. 8597, Allure Bridals Style No. 8601, Allure Bridals Style No. ID8666, Allure Bridals Style No. ID8661, Allure Bridals Style No. 8820, Allure Bridals Style No. 8506, and Allure Bridals Style No. 8711. I know, the numbers are totally non-descript. You'll just have to click through to check them out!

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by Elizabeth

When I was planning my beach wedding, I realized that I needed to find a hair stylist otherwise my hair would go flying all over the place during our ceremony on the windy beach.  What I really needed was a site where I could find great vendors with honest, candid reviews posted by real customers -- like an Etsy for services.  So, recently, when I found such a site, -- it's called Betterfly -- I just had to interview them.  

So what is Betterfly?  Is it free?

Betterfly is a free website that makes it really easy and efficient to find the right tutor, coach, stylist, trainer or other “Betterist”, to help you learn, look or feel better.  One of the things that makes Betterfly unique is that it focuses on individuals instead of companies. Rather than suggesting a good hair salon, Betterfly tells you the best stylist! Instead of suggesting a fun gym, Betterfly tells you exactly which trainer you should go to.

Neat -- How, when, why did you start Betterfly? 

Betterfly was founded by Joshua Schwadron to help him find the right people as he worked towards his own personal betterment goals.  The site was launched in May of 2010, and recent investors include some of the Groupon founders.

So our brides are probably wondering, "What are some cool and unique wedding-related services that Betterists are currently offering on your site?"

There are literally thousands of Betterists who offer services related to helping a bride get ready for her wedding day. Whether they're looking for a makeup artist, hair stylist, or dance teacher, Betterfly enables brides (and grooms) to search by location, price, specialty, availability and more.

 

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb, a search site for inexpensive bridesmaids dresses, receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

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By Jennifer

Since we started Shiny Orb, we've noticed that the majority of internet-savvy brides are clever, budget shoppers. They're out looking for a deal on affordable bridesmaid dresses that look great. For today's inspiration board, I took a page from one bride's choice of inexpensive tea length bridesmaid dresses. I love the yellow dress Kristin Davis is wearing. That would make a fabulous bridesmaid dress. All of the dresses here just happen to be 50% off right now and are way under $100 each! What color do you think this savvy bride will pick?

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By Jennifer

I took a peek into Stephanie's dressing room the other day and was inspired to create a bridesmaid gown inspiration board of long, flowing dresses. I loved how the four dresses she picked ranged from casual to really elegant with the dramatic folds of pastel-colored chiffon. I delved into the Shiny Orb collection of inexpensive bridesmaid dresses and chose some of my favorite flowing, strapless, floor-length gowns. What do you think of the look?

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By Jennifer

Today's wedding dress inspiration board comes from the dressing room of this bride. In addition to the fun colors and styles she picked for bridesmaid dresses, I really like the spaghetti strap wedding dresses she picked out. Strapless wedding dresses might be the most popular style but spaghetti straps offer a bit more confidence when you're running around and dancing up a storm. :) Are you considering spaghetti strap dresses?

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By Jennifer

Still excited about the wonderful bridesmaid dresses with sashes that I posted about last week, I thought, why not put colorful sashes on wedding dresses?

You can add a sash to just about any wedding gown, just simply buy the sash separately. They come in dozens of colors, including Amethyst, Chocolate, Emerald Green, Gold, Lilac, Periwinkle, and more. Perfect for matching or complementing the bridesmaids in the bridal party.

What do you think about sashes on wedding dresses? Happy Valentine's Day!

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By Jennifer

It's fun to take a peek at what other brides today are considering for their own weddings. Today I'm featuring a dressing room that loves the cinched waist. Many of the dresses feature different colored sashes to emphasize the waist while others use asymmetric ruching or a fancy rosette. Are you a fan of the single color bridesmaid dress or the color accented look?

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By Jennifer

A bride on Shiny Orb has been diligently putting together a selection of gowns for the Mother of the Bride. I love the fancy, yet elegant, jacket styles on these dresses. Coming in a variety of colors, there's no doubt that there's something great for the mother to stand out in!

Take a peek inside this mother of the bride dressing room or browse the entire collection of gowns for Mother of the Bride.

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