Wedding gowns: Lace

I always find wedding gowns embellished with lace so elegant and classic. When laid over plain satin, it instantly creates a dainty pattern that's really beautiful to look at.

Aside from being accents, lace can also be used as an embellishment to your cover-ups. It can be used to conceal your upper arms, if you're shy to go sleeveless, yet still reveal a bit of sexiness.

Different kinds of lace can create different kinds of looks. If you're going for a lace wedding gown, ask your designer what silhouettes and styles you could wear. Here are some photos of lovely lace wedding gowns:From left: Ivanka from MoniqueLhuillier.com; Style 1774NT from AlfredAngelo.com; Style 1394 by DemetriosBride.com; Style WD0258 from HeleneBridal.com; Nerta from Pronovias.com.

Birdcage veils

One of the wedding trends that I think will be hot this year is the use of the birdcage veil. As opposed to the usual wedding veils with long trains, the birdcage veil is just long enough to frame the face or cover until at eye-length. Birdcage veils are made with a netting, probably a large-mesh Russian netting or French netting, a fine English netting, or a soft illusion tulle.

Birdcage veils look good when worn with a wedding dress with simple design -- it becomes your crown, the highlight of your look. It also looks good with any hairstyle or hair length for that matter. You can use it with pins or combs, or pair it with jeweled fascinators or clips to put it in place.

If your wedding style is vintage classic, birdcage veils are the perfect accessories for you. Here are some birdcage veil styles you might want to look into:
Top row, from left: Basic Birdcage Veil with Double Ostrich Feathers and Pearl Broche Accent from Artikal.com; Emma Russian Net with Rhinestones from BirdcageVeils.com; Birdcage Veil with Raw Silk Headband from CastleBride.com.

Bottom row, from left: Svana Veil made of illusion tulle from TigerlilyJewelry.com; Bandeau with French netting from UnveiledBridalDesigns.com; Style H-5017 with Pillbox Hat in satin from EricaKoesler.com.

Inspiration board - Eco-friendly/Green Wedding

One of the rising wedding trends is a "green wedding" or an eco-friendly wedding. Since most people nowadays are getting more concerned about protecting the environment and living a healthy lifestyle, green weddings are being done by more and more couples.

It's not that hard organizing a green wedding. Many wedding suppliers are now offering eco-friendly favors, like cards made from recycled products, potted herbs, or seedling sachets. Or instead of giving favors, donate them to your local charity.

Some designers use hemp for the gowns. Your bridesmaids can wear dresses they could use again. For the food, you can choose organically-grown vegetables and gluten-free food. You can also choose to pick recyclable things for decor or silk flowers for your bouquet. Just remember the ever-famous line "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" and you'll see there are a lot of options you could choose from to create your own green wedding.

Here's an inspiration board that I came up with for an earth-friendly wedding. Hope you like it:1st column, from top: Alabaster Tea Rose Bouquet from MarthaStewartWeddings.com; Gluten-free Vegan Wedding Cake from DecadenceWeddingCakes.com; Garden Salad from EarthenFeast.com; Seedling Wedding Invitation from InviteSite.com.

2nd column, from top: Two Lovers and an Acorn Oak Wood Ring Set from SimplyWoodRings.com; Carmen gown made of hemp and silk from NaturalBridals.com; Bamboo Trinket Box from LittleThingsFavors.com.

3rd column, from top: Lavender Wedding Rice from Beau-Coup.com; Recycled Glass Terrarium from VivaTerra.com; Organic Cowel-Back Dress made of hempsilk from MyCorset.com.

Free fonts for your DIY invitations

If you're doing DIY projects for your wedding, such as invitations, thank you cards, place cards, and the like, then the Font Squirrel will surely be a big help to you.

Font Squirrel is a site that offers free font downloads for commercial use. It has loads of fonts ranging from sans serifs to calligraphy. It also has some dingbats, decorative fonts that can be used as images.

There are some fonts there you could use on your wedding projects. The ever-famous Scriptina is on the list, but you could also use Beautiful ES (which hubby used for our DIY invitation), Chopin Script, or Windsong. Dingbats like IM Fell Flowers and Kfon are great decorations for your cards as well.

I tried to make a mock-up of a monogram using the downloaded fonts in Font Squirrel. It was a quick one, so I didn't get to change the colors. I used Renaissance as the font for the initials, and Kfon (birds) and Nymphette (curls) as decorations:
If you want to have free fonts you could use for your DIY wedding projects, you can visit the Font Squirrel website.