Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher—who first met on the set of That ’70s Show and welcomed their daughter, Wyatt, in October 2014—reportedly married over the Fourth of July weekend in a private ceremony at the Secret Garden at Parrish Ranch in Oak Glen, California. Kunis has spoken in the past about wanting a low-key wedding: “My theory on weddings is: Don’t invite anyone. Do it privately and secretly. My parents are OK with that.” And if she took her own advice, she’s following a string of chic brides, from Olivia Palermo to Scarlett Johansson—who decided to forgo an over-the-top ceremony.

The five-acre property is tucked away in the ranch’s apple orchards, features scenic views, spring-fed ponds, and most importantly: privacy. A secluded venue can be one of the smartest ways to keep paparazzi at bay. “Privacy, security, and peace of mind are everything for a high-profile couple on their most special day,” says master event planner Bronson van Wyck. “It can be more important than flowers, catering, or entertainment.” But even if prying eyes are not a concern of the non-celebrity bride, a remote location is a wonderful way to bring guests together for a shared experience. Rather than being distracted by, say, the bright lights of New York City, guests are more focused on the event itself. From South America’s Patagonia to Norfolk, Connecticut, we’re taking a look back at some of Vogue’s favorite en plein air locales.

The post Inside Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher’s Wedding Venue appeared first on Vogue.

“It was a no-brainer,” Vogue Communications and Marketing Manager Elizabeth Fisch said of the American Museum of Natural History, the venue she and groom Michael Dishi chose for their wedding ceremony and reception. “It is grand enough for a black-tie event, but still really fun, and since we were having our wedding in Manhattan, we wanted to go the extra step to make it memorable.” The Upper West Side institution is particularly meaningful for the bride, whose parents live just across the street. “Growing up, I went to the museum often with my sisters. Michael and I absolutely love it there.”

The high school sweethearts met on holiday for Passover in Miami and began dating immediately upon their return to New York. After seven years spent together, the couple was engaged nine months prior to the big day. The proposal came at the culmination of a whirlwind, surprise getaway weekend at the Paws Up ranch in Montana, orchestrated entirely by Michael.

The traditional Jewish ceremony was held in a room that was fully transformed into an enchanted forest for the occasion. Taking cues from the museum’s famed panoramas, the wedding followed a naturalistic theme. Ivory wisteria and hanging green Amaranthus suspended from the chuppah created an intimate canopy for the couple to stand beneath. Above the seated guests, wispy vines crept across a trellised ceiling of greenery that included hanging Spanish moss, white Dendrobium orchids, and lemon leaf garlands.

The bride walked down the aisle to a Hebrew rendition of “Con Te Partirò” in a custom Valentino dress. “After poring over several images of bridal gowns searching for inspiration without success, I thought back to the last time I wore a dress I truly loved, and it was Valentino.” The result was an ivory long-sleeved, high-collared gown with exquisite beadwork evoking a trompe l’oeil lace effect that only revealed itself as impressive handiwork up close. “I wanted to offset the high neck and covered arms with an open back,” said Elizabeth. “Plus, I was happy it made the dress that much lighter!”

In the Hall of Ocean Life beneath the iconic blue whale, succulent-filled terrariums and urns of peonies and anemones were placed alongside silver candelabras, the long-stemmed ivory candles aglow in the mirrored tabletops set for 550 guests. A nod to the early days of museum collecting, bell jars held additional foliage and curiosities to marvel at. For an added treat, the centerpieces offered up ripe kumquats, blackberries, and champagne grapes, which guests happily nibbled on in anticipation of the unfrosted five-tiered wedding cake, adorned with clusters of grapes and berries dusted with confectioner’s sugar. Dancing commenced before the first course was set and continued long into the night, only pausing for speeches delivered by the bride’s sisters, Abigail and Margaret (both in ethereal gowns of midnight blue and lavender), the father of the bride, Mark Fisch, and the best man, Rani Dishi.

Throughout the evening, guests were allowed the opportunity to roam amongst the herds of elk and families of gorillas on display. A quick scroll through the night’s hashtag #OffischallyDishi reveals the playful Instagram trickery the wedding-goers partook in, posting photos of themselves in their black-tie best while fully immersed in the wildlife of the Sahara. Perhaps a preview of the honeymoon to come, the newlyweds will celebrate their nuptials with a real-life African safari.

The post Elizabeth Fisch and Michael Dishi’s Wedding at the American Museum of Natural History appeared first on Vogue.

Are you one of those people who used to say, “I won’t get married until my gay and lesbian friends all over the country have that right too?” OK then, you now have one less excuse to put off walking down the aisle!

The important thing about this day, which is supposedly the most important day of your life ever, blah, blah, blah, and which you are meant to dream about, obsess over, fantasize about for years—decades!—in advance, is actually to relax, breath deep, and have fun! Stop worrying! You are gorgeous, and you will remain gorgeous even if you break down and eat a piece of carrot cake at your own bridal shower.

Once you have internalized this life lesson and are brimming with confidence, it is time to make a myriad of delightful decisions—are you to be swathed in virginal white (ha) or be daring in some other stunning color? Short or long? Changing for dancing or sticking with the same amazing frock for seven hours? And perhaps most fraught: to veil or not to veil?

We take no position here. But if you decide to skip the tulle, or if you just want your dazzling coiffure to glimmer after you have said your vows (love and honor sure, but no obey!) here are Vogue.com’s suggestions for heady—not to mention seriously head-turning—headpieces.

The post The Top 10 Head-Turning Hair Accessories for Summer Brides appeared first on Vogue.

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Elizabeth Taylor

Photo: William Lovelace / Evening Standard / Getty Images

Bridal hair should be, above all things, easy and romantic. Which is why we’ve been contemplating the braid. Equal parts whimsical and practical, plaits knotted into an earthy crown or left to fall down backs evoke a natural charm that only increases as they come artfully undone. The current summer climate provides the ideal backdrop for such heat-beating styles, but a look back at some of our favorite newlyweds proves the timelessness of the tactic.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor was no stranger to dramatic appeal, showcasing a truly glamorous take on the braid for her 1964 wedding to actor Richard Burton. Perhaps in homage to her recent role as Cleopatra in the namesake film—in which Burton costarred—Taylor donned a headdress-inspired tangle of small white flowers, encircling a raven ponytail that began perched high atop her head and cascaded to her waist.

The year 1997 found Scottish model Kirsty Hume wedding actor Donovan Leitch, a ceremony that centered on medieval aesthetics best evoked by Hume’s pair of over-the-shoulder, Rapunzel-like platinum plaits and a silver crown. While in 2012, Margherita Missoni played off a similar theme, accessorizing her bohemian confection of a gown with both real and braided tiaras. And just last month, model Frida Gustavsson gave the woven look a floral turn, adorning her hair with ethereal sprigs of baby’s breath. Here, five takes on bridal braids that will have you dreaming of an earthbound “I Do.”

The post The Bride Wore Braids: Elizabeth Taylor, Margherita Missoni, and More appeared first on Vogue.

It’s been a whirlwind wedding season; first came jewelry designer Sabine Ghanem (now Getty) who hosted a lavish soiree replete with fancy dress costumes and castles, and then Nicky Hilton (now Rothschild), who channeled a modern-day princess at her Kensington Palace nuptials. Now Beatrice Borromeo, who tied the knot to Pierre Casiraghi over the weekend in Monaco, is the latest summer bride to be swept off her feet in fairy-tale fashion.

The pink Valentino dress she wore was trimmed with gold lace, and married an old-world sense of elegance with modern grace. The embroidery at the hem lent the look a luxe bohemian feel, while a floral headpiece was a fresh take on a royal crown. With a larger ceremony set to take place in Italy, the bride’s native land, this coming weekend, we imagine that the second dress will be just as magical.

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Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, January 2011

See more fashion trends here.

The post Beatrice Borromeo Is a Blushing Bride in Valentino appeared first on Vogue.

Vogue Style Editor at Large Elisabeth TNT takes a Roman holiday for the sumptuous wedding of Sabine Ghanem and Joseph Getty.

When in Rome . . . . If ever there were a familiar expression to describe letting loose, that would be it. No surprise, then, that my friends jewelry designer Sabine Ghanem and financier Joseph Getty chose the city for their wedding extravaganza. Well, there was also the fact that Joseph’s mother, Domitilla, was raised in Italy—and is sufficiently Italian that she even has a pope stuck somewhere in her family tree (N.B.: the ultimate chic Roman reference). At their disposal for the party was the beautiful Castello Odescalchi in Palo Laziale on the seaside just outside the city. The approach to the fairy-tale castle was along an encircling stone wall where you could see, smell, and breathe in the ocean. Up a few stairs you passed into the wedding Spiegeltent—a 1920s Dutch concept, only much bigger and the ultrachic circus-meets-cabaret. Yes, I have been to a party or two (in June alone I made it to three consecutive weddings), but #joebine, as it became known on Instagram, was a trip to multiple fantastical kingdoms.

Schiaparelli Haute Couture and Maison Lesage were busy right up to the big day making both Sabine’s wedding gown and her party dress. She wanted something dramatic—what bride doesn’t?—and told me that the seamstresses were fighting over working on the pair. At the service—held, sweetly, in the very same Romanesque basilica where Joseph’s parents had wed 33 years earlier—Sabine walked down the aisle past an ocean of pastel-colored flowers, wearing a figure-hugging, long-sleeved duchesse-silk dress embroidered with giant gold suns and complete with an endless hooded cape. It, too, had a sprawling gold sun made out of 500,000 hand-embroidered sequins glistening in the light. The cape came with its own seamstress, tailor, and car.

After luncheon at the stunning Circolo della Caccia, one of Rome’s oldest members’ clubs, it was on to the party. The bride wore her other Schiaparelli creation: beaded and ostrich-feathered and inspired by Cher’s legendary Bob Mackie look worn to the Met ball in 1974. “The ultimate party dress,” Sabine told me.

All spectacular—but even the night before, we had been taken on a wild trip, with a Liaisons Dangereuses costume party at Palazzo Taverna. The room’s gold stucco and elaborate tapestries were the perfect backdrop to powdered faces, enormous wigs, tight corsets, and exaggerated skirts. For my own costume, I had dived into my wardrobe and luckily found an old Meadham Kirchhoff corset and a puffy Simone Rocha skirt. I was quite proud of my Gothic-modern spin on the theme! Sabine was a vision in her custom pale-pink extravaganza, with extended hips, duchesse silk, and a beautiful corset covered in bows, lace, and bead trimmings. Oh, and her coiffure was so high, it made you wonder how many beehives were hiding underneath.

A touching moment came when the groom’s father, Mark Getty, gave his speech. Over and over again he emphasized his deep affection and love for Sabine. “We didn’t lose a son today; we won a daughter.” Indeed!

In the slideshow above, the bride—my friend Sabine Ghanem—describes her wedding weekend.

The post Sabine Ghanem’s Fairy-Tale Wedding to Joseph Getty at a Castle in Rome appeared first on Vogue.

Planning a wedding always presents a series of conundrums: Should a couple settle on a ceremony upstate or a quick trip to City Hall? Will there be chicken or fish for dinner? Will the dress code be black tie or cocktail attire? But for same-sex couples that decide to tie the knot, there’s one question that requires an even lengthier discussion: Who gets to keep their last name?

Tradition has long dictated that a woman is to adopt her husband’s name after marriage, and while more women than ever are choosing to keep their maiden names, the majority—around 80 to 90 percent, studies have shown—still abide by the old custom. There are exceptions, of course. Adding a second last name is a popular alternative, à la Angelina Jolie Pitt or Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. And then there’s the rare case of a husband adopting his wife’s name, like Zoe Saldana’s spouse, Marco, who opted for his wife’s surname. But when gender norms go out the window, the decision can take on a whole new level of complexity and confusion.

This year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling, which legalized gay marriage around the country, means same-sex couples will be facing the name-change question more than ever before. Project manager Barrie Segal and her wife, Anne Alexander, who recently wed in New York, hadn’t discussed the issue until they were inside City Hall. “The way it works is when you’re filing your marriage license, you have to decide then and there if you want to change your name,” said Alexander. “It didn’t even occur to me until then,” Segal added. “The only person who even asked me who was going to take the other’s name was my dad.”

Segal and her wife ultimately decided to keep their own names. While Bloomberg editor Chris Rovzar, who married his husband last year, decided to keep his last name for professional reasons. “When you’re in a job where your name is really a part of what you do and your work, it’s common to have an instinct not to change your name,” Rovzar said. It’s not just writers or actors who are attached to their names; as social media becomes an increasingly important part of our lives, many are hesitant to change their long-standing profiles or handles.

Back in the seventies, a woman’s choice to keep her maiden name had more to do with politics than practicality. Today, same-sex couples are rebelling against convention as well. “We already jumped into an institution that barely acknowledged us, so why abide by all their other rules?” said DIS Magazine Web producer Nick Scholl about his decision not to take his husband’s name. Lawyer Richard Mollot, who married his husband Chris Donnellan in 2010, feels the same way. “To me, the whole point of the marriage is to validate people’s relationship and love for another,” Mollot said. “I don’t think you need to replicate everything that has gone on in history.”

Yet some couples that never considered changing their names when entering marriage reconsider the issue when contemplating the possibility of having kids. “The real impetus to changing my name was knowing we were going to have children, and we wanted them to feel part of one family and not have different names,” explained Ali Bird, director of The Wall Group, who adopted her wife’s surname back in 2007. And while Rovzar is against changing his name for career reasons, the editor says that it’s a different story for his future children. “Having been saddled with an unpronounceable name, I wouldn’t want to put my kids through that,” he said. “My husband’s name is Barrett, so I think we would probably go with that.”

The common decider among most couples was simply opting for the more pronounceable or pleasant-sounding name. Bird, for instance, much preferred her wife’s surname over her maiden name of Schwartz. “A last name like Bird, there is no question, [is] the better last name.”

But what if the answer isn’t always as clear-cut? Rather than flip a coin, Martha West and Tanya Kalivas chose to host a soccer match on the day of their rehearsal dinner to determine whose name they would adopt. The two even dubbed the event “Game for the Name.” “We both played college soccer and are crazy competitive,” explained West. “We told friends and family and everyone got on board and loved the idea.”

The match, which was filmed for The New York Times Vows section, was an emotional experience for both families. “I have immigrant parents who are very proud of our heritage,” Kalivas explained. “While Martha’s family is from Texas and also have a very strong heritage. So there was a lot of passion on the field.”

As luck would have it, a last-minute call—which West still contests—resulted in a tie. Overtime wasn’t possible, as the two brides had to rush out to have their hair and makeup done for that evening’s festivities, so the verdict was left undecided. A year later, the two still haven’t settled on a name for their future family. While there have been talks of a rematch, Kalivas just might concede beforehand. “I suspect West will win in the end,” Kalivas said. “Partially based on Martha’s deep, deep belief that her team really won.”

The post In a Same-Sex Marriage, Who Gets to Keep Their Name? appeared first on Vogue.

It was only last weekend that Beatrice Borromeo wed Pierre Casiraghi in Monaco wearing a gorgeous blush-colored Valentino dress. And now it seems that she has opted for another stunning Alberta Ferretti gown ahead of the couple’s second ceremony.

Held on the northern coast of Italy, the wedding will be an intimate affair and the romantic lace-trimmed dress was the perfect fit to welcome the occasion. Sheer sleeves lent the look an old-world touch, while a flower crown, in a coordinating ivory palette, was a stylish symbol of modern royalty.

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Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, January 2011

The post Beatrice Borromeo’s Second Bridal Moment Is Just as Stunning appeared first on Vogue.

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Photo (from left): Courtesy of Robino Salvatore/GC Images; Courtesy of JacopoR/PierreS/GC Images

The greatest challenge of wedding-day hair and makeup is to emerge looking utterly like yourself—only better. Mastering that nuanced equation over the weekend in Lake Maggiore, Italy, Beatrice Borromeo wed Pierre Casiraghi in a crisp, exaggerated bun accented with a diminutive braid. The delicate, pulled-back style kept the focus on the bride’s fresh skin while securing her hair firmly in place until she bid her last guest goodnight in her diaphanous Giorgio Armani Privé dress.

It was an effortless look Borromeo adapted once more in the days that followed on her honeymoon, with a finger-raked topknot acting as the off-duty alternative to (and a gentle reminder of) her big-day hair. Primed for a seaside dip or a sunset dinner, the look was finished with a few bobby pins, a sun-kissed complexion, and a pair of bright sunglasses. Because when it comes to relaxing in matrimonial bliss, the unspoken rule is: don’t overthink it.

The post The Wedding-to-Honeymoon Hair Equation: Beatrice Borromeo’s Quick Change Topknot appeared first on Vogue.

Yoga instructor/art therapist Sophie Green was set up with Matt Kliegman, the man behind The Smile, The Jane Ballroom, Ruschmeyer’s, and The Westway, on a blind date by mutual friends. “It’s funny,” says Sophie. “When I moved to New York seven years ago, I couldn’t get into a club I wanted to go to, so my friend told me to just say I was ‘with Matt’ at the door. I continued doing that for years never knowing who ‘Matt’ really was. My husband ended up being ‘the Matt’ I was saying I was with all of the time! There was an immediate connection when we met, and I guess the rest is history.”

The couple started dating right after the setup and were together for three and half years before Matt proposed. “I was caught completely by surprise [when Matt asked me if I wanted to get married],” says Sophie. “We had just gotten this house in the woods on a creek upstate, and it was the day we moved in. We rented a van in the city to take things up, and Matt was adamant about driving an hour out of the way to pick up two Adirondack chairs, a picnic table, some string lighting, and a handful of tiki torches. Inside the house, we had nothing but a mattress, a couch, a bunch of candles, and some wine. After dinner, we were sitting in the chairs drinking wine, and he casually took me to the picnic table where it was well-lit and got down on one knee. I cried. The ring was beautiful—an antique Tiffany setting from 1910.”

Even though the couple lives in New York City, the outdoors is very important to both Sophie and Matt. “I grew up in Toronto, and I spent all of my weekends at my family’s farm north of the city,” says Sophie. “My parents literally planted every tree and flower on the property as it was just a hay field when they bought it. Bizarrely, our wedding was exactly 33 years after the date my parents bought the farm. The aesthetic of the wedding was derived from trying to seamlessly build off of the farm’s natural beauty in a simple, tasteful way. The topography allowed us to hide each phase of the wedding from the preceding one so that each was a ‘reveal.’ For example, you couldn’t see the tent from the ceremony or the tepee and bonfire from the reception.”

The bride didn’t have a dream wedding dress in mind, but ended up choosing one of the first ones she tried on. “It is this amazing line from Spain named Cortana, and the second I put it on, I knew it was the one. I wanted to find a dress that I could wear all night. I’ve always thought: I only have one night with this dress, so it’s going to stay on! The silk felt like butter on my skin. I loved the neckline and the simplicity of it, as well as the textured bottom with the raw hem and varying layers of silk and tulle. I always liked the look of a veil, so I had a beautiful one made from Stone Fox Bride that matched the silk of the gown.” Sophie also found a pair of Prada shoes with a low block heel that allowed her to move around the grounds easily. “We instructed our guests to not wear heels to make sure people were comfortable and to keep things casual,” she explains. “I kept my jewelry very simple, and only wore a beautiful pair of earrings my friend lent me, as I did not want the jewelry to detract from the dress. I typically don’t wear makeup, so I kept that and my hair very simple and natural.”

The ceremony took place underneath the most beautiful tree on the property. The chuppah was designed with flowers and ferns foraged mainly from the farm and created by the couple’s friends at the Crown Flora Studio in Toronto. Their guests sat on a mix of benches and stumps surrounding the tree. “A couple of days each year two large trees shed their flowers creating this magical ‘summer snow,’ which added to the beauty,” says Sophie. The bride walked down the aisle to Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden” and Norah Jones’s “Come Away with Me.” “During the ceremony, my sister’s boyfriend sang a Hebrew love song by David Broza called ‘Under the Sky,’ and my friend, who used to be in the U.K. band Crystal Fighters, joined him to sing ‘You’re My Best Friend’ by Queen.”

The reception was held in a tent overlooking one of the ponds. Guests were first greeted by a large, locally sourced crudité table—heirloom carrots, delicious red beets, endive, and much more along with bread from Toronto’s Blackbird Baking Co. The main course was served family-style, and all of the entrees were grilled right in front of the guests. Servers brought out large platters of lamb chops, salmon, and chicken, bowls of roasted potatoes, and individual plates of heirloom tomato salad, quinoa, and string beans. “Toasts were given by my father Don and my sister Deeva—who was my maid of honor—Matt’s dad, Jeff, and his best man, Matt Creed,” remembers Sophie. “Most of the speeches happened the night before at a Jamaican-themed dinner for our out-of-town guests.” The couple’s first dance was to the New Basement Tapes’ “When I Get My Hands on You.”

After the reception, the couple and their guests were led by a row of torches to a 150-year-old barn on the property that they’d converted into a full nightclub complete with a six-foot disco ball and mood lighting. There was a bonfire, a tepee, and a food truck right outside for when guests wanted to take a break from dancing. Jonny Sollis flew in from New York City to DJ, and the party kept going until 4:30 a.m.

The post Sophie Green and Matt Kliegman’s Farm Wedding Outside of Toronto appeared first on Vogue.

There are few things a celebrity couple loves more than getting married in a surprise secret wedding. Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux have just joined the club of those who have pulled off the admirable feat of getting married out of the public eye. Here, we take a look back at eighteen celebrity duos who surprised us all with their undercover weddings.

The post 18 Secret Celebrity Weddings We Still Know Little About appeared first on Vogue.

It finally happened. After years of tabloids wondering about Jennifer Aniston’s romantic status, the star has just wed her long-term boyfriend, Justin Theroux, in a private ceremony at the couple’s home in Bel Air. Details are still emerging about the latest celebrity secret wedding, from a muppet-topped cake to a guest list that read like a copy of Variety, from Howard Stern and Ellen DeGeneres to Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Jennifer Meyer Maguire, and of course, Aniston’s Friends costar Lisa Kudrow,

To toast the newlyweds, we thought we’d offer up our services to the new Mrs. Theroux on her post-wedding, honeymoon wardrobe: Whether the happy couple is indeed headed to Bora Bora, as rumors have postulated, or exploring the far and foreign, here, we present six options (more options are always chicer than less, after all) pulled straight from the resort runways.

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Photo: Courtesy of @goldenglobes

The post Jennifer Aniston Is Married! 6 Looks for the Honeymoon appeared first on Vogue.

Before attending a wedding, a guest is usually confronted with three basic questions: What is the dress code? Where is the couple registered? And finally, what is their hashtag? As ubiquitous as Chiavari chairs, the wedding hashtag has become an inescapable ritual of black tie bashes, rustic outdoor festivities, and even intimate city hall ceremonies. But is it in risk of becoming passé?

In July 2014, a survey conducted by TheKnot.com and Mashable found that more than 55 percent of couples used a personalized hashtag for their wedding. Event planner Mindy Weiss, who’s organized the weddings of Nicole Richie, Ellen DeGeneres, and Gwen Stefani, reveals the number is actually much higher than that. “I’d say 99 percent of my brides and grooms come to me already wanting a hashtag,” she said over email. “Sometimes the hashtagging starts as early as the engagement ring picture on Instagram.”

Deciding on a hashtag has become an essential part of the planning process, much like choosing a venue or daydreaming about a dress. Vogue.com’s Beauty Assistant Jenna Rennert, who will marry her fiancé Dan Adler next year, already had a custom hashtag in mind before she had a ring on her finger. “I had come up with #HappilyEverAdler a while ago,” she says. “But the first time I used it was as soon as I put up my engagement photo.”

Part of the appeal of using a personalized hashtag is being able to sort and find wedding photos—from the planning phase to the honeymoon shots—with a single label. A couple can relive their big day by scrolling through their feed and seeing their wedding through the eyes of their guests. It also makes for convenient “wedding stalking.” (I recently found myself deep down a rabbit hole of a friend of a friend’s dreamy nuptials in the South of France—all from the comfort of my Manhattan apartment.)

However, the growing popularity of wedding hashtags has also brought unintended consequences. When a couple shares the same name as someone else, their feed could suddenly become populated with photos of recently wed strangers who used the same tag. Rennert, for instance, recently discovered #HappilyEverAdler was not as original as she thought, and a number of intruders had made their way onto her feed. “We’re going to have to change our hashtag even though I don’t want to,” she says. “It’s such a shame because it was such a good one.”

As a result, couples are becoming more inventive with their monikers in order to avoid this type of social media mishap. Several websites, such as WeddingWire and Wedding Hashtag Wall, even help those struggling to come up with a one-of-a-kind hashtag. After entering details such as your name and your future spouse’s, the date, and the location, the sites generate a slew of options, such as “#MrandMrsSmith” and “#SmithsinLove.”

But the quest for originality might have gotten out of hand. “In an attempt to be clever, people are creating these punny hashtags that don’t really make sense,” says Kate, a frequent wedding guest, who for the sake of her social life has chosen to remain anonymous. Having attended a recent bout of weddings this year, she found each hashtag iteration more cringe worthy than the last. “For the record: A forced pun doesn’t work. It’s like a joke that doesn’t land.”

Once a couple has settled on a tag, the question that follows is whether or not to ask their guests to run with it. The practice of adding a clear hashtagging prompt at a wedding has become a modern etiquette conundrum. On the one hand, it can promote a wealth of photo sharing. On the other, a social media push could rub some guests the wrong way. Vogue.com’s Managing Editor Alexandra Macon, who also runs the wedding blog, Over the Moon, suggests couples keep their hashtag advertisement discreet, in order to avoid coming off as overbearing. “Post something with the hashtag yourself and wait for others to catch on rather than emblazoning it on cocktail napkins,” she says.

But what if a couple neither promotes nor shares a hashtag, yet it organically comes to life at a wedding? Is it acceptable to tag even when those getting married haven’t shown any express wish to do so? Stone Fox Bride creative director Molly Guy highly discourages it. “I’m old school. Personally, if it was my wedding, I wouldn’t want pictures that I haven’t seen before,” she says. “I would just imagine my ex boyfriend and all of my enemies being able to watch my wedding live—what if there’s a bad picture of me?”

Others, like actress and bride-to-be Gabriella Campagna, believe hashtagging runs the risk of commercializing a couple’s special day. “It almost feels like a branding tool,” she says. “I think for my ceremony I will probably ask guests to refrain from using cellphones. So at least that remains a sacred moment.”

Campagna is certainly not alone. Many couples have grown nostalgic for the days when wedding photos were left in the hands of professionals and are opting for “unplugged” weddings, where cell phone usage is banned entirely. So while the rise of the wedding hashtag has been swift, its future, it seems, remains uncertain.

The post Are Wedding Hashtags Passé? appeared first on Vogue.

For Mollie Ruprecht and Alexander Acquavella, setting seems to be everything. The couple first met during an evening sale at Sotheby’s, where her father was the longtime chief executive (and where Acquavella, an art dealer, had been sternly advised to steer clear of Bill Ruprecht’s only daughter). Four years later, they were engaged on the beach in East Long Island, where Acquavella has spent summers since childhood and more recently presented his future wife with a cushion-cut white diamond ring—a Sotheby’s special, naturally. And on the first weekend of June this year the two were married in St. Barth’s, the Caribbean island Ruprecht’s family has been visiting since 1970. “When my grandfather first arrived,” she says, “the customs office was an abandoned bus under a tree. We’ve seen the island go from huts without running water to Nikki Beach, and we keep coming back.”

Perhaps that’s why the three-day affair of their far-flung marriage almost felt like a wedding at home. “I was extremely particular about making a booklet to help guide people around the island,” Ruprecht says. She adds, deadpan, “I’m certain I drove Happy Menocal crazy.” The final document included drawings of Clyfford, the couple’s beagle-mix—his markings resemble a Clyfford Still—and bats, since the animal is the couple’s nickname for each other and also inspired their wedding hashtag #thebattwedding (the thinking being that two “t”s are better than one, and that the more obvious hashtag was already inundated).

First on the agenda was Thursday evening’s rehearsal dinner at Do Brazil, a seaside grill situated along a beach comprised of miniature seashells, rather than sand, that reputedly supplies the best sunsets on the island. Nearly a dozen friends made toasts to the bride and groom—Phil Radziwill, Hayley Bloomingdale, and Chuck Scarborough gave some of the best—before Lennon and Maisy, the teenage stars from hit series Nashville, took the stage. “There is a Nashville cult at Vogue,” says Ruprecht, who until recently worked in the magazine’s fashion department. “And I was the number-one fan.”

After the following day was spent hiking Colombier, lunching at Cheval Blanc, and bathing at Saline, Friday evening commenced at Eden Rock. There, cocktails on the upper deck of the hotel’s Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant ushered in a buffet dinner on the deck below, where guests were met with an oyster bar and the largest leg of Iberian ham that some contended had ever been imported to the island. Ruprecht chose a white Louis Vuitton dress that night, inspired by a recent Grace Coddington story about the return of white lace. (Incidentally, Thursday night’s tropical Gucci was another idea courtesy of Ms. Coddington.) DJ Sam French fomented an all-ages dance party on the beach—and in the surf—to which sparklers were perfectly suited. “I probably shouldn’t say this,” Ruprecht admits, “but it was my favorite moment of the weekend.”

The next morning began early for Ruprecht and her eight bridesmaids, who convened at the villa the bridal couple had rented high above Eden Rock. She asked her party to wear white, so that the day felt like a group celebration—and brought a few extra dress choices in case there were any issues. The ceremony at Gustavia’s Anglican church was so brisk that the bride and groom attempted to recess down the aisle right after being pronounced “man and wife” and a very determined rector had to almost literally pull the new couple back to the altar for a final prayer.

Revitalizing a group of guests enervated by two full days in the tropical sun is a feat in and of itself, but the sight of Ruprecht in her Valentino couture dress more than did that trick. First seen at the Whitney’s Breuer building last December, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli’s cap-sleeved concoction of white lace was originally too transparent, and was altered over the course of just two fittings to be church appropriate.

The reception at Le Sereno—replete with fireworks, a performance by Sam Cooke–soundalike Leon Bridges, and an unforgettable speech by the father-of-the-bride—followed a private family moment at the beach of Grand Fond. Located on the island’s southeastern edge, Grand Fond is a preserved site with no hotels and no restaurants. “My family has been walking through that field at 7:30 a.m. every morning since I can remember,” Ruprecht says, with every intention of maintaining that tradition. Because yet again, setting is everything.

The post Mollie Ruprecht and Alexander Acquavella’s Three-Day Wedding Celebration in St. Barth’s appeared first on Vogue.

When I was in the process of planning my wedding, I could not find a single cool place to shop for a wedding dress. A few days after my boyfriend proposed, I put on my Converse and hit New York City’s streets in search of a mellow, high-fashion shop that carried chic, bohemian frocks. There were none in sight. Instead I encountered old-fashioned, uptown boutiques with chaise lounges and floral wallpaper and crinoline gowns splattered with rhinestones. The whole thing was confusing and totally out of my comfort zone. I’d never been the girl obsessed with Barbies and princesses—when I was a kid, I spent much of my free time writing fan letters to V.C. Andrews and preparing what I would say if I met Axl Rose in person. (Random fact: In sixth grade, I did.) Pretty soon, a vision came to me: a bridal salon that felt more like my living room, a groovy, enchanted oasis full of plants, Moroccan rugs, and, more importantly, loose, sexy dresses that conspicuously lacked ruffles, mermaid skirts, starchy lace, and bedazzled bustiers.

A few weeks after my wedding, I patched together a business plan, and six months later, Stone Fox Bride was born. Having no background in business or fashion did not make for a seamless career transition. Put bluntly, the first months were hell. I didn’t know the difference between a pattern and a muslin, couture or made-to-measure, an atelier versus a sewing room. I learned it all right there on the fly, and it was amazing and insane. There was the time I walked over the Williamsburg Bridge the day after Hurricane Sandy to hand-deliver a raw-gem headpiece to a bride getting married that afternoon; the time I stayed up until dawn to make sure there were eighteen freshwater pearls hand sewn to an eighteen foot veil; the afternoon I sold a raw-diamond engagement ring by phone to a man in Dubai, from the maternity ward at Methodist Hospital, two hours after giving birth.

The wedding world is a wild industry, which is one reason I love it so much. Seeing to it that all of our brides walk down the aisle authentically and in style is a crazy challenge, but I live to make lovely ladies feel foxy. Meet some of my favorites.

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Photo: Courtesy of Stone Fox Bride

Susannah Sullivan

Susannah Sullivan, a native New Yorker who works on the Integrity Team at Etsy, says her nightmares include: “French manicures, elaborate updos, and corseted beaded bodices.” For her Hudson Valley, tiki-torch-and-tent wedding to a photographer named Johnny Sullivan, her criteria was simple: “I wanted to wear flats and my hair down to feel like myself.” She landed on our Frederika: an empire-waist dress with a hand-tacked cumberbund and lace-cap sleeves that showed off her tattooed arms. Random fact? After the ceremony, the guests feasted on a pig from a local farm that the groom butchered and cooked himself.

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Photo: Shawn Connell / Christian Oth Studios

Catherine Lucchesi

“I am not a dress person,” says Catherine Lucchesi, who married lawyer Tucker Groendyke at Academy Mansion on the Upper East Side in a custom Katharine Hepburn–inspired champagne jumpsuit that required more than six fittings to make. “For inspiration,” she says, “I looked at a lot of Helmut Newton photographs from the seventies, The Philadelphia Story, and vintage Schiaparelli pieces from the Met collection.” She walked down the aisle in heirloom family emeralds, holding a bouquet with dahlias, roses, and jasmine tied in double black satin ribbon. “The reception was basically a grand house party ball vibe.”

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Photo: Courtesy of Cyd Mullen

Cyd Mullen

Vintage store owner Cyd Mullen’s daily uniform involves vintage Levi’s and a vintage tee. “The more ripped up, the better,” she says. “Then I just throw on my Schott Perfecto leather jacket.” For her beach wedding at her grandparents’ house in Cape Cod, she chose our Cortana Cristal silk wrap dress and paired it with a bouquet of blood-red dahlias she had picked at a farm earlier that day. “Instead of an aisle, I walked down a flight of eighty-eight wooden steps,” she says. “After we said ‘I do,’ we cracked open cans of Francis Ford Coppola’s Sofia champagne and drove away in our 1971 Volkswagen Westfalia.”

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Photo: Courtesy of Stone Fox Bride

Jessica Thompson

“I love denim and linen and sunglasses and statement jewelry,” says Velvet Dust magazine founder Jessica Thompson. “My style icon is Tilda Swinton.” For her Texas winter wedding at the boutique Hotel Havana, she chose our bell-sleeved textured lace Glenda dress and paired it with our silk tulle Ruby Grace veil adorned with a halo of hand-dyed red silk roses. Her florals, including a drooping amaranthus chandelier, were shades of crimson and purple. “There were lots of jewel tones,” she says. “It felt like a nod to the seventies with a little bit of true San Antonio flair thrown in.”

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Photo: Courtesy of Stone Fox Bride

Tatia Pilieva

Director Tatia Pilieva is a self-described minimalist. “But I appreciate expressive touches,” she says. “Like my old pink suede Agnès B. jacket.” For her summer wedding, she reached out to Awaveawake designer Jaclyn Hodes, who made her a custom lace and silk bias slip that she paired with a Stone Fox Bride hand-beaded halo attached to a floor-length greige tulle veil. “Our wedding took place in a small seaside fishing village in the north of Greece called Mitzela,” she says. “The day before we got married, we organized a Pentathlon that 80 of our friends and family members participated in called ‘The Apocalypse at the Acropolis.’ It was epic.”

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Photo: Courtesy of Stone Fox Bride

Francesca Choy-Kee

“I got married on the summer solstice,” says actress Francesca Choy-Kee, “so I knew I wanted to wear a dress inspired by nature.” For her Sunday afternoon garden wedding to Matt Damico in the stable at Frankies Spuntino in Brooklyn, she gathered inspiration by collecting images of soft Edwardian lawn dresses, vintage lace gowns, and crocheted Mexican wedding dresses. Then she worked with a New Zealand designer she met on Etsy named Kelsey Genna to make her vision come to life. She accessorized the dress with a Stone Fox Bride floral crown and raw-edged silk chiffon veil. “It elevated my look to an astral level of bohemian poetry,” she says.

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Photo: Courtesy of Stone Fox Bride

Mandy Brooks

“Most days,” says former DJ Mandy Brooks, who now lives on a ranch in Big Sur, “you’ll find me in jeans, a flannel, and black boots. I would describe my style as tomboy chic.” For her outdoor Northern California wedding on her lawn overlooking the Pacific, she wore a lace belted shift dress handmade by her best friend Mandy Coon, and paired it with an Stone Fox Bride beaded halo and raw-edge veil. “Our reception was in the redwoods at the Henry Miller Memorial Library,” she says. “There was the tiniest bit of silver in the lace, and it sparkled in the sunshine.”

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Photo: Courtesy of Elizabeth Weinberg / @eliz

Elizabeth Weinberg

Photographer Elizabeth Weinberg’s style icon is Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes. “She did menswear before menswear was a thing,” she says. “Denim, Pendleton bomber jackets, and flannels.” After wandering into Stone Fox Bride during a blizzard and purchasing our lace Luisa dress, she found herself, a few weeks later, in a situation she hadn’t anticipated—expecting! “Getting married at four months pregnant was not the plan,” she says. “I overestimated how large I would be.” After making some adjustments to the waistline of the dress, she walked down the aisle at the Dumbo Spot in brown loafers and a fresh daisy halo. “We got married in Dumbo, and the whole thing was pretty DIY,” she says. “I did all the decorations, menus, flowers. And since I couldn’t drink, I remember it all! The party basically became a huge mosh pit toward the end.”

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Photo: Courtesy of Stone Fox Bride

Brianna Chi

Brianna Chi, a client advocate at a software company, channeled a Stone Fox icon, Stevie Nicks on her wedding day. “She is the lacy, drapey, fringy, gypsy queen of my dreams,” she says. For her outdoor Connecticut wedding, she chose a pink Sarah Seven dress and paired it with our hand-dyed ombré silk chiffon Sunset veil. The ceremony took place under a tree. “Bare feet were encouraged,” she says. “Our friends and family know us as a couple of hippies, so we ran with that.” The decor was minimalist—tea lights and hydrangea-stuffed jars—and instead of a ring-bearer and flower girl, the couple sent their beloved dogs down the aisle. “We had our guests sign my husband’s guitar,” she says. “Now we have the signatures of everyone we love hanging right in our living room.”

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Photo: Courtesy of Kristin Burns

Kristin Burns

Photographer Kristin Burns describes her style as “Los Angeles rock chic casual.” “I wear what I feel like,” she explains, “and since I’m a working photographer, form follows function. Debbie Harry in a tank top with messy hair is my inspiration.” For her impromptu East Hampton shotgun wedding—she was seven months pregnant—she chose a custom Daryl K for Stone Fox Bride chiffon sparkly shift off the rack and paired it with a silk flower crown. “We said our vows on a long dock that we trespassed onto,” she says. “My dad offered me his steady arm, and we walked together down a long, windy pier, past our teary, smiley family.”

The post The 10 Most Stylish Stone Fox Brides appeared first on Vogue.

Phoenix Suns basketball player Tyson Chandler is undoubtedly up for husband of the year having just surprised his wife Kimberly Chandler with a vow renewal ceremony in Santa Barbara this past July. The couple were high-school sweethearts who initially met on a blind date. “The young lady who introduced us got into an argument with the guy she was with,” remembers Tyson. “So we actually never made it to the bowling alley [we were supposed to go to].”

After dating for five years, Tyson proposed to Kimberly in a park in Chicago. “I picked her up from the airport and took her to the park,” explains Tyson, “and  gave her a letter that I’d written for her, and then I proposed.” The couple’s wedding was at a church in Beverly Hills and then the reception was at a beautiful wine ranch in Malibu, complete with a menagerie of exotic animals.

As if that wasn’t romantic enough, ten years after their initial nuptials, Tyson felt compelled to plan a vow-renewal ceremony. “We’d always talked about renewing our vows after a decade of marriage. We alternate every year on who plans holidays like Valentine’s Day and our anniversary. It was my year to plan our anniversary, and it just so happened to be the tenth year,” explains Tyson. “We were so young when we got married the first time—at 22 and 23 years old—that it just seemed like a nice thing to do.”

Tyson decided to do the ceremony at a private club in Santa Barbara overlooking the Pacific Ocean and enlisted celebrity wedding planner Sharon Sacks to help him pull it all off. “Kimberly and I drove there three years ago for our anniversary and stayed at a little cottage on the property and just fell in love with the area,” Tyson remembers. “We are very inspired by the Kennedys and Jackie O, and it just felt like part of their world—chic and glamorous, but still very quaint. I thought it would be a perfect destination spot—close enough so that our families could drive up from L.A. but still a treat in that it felt like everyone was really getting away.”

Kimberly was completely surprised. “She knew we were renewing our vows, and that she needed to get dresses for herself and our girls,” says Tyson. “But, she had no clue where, when, and how it was going to happen.” She wore a beautiful black lace J’Aton Couture dress. Tyson’s suit was custom Waraire Boswell.

The couple’s son, Tyson II, walked Kimberly down the aisle at the beachside ceremony, and Tyson’s godson Harlem Taylor was a ring bearer. Daughters Sacha-Marie and Sayge Jozzelle were flower girls as was Kimberly’s goddaughter, Lilly Grey-Mozelle. During the ceremony, Goapele performed “Closer.” “Our first child was born to this song,” reveals Tyson, “so it’s very significant to us. We put it on repeat in the hospital!” Afterwards, the 130 guests in attendance made their way to a seated dinner. Tyson arranged to have a singer, Albert Stanaj, perform during the meal. “He’s very talented—he’s going to be huge,” Tyson predicts.

The starting center wanted every element of the wedding and reception to feel meaningful so he charged his children with the task of decorating the wedding cake. They drew pics dedicated to their mom and the cake maker printed them on the red velvet, vanilla pound, and coconut chiffon layer cake. After dinner, the singer Daley performed for the couple’s first dance. “My father-in-law introduced my wife to his voice through YouTube videos,” says Tyson. “I thought it would be special if he came and performed. And then, DJ Niro flew in from Dallas—he got everyone dancing, and we partied all night.”

The party ended up going strong until two in the morning. “We danced, took photos in the picture booth, and had cigars outside on the beach,” says Tyson. “I love Randy’s Donuts, so they were delivered late night to satisfy those with a sweet tooth. We also had burger sliders and french fries to sober people up. The hotel was right across the street, so everyone happily stumbled to bed at the end of the night.”

The post Tyson Chandler Surprises His Wife with a Vow Renewal Ceremony in Santa Barbara appeared first on Vogue.

In a time when the “cool bride” has trumped all modes of nuptials, eschewing all that the wedding industrial complex has wrought, there is something overwhelmingly refreshing about the unapologetic decadence that defined last weekend’s BMW India Bridal Fashion Week in Delhi.

Gilded from head(piece) to toe, dripping in diamonds, and swathed in the copious folds of jaw-dropping silk saris, highly arresting Indian bridal models showcased extravagant looks that dismissed all chill and fully embraced traditional opulence.

In a riot of color, the time-honored sari was reimagined by a bevy of designers, including Ashima-Leena, to reflect a modern evolution of the Indian bride, who, until recent times, had been donning solely red for the occasion. My recently wedded cousin, Carol Singh Alvarado confirms this: “Traditionally you wear a red sari, that’s what the majority of women have to do, but now you can pretty much wear any color you want. That’s a huge step!” Donning a blue lehenga for her own nuptials to honor her Indian-Nepalese heritage, Carol surprised even her father with her colorful choice.

Red represents “new life,” the hue signaling the bride will be leaving her old existence behind and embarking on a new one as a wife and daughter-in-law. With modern Indian women choosing from a prism of colors for their gown—including the customary Western white, which historically was worn solely by Indian widows—and even the shade of their bindi, the Indian bridal trousseau seems to be shifting to accommodate new realities. “[Indian brides] aren’t tying everything in so strictly with the past,” Singh Alvarado says. “There are little things that are changing. Tiny, but still: It’s the bride’s way of controlling things.”

Here, we see what the ever-evolving and ever-decadent modern Indian bride may be wearing for her own, reimagined big day.

The post The Unapologetically Decadent Bride Takes Over BMW India Bridal Fashion Week appeared first on Vogue.

Stylist Karen Kaiser and photographer Nicolas Kern’s story is a Fashion Week fairy tale. The two met during a magazine launch party in New York in 2009: “We had a brief tête-à-tête over Japanese culture and food, and the rest is history,” remembers Karen.

The couple dated for almost five years before the proposal. “Nicolas asked me to marry him very unexpectedly one afternoon just before we were about to leave to spend the weekend with some dear friends,” says Karen. “He had had the ring for quite some time, apparently, and waited for a moment that felt special and intimate. I was overtaken by tears of joy.”

During the early stages of the planning process, Karen and Nicolas realized a key goal of theirs was that the celebration give their families a chance to really get to know each other. With this in mind, they settled on the Southwood Estate in Germantown, New York, as the venue, a place they had visited together during their courtship and fallen in love with. “The estate offers many rooms, so our families were able to stay on the premises,” explains Karen. “And it was great to see everyone get together and to share so many special moments.” Additionally, the setting felt symbolic in that it somehow evoked home for both of them, reminding Nicolas of his origins in Austria on the Wörthersee and Karen of the landscape in Indiana.

Ever the stylist, Karen drew upon two specific images for her wedding look. “One was from a 1968 Vogue,” she says. “It was a photo of a wedding cape designed by Cristóbal Balenciaga and photographed by David Bailey. After registering that image, I attended Alexander Wang’s spring 2015 Balenciaga show in Paris, where a white cape walked down the runway. As soon as I saw it, I was certain I had to have it for my wedding day.”

The second image was a photo of the wedding dress worn by style icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. “To find the perfect balance, I asked my very dear friend Deborah Milner to design a timeless dress with a modern sensibility,” says Karen. “She has consulted with the likes of Isabella Blow, Philip Treacy, Daphne Guinness, Amanda Harlech, and others including Alexander McQueen, where she continues to work with Sarah Burton on couture. Between my inspirations and her creativity and incredible craftsmanship, we arrived at the final piece. The cut, the fit, and the feeling of the heavy crepe fabric still amazes me today, and I cannot thank Deborah enough.”

To top off Karen’s vision, Treacy graciously customized her veil piece. “I wanted something very minimalistic to echo the shape of the couture pockets on the Balenciaga cape,” explains Karen. “When Philip heard that we were having the ceremony in a church, he added crystals to the piece. They glimmered in the light as I walked down the aisle, adding an air of magic.”

Karen’s shoes were beige leather pointed-toe Altuzarra slingback pumps with a small bow for a chic, feminine feeling. She paired the shoes with toes painted in Essie’s Jazz nail color, which was recommended to her by Vogue.com’s Beauty Director Catherine Piercy.

“My husband had gone with his instincts and chosen a pavé Repossi ring for the proposal,” says Karen. “I love Gaia’s restrained elegance, and therefore found it suiting to accessorize my wedding look with more pieces from her collections—including a Berbère ear cuff in rose gold with pavé diamonds and two rings from the Antifer collection, also in rose gold with full pavé diamonds.”

Karen called upon friends David Adams (colorist), Peter Gray (hairstylist), and Maud Laceppe (makeup artist) to do her hair and makeup on the big day. “Not only have we known each other for years and collaborated on many projects, but Peter, Maud, and I have worked on several seasons of Gabriele Colangelo’s show in Milan,” says Karen.

The couple had a Catholic wedding mass in St. Mary’s Church in Hudson, New York, accompanied by an organ, a trumpet, and a violin. “Nicolas and I each have one sibling, whom we chose as our witnesses,” says Karen. “I entered the church preceded by five flower girls and two ring bearers. And then after the ceremony, our ‘getaway’ car was a red Triumph. The car perfectly fit the part, since the wedding reception alluded to the French bohemian sensibility of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin.”

The cocktail hour took place around the estate’s pool with a few Balinese antique blankets and pillows that friends Scott Studenberg and John Targon of Baja East made for the couple. The Bailsmen added their French swing tunes, and with the outdoor location and minimal decoration, it was a leisurely experience where everyone mingled and enjoyed themselves. “It was important to us that everything felt unpresumptuous,” says Karen.

For food, the couple chose a farm-to-table concept catered by Fire Roasted Catering of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, as they both love organic and local produce. At dinner, a prepared pig on a spit, salt-crusted sea bass, and roasted vegetables over open fires were served.

After dinner, Nicolas’s father gave a brief toast and introduced the couple’s first dance, which was to “Le Vent Nous Portera” by Noir Désir. “This was an unforgettable magical moment,” remembers Karen. Then, the couple’s friend Alvise Marino heated up the dance floor playing classics from the sixties and then more modern music as the night went on.

The reception ended after hours by the pool with swimming and more dancing under the stars.

The post Karen Kaiser and Nicolas Kern’s Wedding in Upstate New York appeared first on Vogue.

Coats of arms (or, more accurately heraldic achievements) originated around the eleventh century to identify military units and over the centuries began to be used as logos for families of note, churches, towns, universities, and of late, weddings. Those of us not born with a family emblem to use for our nuptials may actually have a distinct advantage: a crest crafted in the 21st century can be so much more whimsical than its generations-old counterparts. But then again, crafting an image to perfectly encapsulate the joining of two people (and to be emblazoned on invitations, napkins, programs, and the like) can feel daunting. Rachel Rogers, a guru in the new guard of heraldry (think pink zebras and lacrosse sticks vs. lions and crosses) is helping Vogue.com to demystify the process. “The most successful crests aren’t about who the couple want to be for the wedding, it’s about who they really are,” says Rogers. “When people tap into that, they have a really easy time finding what’s important to them and running with it.”

Herewith, her tips to creating the perfect logo:

Incorporate your history as a couple
Where did you meet? How did you meet? What do you like to do together? How did you propose? “I just did a crest for a couple where the groom took the bride for a run and after the run showed her the Google map of their route. It spelled out ‘marry me,’ ” recalls Rogers. “So the bride sent me the screen grab from that run and I incorporated the words ‘marry me’ just as it had been ‘written’ on the run.”

Treat it a bit like a dating profile
Ask yourself: What are your hobbies? Where do you like to travel? Do you have pets? How would you describe your style? Pulling elements from your everyday life will make the coat of arms feel personal.

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Illustration: Courtesy of Rachel Rogers

Consider your wedding
The venue and tone of the wedding should be reflected in the coat of arms. The logo for a beachside Nantucket affair will most likely feel quite different from a black-tie party in Manhattan. This can also help when developing the color scheme.

Have fun with it
“Include some items that are whimsical, silly, and very specific to you as a couple,” suggests Rogers. “There’s a lighthearted element to these that you should embrace.”

Include something organic
“Every good crest should have plants, flowers, or a little bit of greenery,” says Rogers. “I find it adds an element of beauty that really brings it all together.”

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Illustration: Courtesy of Rachel Rogers

Be specific
Once you select your most important elements, send your designer as many details as possible: a photo of your prized pup, the exact type of sailboat you captain on the weekends, a map of the island where you are to be married. “I had one bride who sent me an image of a pair of heirloom earrings from her grandmother that she was planning to wear on her wedding day,” says Rogers. “Really, inspiration can come from anything of sentimental value.”

Trust your artist
It’s best to suggest important elements and allow the person designing the crest to incorporate them rather than insisting upon wholesale designs. “Sometimes I have people who say, ‘I want a goose standing on a rock surrounded by flowers with a party hat on it, because that represents me,’ ” says Rogers. “It’s important to keep it simple enough that the design doesn’t get overwhelmed by the concept.”

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Illustration: Courtesy of Rachel Rogers

The post Wedding Heraldry 101: How to Create the Perfect Couple’s Logo appeared first on Vogue.

The pendulum has really swung recently when it comes to the world of wedding decor. When I got married a mere five years ago, it was still a really sparkly, shiny little bubble. Picture lots of brightly lit ballrooms and black limousines, tightly clipped and domed floral bouquets, plated chicken and champagne flutes, you get the gist. This was back in the olden days, pre-popular wedding blogs and pre-Pinterest—pre the whole barn-wedding phenomenon. Nowadays, even the most upscale brides are embracing the whole rural-and-rustic thing: bales of hay (as chairs), burlap runners, wagon wheel chandeliers. The barnification of wedding culture continues to baffle me. I believe that unless you grew up shoveling fertilizer, there is no need to use your wedding day as an opportunity to re-create a dilapidated cowshed, then prance through it barefoot on an aisle made of manure.

While I am all for creating a groovy, relaxed ambience that allows for your guests to kick back, I think the trick is to strike a balance between over-the-top ornamentation and agrarian economy-chic. Think simple strung lights, lush table garlands, and old-school handfuls of rice. Here are some cool, cost-efficient, and visually sensational DIY decor ideas that I hereby grace with the Stone Fox stamp of approval.

The post The New Wave of Wedding Decor: 9 Trendsetting Ideas appeared first on Vogue.