Blog Posts by Bridal Guide

Kim Kardashian's walk down the aisle took on black-and-white Old Hollywood glamour with a gorgeous white aisle runner accented by flourishes in black, as well as the famous K & K intertwined monogram logo.

Julie Goldman, president of The Original Runner Company, is the creator of that magical path toward Kim K's happily-ever-after, and she shares the details on how Kim's camp came to her to create the Runner of the Century:

"When we were asked by Sacks Productions to make a black-and-white aisle runner for Kim Kardashian's wedding, we knew this would be a big project. We had done many celebrity weddings before, such as Kevin Jonas, Fergie, and Bethenny Frankel, but we knew this wedding would have the world's attention.

"Her runner entailed replicating the couple's classic KK logo in Swarovski crystals - two times! Then we added a delicate vintage flourish down the sides. We had been told that there would be no other décor for the ceremony aisle, so the runner really

Photo Courtesy of Bridal Reflections

Bringing an Entourage

We know it's the most important dress you'll ever wear, and you want to make sure it's absolutely perfect. But having 10 different opinions makes it much harder to come to a consensus-and it can bring you farther away from what you actually want. "I have always been a believer that the most a bride should bring when dress shopping is two people," said Cristina DeMarco, of Bridal Reflections in New York, NY.

Most brides do best with just their mom and maybe a sister or best friend, said Debra Lash, of The Wedding Tree in La Crosse, WI. "They generally have the bride's best interest at heart, not what they want her to wear." One of our real bride bloggers, Theresa Misso, recently wrote about her dress shopping experiences and said, "When you're standing there in a big dress, and random people in the store are ohh-ing and ahh-ing and all you want to do is take it off, you'll need an honest, reliable companion to

Now that our wedding date has dropped to a two-digit countdown (YAY!), I thought I might share with you what this has meant to us in numbers and dollar signs. I also decided it would be good to give you lovely ladies an honest look at why we chose the things we chose, why we didn't choose the things we left out and which vendors we thought were worth spending the big bucks on!

1. Ceremony location: $2,500
As soon as we decided to get married in Vegas, we knew we didn't want a chapel wedding. (Exhibit A: That scene in The Hangover when dentist Stu weds a stripper in a gaudy chapel overflowing with fabric flowers. Exhibit B: Britney Spears-enough said.) Besides, despite The Man and I not being The World's Most Outdoorsy Couple, we've always wanted to be married in the sunshine, out in the open. We picked The Valley of The Falls (pictured above) after we realized that our first-choice, Mandalay Bay, didn't offer their Cabana Wedding Ceremony between September and

The Wedding Gazebo at the Club Med Sandpiper Bay Resort

47% of engaged Bridal Guide readers have a child or children under the age of 17 living at home. And let's face it, weddings take on a different meaning when you bring kids into the mix. If you're getting married and one or both of you have kids, it can get really sticky.

I'd never been to Club Med, and I have to admit I was feeling particularly uninspired when my marketing director convinced me to join a press tour back in March to the Club Med Sandpiper Bay Resort in Port St Lucie, FL. She was definitely feeling bad about the weathered new-mom look I had been sporting since my son was born 5 months earlier (and had yet to bless us with a full night's sleep). Worn down and exhausted, I packed my full piece bathing suits (baby weight not-be-gone!), my sunscreen and my sheepish attitude thinking there was little chance this trip would change my life. Boy, was I wrong.

From what I remembered about Club Med, people

This week, all three of our real bride bloggers shared their dress-shopping experiences! Here, why Tolu purchased her gown online.

I'm going to share a secret that will probably shock you: Unlike most brides, I bought my dress online. This is probably a big faux pas, but I am a believer in the ease and simplicity of the Internet. When I told this to a few friends of mine, they forced me (in the nicest way possible) to go to a bridal shop and try on dresses because, "it is an experience every bride should have." I did it, I enjoyed it, but I still kept the dress I bought on the internet! When shopping for your dress, it's important, as with all aspects of the wedding, to know what matters most to you and use that as a guide.

Here's the criteria I used when deciding which dresses should make the cut into my shopping cart:

Retailers: Before you start looking at specific gowns, you need to research online shopping vendors to make sure they're reputable. Find a website

From the moment your beau slips that dazzling ring on your finger, your brain goes into wedding-planning overdrive. But even the most detail-oriented, budget-conscious bride can be caught off guard by unanticipated expenses. Here's how to avoid them.

Venues & Contracts

• "If you want a wedding outdoors, for example, you'll need to obtain a number of pricey permits for your open-air event, and you'll have to make sure that everything from city regulations to fire regulations are strictly adhered to. You'll also have to rent tents in case of rain or inclement weather," says Dale Flam, an event planner with The Zanadu Group in Hollywood, Florida. Flam adds that every rental item placed in the tent is also your responsibility, including electricity generators, air conditioning or heating, the sound system and tableware.

• "When reviewing the contract, look out for the words 'additional costs may be incurred' and 'plus the cost of setup and delivery,'" says JoAnn Gregoli, the

To celebrate her upcoming nuptials, Kim Kardashian has released a limited-edition fragrance, Love by Kim Kardashian.

Only 1,000 bottles have been produced-one for Kim to wear on her wedding day, 200 for her bridal shower, and 799 available for purchase. The cost? $100.

It's described as a "soft, feminine scent" that "opens with top notes of sparkling red currant, pink freesia and star jasmine. A heart of French mimosa, rare Egyptian tuberose, and rose absolute orpur eases into a rich background of sensual musk, creamy sandalwood, and orris butter".

"I used to think falling in love was the most incredible feeling," said Kim Kardashian in a release. "But now I see there's nothing more special than the enduring beauty of building a life with your other half and watching your love grow, each and every day."

The best part is the packaging. The bottle itself is reminiscent of an engagement ring and is embellished with 450 sparkly stones. It's presented in a case inspired

The editors here at Bridal Guide recently attended a preview for Blue Nile's fall collection, available in October, and were so impressed with the great trends emerging in engagement rings and wedding bands. Here, our favorites from the preview:

Stackable Rings

These thin, mix-and-match rings are a great way to show off your unique style. The old rule of not mixing metals gets thrown out the window with stackables; you're encouraged to mix white gold, rose gold, yellow gold, and black rhodium. On Blue Nile, they're seeing fiancés-to-be buying stackables as promise rings, then building onto those throughout the engagement, wedding, and anniversaries. With prices as low as $300, it's easy to change your look without the huge investment of resetting an engagement ring. We also love mixing colored gemstones. One idea: Start with a ring of your birthstone, add a ring of his, and then add additional rings over the years in the birthstone of each child you have together.