More gorgeous dresses! It’s dresses like these that make me feel like if I weren’t doing graphic design, I would have to be dedicating myself to fashion. I’m not kidding you, these beauties actually tug on my heart strings a little bit. Swan Lake anyone?

Check out the MLH online shop for party dresses, accessories and more stunning looks. I just wish I had an event to go to for all of them. Thanks to this Creature Comforts post for introducing me to such a lovely collection!

{images from the Maria Lucia Hohan online luxury shop}

Melissa and Mark travelled to the beautiful island of the Dominican Republic for their spring-time nuptials. Having Dominican blood and a lot of family there, it is a place Melissa has always held close to her heart. The couple also saw it as a good opportunity to have a small wedding with their guests being close friends and family. The planning of a wedding abroad is never the easiest task, but luckily for the couple, Melissa’s cousin Juan Carlos  is the events manager at the resort and helped to ensure everything ran smoothly and allowed all of their ideas and wishes to come to form for the big day. Almost everything was their idea, from flowers to colour scheme, location to music, the only thing they did not plan were the surprises that day. The planning began as soon as they were engaged on June 13th 2009. Almost a year in the making, they finally wed on the Beach Gazebo at Melia Caribe Tropical, Punta Cana.

Melissa arrived in a horse and carriage (a little surprise from her cousin), and after the ceremony itself they had a three piece meringue band play during the post-ceremony cocktail hour right on the beach front. Following this, they took to the beach for photographs and then headed to the outdoor amphitheatre for the evening reception. The amphitheatre itself was lined with tiki torches and candles from the walkway to the entrance, and all along the inside. A few more surprises came from Melissa’s cousin, including a very touching speech about the families coming together, a contemporary dance piece performance (for Melissa’s love of dance), a three piece vocal group for the arrival and during the meal, as well as some pyrotechnics during the first dance. The couple expressed that entire day was beyond perfect and more than they could have ever wished for. Mark concluded: “Having a destination wedding so close to our hearts made everything much more special and being able to do everything as traditional as we wanted it and also as original as we wanted, made for a day that neither of us will ever forget”.

{photos taken by Kara for Arrecife Studio; dress by Maggie Sottero; headdress: the Acacia 2 by Jenny Packham; text provided by Mark Hayton, edited by Samantha Dubeau}

A friend of mine, Jaman, was just married to Cherrie in Hong Kong last week. As a pre-wedding trip, the couple went to Hokkaido, Japan in January with a photography company, Muse Muse to take their wedding photos.

Jaman and Cherrie traveled with two other engaged couples, and a photography team of 4 people to Japan for 15 days. Since Hong Kong doesn’t get snow, it was a special opportunity to capture their pre-wedding photos in a winter scene. From the behind the scenes video, you can tell it wasn’t easy capturing these shots in the cold! However, I’m sure it left each couple with beautiful photos and a great memory. Congratulations!

{images by Muse Muse}

A while back, we posted some engagement photos from our friend, Jessica and her fiance, Eric. The couple recently launched their wedding website, which captures their personalities perfectly. This is such a lovely collaboration between a designer bride and engineer groom :)

My favourite part of the site is the story of the proposal, that has little annotations from the unknowing bride :P Sadly, I will be missing out on this wedding next month but I’m sure it will be well documented with photos on this website!

Over the past week we stumbled upon Johanna Johnson’s work on a few popular wedding blogs, and we couldn’t resist raving about it too. The 2010 Zepphora collection is inspired by 1920s and 30s romance and glamour, decked out in Swarovski crystals, heavy platinum tones, and Parisian bead-work. Be in awe here. I can see the sleek vintage-style dresses being show-stoppers at ritzy receptions, and the flowy ethereal designs shining best at garden-themed weddings. How does one choose?

{images from JohannaJohnson.com}

I love hearing stories about how brides-to-be were proposed to and how their fiancés planned out the perfect proposals. So when I found this on bridepop, I knew I had to share it. Casey brought his girlfriend Amy to the place they had their first date. There, 11 of their friends delivered tiny boxes to Amy, each containing a small token of their time together. The last box was delivered to Casey, and in it was the ring.  The couple was interviewed about the big moment. Watch the surprise unfold in the video below as Amy laughs, cries, talks and gets quite the surprise at the end. Amy – you are one lucky gal, and Casey – well done Sir !

Casey proposes to Amy from One Small Instrument Pictures on Vimeo.