Dimitra Designs

You want to look perfect on your wedding day.  (That goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway.)  The crowning glory of your wedding look has to be your headpiece or tiara.  (Pardon the pun.)  Take your time when you’re picking out this important accessory.  It’s going to be something that you’ll remember forever.

Before you go shopping, do your hair in the style that you will be using for the wedding.  It doesn’t make sense to try in headpieces and tiaras when your hair is down if you’ll be wearing it up on your big day.  This will also help you determine whether a tiara, headband, or other headpiece will be the way to go.  Arrange everything the way you want it to look on your wedding day.  If you want the veil over your face, figure out how that looks with the headband or tiara.  Take a look at how it falls, too.  You want to make sure you look right from every angle.

Have a friend take pictures of your hair, the veil, headband, tiara, etc. once you get it exactly the way you want it.  Take pictures from every angle possible— front, back, side, close up, and far away.  These will serve as a reference when you try to recreate the look on the big day.

Planning a wedding isn’t easy!  Dimitra Designs understands that.  We want to make sure you are relaxed enough to enjoy your big day when it comes.  We have a few tips for keeping yourself sane as you plan your wedding.

1) Think about whether or not you really need something.  As you look through books, magazines, stores, and websites to plan your wedding, ask yourself a few questions.  The biggest question should be, “When I look back on my wedding day, will I remember this item?  Will it make the day any better if I have it or worse if I don’t?”  If the answer is “No,” you should just skip it. That way you’ll avoid things that can end up taking away from both your time and your budget.
2) Delegate and let other people help you!  If you can let yourself give up control of some of the little details, you’ll save yourself a bunch of headaches.
3) Have fun with the decisions you make.  Make sure the wedding reflects your style and personality.  If you two like movies, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a movie theater themed wedding.  It will be fun for you and your fiance to sit down together and think of some of the ideas.  It can be a great bonding experience for the two of you.

At Dimitra Designs, we have a great selection of strapless wedding dresses.  Strapless dresses walk that fine line between being revealing and being elegant— and we think they do it beautifully.  We want to make sure you stay elegant on your wedding day.  Be confident in your strapless wedding dress!

-First of all, the proper fit is very important.  You don’t want your strapless wedding dress to be so loose that you keep pulling it up all night.  But you also don’t want it to be too tight, either.  That will just look tacky.  Like the strapless dress walks the line between revealing and elegant, you need to walk the line between loose and tight.  A properly fitted strapless wedding dress should firmly grip the top of your bust without revealing too much cleavage.

-All of the strapless wedding dresses at Dimitra Designs are masterfully crafted.  You’ll notice that they retain their hourglass shape even when they’re on the hanger.  This is important when you’re shopping for a strapless dress.  Your natural body shape should simply reinforce the hourglass shape of the dress.  It makes it more stable.

-Always wear a bra with a strapless dress.  You want to avoid any Janet Jackson-like wardrobe malfunctions.  In the rare event that your dress falls down, you’ll have the bra to keep you covered.  (Hey, we don’t know how crazy your wedding reception will be!)

Most importantly, make sure you feel beautiful!

You’re shopping on DimitraDesigns.com because you’re a classy bride with classy tastes.  But that doesn’t mean that you have to totally nix the idea of a bachelorette party.  There are plenty of ways to have a good time with your girls without getting too raunchy.  So forget about the strippers for a while, and try out some of these mellow bachelorette party ideas.

-Just go out to dinner!  It can be a great opportunity to share some memories about the bride-to-be.  Pick her favorite restaurant, and have a pleasant evening.

-Play a mellow game.  One of our favorites is one that tests the bachelorette’s knowledge of her future hubby.  So have one of the girls ask the groom 20 questions beforehand.  General stuff like his favorite color, movie, and most embarrassing moment.  See how many the bride can get right!

-Have a spa day.  Planning a wedding is stressful, so we’re sure everyone could use a little time to relax.  Massages, manicures, and pedicures are a great way to do that!  Plus, many spas offer group rates.

-You can even go to a concert or a play.  There’s bound to be a local community or college theater out there with something you girls want to see.  It’s a perfectly classy bachelorette party idea.

We like to be optimistic here at DimitraDesigns.com, so we like to see all weddings lead to happy marriages.  But if you happen to be going into marriage for the second time, there’s no reason to hold yourself back.  In fact, choosing a second wedding dress can be just as much fun (or more!) than choosing the first.

-Tradition held it that you really shouldn’t wear white if it’s your second wedding.  But that’s sort of fallen by the wayside.  You can go ahead and wear white if you want to!  We’ve got a great selection of white second wedding dresses to choose from.
-If you don’t feel comfortable in white, though, you can go ahead and choose something in your favorite color.  You might find something in our collection of mother of the bride dresses or bridesmaid dresses.
-If the dress from your first wedding is still in good shape, you might be able to trade it in as credit on a new one.  (Because you don’t want to wear the same dress twice— no matter how nice it looks!)
-There’s also nothing saying that you can’t have a fairytale wedding the second time around.  Go ahead and glam it up in a couture wedding gown!

DimitraDesigns.com has a great selection of short bridal dresses, but there are a few things you need to think about before you decide to go that route.  First of all, is a shorter dress appropriate for your wedding venue?  If you’re getting married in a more religious ceremony, then it might not be appropriate to show too much leg.  Secondly, what is the weather going to be?  If you’re getting married in the middle of winter, you might want to go with something longer— just to keep you warm!  The third (and arguably most important) thing is…

THE SHOES.

What color shoes do you wear with a short bridal dress?  Frankly, the jury’s still out on that one.  It all depends on how far you want to push the envelope, really.  Some people out there have the opinion that you should probably stick with white or silver shoes.  The argument for that, of course, is that you want people to look at your dress— not your shoes.  And if the shoes are too loud, the dress might get overshadowed.
But the flip side of the coin makes a pretty good argument for those colorful shoes.  Pick something that matches your bridal party.  Are you going with red?  Wear red shoes, have a red rose bouquet, and accent the dress with some ruby jewelry.  It’ll tie the whole thing together.

It’s all up to you.  How funky do you want to be?

We like keeping ourselves up to date on different ideas for wedding designs.  While we were hopping around the internet, we came across Carly’s blog.  Carly is (very!) recently engaged to her fiance Chris, and she’s an amazing designer to boot!  She lets us into her life (and her workspace) on her blog, All this is Grace and Charm.

We’re looking forward to keeping up with her blog as she plans her wedding.  She’s already got some awesome color boards that are truly an inspiration to anyone!  We’re excited to see what amazing ideas she comes up with for her venue.  And we’re even more excited to see what kind of dress she picks out!  Carly is beautiful on the inside and out, and we’re simply in love with her funky aesthetic.

Please go over and check out her awesome blog!  Whether you’re planning your own wedding or not, you’re sure to get some creative inspiration from Carly’s creations.

If you choose to carry on the garter tossing tradition at your wedding reception, you need to remember a few things.  After all, you want this to be part of your reception that people remember— not something that you and your husband will be embarrassed about for years to come.

Why do it, anyway?
The tradition dates back to 14th Century France.  Brides of the day used to toss easily removable parts of their clothing to guests as a gesture of good luck.  The garter was usually one of the things she tossed.  It evolved into the groom tossing the garter at the unwed male guests.

Traditional or unusual
The bride usually sits in a chair in the middle of the dance floor.  And the groom removes the garter from her leg.  Now, brides, you have to keep a few things in mind.  Try to put the garter just above your knee so your husband isn’t showing your “goods” to the whole world.  And, we’ve touched on this in this blog before, you need to wear some reasonable undergarments.  You just never know what could happen with the garter toss.
-Choose a fun song.  How about the “Mission Impossible” theme?
-Try doing a “married” toss instead.  If you have more married male guests, you can invite all of them to catch the garter.  The winner here would then present the garter to his own wife (in private!).
-You can get silly and have the bride sit on the best man’s lap while the husband looks for the garter.

Every bride wants to feel as feminine as possible on her wedding day, and the shoes play a big part in that.  If you’re not the kind of girl that wears high heels on a regular basis, you need to work your way up to those fabulous wedding shoes! Here at DimitraDesigns.net, we want you to look and feel your best.  It’s not as difficult as it seems— it’ll just take a little bit of practice.

-Start small and work your way up.  You have to learn how to crawl before you learn how to run, right?  Begin with a shoe that has a broad, low heel.  Something in the 2”-3” range is a good idea.
-Once you get good at that, upgrade to a low kitten heel.  These will get you used to walking on a heel that’s a little narrower.  They’re still very low, so you don’t have to worry too much about balance.
-Then you can go on to try some wedge heels.  The wedge adds a little bit of extra balance and comfort while you get used to the height of the heel.
-Finally, go ahead and try some stiletto heels.  You don’t really need to go any higher than 3”4”. That’s the perfect height.

When you walk down the aisle, you want to make sure you do it with ease!  Gradually working your way up to a higher heel should make that transition fairly simple for you.

We don’t think about our undergarments too much on a daily basis.  If you’re like anyone here, you just grab something out of the drawer and go about your day.  But your wedding day is a different story.  And we’re not talking about picking something that’s frilly, lacy, or sparkly.  On your wedding day, you need something that’s functional underneath that dress.  Think of it like a movie set— sometimes the lead actress (your dress) is only at her best when she has a great supporting cast (the undergarments).

-If you’re wearing a strapless dress, you’ve got a lot of options.  Ladies with smaller busts can get away without a bra if they ask their seamstress to just sew in some bust cups for definition.  If you want a little support, a strapless bra works perfectly.
-Some dresses, however, need to be worn with a bustier instead.  If your dress has a dip in the back of the bodice, you’re probably in the club.  Just pick a smooth microfiber one with no visible boning.  If you go with something too fancy looking, it’ll be visible through your gown.
-Dress too revealing for a bustier?  Then get yourself a high-quality stick-on bra.  It sounds silly, but they absolutely do the trick.
-Lots of brides choose a brief or boy-short panty instead of a thong.  This is probably a good idea.  There’s nothing worse than the feeling of a petticoat on a bare behind!
-If your wedding gown is sleeker on the bottom, you’ll need some special undergarments.  It might be in your best interest to go with a smoothing foundation-garment that stops mid-thigh. Not the sexiest thing on the planet, but you won’t have any visible panty lines!