After I got engaged, one of the first things my mom did was she pulled out her preserved wedding gown from the 1980s, that she had stored away in her closet for that very moment. I'll never forget the look on my dad's face when he walked up the stairs and found quite a scene: My mom had draped the dress over her front side and stuck her arms in the poufy, lace sleeves, veil and all, while I was bowled over in laughter with tears silently streaming down my face. It was a gorgeous wedding dress—don't get me wrong. I just always envisioned having a custom-made version of my own. 

So it was only fitting that my mama dukes is the one who told me about this fascinating story, which aired on The Today Show this morning. The video segment was about Allison Rinaldi, a 23-year-old graphic artist who wed husband Chris Rinaldi on June 11 in the same dress that her great-great grandmother, grandmother, mother and aunt wore to their nuptials. “When I wore this on my wedding day it meant a lot to me to be connected with those marriages that went before,” Barbara told TODAY.  The dress was first worn in 1884 and its last appearance before Allison was in 1982. The priceless family heirloom is "Made of tone-on-tone ecru silk brocade and patterned with chrysanthemum flowers." Allison loved its history so much that she went to great lengths to wear it, even working with a personal trainer to be able to make it fit on her size 6 frame.

      Photo Credit: Jessica Lauren Photography

For my wedding, I knew that I wanted to have ceremony programs, but I was having the hardest time finding a style that I liked for a reasonable price. My favorite professional ones would’ve cost at least $5 a pop (and with 135 guests coming, that was out of the question!), and the DIY kits at craft stores just weren’t doing it for me. So after a lot of daydreaming, I came up with a design I loved that I could make myself.

I'm just going to warn you now: This was a time-consuming project. In retrospect, I really should've started it more than two weeks before my wedding.

The first—and most important—step was finding the right card stock to match the other elements of my wedding. I heard about a great paper product company called Paper Source and was thrilled to find there was a location less than an hour away from me. 

This couple had a special guest at their engagement photos... a zombie! You have to see this sequence, shot by Amanda Rynda Photography:

We love creative engagement photos! What's the best you've seen lately?

—Kristen O'Gorman Klein

If you’re looking for a great gift idea for your bridesmaids, then check out “The Bina,” an ingenious new take on the standard pashmina. It’s a fantastic, versatile “shawl” that you can wear in more than a dozen ways! I recently met with the designer, Bina Brianca, who demonstrated how to wear her creation. Within seconds, she could wrap, snap, and style The Bina into a number of chic looks.

Of course, when left to my own devices, I forgot how to turn The Bina into a blouse. But fear not: With each purchase, you receive a booklet describing how to create each look. I love the way the soft jersey material drapes, and when the AC gets a big frigid in the office, it’s the perfect cover-up. Here’s a sampling of just a few looks:

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 February. 

2. Reception venue + Catering: $4,000
For our 3-course meal, we will be serving salad, steak, and wedding cake at The Excalibur Hotel, costing us just over $50 per person. We also purchased a 4-hour alcohol package including our signature drink, "The Singapore Sling," (to represent, ya’ll!) for $40 per person. (Editor's Note: This cocktail was invented in 1915 by a bartender and contains gin, cherry heering (liqueur), benedictine DOM, cointreau, grenadine, lemon juice, a dash of angostura bitters and fresh pineapple). Total cost per person: Just under $100.

What we know: Kim is wearing Vera Wang. She had 3 different Vera dresses designed for her (for as much as $25,000 a pop), according to Us Weekly. And her bridesmaids are not wearing green.

But the big question is, will Kim wear white?

Kim and Kris have requested that all guests wear black or white. So we can't help but wonder, will Kim be wearing a colorful gown to stand out among the sea of black and white on Saturday?

Here at BG, we're torn. I could see Kim wearing a soft pink shade, like Reese Witherspoon did earlier this year. Pink was a huge trend on the runways, according to our fashion editor, Naima DiFranco. I could also see Kim in a champagne hue. But I highly doubt she'll go completely nontraditional and wear a bold shade, like red or blue. If she does opt for color, it'll be subtle.

Kim and Kris are reportedly set to marry at this beautiful Spanish-style estate in Montecito, California, owned by Google exec Eric Schmidt, according to Us Weekly. Fun fact: Ellen Degeneres previously owned the home, which she sold for a reported $20 million in 2007.

       Aerial images from Bing.com

We're in love with the beautiful grounds, and we're hoping Kim will be able to utilize them for her photos—according to CNN, there will likely be tents set up around the entire estate to prevent paparazzi pics, since People has exclusive rights to the wedding photos.

—Kristen O'Gorman Klein

This past Saturday, Shawn Lippert of Ontario, Canada, surprised his long-term girlfriend, Colleen, by getting down on one knee and proposing. And then he surprised her with the entire wedding.

The couple had been living together for seven years and had discussed plans to elope to Las Vegas next month, so Colleen had already picked out a dress. Shawn managed to get everything in place for the wedding in secret by sneakily asking Colleen questions over the past year to collect all the details of her dream wedding. "I asked her, you know, what kind of cake would you like at your wedding? She said, 'I want a cherry chip cake.' Centerpieces? 'I want this,'" Shawn has said.

On Saturday, Colleen thought she was arriving at the Beach Bar and Grill for a retirement party, but when she got there, Shawn was waiting with a ring and red carpet. He proposed then informed her that their wedding would take place that day. Colleen was then whisked to a private room in the restaurant where Shawn had set up her entire bedroom for her to get ready along with the wedding dress she had chosen for her big day. Over 200 guests attended the surprise wedding.

"I complain all the time about him not being romantic and apparently he is," Colleen has said. "Nothing else will ever compare to this. It was just perfect."

So what do you think, BG brides? Is the stunt Shawn pulled super romantic? Or would you be upset to find out that you had been excluded from planning your own wedding? Tell us!

—Kelsie Allen

Renee Armstrong wasn't able to make the trip from Virginia to Colorado for her best friend's wedding this past Saturday, but she was still able to be a bridesmaid on the big day—thanks to the iPad's FaceTime app.

“She got to see the whole ceremony. She got to meet everybody and be here for the reception,” the bride, Jamie Alberico, told ABC News.

A groomsman even walked Renee down the aisle by carrying the tablet device, and the bridal party held up the device to include Renee in the wedding photos.

“Renee called dibs to be my bridesmaid many, many moons ago and, unfortunately, she couldn’t really make it out here,” Alberico said. “But thank you technology, here is Renee.”

A few months ago, another couple was married via Skype when the groom came down with a lung infection prior to the wedding. And more recently, a military couple was married over the phone while he was deployed.

We love seeing how technology is changing the wedding world. What do you think of these tech-savvy weddings?

—Kristen O'Gorman Klein