I'm all for getting creative and doing your own thing when it comes to weddings (I did the 'run off and get married on the beach' thing myself), but if you feel like it's all been done before and you're looking for something that's truly different have you considered getting married in space? The Japanese company Rocketplane Kistler Japan has paired up with wedding planner First Advantage to offer a marriage ceremony 62 miles up in space. For just $2.2 million you and your sweetie can exchange vows while orbiting the Earth.
Do you think they make space suits with veils and white lace?
Jewelry designer Mark Schneider's designs are a step away from the traditional. Schneider creates both diamond bridal jewelry and unique dramatic pieces that incorporate colorful gemstones. Schneider believes in letting the stones "talk to him" before he creates a design.
The engagement rings from Mark Schneider Designs have a unique feature. Each design in the collection features a Secret Heart, small yellow or white gold heart at the base of the ring set with a tiny diamond inscribed with a message that says "Love you Forever." The styles range from traditional to more contemporary and each features smaller diamonds set along the sides of the ring. All of the rings can be made in either platinum or gold and set with center stones in a variety of sizes. The gallery below features a few of Schneider's bridal designs as well as some of his award-winning gemstone creations.
The details of Ivana Trump's weekend wedding are pretty amazing but what might be the most interesting is how similar the wedding is to her ex-husband's wedding back in 2005. After all, Donald and Ivana each married a much younger spouse at the very same location, the Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Ivana wore 450 carats worth of LEVIEV diamonds including a 71.76 carat diamond necklace and 6.39 carat oval-cut diamond earrings on her wedding night. Trump's wife Melania wore a $200,000 satin and rhinestone Dior gown and Fred Leighton jewels for their wedding. Ivana's wedding cake was 12 feet tall and weighed in at 770 pounds. Donald's last wedding included a seven-tier cake that weighed over 200 pounds. Donald Trump's guests were entertained by a 36-piece string orchestra that was local whereas Ivana had a 24-piece orchestra flown in from Paris. Donald had more celebrity guests but the Ivana got serenaded by Neil Sedaka. Let's just call this one a draw and say that though they may be divorced the ex-Trumps certainly have a lot in common.
Fashion designer Vera Wang is famous for her extravagant wedding dresses but the most expensive dress she ever made is one we never got to see. In an interview on CNBC's "Conversations with Michael Eisner" that will air Monday, Vera Wang said the that the dress she created for Jennifer Lopez's canceled wedding to Ben Affleck was the most expensive she ever made. The dress was made of couture fabric and had 18 tiers. Wang says that it was the most expensive and the most time consuming to sew. I wonder what ever happened to the dress, was it destroyed or is it somewhere in Vera Wang's archives?
The classic Valentine's Day proposal gets a little easier if you are planning to do it in Chicago. The James hotel is offering a proposal package that includes a Van Cleef & Arpels engagement ring, private dinner for two with personal waitstaff, chef and four-string quartet from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the ultimate couples spa experience at The Spa, two-night stay in the penthouse and a one year anniversary gift from The James. Accommodations in the Penthouse come with a personal assistant, use of an Audi A8L and driver, complimentary personal training session for two, use of personal Apple iBook, fresh flowers daily, and a stocked bar. The package starts at $50,000.
Wedding dresses come in all shapes and sizes from sleek and stylish to large and marshmallow-like, and from hand-embroidered to mass-produced. And although jewels aren't that uncommon in small doses, what about 4 pounds of jewels? A designer in Hong Kong has created a wedding dress with 9,999 karats of jewels (that's a very deliberate number!) and it's on sale for over $130,000.
It's beautiful but I personally wouldn't want a wedding dress with so many different colors, and I think for that price it might be more worth it to just get something custom-made -- I think I'd still be able to afford plenty of jewels.
Calling all brides, the Mandarin Oriental has created a two-part destination wedding for a couple and a pair of witnesses. The package begins with a two-night stay at the Mandarin Oriental, New York which includes accommodations in the Premier Central Park View Suites, a two-hour Mandarin Oriental Signature Time Ritual at the spa and an evening of customized "guys and girls" activities. Then the foursome is flown to Elbow Beach, Bermuda by private jet. The Bermuda event begins with a sunset cruise and a celebratory dinner. The wedding day dawns with a breakfast and the services of a hair stylist and makeup artist. The bride gets a blue sapphire garter as a gift while the groom will receive vintage hand-stitched silk handkerchiefs. The wedding ceremony takes place on the Bird of Paradise Terrace, overlooking the pink sand and turquoise water, with flowers and a string quartet. As the sun sets, Elbow Beach chefs will prepare a six-course reception dinner for the couple and their guests under a marquee. A seven-tiered wedding cake, dancing and fireworks complete the perfect day. The couple stays in the private Bird of Paradise cottage which is prepared with flowers, candles, a rose petal bath, monogrammed silk pyjamas, chilled champagne and Godiva chocolates. The package also includes photographs and personalized bathrobes. The total package costs $75,000 but maybe you can get your lucky guests to pitch in for the party.
How much would you spend on a wedding if money were no object? For most celebrities it isn't, and the result is wedding costs skyrocketing into the hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. Forbes recently compiled a list of the 20 most expensive celebrity weddings, going back as far as 20 years. Whether paying for 50,000 exotic flowers or renting an entire island to escape the paparazzi, celebrities spare no expense when it comes to having exactly what they want. The top 5 spenders, in order, are:
Sadly, 40% of the couples on the list are now divorced (including obviously Brad and Jennifer above), so feel free to check out this list of the most expensive celebrity divorces -- a few made both lists!
So Eva Longoria and Tony Parker finally made it official this past weekend when they got married in France. What better way to promise their eternal love to each other than with these beautiful and unique Piaget Possession wedding bands -- made of two bands that are "inseparably linked, turning together for eternity." Eva's features double rows of brilliant cut diamonds divided by a row of 27 square cut diamonds down the center (for a total of 107 jewels), and Tony's is elegance in its simplest form. Both rings are 18k white gold and, per the couple's request, have a personalized French engraving on the inside.
In addition to choosing Piaget for their wedding bands, Eva also ordered a one-of-a-kind timepiece made as a wedding gift for her new husband. A customized version of the Piaget Polo watch, the Piaget 'Number 9' features a 43mm white gold case, a slate grey 18K gold and titanium bezel and matching slate grey dial, and 50 diamonds in the shape of his MVP number 9 -- so it's truly just for him.
Most brides just have to worry about who they're going to have take their wedding pictures, but Eva Longoria and fiancé Tony Parker also had to decide who would get the rights to publish them. The biggest bidders for exclusive rights to wedding coverage were People magazine and OK!, with OK! coming out on top by offering $2 million dollars.
The wedding is planned for this weekend, July 7th, in a castle just outside of Paris. I wonder how much Eva and Tony are paying for their own personal wedding photos? Think $2 million will cover it?
The details on the richest man in Australia's $6 million dollar wedding are starting to come together, or that's what the rumor-mill says anyway. James Packer's wedding to model and singer Erica Baxter will be happening sometime this month between June 16th and June 23rd. And although not 100% confirmed, it seems pretty clear that two of the top hotels in the area -- the the Hotel du Cap Eden and the Grand Hotel du Cap -- have been booked for the event, with staff at both sidestepping details but confirming that they have been completely reserved for unnamed events by an unnamed host during those dates.
Other rumored details include chauffeurs and yachts on stand-by for transporting guests from location to location, and a ship-board civil marriage ceremony for the couple to circumvent French residency requirements.
On May 5th, the $3 million Bebe Spa and Bure ni Loloma Wedding Chapel officially opened at the five-star Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji. With spectacular ocean and mountain views, the spa sits above the resort and offers seven treatment rooms, a health bar and beauty center. Choose from 25 different spa treatments where you will be pampered with Pure Fiji bath and body products. Now that you are relaxed and beautiful, maybe it's time to get married or renew your vows in the adjoining wedding chapel?
Travelers to Santa Fe desiring an authentic and luxurious New Mexico experience can now look to Casa de Estrellas. This new boutique hotel located in the heart of the city is designer Jay Payne's vision of high end, low key pampering.
With an emphasis on privacy and service, the Casa de Estrellas, or House of the Stars, offers guests private villas instead of rooms, complete with gourmet kitchens and the availability of a personal chef, butler and host. Originally built in the 1930's, the one and two bedroom villas feature mediterranean inspired, adobe style architecture, filled with ancient antiquities from around the world. The property also boasts a full service salon and spa as well as a wedding garden inspired by the work of Kadee Strickland, star of the TV series Wedding Bells. The one bedroom villas start at $195 per night. For larger parties, the 1,200 square foot Aria Townhouse will soon be available starting at $500 per night.
It's not the most exciting ring design I've ever seen but it's hard to fault the brilliance of Elizabeth Hurley's massive engagement ring. Vogue UK points us to a pic of the Chopard ring that Arun Nayer gave to her. It features a 15.09 carat Asscher cut diamond in a white gold setting with pave diamonds along the shank. The ring is from Chopard's Haute Joallerie collection and Chopard is also behind Hurley's wedding band of 20 square cut diamonds set in white gold.
They say that every little girl wants to be a princess when she grows up, and whether that is true or not, there is one industry that is practically based around the theory: the bridal industry. Disney has long been part of making dreams come true for kids and kids at heart and already does a booming wedding trade by holding receptions (2,000 or so a year) at their parks, but the company responsible for the creation of some of the ultimate fairy tale princesses, has decided to branch out even further. The will be releasing a line of Disney princess-inspired wedding dresses this year.
It would be hard not to feel like a princess in a Vera Wang gown, but if you want to look like Cinderella at the ball, now you can. Perhaps Scarlett Johanssen will lend you the glass slippers from Annie Leibovitz's latest Disney shoot for the occasion.
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It's not the most exciting ring design I've ever seen but it's hard to fault the brilliance of Elizabeth Hurley's massive engagement ring. 
They say that every little girl wants to be a princess when she grows up, and whether that is true or not, there is one industry that is practically based around the theory: the bridal industry. Disney has long been part of making dreams come true for kids and kids at heart and already does a booming wedding trade by holding receptions (2,000 or so a year) at their parks, but the company responsible for the creation of some of the ultimate fairy tale princesses, has decided to branch out even further. The will be releasing a line of 
