PROUD TO PRESENT SIMONE CARVALLI

Amanda-Lina's Sposa is proud to introduce Simone Carvalli as part of our extensive wedding and bridesmaid dress selection. The newest Simone Carvalli Haute Couture Bridal Collection puts emphasis on sophisticated silhouette, exquisite Swarovski crystals beading design, luxurious silk fabric and contemporary applications of classic style.

Shop for your wedding dress with your mom with ease

Shopping with mom can be an amazing experience – but it can also add to the stress, especially when it is your wedding dress that you are searching for. How to make this easy and productive for both of you? How to involve your mom in the wedding gown shopping process? We have some tips for you – read on and learn more about this.

• Be very sensitive and very honest. Your mom only wants to help, and even though her ideas may not always coordinate with yours, she isn’t doing this on purpose. Be honest with her, tell her when you don’t like something, but also make sure you don’t hurt her feelings. You wouldn’t like this to be done to you, would you?

• Be constructive when giving feedback. Don’t just toss “no” in the air and leave it like that. Tell your mom what you like and don’t like about her ideas. This way, she will adjust to your wedding dress dreams and she will be able to help you more with this important decision.

Chocolate Wedding Favors

Chocolate wedding favors are the ultimate crowdpleaser. It's hard to find someone that isn't a fan of a classic chocolate candy, which is why it's a great option for party favors. Super simple, chocolate can be paired with anything (like bacon!). Better yet, there are so many different ways you can give chocolate favors—box them up, customize them, wrap them in a personalized label, even put your picture on it. No matter what you choose, your guests will be reminded of how sweet your wedding celebration was when snacking on your chocolate favor.

Marbled Chocolate Wedding Favors

The bride and groom decided to welcome their visiting guests to their D.C. wedding with a sweet treat of marble chocolates, which went with their theme.

How Saving the Top Tier of Your Wedding Cake Became Tradition

Alongside matrimony comes a slew of traditions, from kissing the bride to tossing the bouquet. But a certain ritual extends far beyond the wedding day, leaving many to wonder, well, why? Saving the top tier stems back centuries and gives couples the chance to indulge in their confection outside of that one precious wedding-day bite. But where did the tradition start, and why just the top tier? 

Multi-tiered wedding cakes have been the norm since the 19th century, says food journal Gastronomica. Royal cakes, from which they originated, most often had three parts—a top, middle, and bottom tier. When Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) married Prince Philip in 1947, each tier of her cake had a different purpose: one for the wedding, one sent off as a gift, and one preserved for a future occasion. We're guessing that's what led to the modern ritual, which calls for slicing the bottom tier at the reception, sending pieces of the middle tier off with departing guests, and saving the top tier for something special.

Boozy Favors to Keep the Party Going Post-Wedding

Choosing your wedding favor can be tricky. You want to give wedding guests something they'll actually use, but you also want it to be unique to your special day. Enter the boozy wedding favor. Alcoholic favors are always a crowd pleaser, and they're super easy to personalize. (Just add a monogrammed label or wrap it in cute packaging.) Here, a few of our favorite boozy finds that your friends and family will most definitely appreciate.

Mini Gin Bottles

For her Brooklyn wedding, this bride had Breuckelen Distilling hand-fill round mini bottles with gin as favors for the wedding guests. Every bottle came with foil-stamped tags and stickers that the bride designed herself on For Your Party.

The National Average Cost of a Wedding Is $32,641

We surveyed nearly 18,000 brides and grooms married in 2015 for The Knot 2015 Real Weddings Study and found that couples are looking to make the ultimate personal statement for their wedding day.

Having your wedding budget talk soon? Well, we have just the information you need to get that conversation going. We just released The Knot 2015 Real Weddings Study, and after polling nearly 18,000 couples, we found that the average wedding spend is at a national all-time high—at $32,641!

The Knot started tracking the average cost of a wedding in 2006, and since then, the national average wedding cost has seriously skyrocketed. In fact, just last year, the average wedding cost for 2014 was at $31,213, a $1,408 difference.

Before you say that $32,641 sounds like far too much or too little, keep in mind that this is an average. So depending on your zip code (New York City's spend is $82,299, while South Dakota's is $18,890), that number may be higher or lower.