Guest blogger: Allison Silber, founder and creative director for engagedandinspired.com.
Engaged & Inspired is a wedding publication for crafty brides who strive fill their wedding day with loads of personality. The team of real brides post about the highs and lows of wedding planning and what it takes to pull off their big day. Aside from running Engaged & Inspired, Allison also offers planning and design services to the Carmel Valley area.

The invitation is the first impression each guest will have of your wedding day — it sets the tone for your entire event. It's a way to offer guests a special treat to come home to, since physical mail is becoming more and more uncommon. The days of generic paper design are over: there are plenty of ways to make your invite even more awesome, and I'm here to show you how to do that!

Photo Credit: Jose Villa via Kiss the Groom

1. Wrap it up beautifully.
Wrapping the invitation with twine, lace, leaves or some other special token is a simple way to complete the package.

After waiting over a year to celebrate our marriage, Michael and I were so excited to throw a wedding at the Soledad Club in San Diego, California on January 19th. Though we officially tied the knot in a quickie civil ceremony before he left for Afghanistan (read more about our decision to elope here), we weren't able to do a proper party until he came back. Surrounded by ninety of our closest friends and family members, we finally got our chance. Check out all of the fun details and photos from our big day below!

My Wedding-Day Look
I got ready with all of my best friends — Kate, Kelsey, Carrie, Minty and Christina. While Carrie managed eyelash application, Kate was the master curler, and we listened to random hip-hop music while I munched on Starbucks sandwiches. It was all very laid-back. Just being able to sit and soak it all in was divine. 

After reading countless wedding beauty forums, I realized that if I wanted my makeup to look great and last all night, going pro was the way to go. However, the top-rated makeup artists in my city charge at least $300 for a trial run and day-of application. So, I ended up taking my chances at a MAC counter the morning of my wedding, and I could not have been happier with how it turned out.

Loverly is the heart of weddings: a visual inspiration search engine designed to help brides discover ideas, people to hire, and things to buy. Loverly makes finding beautiful wedding inspiration easier than ever! Their images are powered by the best wedding publishers and wedding shopping partners on the web. Find Bridal Guide on Loverly >>

Maybe it’s the whole “sitting in a tree" thing, but for whatever reason, birds just make for super sweet wedding décor. And they are so versatile! You can do adorable songbirds at a vintage wedding, earthy nests for a rustic wedding, or exotic feathers for a black-tie affair. Here are our favorite bird décor ideas.

Stationery
Set the tone for a fun and classic wedding with this bright bird save-the-date:

Matthew Krivohlavy, currently deployed overseas, couldn't attend his brother's wedding in Austin, Texas last weekend, so the Marine pilot did the next best thing — he taped a video "toast" from the cockpit of his Harrier jet!

Groom Brandon Krivohlavy posted the video on Reddit yesterday, and so far, it's garnered over a thousand comments. He played the footage at the ceremony, and "everyone in the room was either crying or completely speechless. It was a very moving moment for everyone there," he wrote.

Unfortunately, the YouTube video has since been taken down, but not before The Daily Mail in the U.K. took the following screen grabs that show how the story unfolded. Like any fabulous wedding toast, he mentioned how special both the groom and bride (Mandy Takacs) are to him, poked fun at his sibling, and offered memorable wedding advice. Just how memorable? Daily Mail reports that at the end of the video, when he exclaims "Go nuts together!", he does a 360-degree roll in the sky!

Looking for a high glamour look for your big day? Take a cue from Hollywood and consider a slinky gown fashioned from draped chiffon or silk charmeuse. This languid slinky gown has been a favorite of movie stars on the red carpet.

When choosing this style, look for asymmetrical gathers that will give this fabric shape and add flattering contours to your figure. Soft updos and chandelier earrings are a great complement to this style. Here, a few of our favorite slinky gowns from Demetrios, Romona Keveza and Martina Liana.

—Naima DiFranco

It’s every bride’s and groom’s dream on their wedding day to have a long and happy marriage. You picture yourselves raising a family, sharing adventures and celebrating future milestones together. It’s certainly the ideal, so when I recently learned about a couple who have been married for over 60 years I decided to reach out to them to get some marital advice to share with you. This wonderful couple, Dr. Titus Plomaritis, who has written an autobiography aptly named Titus, and his wife, Claire happily obliged.

Dr. Plomaritis, a retired chiropractor, also served as President of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners. He met Claire, former representative of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, in 1948. It was love at first sight for Titus, so he began his “relentless pursuit to win her over.” As Titus states in his book dedication to Claire, “She is the love of my life and best friend.”

As if we didn't already L.O.V.E. Lover.ly enough, their new mobile app is exactly what it claims to be — like nothing you've seen before. At the tap of an app, you can like, share, and upload thousands of beautiful wedding photos. 

It's the ultimate wedding search engine; it's extremely user-friendly, with crystal-clear photos and amazing detail. Brides, beware: Once you start clicking through the amazing photos you may not be able to stop (at least for a few hours)! You can use this app during any stage of your wedding planning, from finding inspiration for engagement photos and invitations to ceremony décor and honeymoon destinations.

On the bottom of your screen, there are four tabs: Featured, Explore, Add, and Profile. The "featured" section consists of the top photos from all the different categories. Under each photo, you can tap the "love it" icon (Loverly's equivalent of a Facebook "like"), add it to a bundle, share on Facebook or Twitter, or find out who photographed it.

Under "explore," you'll find two ways to browse — by category or by color. With 12 categories (accessories, beauty, décor, dresses, flowers, food and drink, gifts, intimates, jewelry, men, shoes, and stationery), it's a simplified version of the desktop site. While you can't browse by theme, it does have a search bar, perfect for busy brides who know what they want.

Favorite Features: