Define Your Wedding Style

Today's wedding gown marketplace offers a delightful confusion of options and styles. The bride-to-be is faced with selections that veer wildly from sleek, form-fitting sheaths to Glinda-the-good-witch confections. The bride can choose to look like a medieval queen or a fairy princess; she can don a tailored suit or bare her midriff and expose a diamond-studded navel.

Before you start fantasizing about the length of your train or the details on your sleeves, you need to ask yourself a few questions in order to narrow your search. Question 1: What style of wedding do you want? Formal, informal, or somewhere in between?

Whether you realize it or not, you probably have a good idea of the general style of your wedding, even if you haven't yet chosen your location or decided on the size of your guest list. Look at the following broadly drawn definitions and see which one best matches your vision. If you can adopt one of these categories as your own, it will help inform all kinds of future decisions and help you select everything from flowers to guest accommodations.

THE FORMAL WEDDING
"Formal" comes in many packages. For actress Vivica A. Fox, it meant arriving at the Los Angeles Park Plaza in a horse-drawn carriage decorated with flowers and tiny lights. For Melissa Rivers's formal wedding, Manhattan's Plaza hotel was transformed into a scene from Imperial Russia, complete with white birch trees, antique candelabra, and footmen in powdered wigs. But whether it takes place in a palace or in the church around the corner, virtually all formal weddings have a few things in common.

A formal wedding is one in which you will most likely:
Have a religious ceremony in a cathedral, church, synagogue, or other place of worship
Have a full reception in a hotel ballroom, a mansion, museum, country club, cruise ship, or other upscale location
Have assigned dinner seating at the reception
Outfit your groom and his groomsmen in tuxedos, traditional morning coats, or other formal attire
Dress your attendants in matching gowns and shoes

For a formal wedding, you'll probably want to limit your gown choices to those which are:
White or off-white
Floor length
Outfitted with a cathedral-length or chapel-length veil, plus a train in the same length
Made from luxurious fabrics such as silk, satin, velvet, and/or brocade
Graced by a Queen Anne, bertha, or wedding-band collar
Detailed with seed pearls, lace, jewels, beading, sequins, etc.
Accessorized with gloves
Worn with a tiara or other formal headpiece

THE SEMIFORMAL WEDDING
This vast category includes all sorts of weddings, some of which might mix formal with informal. Kate Winslet, for instance, was married in her family church, but she held her reception at a local pub, where guests ate bangers and mash and danced the jig. More often, however, a semiformal wedding is one in which you might choose to: Have your ceremony in a chapel, garden, private home, or a sentimental or scenic location
Host a sit-down or buffet-style catered reception outdoors under a tent or welcome your guests at a hall, restaurant, seaside pavilion, private function room, etc.
Dress your groom in a tux or a suit with a four-in-hand tie
Have only a few attendants and groomsmen in coordinated outfits
Skip certain traditions, such as the receiving line or announced introductions

For a semiformal wedding, your gown choices might include:
White, off-white, or pale pastel tones
Ankle-length, tea-length (just above the ankle), or intermission-length hem (anywhere between the knee and the ankle)
Styles ranging from costume-historic to ballerina to avant- garde
No train, but perhaps a long veil, short veil, pouf, or a headpiece without a veil
Stylish or festive gown fabrics such as silk shantung, taffeta, tulle, charmeuse, chiffon, or organza

THE INFORMAL WEDDING
Often, an outdoor setting is the star at an informal wedding. However, like its formal and semiformal sisters, the informal affair can take many forms. Consider the nuptials of actor Russell Means, who is of Sioux heritage: At his wedding to Pearl Daniel, who is half Navajo, traditional Native American singers and dancers performed to the sound of drumbeats, and guests dined on buffalo and mutton. The bride wore an eggplant blouse, a velveteen skirt, and moccasins.

An informal wedding might include the following:
Nontraditional or personally written vows recited in a private home, on a pier, on the beach, on a rooftop, in a nightclub, etc.
Buffet-style dinner, or picnic, clambake, barbecue, etc., with nonassigned seating
Groom outfitted in expressive, unconventional attire
Few or no attendants
Creative new traditions in place of the garter ritual, bouquet tossing, etc.

An informal bride might consider wearing:
A dress that strays from traditional shades of white into more adventurous colors such as lavender, pale yellow, blush pink, etc.
A two-piece dress, a suit, a tunic outfit, a sundress, a sarong, a simple sheath, or palazzo pants
A crown of flowers

Earrings and hair ornaments in lieu of a headpiece and veil
Details that reflect or celebrate the setting, such as leaf or shell motifs

TIME OF YEAR
Another important, and undeniably practical, consideration when shopping for a gown is the season in which you plan to marry. In the bad old days, a bride simply wouldn't wear a strapless gown in January; today, those notions of seasonally correct attire have been thrown out. However, there are fabric and style choices that lend themselves nicely to each season.

For winter weddings, you might consider:
Heavy fabrics such as satin, brocade, and velvet
Long sleeves
Higher necklines
Silver or gold accents
Headpieces that incorporate a hat, possibly made from fur or feathers
Fur or faux fur trim, or a stole or muff
Kid gloves
Lace-up wedding boots
Bridal coat