Chicago Creative Spotlight: Alice Padrul Bridal Couture

We have long admired the wedding dresses of Alice Padrul Bridal Couture.  Alice has been designing high fashion for decades, and exclusively creating couture wedding gowns since 2004.  Giorgio and I started to see her beautiful gowns in wedding magazines several years ago, and were excited to find out that Alice's boutique studio is located nearby us in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood.  One of our brides recently wore a beautiful gown designed by Alice, and then we had the fortunate opportunity to visit Alice and her husband Gene at their boutique studio.  We loved seeing all of her fabulous dresses and accessories, which are all made at her studio with Alice overseeing every last detail.  We were also thrilled to learn that Alice imports her organza silk from Italy, and that she loves Giorgio's native country just as much as we do.

© Giorgio Ventola / Wedding Creativo

Black Belt Punch for Wedding Dresses

Belted wedding dresses are always wonderful, but today we would like to highlight the stunning black-belt look.

When dress designer Vera Wang's Fall 2010 line came out last year and featured many dresses with a black sash, we knew it would not be long before we started seeing brides sporting black belt dresses down the aisle.  

Last November our bride Kallie actually had two belts, one for daytime and one for evening to go with her lovely Sassi Holford "Chloe" dress:

We love the black belt look and hope we see more of this trend this year.

Black belts and sashes for brides:

Bridal Gowns by Tadashi Shoji
Belts by Diesel

Bridesmaids dresses with sash belts:

Bridesmaid Dresses at eDressMe
Cocktail Dresses by Cynthia Rowley

Wedding Fashion Inspiration: Reese Witherspoon

While we predicted seeing a lot of pinks in 2011 wedding trends, we were pleasantly surprised to see actress Reese Witherspoon choose a pink wedding dress by designer Monique Lhuiller for her wedding on March 26.  Known for elegant lacey gowns, Lhuillier has rivaled Vera Wang as a designer-of-choice among celebrity brides including Alicia Silverstone, Britney Spears, Pink, Jewel, Carrie Underwood and many others.  And, this isn't the first time Lhuillier has raised eyebrows with pink and pastel hues:

Here are some of Wedding Creativo's brides pink inspirations at Chicago weddings:

Wedding Fashion Inspiration: Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor passed away today, and in tribute to her as an iconic Hollywood legend, I thought it would be a fitting to remember her signature simmering style.  After all, there are few who can match her experience with wearing wedding dresses, and she always had a lot to offer when it came to diverse sensual styles.  Taylor's first husband was Conrad Hilton Jr., and I'm pretty convinced Liz defined what it meant to be "hot" way before Hilton's great-neice Paris started using it as her favorite adjective.

MGM - Cat on a Hot Tin RoofParamount Pictures - A Place in the Sun

Underwood + Underwood/CORBIS