2 Dress to Impress - wearing more than one outfit on your Big Day

It's the lucky bride who gets to wear more than one dress on her wedding day.  However, it's not just a symptom of spare budget and extravagence.  Sometimes it is a necessity:

 When Alex Curran tied the knot with footballer love Steven Gerrard in the summer of 2007, she did so in a heavily beaded and bejewelled Flamenco-style Eli Saab gown she'd bought in Paris.  Complete with a Spanish-influenced headdress and flowing train, the gown was a stunning spectacle.  It was also very heavy.  The bride confessed that she eagerly swapped it for a Prada mini dress for the evening's festivites.

 

 Victoria Beckham's creamy golden dress for her Catholic ceremony to husband David was demure, modest and romantic.  For the party, she wanted a far sexier look.  For that, she donned a close fitting "Jessica Rabbit" purple dress that sexily clung to her curves with a cheeky slit up the thigh.  The other colours of the theme, burgundy and evergreen, were picked out in the flower detailling on the shoulder.

In many European countries, religious ceremonies are not legally binding.  A civil ceremony must take place first in order for the marriage to be recognised by the State.  When this happened for Grace Kelly, she married Prince Rainier of Monaco on Wednesday 18th April 1956 in a chic golden suit, heavily embroidered; befitting her new status as Princess of the Meditteraenean principality.  The iconic gown she wore for her religious ceremony the following day was far bigger and filled the Cathedal of Monaco.  Beautiful though it was, it would have been inappropriate in a smaller venue.

Beautiful though your wedding gown might be, we all know that they are not the most practical garments in the world.  5ft trains are great until you have to trail them around the dancefloor.  Shorter skirts are better for dancing in, so once you've greeted your evening dress, you can easily slip into a party dress for boogying the night away.  Arguably some guests may feel cheated if they didn't get to see you in your fancy finery, but your comfort must be the number 1 priority

Something Blue, Something Pink, or Something Gold - Not wearing white on your big day

Long gone are the days of the bride wearing white.  It represented virginity, which is something not a lot of us can claim to on our wedding days these days!  Whilst ivories and warmer shades of white are still the norm, other colours are gaining in popularity.  This is due in no small part to celebrity influence.

Following her Friday nuptials to Prince Albert of Monaco, the new Serene Highness Princess Charlene could well be a trendsetter with this elegant blue suit.  The floatiness of the trousers gives it a romantic edge, whilst the jacket gives it a suitably formal edge for the civil ceremony.  The colour looks beautifully cool against the hot Monaco summer.  The duck-egg tones echo those worn by the Duchess of Cornwall at her wedding to Prince Charles in 2005.

Victoria Beckham opted for a champagne gold colour.  It was traditional enough for her Catholic wedding ceremony but still radical enough at the time to set her out as a trendsetter.  Since her 1999 wedding, similar colours have been spotted on the likes of Chantelle Houghton (2007) and Coronation Street actress Jennifer James (2001).

Red is the colour of romance, so therefore it makes for a good choice as a wedding dress.  Chinese brides often wear red as the colour is thought to bring good luck.  However, this large cherry on the top of the cake offering from Jodie Marsh somehow looks more monstrous than harmonious.

There is no one quite like Dita Von Teese so therefore we should have expected nothing less than originality from her when she married kooky rockstar Marilyn Manson.  This dramatic creation from Vivienne Westwood manages to be fairytale and dramatic.  And since purple is traditionally the colour of passion, I don't think we could've expected anything else from Ms Von Teese.

Her wedding still remains the biggest selling issue of OK! magazine of all time, so it's little suprise that Jordan's big fat gypsy wedding dress (back in the days when we didn't know what big fat gypsy weddings were) heavily influenced wedding dresses over the following years.  Women felt liberated after this dress; white was no longer the only option.  Sales of pink wedding dresses when through the roof after Katie Price's 2005 nuptials.  However, Katie was not the first celebrity bride to dare to wear pink...

Two years before, rock chick extraordinare Gwen Stefani walked down the aisle in  a John Galliano creation splashed with pink around the hem of the skirt.  Given Gwen's outlandish taste in fashion, this dress suited her to a tee.