Beauty and Fashion

Steal the Look (..We Mean Rent It!): Brides in lust with the luxury labels have found salvation at sites like bagborrowandsteal.com; for less than $100, you can rent a $2,600 pair of Vera Wang diamond and pearl-studded earrings or a Judith Leiber jeweled-encrusted clutch worth over $3,500.

Split-Personality Brides: Brides are doing a double take during the wedding: doing presto-changos with their gowns (sometimes up to three wardrobe changes) and sneaking away during cocktail hour for a whole new hairdo (classic updos for the ceremony, then sexy tousled tresses on the dance floor!).

Heirloom Engagement & Wedding Rings: Jennifer Love Hewitt just got a bauble that's been in fiancé Ross McCall's family for over 100 years. Alicia Silverstone wed Chris Jarecki wearing a ring crafted from his great-great-grandmother's ring. Passing down a time-honored piece of jewelry adds another layer of sentimentality that can't be bought in a store.

Reception Redux

The "Marie Antoinette" Wedding: We bet that Sofia Coppola had no idea that her fashionable blockbuster would inspire a whole new class of bourgeoisie brides! Lush floral centerpieces, rich gilded colors, big gowns, brocade, and decadent receptions are fit for royalty, complete with hand-painted invitations, champagne tasting bars, seven courses, and extravagant dessert displays!

'80's Cover Bands: Oh L'Amour! Couples are going beyond the classic wedding band and hiring '80s cover bands to play their favorite tunes from Men at Work, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Other genre bands for hire: classic rock, college frat-house bands, swing orchestras, and Latin ensembles-along with hired dancers to get the party moving.

Green Weddings: Couples continue to be earth-conscious in 2008: from email invites for weddings and festivities to serving up locally grown, free-range fare and donning bio-friendly wedding gowns made of 100 percent silk and cottons. They're also honeymooning at eco-resorts and gathering friends for charitable showers at soup kitchens and local park events.

Going Hi-Tech

The Social Network Wedding: From viral proposal videos posted on YouTube to enhanced wedding web pages and Facebook-friend polling on first dance songs and menu options, weddings have become public planning ventures. Look for couples to log online, use blogs as "communication central," and, with new mobile technology, post on-the-road photos to get immediate feedback on decisions from their bridesmaids, friends, and family.

The Real World: Your Wedding: Couples will get celebrity exposure with major video footage of their wedding days, from "day in the life of" documentary-style videos to "same day edits" where ceremony photos and footage are highlighted at the reception. Guests become paparazzi with disposable video cameras on the tables (check out The Knot Shop).

Travel

Daring Destination Weddings: The destination wedding trend will continue to evolve as new spots emerge. From taking guests on African safaris to skiing the slopes of Sundance, fly-fishing in Big Sky, Montana, and jetting off to Barcelona and Scottish castles!

Honeymoons on Steroids: Twice as long, twice as far, twice as memorable: Couples are going the distance for their deluxe vacations. Some of the types of honeymoon destinations The Knot listed for 200 include the Italian Coast, cruising the Nile, the Panama, East Asian excursion and private villa.

Whether inspired by tenderhearted sentiment, the desire to record history in the making or something more narcissistic, some marriage-minded men are remaking one of humanity's most private moments into one that can be instantly shared with family, friends and even, thanks to the Internet, virtual strangers. They are conspiring with photographers who, with all the stealth of covert operatives, lurk in crowds, behind bushes and in the darkened recesses of restaurants to capture the delighted, unposed reaction of the fiancée-in-the-making.

"The trend is on the rise to have all the moments documented in your life," said Anna Post, the author of Emily Post's Wedding Parties, to be published next month by Collins. "You see it on MySpace and Facebook, where people have posted 200 photographs of themselves, and they're not even photographs of profound moments." Ms. Post finds the idea of photographically preserving a marriage proposal "wonderfully romantic, personally," she said. She warned, however, that it is not for everyone. The idea dovetails with the current trend toward photojournalistic realism in wedding photography. In recent years the intimacies of a wedding day - a glimpse of the bride as she dons her underpinnings, the stolen mash session between the newlyweds when the guests aren't looking - have become increasingly fair game.

"Initially wedding photojournalism was an aesthetic choice by photographers like me because it emphasized the story of the wedding," said Terry deRoy Gruber, a New York photographer who shot the wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, among others. "But as time has gone on, with the proliferation of the paparazzi, reality television and online autobiography all kind of cooked together, people almost feel it's really the only way to document something. Proposal photographs represent the absolute beginning of the marriage story, and for some groom who is influenced by these other forces, this is sort of an obligatory scene to record." Over the last four years, he and his team of photographers, who charge $500 and up for these sessions, have clandestinely snapped proposals on the Lincoln Center Plaza after the opera; masqueraded as tourists in public places; and hidden in the wings of a cavernous and empty (save two) restaurant rented for the occasion by a prospective bridegroom, cameras concealed behind black cloth, the sounds of the shutters obscured by the clatter of dishes.

Still, the idea of being secretly photographed at a traditionally private moment can be unnerving to some women. "I thought it was a little stalkerish to know that this person was following you to get these great pictures," said Briana King, of the secret photo session in December 2004 that Christopher Joralemon, now her husband, arranged with Gruber Photographers. A crew armed with telephoto lenses and dressed like tourists trailed the couple, who were on a stroll through Central Park - ostensibly to attend a holiday brunch - where they'd met at a dog run seven months earlier. "But the end product was good," Ms. King said. "It was a little weird but definitely worth it."

Ms. Longoria, who with her stylist Robert Verdi, has had a longstanding love affair with Piaget, also commissioned a one-of-a-kind timepiece as a wedding gift for her MVP husband. "An extraordinary player deserves a truly extraordinary watch," says Metzger. "This is the type of request we love at Piaget because it's what we do best." Certain to become the most sought-after watch by professional athletes around the world, the Piaget 'Number 9' is a specially customized version of the classic Piaget Polo watch. It features a 43mm 18K white gold case and a makes a bold, handsome statement with its slate grey 18K gold and titanium bezel and matching slate grey dial. The 50 diamonds that form Mr. Parker's winning number 9 make it all his own.

Women attending the couple's wedding, including Victoria Beckham, have been told they will be expected to wear a pink traditional sari for part of the celebrations. At other times, their outfits should range from " glamorous casual" to "glamorous and fabulous".

Male guests, including David Beckham and Sir Elton John, will have to wear turbans and long tunics known as kurtas in orange. The instructions are contained in a detailed "orientation pack" sent out with the invitations for the nuptials, which will take place in March in both Gloucestershire and India. Hurley and Nayar also advise guests on the practical necessities for their visit to India such as mosquito repellent and a travel iron.

The 41-year-old actress and model and the textiles heir stipulate detailed dress codes for the Indian ceremony, which will take place after the English nuptials at Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds on 3 March. They have written to friends to say they are opening their own private wedding "shop" at the Hilton Towers Hotel in Mumbai, which will be stocked with saris, turbans, kurtas and bindis, traditional markings worn on the forehead by women.

Guests will be able to buy appropriate attire for the six-day celebrations taking place in Mumbai and the desert in Rajasthan. The couple's letter says: "Please don't panic ... all Indian clothes can be bought when you arrive in India, where they will be much nicer." Hurley's friends say she has been busy looking for saris to buy to stock the shop, where tailors will be on hand to alter garments. The bride herself will reportedly be wearing a £4,000 pink sari. The Hindu celebrations will begin with two nights of parties in Mumbai. The dress code for the first night is "glamorous casual" and for the second it is "very glamorous/black tie". There will be more parties in Rajasthan, including a Mendhi ceremony, when Hurley and her female friends will have their hands and feet painted with henna.

Yesterday it emerged that the couple had already married in secret in America. Cruise's agent Arnold Robinson said they had "officialised" the marriage in Los Angeles before travelling to Italy for the three-day Scientology wedding, said to have cost £5million. For some, the announcement cast a shadow on the event at Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, near Rome. It was criticised for being a stunt to raise awareness of the Scientology religion.

Local priest Father Nicola Fiorentini said: 'It wasn't a wedding at all. It was just for publicity. I can't believe such an event was allowed to take place at all.' The Church of Scientology's influence was explicit throughout the event. Cruise's best man was the church's leader David Miscavige. A Scientology adviser was thought to have been at each table at the wedding banquet.

Miss Holmes, who wore an off-the-shoulder Giorgio Armani ivory gown with a silk Valenciennes lace train and Swarovski embroidered crystals, walked down the aisle with her father Martin. Cruise, wearing a navy, single-breasted Armani tuxedo, and Miss Holmes then exchanged bizarre Scientology vows and swopped rings designed by Italian silversmith David Orgel. The 45-minute service ended with red and white rose petals - the colours of Scientology - falling from nets held in the hall ceiling. As the flowers fell, the couple enjoyed a rather excruciating three-minute kiss - stopping only after embarrassed guests begged them to. Then a 15-minute, £100,000 firework display was set off in the grounds of the castle.

Guests, who included Jennifer Lopez, Jim Carrey, Will Smith, Brooke Shields and Victoria Beckham, were then led indoors for a three-course wedding breakfast and all-night dancing. After a champagne toast, waiters served a parma ham, buffalo mozzarella and vine tomato platter, then an Italian beef dish. Guests left with £5,000 Armani goodie bags. The next morning the couple flew to the Maldives for their honeymoon.

Katie Holmes wore a fitted, off-the-shoulder ivory silk bridal gown with a train by popular Hollywood designer Giorgio Armani when she married Tom Cruise on Saturday in a medieval castle near Rome. The dress was adorned in Valenciennes lace and Swarovski beaded crystal embroidery, featuring a delicate crinoline frill at the shoulders and a silk soleil border around the hem, the couple's publicists said in a statement. She wore an ivory tulle floor length veil and ivory silk shoes.

The bride carried a bouquet of flowers made by Armani, including calla lilies wrapped in leaves of galax and steelgrass. For the wedding reception, Holmes changed into an asymmetric champagne Giorgio Armani Prive evening dress of silk organza decorated in Swarovski crystal beads. The 72-year-old designer also dressed the groom, the wedding party and immediate family.

Cruise wore a single-breasted navy blue Armani handmade tuxedo, a matching four-button vest and an ivory silk French collar shirt made of the same fabric as the bride's gown.

The actress chose the Diva vase while shopping for a gift at Los Angeles' Neiman Marcus last week, according to In Touch magazine. A store insider claims Kidman provided her own sealed card and asked for it to be sent with her gift to Cruise's home. Kidman's ex will wed his fiancee, Katie Holmes, in Italy next month.

The exhibition will be on view at the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) in Cleveland from Feb. 23 through June 10. Tickets are now on sale. The three-year, five-city tour was originally set to conclude at the Dayton Art Institute earlier this year, but the exhibition's popularity will bring it back to the Midwest for an encore presentation.

"The response in the States has been overwhelming, and Americans had so much affection for Diana, we wanted the exhibition to return there for the 10- year anniversary of the tragedy that took her away from us too soon," said Princess Diana's brother, Charles, the Ninth Earl Spencer, who is working closely with exhibition organizers, AEI.

Visitors will get a rare inside look at Princess Diana's life through nearly 150 objects, including her 1981 Royal Wedding gown, 28 designer dresses and gowns, family heirlooms, personal mementos, paintings, and rare home movies and photos. Objects from the exhibition are on loan from the Althorp Estate, the Spencer Family's 500-year-old ancestral home.

"We are delighted to be the host organization for this incredible exhibition, and help make it available to people in Northeast Ohio," said WRHS CEO Patrick Reymann. "This remarkable woman touched millions of lives all over the world and this exhibition truly celebrates her contributions and her legacy as well as her personal and family history. The preservation of such stories for families of all backgrounds is what the historical society is all about."

Added AEI president and Cleveland native John Norman: "In organizing this exhibition with Charles Spencer, I was fascinated to learn that Diana was just an ordinary person that ended up leading this extraordinary life. She could have chosen to lead a life of privilege but she instead chose to use her celebrity to bring awareness to the causes she cared about deeply."

This 10,000 square-foot exhibition tells the story of Diana through nine galleries: Tiara; The Spencer Women; Childhood; Engagement; Royal Wedding; Charity; Tribute; Style; and Condolence. The centerpiece is the glorious Royal Wedding gallery, featuring Diana's resplendent gown from her 1981 marriage to Prince Charles, along with her diamond tiara, veil, 25-foot-long train, shoes, parasol and bridesmaid's dress.

Admission to Diana, A Celebration will be $20 for adults, $17 for seniors, $10 for children (6-12), and $15 for WRHS members. This is a separate admission from the regular exhibits at the Western Reserve Historical Society. Special rates for groups, senior groups and school groups are also available. Tickets will be available from Ticketmaster, but are currently available by calling 216-721-5722 ext. 286. For group ticket information, call 216-721- 5722 ext. 320.

For her nuptials to Keith Urban, she chose an ivory, one-shouldered, puff-sleeved gown by leading French designer Nicolas Ghesquiere, the creative director of Paris fashion house Balenciaga.

In a nod to tradition she wore a delicate silk tulle veil, as well as pearl drop earrings, her hair out in soft, romantic curls and she carried a posy of simple white roses. Her shoes were by another top French fashion name, Christian Louboutin.

But not only, as per speculation, did Kidman wear Balenciaga, so did all in the bride's party — her sister Antonia, daughter Isabella and niece Lucia. They wore a series of ruffled and embroidered silk organza dresses, some with Victorian-look, ruffled lace collars, apparently variations of Ghesquiere's spring/summer ready-to-wear 2006 collection shown in Paris last October.

Although not an official French haute-couture maison, Balenciaga would have custom-made the four dresses specifically for Kidman, with an accompanying price tag of at least $A100,000.

Wedding bells chimed at 6.25pm signalling the glamour couple had been married at a chapel on St Patrick's Estate. The estate was also host to a black-tie reception, held under a white marquee. Jazz music played as guests were served hors d'oeuvres and champagne. At 7.10pm a huge cheer went up from the crowd after Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were introduced to the guests as husband and wife. The reception, which was catered for by John Wilson caterers, is believed to have had a Moulin Rouge-style theme.

Guests were served tuna as part of entree, a choice of Tasmanian atlantic salmon or lamb for main with baby carrots and a celeriac and potato mash on the side. And the dessert was a raspberry and mascarpone creation. Decorative flowers included freesias, gardenias, gumnuts, green goddess lilies, hellebores and orchids, and were later donated to the Sydney Children's Hospital.

In lieu of presents, Urban and Kidman asked that charitable donations be made. Longtime family friend and Jesuit priest Father Paul Coleman conducted the wedding ceremony. He said this week he had a good feeling about their chances. "You've got to rely on their maturity and knowledge of each other and I'm impressed." Asked what advice he would give the couple, Father Coleman said: "Make time for each other, do romantic things together and never part without kissing."

What newlyweds don't get excited by the sight of the trademark blue Tiffany's box? They will also be excited by these two seven-ounce, hand-blown Swedish crystal champagne flutes. These are the perfect gift for when the newlyweds celebrate their first anniversary.