Crazy (wedding) Train!

As I mentioned before I love the color red and it was the color my bridesmaids wore. I was recently doing some searching around Flickr for other weddings that incorporated scarlet and crimson. Instead what I found was this story of a 999-meter-long scarlet wedding dress displayed in a shopping mall in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province. The hand-knitted dress features 2,008 pieces of jade, 29 golden phoenixes and 880 peonies that took dressmakers three months to finish. Not sure why one would want a dress this long, but WOW. That is some dress!

It got me thinking about gowns and trains. From sweeping trains, to chapel and cathedral lengths, there are so many choices! Going into my wedding I wasn't sure if I wanted a train or not. Once I started trying gowns on I knew a train was a must for me. That trail of beautiful fabric just made me feel like a bride. And besides, when would I have another train-appropriate occasion, right? Still I had no idea what length to choose. When considering a train, think about the dress and veil styles you like, how you want to incorporate your dress into pictures, and bustle style (Ballroom? American? French?). Moms, planners, seamstresses, shop owners, sisters and friends will all be glad to give you their opinions as well. You'll know which ones to take to heart and which to take with a grain of salt.

I ended up with a semi-cathedral length train and loved it. I always thought a train made for dramatic ceremony pictures and fashion-forward formal portrait shots, and they do. But the photojournalistic style pics of my mother and sisters giggling and fussing over my bustle as they did it up, are the real favorites of mine. A true bonding moment captured forever on film. Thank goodness we didn't have to bustle up 999 meters. I would have been stuck in the bridal suite bathroom and missed most of my reception!