I love the idea of staging a fashion-forward bridal portrait shoot before or after your wedding day. When else will you be able to act like a supermodel and get away with it (unless you’re Tyra, of course!)? I particularly love this photo from Atlanta-based Jessica Purvis Photography.

In the new film He’s Just Not That Into You, Jennifer Aniston’s character is dating a guy played by Ben Affleck who is not ready to settle down and get married. I’m not gonna give away the ending, but it got us wondering: How long were you dating your fiance before he popped the question?

January is officially over so if you have fallen off the lose-some-weight-in-the-New-Year band wagon, these new Weight Watchers chocolate candies by Whitman’s are bound to give you the motivation you need to hop right back on.

Still deciding what to do on Valentine’s Day? New York brides can delight all of their senses with this Perfume Studio Experience at Per Se.

My darling fiance and I are going to be building our wedding from the ground up, and as a fellow obsessive planner, I'm enthralled to inject our personalities into every aspect of the ceremony. The only problem is this: I can't get him to offer much input, as his response tends to be "It's your day, and as long as we're married at the end, you can do whatever you want." That's sweet, I guess, but it's not MY day, it's OUR DAY! How can I get him involved in the planning without making him feel forced or out of his element? -Jess

This is an awesome opportunity for the two of you to sit down and reconstruct the whole "This is the bride's special daaaaaay, and the groom is just an accessory" bullshit. Your marriage is about the two of you, and your wedding should be about the two of you, too. Many men are raised to believe that weddings simply are a woman's place — that they owe it to their fiances and everyone else to just sit quietly and nod. That they have no right to have opinions.

That's bullshit: you're setting up dynamics for your marriage with your wedding, and each partner needs to ask themselves "Do I want quietly nodding to be the dynamic of this relationship?"

Then again, you can't make your fiance care about certain aspects of the wedding that may not interest him…
This is actually something I cover in my book. I think the key is this: rather than dividing responsibilities laterally (ie, "We both make all decisions … why doesn't he care about all of them?"), divide them vertically (ie, "We each make the decisions about the things we care about").

Check in with your fiance: what aspects of the wedding matter to him? The music? Puppets? Does he really want to include a sword in the ceremony? Have him pick out the corners of the wedding that he has opinions on — and be ready to be surprised when all of a sudden you learn he has strong opinions about unexpected things.

Then, rather than roping him into parts that don't interest him ("Come on: which flowers do you like better? The peonies or the hydrangeas? Can't you tell the difference?! FUCKING HELL WHICH ONES DO YOU LIKE BETTER!?") just let him be completely in charge of the things that matter to him. He wants to integrate your dog in the ceremony? Awesome! He wants to hand-make the chuppah from rebar? Awesome!

I interviewed several grooms for the book who were happy to manage their corners of the wedding, especially since it meant they could skip discussions about the stuff they simply didn't care about.

A signature cocktail is a simple but effective way to carry out your wedding style. Matching the drink’s color to your overall palette is a good place to start.

The offbeat bride: Jackie, Museum Site Manager

Her offbeat partner: Steve, Audio Engineer

Location & date of wedding: Smathers Beach in Key West, Florida on May 20th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: Our first vacation as a couple was Key West, FL. We made a promise at the end of our stay that we would return and get married on the beach.

But we didn't want to spend a lot of cash on sharing a few words and signing some papers. We wanted a quick getaway.

We booked a local to perform the wedding and had a veteran take some shots of the ceremony for our families we left behind. Once the uncomfortable "I-Do's" were over, I hopped on the back of our scooter and headed to Duval Street in my $99 dollar David's Bridal dress to score as much free booze and cigars as I could get.

We later toured Key West in an old Chevelle with our photographer Tom Flip in tow. He took pictures of us at the graveyard, Blue Heaven (an old brothel now converted into the locals favorite food joint) and in a church parking lot.

Our getaway wedding was everything we wanted. Basically, we had the honeymoon first. We didn't feel married until we flew home and threw our party. We rented a lake house in New Hampshire and had a 3-day BBQ for our families to meet. I wore sweats when I cut our cake!

Our biggest challenge: We paid for the wedding ourselves, but budget was the not the biggest challenge. Planning a destination wedding has its perks, but the hardest part is not being there. We were fortunate to have such a talented photographer that really saw our vision. The trash the dress photos were a very important part of our wedding. I choose to pack my dress in a hard-shell suitcase which (OF COURSE) didn't arrive to our hotel until 30 hours later.

My favorite moment: When we pulled the Chevelle into a church parking lot. We took pictures under the street lights. It was about 11pm at night. I understood this was the last that I'd wear this silly dress, and it made me kind of sad. At the same moment, the Priest walked out back to greet us and blessed our union.

My offbeat advice: Pack a sundress like I did just in case the airline loses your luggage! Also, invest in the right photographer. I called photographers for quotes and I would explain that it was a private ceremony no guests and it was as if they weren't even listening. "Ok, so you'll need a package to snap pictures of your family and his"… I NEVER REALIZED before but wedding photos are so very, very important. You should make them something you want to see and share again and again.

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn: Click the photo below for some killer shots of Jackie & Steve's destination wedding spectacular!