Maybe when you think of hats and bridesmaids — if you think of them at all — picture this 1970s-floppy-boho style.

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But did you think they could be as cute as this?

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Or as these ladies?

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Toooo gorgeous.

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Look at this stunner.

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Could they be any lovelier?

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Oh, and one more thing …

The guys look pretty good too.

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Credits: Chocolate pear, cream rose bouquet, pear and marzipan tartlet. Champagne bridesmaids, pick-a-pear favors, gorgeous green shoes. Pear wedding cake, chocolate-dipped figs, pear centerpiece on gold chargers. Bright fall bridesmaids, DIY pear favor, chocolate and ivory tablescape.

But that hasn’t happened yet. Still, I think that there are probably a few Native American languages that have a special word for this time of year, one that shows we’ve turned a corner, and summer proper’s no longer here … at least for some of us.

Credits: Bridesmaid, felted wool acorns, acorn vases, gift box and acorns. Mums cake, bride and oak tree, marzipan acorns, clay pinecones and place card leaf. Bridesmaids, vintage ribbons.

Green acorns are a delightful, fresh way to call out the season. Combine this motif with other shapes you’ve popped out in white, architectural form … white sugar paste mums, white porcelain acorns … and you’ve got something that evokes the early fall, in a slightly unconventional and very clean way. But it still feels really natural. How else would you work out this theme?

But the Tote Bag Sale? That’s something else entirely. This sale — which starts today and ends in less than a week on Saturday, August 28th — is one of the biggest events of the year at AmericanBridal, and that’s because the totes fly out the door for crazy low prices, which often even includes the personalization (hey, personalization usually adds up a lot!). Not to mention, there’s a whole passel o’ bridesmaids gifts that got dropped in this tote sale, so the selection is fab.

But you know what? Time is of the essence here, because the bags SELL OUT. Fast. This is one of those cases where the early bride truly gets the worm, the worm in this case being not something squishy, but a selection of uber-hot, personalized bags at prices like 44% or 48% off. Yummy! Check these totes out now and enjoy crossing that majorish task of “what to get the ladies” off your list.  A job well done.

The Chanel tattoos are setting hearts afire. It wasn’t just them — Rodarte and Jean Paul Gautier also sent their models down the aisle in ephemeral ink for SS2010 — but Chanel’s versions caused the most heart-thumping cases of gotta-have-it.

Hand-drawn bits of artistry by famous makeup artist Peter Philips gave fashion’s evergreen anglomania a run for its money, spawning what the brand rather proudly called “decalomania.”

If you’ve got a beating heart, you’re probably dying for these too. But just in case you haven’t swiped your visa at Chanel.com yet, or can’t wait for these items to hit the store in early March, I’ve got some waiting for you right here.

Now, transfer tattoos don’t last forever, so even if you get past the $75 sticker shock, you might not get around to wearing them all. That’s why I’m breaking up these five sheets of gorgeous designs. Five winners, one sheet each. Which equals odds you’ve gotta love, right?

Oh, but there’s more. I’m a pretty big Chanel fangirl myself. So, to add some vitamin C, one of those five winners is going to get extra-drenched in fabulosity. For that special lady (because we’re all ladies in the Chanelniverse), I’ll be throwing in a copy of the eminently entertaining Gospel According to Chanel, a fresh new tube of Chanel’s new Coco Rouge in gorgeous shade Gabrielle, and two sweet little sampler tubes of Chanel #5 and Allure Homme. Squee time, ladies!

Ready to enter? Just leave a comment below, giving me your top three favorite sheets in order of preference. They’re all numbered above, to make it easy-peasy for you. I’ll do my best to accommodate the winners’ preferences; conflicts will be resolved by random selection. But if you have no preference and love them all, just tell me your favorite flower.

For extra entries — and you know you need them — read the rules and details below.

I bought a book off Amazon for quite a lot of money, one probably not printed much more than 200 times, authored by some woman  who apparently spent her life traveling nearby states and collecting obscure folk patterns. It was a wondrous book, full of beauty. Then I moved one state north, sold the book, and promptly shed the whole business.

Credits: Partridge print, folk chicken on barn wall, cake topper. Hand-painted cake, invitation, save-the-date. Fox and rabbit cards, tote bags.  Double heart lovebirds cake topper, detail of Dutch art calendar, “Year of the Ox” print. Polish paper chandelier, folk art cake, save-the-date. Small Union Pair, Lovebirds tissue banners, Polish paper collage bride and groom.

Fortunately, my fickle flirtation doesn’t reflect the state of folk art in weddings. In fact, it’s growing only stronger, as more  talented stationers become available and brides explore greater subtleties within broad genres like “rustic.”

And lucky for us, too. Folk art is incredibly charming, personal and bold. It seems to defy the kind of  derivation and cookie-cutter effects you see in other styles, and it’s just in time for today’s paper craze in weddings. From scherenschnitte (a German type of traditional cut-paper design) to wycinanki (the Polish version), folk art likes to flow in three dimensions and wild primary colors.

So above, what grabs you the most? Personally, I’m hard-pressed to choose, I truly love it all.

The mannequins were dressed head-to-toe in a dramatic spectrum of grays, from dark charcoal blouses to pale-gray tights. Against this monochromatic background was a pop of warm, nude-colored sandals. Amazing, how two colors — which if you break it down to basics, are really desaturated versions of pink on blue — can be so heart-stoppingly sophisticated and charming.

This palette gets its anchor and drama from the darkness of charcoal gray. That’s the hue that shows off the rosiness of the nude tone, a color to warm us up no matter where the wind chill registers.

Credits: Bouquet, shoes, shawl, cake. Dress, hairband, invitation. Bride, save-the-date, brooch. Urban couple, flower girl, shoes, couple in the park.

If so, you were right. Because around the time 2009 rolled over into the new decade, Etsy shoppers found themselves growing remarkably more confident, and demanding more from designers they found there.

In a general way, Google Insights backs this phenomenon up. The phrase “Etsy weddings,” which includes more specific variations such as “Etsy wedding rings,” has trended up dramatically. Maybe  not quite with equal ferocity to “DIY weddings”, which rocketed up as the economy sputtered, but they’ve been waltzing to the same tune. From the chart, you see an unusual dip over the 2009 holiday season, but an even more impressive climb as 2010 begins.

Etsy Brides Are Early Adopters

This chart’s a dead giveaway to where Etsy brides lie in the buying cycle. Patterns like this, primarily coastal, are a clear sign that shoppers have just started to get their feet wet, and the market is poised to grow a great deal.

If, in contrast, the interior was all darker blue, it would indicate saturation and suggest that the Etsy wedding market was reaching maturity.

Breaking it Down

So, what specifically are brides seeking for on Etsy? Here, Google Insight delivers again. As shown below, brides  most often search for invitations, wedding gowns, and jewelry. (We can safely attribute the phrase “etsy blog” to the popular destinations Etsy Wedding Team and Etsy wedding).

Now we know at a basic level what  brides are hoping to find at Etsy. Clearly, there are preferred items, like invitations, gowns and jewelry, and things they might be typing in less often, such as “table flowers” or “candelabra.”

Getting More Detail

The  number of searches on Etsy weddings is actually fairly minimal compared to mega-searches like “Megan Fox” or “American Idol,” which leads to limited granularity. That means, it’s not easy to find what more specific key phrases brides are typing in.

Fortunately, that’s where the Google Search-Based Keyword Tool comes to our rescue. There, we discover that — putting aside niches like “medieval gowns” for the time being (though they’re very popular on Etsy!) — brides specifically on Etsy’s site are combing listings for things like:

• wedding gowns in materials like cotton (720 searches last month)
• and hemp (80 searches),
• and in styles and eras like 1950s (461),
• 1960s (115)
• and mod (66).

In invitations, they hope to find:

• Save-the-dates and Save-the-date magnets (1000 and 1500 searches, respectively),
• Plantable wedding invitations (540),
• Printable wedding invitations (540), and
• Photo invitations (385).

“Unique” also ranks very high in Etsy invitation searches.

Finally, for jewelry, Google reveals a bridal preference for:

• Design-your-own engagement rings (12,000) and wedding rings (440),
• Diamond engagement rings (280) and wedding bands (337),
• and styles and materials like “braided” ( 155), “pave diamond” (125), and “black titanium” (125).

Why Etsy?

It’s actually a little surprising to see the enthusiasm for buying involved and high-ticket items such as wedding gowns from a source as decentralized as Etsy. Yet, the chart below shows that interest in gowns and invitations have clearly shot up in 2010.

Why are brides so willing to make that leap, and buy an item that typically eats up 5-10% of their total budget from a designer whose reputation is far less established than someone like Carolina Herrera or Jenny Packham? We asked some of Etsy’s top sellers in wedding gowns for their thoughts.

Brides go to Etsy because “they get to work directly with a designer,” said Monique of ouma. “Some of my customers come to me with a vision that’s inspired by one of my listings, and then they get to customize the details and colors.

“I think they’re looking for something unique, rare, carefully crafted, not mass-produced … and they like the thought of supporting a small business.”

Designer Holly Stalder agreed, saying “Brides shopping on Etsy are  intrigued by the idea of something made just for them.”

And as for the mad rush to Etsy invitations?

“Brides are looking for something new and fresh, but trying to save money at the same time,” said Teresa at Appleberry Ink. “I think the brides get more attention from us individual artists as opposed to working with a sales rep at the larger retail places.

“I also love color and brides seem to be leaning more toward wanting colorful things too. For too long it’s been ivory or white paper with raised lettering. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not very exciting. There will always be those who go the ultra-traditional route … it’s just not for everyone.”

Beyond the Search Terms

We’ve examined this trend from the search side, but now let’s take a look at what brides are actually buying, talking about and “hearting” on Etsy itself, using Wedsy, an independent service that shows Etsy bridal items with the most attention and buzz.

Looking at some of the top wedding gowns on Etsy, we see these are ambitious dresses, with both pricing and style spanning a wide range. All are custom, and high-end materials dominate, such as silk chiffon, crepe and French lace.

On one  hand you have the stylistic minimalism and affordable price point of a J. Crew gown, though with perhaps more romantic fabrics (”Calla Lily”), and then in contrast, a $5,000 three-piece fantasy with a tulle overskirt (”Love in the Mist”) that can be embellished with crystals for another $1000, gorgeously photographed by Stephanie Williams.

Styles range even further with Stephanie Madesh’s dramatic, even slinky, body-con design.

In invitations, the botanical-eco theme is immediately apparent, with many of the top sellers featuring recyled paper and nature-centric designs. An indie vibe is also upheld with ethnic references, like mendhi and Oriental patterns.

Wrapping Up

As a final cheat sheet, if you’re  an Etsy seller who wants a point of reference for the market, remember to:

• Check Google Trends for your meta-category (wedding invitations, wedding rings).
• Check Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool for deeper searches within your category.
• Check Wedsy to see what’s getting the most attention.

In short? Etsy wedding sellers have a lot to look forward to. In 2010, brides are poised to pull the trigger on more elaborate, custom and high-priced items with greater confidence. Their goal? The ideal indie-couture experience … at a value-conscious price.

Parrot tulips are like a cross between prom girls and circus performers. They’ve got crazy, flamboyant colors with rich marbled streaks, and their petal edges range from flapper fringe to double-ruffle ribbon. Thus, the endless temptation to pair them with feathers and ruffles, and most of all, spring.

Sometimes I find more conventional tulips a bit too architectural-looking by themselves, especially as “cottage flowers.” But these odd beauties belong to a whole different world. So in their honor, here’s a springtime board bursting with parrots, peaches and sunshine.

Credits: Cake with sugar parrot tulips, beautiful bride in ruffled shrug, raspberry shoes, basket of peaches. Double-ruffle satin ribbon, cottage-style plate, mint green cake with floral cascade, books & flowers centerpiece, basket of hair ornaments. Lovely engaged couple, bespoke skirt, outdoor tablescape, bouquets.

What are we talking about? One of Apryl Mott’s beautiful little wire tree toppers, that is. Apryl has generously put up a special little topper, with its colors and design selected specifically for this contest — so it will coordinate beautifully with any wedding, from winter to summer.

Let’s take a close look at this keepsake. It sells for $28, which is kind of ridiculously little and would never happen if not for Etsy. You’ve got white and clear floral beads fluttering in beautiful twisted wire branches, all of it set on a light-reflecting patterned mirror. Squee! This topper is ideal for a small-to-medium sized wedding cake, such as one with a 5″ top tier … or perfect for a spectacular bridal shower cake. It measures about 5 inches tall by 5 inches wide, with a 3 x 3 inch mirror base.

So how do you enter? Sashay over to Apryl’s shop, and pick out your favorite item. You might drool over her elaborate Large Wire Tree Toppers, crafted with gemstones and Swarovski crystals, for example. Or those strangely affordable tree favors.

Then there’s the birthstone trees, bristling with beautiful amethyst and peridot “leaves.” Or, you might like the maple leaf and snowflake gift tags, made from metallic cardstock and perfect for Wish Trees.

Once you’ve browsed around, come back here, and tell us what you liked best in Apryl’s shop. Want more than one entry? Check out the contest details below.

Good luck everyone!

Congrats to Kathryn who posted comment #43 and won the tree topper! And thank you to everyone else who entered and took the time to browse Apryl’s lovely shop!