It’s our favorite time of year here at The Knot…Bridal Fashion Week! This year, we’re having you join us in all the action as we live blog three days straight of the best in bridal fashion, dresses, accessories, beauty and more. From live-streaming fashion shows and insider photos of our favorite new trends to early access to see every dress that’s walking the runway this season, be sure to tune in as we share it all with you, right here, as it happens.

Lots of pretty photos below but first, make sure you check out all the live runway shows on our site!

> Amsale
> Angel Sanchez
> Ann Bowen Spring/Summer 2014
> Anne Barge Spring 2014
> Aria Fall 2013
> Austin Scarlett Spring 2014
> Carolina Herrera Spring 2014
> Christos
> Ines Di Santo
> Jasmine Collection
> Jasmine Couture 
> Jenny Lee Simply White
> Judd Waddell
> Justin Alexander
> Kelly Faetanini Fall 2013
> Kenneth Pool
> Legends by Romona Keveza Spring 2014
> Maggie Sottero
> Marchesa Spring 2014
> Monique Lhuillier
> Oscar De La Renta Spring 2014
> Peter Langner
> Pronovias Fall 2013
> Rivini Spring 2014
> Reem Acra
> Robert Bullock
> Romona Keveza Couture
> Rosa Clara
> Temperley Bridal
> Simone Carvalli
> Steven Birnbaum
> Theia
> Vera Wang Spring 2014
> Victor Haper
> Yumi Katsura

Tuesday, April 23

12:58pm - We’ve been busy hitting up some awesome appointments today, check out the beautiful bridal fashion below!

First up, these stunning designs from BHLDN. Love the bridal shoes!

Then, we checked out the latest gorgeous designs from Elizabeth Fillmore - love that really unique neckline, the metallic accents and cute 3D effects.

Finally, check out these amazing backs from Cocoe Voci – love the sheer detailing!

Monday, April 22

10:39am - It’s been a busy morning! Check out this gorgeous ball gown with a back to die for from Judd Waddell.

Sunday, April 21

5:38pm - Ok Knotties, that’s all for today, hope you loved it as must as we did! See you tomorrow at Judd Waddell at 9am!

5:31pm - Loving the stunning style of Rosa Clara! Check it out…love.

4:56pm - More amazing bridal goodness at COUTURE!

First, cute and flirty bridesmaids dresses from Lauren Gabrielson that your girls will absolutely wear again – want to buy one for myself just for fun!

Next, brand new designer Madeleine Fig! This old-world style is so fresh and different, we can’t get enough. Did I mention the only launched in January??

Also, this is awesome – Trudy’s Closet. The pictures may look funny, but this is a genius product. Just put it over your dress and go anywhere, sit wherever and do anything, it’ll be protected!

4:22pm - Touring the floor at COUTURE! Check out the gorgeous designs by Justin Alexander (plus the designer himself with Jennie!)

3:07pm - Jenny Lee’s new collection is inspired by lingerie! Everything is light, airy and floaty, plus bridal booties!

3:00pm - Just arrived at Jenny Lee! Updates to come.

2:52pm - Rivini was gorgeous! Layered tulle, metallic lace and daring details (like this sheer top!)

2:09pm - Rivini’s about to start! We’re live-streaming it from our fashion channel, check it out!

1:38pm - Love Anne Barge! Classic and timeless with stunning details.

1:12pm – Anne Barge is starting! Check it out live-streaming.

11:46am – Check out these beautiful lace gowns from Legends by Romona Keveza!

10:44am – Carolina Herrera is always classic and beautiful! Check out these stunning dresses – clean lines and elegant touches.

9:43am – Gorgeous backs and sparkly ball gowns at Ines di Santo!

9:00am – If you weren’t able to watch yesterday (or even if you were and want to re-live all the pretty dresses), we have all our new galleries up!

Jasmine Collection , Maggie Sottero , Christos , Temperley London , Jasmine Couture , Kenneth Pool

8:49am – Welcome to Day 3 of Bridal Fashion Week! Yesterday, we saw beautiful designs from Maggie Sottero, Christos, Kenneth Pool, Reem Acra, Amsale and Monique Lhuillier. We’ll be coming to you today with some more of our favorites. First up – Ines di Santo! Be sure to watch this one live, it starts at 9am. You can watch here.

Saturday, April 20

5:42pm – Check out these super cute short dresses, beautiful beading and lace and awesome jackets/capes (love!) from Monique Lhuillier.

5:34pm – Monique is always so trendy, refreshing and unbelievably beautiful! Photos coming soon, but in the meantime, awesome jackets, gorgeous silhouettes, beading, lace, the whole shebang.

4:56pm – On the way to Monique Lhuillier, can’t wait! Check out Jennie, here with Anya and Amsale!

4:54pm – Amsale was beautiful! Clean lines, gorgeous silhouettes and wearable style.

4:14pm - Just got to Amsale, can’t wait to see! We’re live-streaming this one too, so don’t forget to tune in to our homepage to check it out.

3:45pm – Check out these amazing veils! Love the 3-d details and parasol tulle!

3:40pm – Reem Acra is always gorgeous! Love this year’s airy vibe with beautiful beading. Check it out!

3:25pm – We’re so excited to have a special guest with us at the shows today! Anya Ayouyng Chee, winner of Project Runway, will be with us for the rest of the shows. Here she is with all the models at Maggie Sottero earlier and waiting for Reem Acra to start with Jennie.

3:00pm - Reem Acra’s about to start, can’t wait! Be sure to tune in, we’re live-streaming this one on the homepage.

2:00pm – Taking a short break and touring the booths at COUTURE! We’ll back at 3pm for Reem Acra.

1:56pm – Look who we ran into at Kenneth Pool! Our favorite Randy Fenoli! Here he is with Jennie and Heather.

1:53pm – Kenneth Pool was beading beautiful! From all-over beading to beaded corsets and more – we can’t get enough.

12:47pm – Christos was purely gorgeous! Lace details, corsets and floaty, airy romantic vibe…love! Check out the beautiful photos below and don’t forget to tune in at 1pm on our homepage to catch the next one – Kenneth Pool.

12:43pm – While you’re patiently waiting for the next live-streaming show, Kenneth Pool, check out our brand new galleries from all of yesterday’s shows:

Pronovias Fall 2013 Wedding Dress Collection

Marchesa Spring 2014 Wedding Dress Collection

Vera Wang Spring 2014 Wedding Dress Collection

Kelly Faetanini Fall 2013 Wedding Dress Collection

Aria Fall 2013 Wedding Dress Collection

12:27pm – Lovely dresses at Christos! Lace and gorgeous silhouettes. Photos to come. In the meantime, check out who we saw! One of our favorites Shawn Rabideau! Here he is with Anja waiting for the show to start.

12:02pm – Just arrived at Christos! Always has beautiful romantic dresses, can’t wait to see this season! We’re live-streaming on our homepage, don’t forget to check it out.

10:54am - Maggie Sottero showed us some beautiful dresses! Loved the sparkle and Great Gatsby glam style. Also, how gorgeous is that hint of blue? Check it out:

10:33am – Beautiful dresses at Maggie Sottero! Definite 20′s glamour inspiration. Photos coming soon!

10:12am – Good morning Knotties! Yesterday, we brought you the gorgeous designs of Vera Wang, Temerley London, Marchesa, Kelly Faetanini, Theia and Aria (check out all the action below!) We’re kicking Day 2 off with Maggie Sottero – can’t wait to see what’s in store. This is our first live-streaming show, so you can see what we’re seeing, as we see it. Just click over to TheKnot.com homepage and watch along. It’s starting in just a few minutes.

Friday, April 19

6:05pm – That’s all for today Knotties! We’ll be back tomorrow at 10am.

4:07pm – Here come the beautiful Vera pictures! Prepare to swoon.

3:35pm – Vera Wang is always gorgeous and always a surprise! Editor in Chief Rebecca LOVED the play of black and white, the leather accents and the lace that looked like it was almost tattooed on the models. Photos coming soon!

3:03pm – Waiting for the always fabulous and trendy Vera Wang to start!

2:40pm - Love the Victorian elegance from Temperley London! Hello Downton Abbey.

2:11pm – Just getting to Temperley London! Can’t wait to see their collection’

1:50pm - Lace, lace and more gorgeous lace at Marchesa!

1:27pm – Amazingly beautiful lace at Marchesa! Photos coming soon, stay tuned!

1:05pm – Love the story behind this stunner from THEIA! It’s inspired by the designer’s mother’s wedding dress – so cute!

12:54pm – En route to Marchesa! Looking forward too seeing what beautiful designs they have in store for us!

12:37pm – Jennie’s pick for big trends from this show? Romantic blush, opulent pearls and head-to-toe beading.

12:33pm – Awesome details at THEIA! Can’t wait to show you some of favorites, coming ASAP.

11:49am – On the way to THEIA, can’t wait!

11:23am – Loving the metallic lace, romantic sleeves and sparkle embellishments at Kelly Faetanini!

10:35am – We kicked off the morning visiting Aria’s NYC showroom. Gorgeous dresses with awesome 50′s/60′s Mad Men inspiration, check out this feather skirt, so cute! Also, we saw great 20′s flapper style – here come’s Great Gatsby! Can’t wait for the movie and love that the inspiration is hitting the bridal runways.

Thursday, April 18

Yesterday, we went to a just a few shows! The gorgeous looks at Pronovias‘ gorgeous new gowns, big trends we saw were really awesome shoulders and sheer straps and elaborate beading. Also, our editors Jennie and Heather had a date with Oscar de la Renta! They interviewed him about his new bridal fragrance, Something Blue.

> Remember more up to minute updates on our Twitter

> See more photos on our Instagram

> See all galleries and photos from our editors at the show here

Now that the afterglow of the wedding is fading (though it will never truly fade since I married the most amazing man on the planet) and I have all my gorgeous professional photos, I wanted to share all the details with everyone. If I had to choose one word to describe our wedding and its elements, I’d say meaningful. We really tried to make many of the details have a meaning or significance. With that, here we go!

Bouquet

One of the more meaningful elements of the day was actually my bouquet! I worked with Autumn and Grace Bridal on Etsy to design a fabric bouquet made entirely of heirloom fabrics. Pieces of my mom and Oren’s mom’s wedding dresses, our grandmothers, my great-grandmothers and sister came together to create a special keepsake. I was even able to add fabric from my first birthday and bat mitzvah dresses, and scrap fabric from my wedding dress too!

Dress

Speaking of my dress, I have to give a shout out to Tulle by Gual for designing my perfect dress. You’ve read the story of how I found it right here at The Knot offices. It was a truly exciting experience finding it, as was working with the fabulous Antonio throughout the process. The end result was exactly what I wanted and Oren loved it! You can tell by his reaction in our first look.

Beauty

Another thing that really brought the look of the day together was my hair and makeup. I know that sounds silly, but it’s probably one of the more important elements. If you don’t like the way you look, you won’t feel comfortable and you’ll hate your photos, even if they’re beautifully taken. I was so lucky to find Jennette of Beauty Couture Inc. Talk about AMAZING!! When we had the trial, I explained what I wanted and she got it in seconds. She was so wonderful and I could not have been more thrilled with the way everything came out on the day of, it was exactly how I pictured it.

Groom’s Look

While we’re talking about fashion, I have to show you my handsome husband in his tux. I know first looks are meant to be for the groom to see the bride, but he equally took my breath away when I first saw him. We were lucky enough to work with the great team over at Black Lapel to get his tux made and it fit perfectly! Also, I gave a pretty awesome groom’s gift (if you ask me!). Oren’s a big whiskey fan, so I got him an engraved bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue, which I knew he really wanted. He loved it!

Bridal Party

I was so excited about how our bridal party looked too! I wanted my bridesmaids to look cohesive but different. We chose Amsale bridesmaid dresses in navy, but everyone picked their own. It gave it a great textured effect, half were in jersey and half were in chiffon. Check out their cute earrings that I got for them from Green Peridot on Etsy. Our groomsmen also looked pretty dapper. Men’s Wearhouse’s Black by Vera Wang line really provides an alternative to the standard rental tux. It had the skinny modern fit we were looking for and the guys looked awesome.

Decor

Next up: overall wedding! We wanted a really romantic atmosphere, so went with a lot of candlelight and amber uplighting. For me, the ceremony was really important, we had the courtyard of The Cocoplum lit with Italian café lights and all the trees were wrapped with twinkling lights. The effect was absolutely gorgeous and when I stepped out, it felt like a fairytale. The chuppah was amazing and we injected a personal touch by creating the roof out of tallis’ (prayer shawls) belonging to each of our fathers. In the reception, for the centerpieces, I didn’t want anything too flowery or colorful, so Creations by Blanca put together amazing centerpieces with branches, dendrobium orchids and hanging candles. The effect of the room was perfect. To top it all off, we probably had the best DJ ever in Mike Kruz of Scratch Weddings. He kept the party going and had awesome mashups to keep everyone on the dance floor.

Stationary

For stationary, we wanted a really clean, simple and traditional look. Our invitations were letterpress, which we really wanted. Luckily we found The Aerialist Press, who does affordable letterpress and did a beautiful job. We also opted to add a fun and whimsical touch with our stamps. Zazzle.com lets you customize stamps and we had such fun creating ours. Finally our programs, by The Original Pear on Etsy, were the perfect mix of traditional and whimsical. They had drawings of all the bridal party members for a fun touch, plus letters to our guests and parents and explanations of all the Jewish customs.

Photos and Video

A quick shout out to our fantastic photographer Marcio Cavalcanti, who took all these photos. He truly understood our vision and was able to capture every element of the day beautifully and with the style we were looking for. These are just a few of my favorites, but it’s so hard to choose. We also did a Capsule album, which was a fun way for our guests to get social and hashtag our day (#stephandoren)! Our videographer, Jeremy of BlueShore Productions, was also amazing. We wanted a really cinematic take on the day and he beyond delivered. Check out our highlight reel:

Stephanie + Oren from Jeremy on Vimeo.

For more details, our guest book and how Oren surprised me on the day of, be sure to check out my appearance on The Knot LIVE this week in this video:

My wedding dress hunt began in Florida last April. I figured, getting married in Florida and living in New York, why worry about transporting a dress across state lines? I hit up six stores (I know, sensory overload!) and came away with a definite idea of what I liked, but no cliche ‘aha’ moment.

I returned to New York thinking that I wasn’t one of those ‘aha’ sort of brides and I just needed to see all my options and make an educated decision. Little did I realize how wrong I was!

Just a week later was Spring’s Bridal Fashion Week and we were lucky enough to have the design geniuses behind brand new label Tulle by McNairy and Gual come into our office to show our fashion editors their first collection. As the PR team, we’re always investigating new designers for TV segments, so we were invited to view the collection too. Upon entering our fashion closet, I absolutely fell in LOVE with my dress. Even thought it was only a fashion preview, Lia and Antonio let me try the dress on and the rest is history. This was it, I had that moment. I had found the one.

While I’m the bride, and the wedding dress is pretty important, my groom’s got to look dapper too. I may have mentioned that Oren’s a tall guy before. Because of his wonderfully tall 6’7″ height, he didn’t want to rent a tux, he had to find something that would fit him perfectly. This left us with quite the quandary because tuxes can be pretty pricey.

Luckily, I came across this absolutely fabulous new company called Black Lapel. The company was started by two friends who used to work in finance. Back then, at their day jobs, they found it difficult to find well-priced suits that had a beautiful custom fit, so they started Black Lapel.

Every single suit is handmade to exact custom measurements and designs – the perfect duds for any groom-to-be! They even have handy videos on their site explaining what to measure and how. I couldn’t believe the number of areas that need to be measured (3 places on the arm alone!), this is guaranteed to fit well (no really, they actually guarantee it!). Oren and I are in NY where Black Lapel is based so we paid them a visit at their office, but if you’re not in NY, you can go through the entire process online!

Today’s post is in honor of the Jewish high holidays that of the past few weeks, the traditional Jewish wedding I’m planning and my future Jewish wife-hood (did I mention I’m Jewish?).

Now, what comes hand in hand with Jewish holidays is, of course, food and for the case of the specific story I’m about to tell — the most traditional of all, matzah ball soup! For my entire life, the matzah balls have always been made by my great aunt Tia Adela and my mom. They are a strong two-woman team who didn’t need help from anyone else. Every holiday as far back as I can remember, as soon as everyone arrives, the matzah ball cooking commences and once they go into the pot to cook, we sit down for course number one. I have always wanted to help with this, especially in recent years as I’ve become a more proficient cook. I also love the idea of learning family recipes and storing them for later use to teach my future children about our traditions.

I was home in Florida for Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) two weeks ago to celebrate with my family and the most exciting thing happened! I moved up the holiday cooking hierarchy and was allowed to help with the matzah balls. Now, for my sister and me, the most we’ve ever been allowed to do is help bring food to and from the table and maybe make a dessert, so this was a major promotion.

As I helped stir the mix, my aunt told me all about adding a little of this and a little of that (no standard measuring units here!) and I started to learn the process, to my sister Sam’s chagrin. She finally asked why I was allowed to help all of a sudden and the answer was because I’m getting married so I have to learn. Sam took this in stride and it was even her idea that I write this as a post.

So this got me thinking, who else out there has now been allowed to do certain things now that they are engaged? I’d love to hear from you on what family traditions are now passed down, if any, or if in your family, it’s just an age thing, not a marital status thing? Chime in in the comments!

Slight break from wedding planning talk for one small post to discuss something that’s bothered me ever since I got engaged. After that night, suddenly, Oren went from being my boyfriend (a nice, simple, easy title) to my fiance.

Now, there’s obviously nothing wrong with Oren becoming my fiancé — I was thrilled that he wanted that title and could not be more excited that we were engaged.

But, ever since, I’ve felt so weird calling him that. Whenever I say “my fiance” I feel as though I’m bragging in a very snobby way. In fact, sometimes I still consciously call him my boyfriend just to avoid using the word. Other times, I refer to him as Oren to complete strangers who have no idea who this Oren person is. Also, I don’t think I’ll feel this way when I call him my husband, so, what gives?

I’m not alone in these feelings. Our editor who’s engaged says the same and refers to her fiance and “her man” to avoid the word. Also, the awesome Ellie Kemper wrote a hilarious article earlier this year explaining her distaste for the word and saying she would refer to her fiance as “gloob.”

I think it’s high time we come up with a new word. One of my bridesmaids used to refer to her fiance as her “husband-elect,” which I’m a fan of.

Let’s start a campaign now to come up with an improved way to refer to the guy you’re about the marry, who is no longer your boyfriend and not yet your husband.

Thoughts? Should fiancé be replaced? What’s the best replacement word? Gloob? Husband-elect? Something even better?

Excited for tonight’s season finale of Drop Dead Diva? We are. Actually, we teamed up with the show in Los Angeles last month to get the buzz out at the Drop Dead Diva Official Games event. Check out the photos from the event and tune in tonight to Lifetime at 9 p.m. ET to watch the final episode of the season!

Drop Dead Diva’s Brooke Elliot in The Knot Diva Lounge

The fabulous Margaret Cho holding The Knot Magazine!

Our very own Rebecca Crumley participating in the games!

All photos: KatHarrisWeddings.com 

I want to tell you all about our amazing venue. When we first set out on the hunt, we knew we wanted something different and special. Not your typical ballroom — that wasn’t for us! We were hoping to find a place that was naturally beautiful, offered a lot of ambiance. We wanted a place that was so pretty, we wouldn’t have to add too many extras. And the vibe we were looking for was decidedly old-world-flair.

I thought this might be difficult, since much of South Florida is newly developed and barefoot-on-the-beach-style so I enlisted the help of The Knot Florida editor to help me narrow down the overwhelming number of venues on my list (perks of the job!).

There was definitely a lot to see, but since we were only in town for a short number of days, we had to pack in and see as much as possible. A jam-packed schedule has been a recurring theme on all of our planning trips down to Florida this year. It’s alway so busy I have to force myself to schedule in eating breaks!

Anyway! Our venue shopping trip centered around the Coral Gables area, where there are a lot of beautiful old-world Spanish sites. On our trip, Oren and I visited more than 10 South Florida reception venues before we found the one.

When we saw The Cocoplum, we knew we had found exactly what we were looking for. In fact, we canceled a few of the remaining appointments that we had. It was just that perfect. It’s not just aesthetically perfect, I love the story of the space too. It was originally The Cocoplum Women’s Club and this year it celebrated its centennial. One of the coolest parts is that the space where everyone will eat dinner and dance was once a schoolhouse!

Now that we have our venue booked, we’re going full speed ahead working out the menu and bar details. We’re about four months away from the big day, and so many details left to do!

I’ve been engaged for almost a year (story below!) and I’m so excited to start blogging for TheKnot.com! But here’s the funny thing: I work at TheKnot.com.

Yes that’s right; I work at TheKnot.com as a Public Relations Manager. It’s truly a dream job and I love every single second of it. But how has it affected my planning? Has my insider information been a lifesaver or a burden? Thus far, it’s been a bit of both and I’ll be sharing some stories. Some truly wonderful things have happened, like finding my perfect dress in our fashion closet (more on that down the road)! However, consuming so much wedding porn day in and day out has definitely taken its toll — I may work at The Knot, but I don’t have the unlimited budget to do every single pretty thing I see here (wouldn’t that be fab?!).

So to begin today’s post, I’ll start at the beginning. This is the story of the night we got engaged…

I’ll start by telling you that my fiancé Oren is just perfect. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a man and so so so much more. I know every girl in love and about to get married says stuff like this and it’s cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true. What makes Oren so perfect in this instance is just how much he considered what would make me happy when he proposed (other than that he was proposing, of course).

The date: September 24, 2011. The place: Oren’s house.

My parents and sister were in town visiting and we were going to Oren’s house so our families could meet each other for the first time. Serious business. As we all sat down to eat, Oren’s mom realized she forgot something and asked Oren to go grab it. He handed me a serving spoon, put on oven mitts and brought a casserole dish to the trivet next to me on the table.

After that, he just kind of looked at me and I thought that he couldn’t grip the knob with the oven mitts. After quickly touching the top, I realized the pot wasn’t hot. Cue my sister’s favorite way to make fun of me: I even said out loud “It’s not even hot!” At this point, Oren just decided to lift the lid himself (I found out later, I was supposed to have lifted it).

Inside was a ring box! It took me quite a while to process exactly what was going on. But my mom says once I realized I turned bright red like a tomato (I do that often), and all I could say was “Seriously?” until finally Oren’s mom said “Yes, seriously!”

Back to my original thought about how perfect Oren is. He really considered that I would want to celebrate with my parents and sister immediately, so he chose a night that would be special for both of our families. To top it off, the casserole dish has a special meaning – it belonged to his grandmother and now sits proudly on our bookshelf. So yea, he’s a keeper.

Over the next few months, I’ll share some of my favorite wedding details and probably even more of them after the wedding – don’t want to ruin the surprise! For now, I’ll also share the link to our wedding website: www.orenandsteph.com. Also, our save the date video was such fun for us to film and shoot this past winter, you can view it below and on our website too! Both were created by the fabulous Oren. Not only can he plan a fantastic proposal – he can also create brilliant websites and videos!