A simple navy swimsuit, worn with a wrap-around sash. A small jewelled anchor motif again reflects the seaside theme. The fabric is pulled across the tummy to the hip for an elegant, flattering look. Again, it is its very simplicity that makes this suit so attractive.

Wedding café has put together some of our favourite one-piece suits from Blue Dude. One-pieces are resurfacing as the style of choice, for women young and old. And why not? They’re classic, sleek, comfortable, and easier and more practical to wear than a bikini.

Photos: Salene Schloffel-Armstrong

Wedding café’s favourite one piece swimsuit style, simply because we love nautical blue-and-white stripes. So French, so chic, harkening back, as stripes do, back to Coco Chanel’s early work; she took her stripey theme from French fisherman’s shirts. The little ruffle on this suit gives it a subtle feminine touch, and the narrow stripes make it very wearable.

See also: One-piece honeymoon swimwear suits all and Royal red one-piece honeymoon swimsuit a classic

ZM Radio online has come up with a handy list of eight ‘Things You’re Never Told About Marriage’.

They include the forever question. As in: is this it? Forever?

Then there’s the “you’ll work hard at it”, your new marriage, that is. There’s also the issue of going to bed still angry after a big arguments. It does happen. Maybe those oldies who say they’ve never retired still steaming mad have just forgotten or have maybe put on the rose-coloured specs.

There will also be less sex than you think. Then there’s that old delusion still harboured by some women in particular: you can change your man. You can’t.

For more about marriage for grown-ups, check out: Things You’re Never Told About Marriage

. Well worth putting some effort into this as currently a third of all New Zealand marriages don’t last the distance.

Our second suit is quite sexy. It’s in royal red and features a halter top. Its simplicity does the trick, as the more classical cuts are often the most flattering. Maker Gottex consistently delivers glamorous, beautifully slick suits.

See also: One-piece honeymoon swimwear suits all

How do you imagine yourself on honeymoon? Smooth, sun-warmed limbs and a contented smile on your face as you stretch out on the sand next to your new husband. Enjoying the smell of sea salt and summer fruit, and the silky lycra encasing your body.

Lycra does have a distinctive smell. It brings to mind the carefree days of summer last year, the year before, and the one before that… when else does lycra come out, but for the holidays?

Swimsuit shopping is alleged to be the bane of modern woman’s existence. I heard this urban myth expounded time and again while working in Auckland’s swimsuit store, Blue Dude, over the last three summers, and found it to be untrue. There is a good swimsuit to suit every woman’s body. You can be made to look and feel as lovely as you really are.

Maybe you’re looking for a size 12, larger-cup suit, with a halter, in aquamarine blue with medium-sized frangipani flowers. Something this specific is unlikely to be in store, or even in existence. The swimsuit industry isn’t as diverse as we’d like it to be. It’s dominated by three major companies, in the southern hemisphere. So, given this, relax and allow the store assistants to work their magic and find you that elegant, beautiful swimsuit you didn’t know existed that really suits you. New stock is starting to appear now (November), but you need to hurry if yours is a summer wedding as suits fly out the door in the period leading up to Christmas.

This year’s styles

wedding café has put together some of our favourite one-piece suits from Blue Dude. One-pieces are resurfacing as the style of choice, for women young and old. And why not? They’re classic, sleek, comfortable, and easier and more practical to wear than a bikini. They’re also easier to fit and look great, and remain a sexy, feminine way to hit the beach in style. Fashion maybe about pushing boundaries, but swimsuits aren’t.

We’ll be publishing one a day over the next six days.

The first suit pictured is by Jets and is a fern-green one-piece that isn’t quite. It has a bikini-style top and cut-out back. It features lots of ruching across the bust and tummy so is very flattering, especially as scooping out at the sides emphasises feminine curves. Green suits most skin tones too.

The wedding reception seating plan could have you tied up internal knots. Help is at hand, however, courtesy of ZM Radio’s morning show, which recently delved into the issue and came up with “the real wedding seating plan”.

Described in her inimitable “get real” style, morning presenter Polly told it exactly like it should be to maximise your fun and minimise the impact of the more annoying guests. Think under-10s in particular. Whether you have the nerve to implement it is another matter…

The money table

First, the top table: easy, the bridal party. That’s you, your man and the parents. We’ll leave discussion of what to do about step-parents, second and third spouses, and whose not talking to whom, etc for another article.

Table two: the money table. This is the real deal. It should be composed of all those rellies, Auntie Fiona, Uncle Roberts, Auntie Liz… who really delivered on the wedding pressies. Why? Because they’ll deliver on the baby shower too.

Table numbers get a little mixed after this, as it’s position that’s more important, starting with the kids. Put them all together on one table near the DJ, so their racket will be drowned out by the music. The DJ won’t mind, he’ll have seen and heard way worse at any number of raves.

Next, the oldies: put them near the bathroom, for obvious reasons. Then there are your single mates, from work, uni and high school, the one’s getting seriously and rowdily slaughtered. They need to go on table five or six, far enough away so you don’t get too wistful about not being able to join in the fun, because you’re up on the top table.

Last and probably least, there’s the exs table, maybe put them near the singles table and try not to get envious about the raucous behaviour and not being able to misbehave with them like you used to do at weddings. Ideally, this table should be as far away as possible because it includes people you’ve slept with – and him too.

There you are, sorted. Yeah, right.

Using these sites can save you time, allowing to you have fun planning exactly what you want. They’re also green, because they cut down hugely on paperwork, so you’ll be saving the planet too. You might even get your man interested, as it involves net surfing.

They are just starting to take off in New Zealand. Two new web sites, Paperless Wedding and Perfect Venue, are good examples… more on these below. But in the US it’s really advanced – and useful. We came across a rather geeky but very good article about planning almost everything online.

The writer started off planning his wedding colour scheme then he moved on to wedding venue directories and venue reviews.

Then he created his own wedding website, with information for guests, etc. You or your man might be up for this. As we said, it could be a good way of getting him involved in planning the wedding. Forgive us, if this sounds sexist but the writer in a guy.

He’s also planning a Facebook page for his wedding, so people can stay updated, and a bit of twittering (or tweeting) too. Check out the rest for yourself, at www.mashable.com/2009/09/23/diy-wedding.

Online planning has the bonus of saving trees, by using less paper for a start. Such sites are now starting to appear in New Zealand. For instance, www.paperlesswedding.co.nz offers online wedding invites. Emma Taylor, who developed the site with new husband Jim, sees this as being both cheaper and greener than old-style paper invitations.

If you’re getting married in Christchurch or nearby, there’s a new site, www.perfectvenue.co.nz listing local wedding venues. It features everything from the tramway, a most unusual venue, to the netball centre to a wine shed (a very nice one), to more traditional locations.

Just in case you were wondering what mashable, as in How to Plan a DIY Wedding, means, it’s a webpage that combines information from two or more sources to create a new service. Just think of the Google Maps you check out for driving directions and the red markers showing the start and end points of your journey.

Disagreements about money are a leading cause of relationship difficulties, and planning a wedding will be a good test of how well you can work together to set priorities for your money.

There’s more sensible advice along these lines in the story, see How to get Married without Going Broke.

See also: Ten wedding saving tips and How to have a great wedding in a recession

‘Hollywood’ dress photographed on the catwalk at the recent ‘Bridal Fashion through the Years’ show for Age Concern, held in Takapuna, Auckland. Photograph courtesy of Neville Bailey.

It’s one of the hot new looks for the 2010 wedding. A one-shoulder, satin gown with more than a hint of the Hollywood star about it.

Made of lightweight satin charmeuse, the oyster-coloured dress is easier to wear than it might first appear. Astra Bridal’s Lori McPherson says it’s actually quite flattering as it’s cut on the bias, which means it skims over the body and falls gracefully. It also features ruching at the front which helps too.

Astra is stocking the dress and Lori says some brides are “thinking about it”. “It’s a daring bride look. It’s one of the hot looks right now as it’s very glamorous, with more than a nod to Hollywood.”

“Some brides are a bit scared of it. It does look sexy. It’s a non-traditional look.” However, it is more modest than it appears, says Lori, as it’s laced up the back but has a modesty panel behind the lacing.

Another dress, by Sosi, is actually more revealing, with a deep V-neck and a back-bearing corset – no modesty panel behind the lacing here. Curiously, this is proving more popular. Lori puts this down to the fact that it is more symmetrical; it features double straps and a circular skirt. Not everyone is comfortable with an asymmetric style, she says.

Wedding gowns with vintage bling

Wedding café suggested that we are probably seeing a resurgence in glamour because in tough times people often look to a bit of bling to pep them up. During the war years, for example, land and munitions factory girls blinged-up their look with glamour-puss curls and bright red lipstick. The Hollywood dress has a bling feature in the vintage-style diamante brooch on the strap.

However, despite the glamour and vintage bling, the dress isn’t as expensive as it might appear. “There’s not a lot of embellishment. It’s this, and the work in the lace dresses, that leads to the high price tags,” says Lori.

‘Hollywood’ dress photographed on the catwalk at the recent ‘Bridal Fashion through the Years’ show for Age Concern, held in Takapuna, Auckland.

Photograph courtesy of Neville Bailey. www.nbphotography.co.nz

Maternity weddng dress

There’s more than one bride who has had to accommodate a growing bump in deciding on the style and fit of her wedding gown.

We don’t often think about after-baby wedding dresses though but, clearly, judging from the maternity wedding dress from the 1800s, shown it is an age-old concern.

The dress featured at the recent Bridal Fashion through the Years show, held recently at Takapuna, on Auckland’s North Shore.

A beautiful dress in its own right, and a style worth adapting for modern times if you’re slender of neck, love Edwardian style, or just want to stay warm, it raised much curiosity. It features cunningly concealed buttons and snaps at the front that allow for breast-feeding, but it’s clearly an after-the-event dress as it’s quite slim-fitting. Most intriguing.

What it did do though was set us thinking about wedding gowns for pregnant brides.

If you are expecting and want an accommodating dress, check out this site from across the Tasman, www.maternitybride.com.au. The range isn’t huge but the styles are varied and could just suit, or even just inspire if you’re planning a locally made custom gown to accommodate a bub-on-the-way.

For more inspirational vintage dresses through the ages, from the show – they range from the 1800s through to today – check out the picture gallery at photographer Neville Bailey’s website.

Styles range from elegant, clingy 1940s numbers to a short, sixties-style lace dress to a curious 1970s dress featuring a hoodie and much more. Today’s love of beach weddings is also hinted at with a simple camisole-style early beach-wedding dress.