UK legal notice of intention to wed rises from 15 to 28 days

Couples must give almost twice the official notice of their intention to wed from Monday as part of a crackdown on bogus marriages.
A UK-wide extension from 15 to 28 days was approved by parliament last year in order to allow more time for investigation.
Ministers have made clear they expect registrars to report suspicions to the Home Office, which has new powers to delay nuptials for a further 70 days while inquiries take place.
The changes have already prompted an 80% increase in reports of suspected sham cases – from 1,099 between July and December 2013 to more than 2,000 in the same period last year.
Immigration and security minister James Brokenshire said: “As of today, marriage can no longer be seen as a ‘fast-track option’ for those seeking to abuse marriage to cheat their way into the UK.”

From tit tape to Spanx: the ultimate guide to wedding-day underwear

1. Match your skin tone, not your dress

If you are wearing something slinky, don’t get hung up on whether bridal underwear is “beautiful” or not – it probably won’t be. Above all, it needs to be functional, in a neutral colour match to your skin tone. Even ivory on pale skin can give a strobe-light effect and show through bias-cut dresses. Often, a dress is so figure-hugging that the only thing that is going to work is an all in one Spanx from right underneath the breasts. There’s nothing pretty or sexy about this kit, but it works. You can change into something more flattering for your wedding night if need be.
2. Pretty details are not your friend
A satin bow will always show. One bride I designed for found a fine lace pair of knickers that matched her skin tone and thought they were invisible – until her groom pointed out the satin bow at the top, which showed through her dress.
3. ‘Tit tape’ has many uses
If you’re going backless, try a backless bra with sticky wings, such as the Fashions Forms Go Bare Backless Strapless Bra, Black. They do work – but test them out first. One bride found a great strapless bra with not quite enough stickiness, so she covered every last millimetre of the inside of the cups in tit tape (double-sided tape for the body) as insurance. This is not an entirely glamorous story: the bra stuck to her skin so firmly that it took two bridesmaids to remove it when she tested it out, but it worked on the day.
A bride at Jean Paul Gaultier's couture show on Wednesday. Not the desired underwear effect.
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A model at Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture show on Wednesday. Not the desired underwear effect for most non-catwalk brides. Photograph: IAN LANGSDON/EPA
4. Alterations aren’t just for your dress
If you wish your bra was just a bit lower at the back, or don’t think it is going to stay up on its own, it is easy to alter it or stitch it into your dress. One bride I designed for took a shapewear slip, attached it to a bra with stick on tabs at the side, and had the back of the bra altered and lowered. Then she attached extra long white bra straps to the top. Admittedly, getting undressed afterwards was a bit of a mission.
5. Size matters
This might be seem obvious point, but make sure you buy the right size knickers. Don’t be precious about it – going one size bigger than usual might help avoid bulging. But also be careful you don’t go too big, as I have heard of a bride who managed to lose her pants walking down the aisle. (Nb. Eagle-eyed bridesmaids are essential.)
6. Allow yourself a lot of time to select the right underwear
This means trying out underwear at your dress fittings – not rushing out to buy it afterwards – and standing near the window during fittings so you are getting natural daylight to spot any lines. You should also take pictures of yourself from different angles to ensure flash photography won’t ruin the illusion.
7. Going commando is always an option
If you want support but can’t find anything that doesn’t leave a visible line, you can always find a pair of seamless shapewear tights and chop off the feet and part of the legs. If you don’t need underwear for support then don’t bother wearing any – that’s one way to avoid the lines showing. In that case, do prepare for any weather, especially if you are not wearing a bra. Even summer evenings get chilly, and no one needs to see that much of the bride.
Shopping list: the best ‘invisible’ underwear I have found ...
Fashions Forms Go Bare Backless Strapless Bra, 'Nude' Fashions Forms Go Bare Backless Strapless Bra, ‘Nude’ Photograph: John Lewis

Seamless knickers
• Microfibre Intimissimi laser-cut french knickers are seamless and very comfortable.
• I also like Calvin Klien’s invisible hipster shorts.
Seamless knickers with support
• Maidenform Sleek Smoothers Shorty
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• Maidenform Weightless Comfort Thigh Slimmer Shorts, ‘Nude’
• Bodywrap’s Firm Seamless High Waist Thigh Slimmer, Bodywrap Lite Waist Line Thigh Slimmer, Bodywrap Firm Seamless Waist Line Briefs and the Bodywrap Lite Torsette Body are all excellent. Bodywrap can be difficult to get hold of outside the US, but try Shapewear.co.uk and eBay and Amazon.
Shapewear slips
• The best I have found for a slinky backless dress is the Bodywrap slenderiser – it can be easily altered to fit a lower-backed dress and will hold you in all day.
• Also very good: Bodywrap Seamless Firm Underwire Bodyshaper and M&S Firm Control Body is available in Natural and Fawn.
Strapless bras
• Calvin Klein Push Positive Strapless Bra
• Princess Natural padded strapless bra
• Bodysilk Strapless Padded Balcony
• Stella McCartney Smooth Strapless Bra
• Scandale Sirene Balconette Bra
• And for larger-breasted women (from C to G) the Wonderbra Ultimate Strapless Bra.
Tit tape
Hollywood Fashion Tape, £8.99 Hollywood Fashion Tape Photograph: Amazon
Not all are created equal. Some peel off your skin or stick to your clothes. These stay put where you want them to.
• Fashion Forms Tapes To Go
• Hollywood Fashion Tape
Bras for backless styles
• The M&S Ultimate Multiway Bra with low back converter may work better than a strapless bra, depending on your neckline.
• For something truly backless with sticky wings (that don’t lose stickiness after one wearing) try Fashions Forms Go Bare Backless Strapless Bra.
And if you are going bra-free
• Pretty Perfect Nipple Daisies, pack of five Pairs for Single Use from Amazon
• By Perfection, pack of two silicone nipple covers

Wedding dress ideas: seven trends from bridal fashion week 2015

Looking for a wedding dress with a twist? From rollneck jumpers to crop tops and trouser suits, here is some inspiration from the latest round of bridal catwalk shows

Olivia Palermo wore a jumper to her wedding this summer, and now you can too – perhaps this big, cosy number by Houghton

Photograph: JP Yim/Getty Images

 

Indeed, wool was everywhere at bridal fashion week, seen in full-length dress form at Theia White and as a cardigan here at Delphine Manivet

Photograph: Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images

 

Though all else was demure at Reem Acra, the upper stomach was bare …

Photograph: JP Yim/Getty Images

 

 

 

… while sides were on show at Rita Vinieris

Photograph: Rita Vinieris

 

It’s all gone a bit Bianca Jagger – or, if you prefer, very Amal Alamuddin marrying George Clooney in Stella McCartney – at Naeem Khan

Photograph: Thomas Concordia/Getty Images

 

 

Fashion’s favourite hemline, the midi, works for wedding dresses too, as seen at Monique Lhuillier

Photograph: Monique Lhuillier

 

High necklines were all over catwalks. Here it is a beatnik-style sleeveless turtleneck with a transparent skirt at Houghton

Photograph: JP Yim/Getty Images

 

 

 

 

Solange Knowles ties the knot – and a million hipster wedding blogs swoon

Solange’s wedding. Photograph: Beyonce/Instagram

The age of the hipster may be drawing to a close, but in the wedding industry its key motifs are still strong. Cocktails in jam jars? Typewriters as decoration? Instagram-filtered snaps of tattooed brides standing in front of graffitied walls? All are standard. So how to do a vaguely edgy wedding in 2014 without resorting to cliche? This weekend’s Solange Knowles–Alan Ferguson bash offers a few ideas

1. Keep the dress code simple

No out-of-character Marchesa princess moment for this bride. Knowles wore a series of white outfits, including a simple sheath by Humberto Leon for Kenzo, with a regal cape and bronze wrist-guards adding a touch of high-priestess drama. Ferguson wore all-white, too – with a double-breasted jacket and bronze-tipped shoes. Indeed, the whole wedding party wore white, a classy theme that laughs in the face of spillages.

Musician Solange Knowles and her fiance, music video director Alan Ferguson, rode bicycles in the French Quarter of New Orleans en route to their wedding. Photograph: Josh Brasted/WireImage

2. Plan your entrance

Like vintage suitcases and handmade bunting, bicycles have become a hipster wedding trope. But the Knowles-Ferguson wedding reclaims them by using them as an actual mode of transport. The bride’s handlebars were resplendent with cream flowers; she wore a practical(ish) jumpsuit for the task.

3. Consider your pop culture references carefully

Forget naming your tables after Belle and Sebastian records. At the rehearsal dinner, Knowles and Ferguson screened the film they had watched on their first date: the 1975 Berry Gordy-produced movie Mahogany, in which Diana Ross plays a fashion designer and is resplendent in a series of terribly autumn/winter 2014 wide-brimmed hats and jumpsuits. The screening took place at Indywood Cinemas(strapline: “You won’t find a theatre more New Orleans than this.”)

Jay Z and Beyoncé Knowles following sister Solange Knowles’ wedding to music video director Alan Ferguson. Photograph: Josh Brasted/WireImage

4. Keep the guest list intimate
The only famous guests were family – sister Beyoncé, of course, Jay Z, Blue Ivy, Tina Knowles – and friends (Janelle Monáe). And, we assume, no one mentioned the elevator. Instead, everyone seemed to have a right laugh, dancing in the street and waving sparklers.

5. Don’t be afraid of an esoteric mood board
Most wedding photographers know what’s required at a vaguely hipster celebration: close-ups of floral headbands and shots of couples holding oversized balloons while they kiss. But the Knowles-Ferguson wedding photographer – Rog Walker, who was reporting for Vogue – had more unusual references in mind. He took inspiration from “the work of contemporary Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft” for the group shot above, which could also have come straight from Givenchy’s 2013 haute couture lineup.

6. Place matters
New Orleans’ Marigny Opera House is classy for all kinds of reasons: it’s a church with a mission to support the work of local artists, it is close to the couple’s home, it is crumbling, artfully, and it is seriously in demand – the website explains that it is “only occasionally available for a limited number of wedding ceremonies”. Also, its beautiful tiled floor could be the subject of a stylewatch all of its own.

Knowles and Ferguson in the streets of New Orleans. Photograph: Josh Brasted/WireImage

My quest to buy wedding dress for under £500 at Bicester Village

Wedding dress shopping: romantic fun or a great big bother? Could a bride on a budget, for whom the dream was wearing thin, find the answer in the cut-price designer dresses on sale at Bicester Village?

A bride choosing dresses. Photograph: Alamy

Counting sheep has been usurped. These days, as I lie awake at night, I see white dresses: flowing diaphanous fabric, little lace frocks, shimmering floor-length gowns. Because I am midway through wedding-dress shopping – and it is becoming quite a faff.

I started with a plan, a budget of £500 and an inherent unease with bridal shops. I was sure I could find something white, off the peg, that would do the job. Soon I realised how limited my options were. In general – at full price – £500 seems to buy the sort of dress a woman might wear to a smart lunch or the office, or a flimsy, irregularly stitched version of a proper gown. And so I started trawling for bargains on second-hand shopping sites, outlets and eBay, and checking and re-checking the Matches Fashion sale. As scrolling through pictures of white dresses on my iPhone occupied ever more of my waking hours, they started to float across my consciousness at night.
Could Bicester Village, in Oxfordshire, put an end to the impasse? An outlet store dedicated to discounted past-season designer fashion, it has one obvious advantage over online trawling: I could see the clothes, touch them, and try them on. And as shopping centres go, it’s very pleasant – the boutiques are arranged on an outdoor boulevard, so you’re not pummelled by air conditioning or blinded by bright lights.

Hannah Marriott trying on a Temperley dress Photograph: Hannah Marriott

First, I headed to Temperley – the upper-crust British label famous for kitting out boho brides – and found a range of white frocks, including a short ivory dress studded with crystals, a long-sleeved sequinned frock and a fluffy swan lake shift, which ranged from £300 to £600. They even had a traditional full-length ivory wedding gown, reduced by about 70% to just under £1,000, and a lace shrug at £250, about half the price charged by most bridal shops. In truth, none of the dresses felt quite right – either they didn’t fit or they weren’t quite the shape I had envisioned – but the possibilities, and the discounts, felt promising.

Valentino: the changing room of dreams Photograph: Hannah Marriott

My next stop was dream gown territory: Valentino. To a norm like me, the store felt properly luxe, with dresses hanging with a fistful of space between them, rather than tangled and jammed together, as I’m used to on the high street. I tried on some beautiful pieces, including a sample couture-level gown. The intricately beaded, inky-coloured show-stopper – reduced, er, to £7,000 – was never really an option, but swishing around in its heavy embellished skirts gave me a princess moment I hadn’t realised I wanted. More realistically, I tried two luxuriously thick, cream lace confections for under £1,000. Yes, my budget was going out of the window. But given that the average wedding dress costs around £1,400, and is certainly not Valentino, this would still be a win. Sadly, though, both were too big, and there were no other sizes in stock, which is often the way at Bicester.

Bicester by night. Photograph: Alamy

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that I am 5ft tall, the “too big” theme continued: Dolce & Gabbana’s glamorous black-lacquered store looked promising, with rows and rows of knee-length white lace dresses in strapless, shift and long-sleeved styles, but none were my size. And so it was in Celine (white shift dress with orange piping, around £600) Versace (long, slinky white dress with Greek key-pattern embroidery on the straps, under £250) and Bottega Veneta (milk-coloured midi-length halterneck, £235). And so I left feeling much more confident about what suited me - but empty-handed, nevertheless.
At Valentino, the shop assistant told me that she had sold an all-white sample-gown in my size just that morning. In Temperley, there was a near-miss, too, with an all-white embellished maxi dress snaffled by a bride the previous day. Clearly, Bicester Village shopping is all about chance – so narrowing your requirements to one item in one colour is a tricky brief. The best bet? Take a trip there for bridesmaids’ dresses or wedding shoes (Jimmy Choos for £250!) and have a casual look for white gowns while you do. You might just get lucky.