Some bridal stores across the country have found a unique way to celebrate Veterans’ Day by helping to ease the minds of military brides-to-be and their spouses.

They’re offered free designer wedding gowns for soon-to-be brides. The free gowns will be handed out until they’re gone.

To be eligible for the gowns, brides must be engaged, on active duty, or have a fiancée on active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Stores across the U.S. took part in the bridal gown giveaway as part of a nationwide effort called ‘brides across america.’

House of Brides features the Kirstie Kelly for Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings® collection at their two stores in Chicago and Orland Park. On display at each store is the Platinum Bridal Gown. Kirstie Kelly for Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings® donates $125.00 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation® for each Platinum Bridal Gown sold. The Make-A-Wish Foundation® grants the wishes of children suffering from life-threatening illnesses.

Couture bridal wear designer Kirstie Kelly teamed with Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings® launching the Kirstie Kelly for Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings® collection. Disney’s Princesses® Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Jasmine, Ariel, and Belle inspire the collection of wedding dresses. The collection later expanded with Maidens bridesmaid dresses, Blossoms flowergirl dresses, and Jewels jewelry and hair accessories.

Buyers from House of Brides first viewed Kirstie Kelly for Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings® at the National Bridal Market in Chicago and were equally impressed by the quality and craftsmanship of the gowns, as they were the idea behind the design. “To be a princess is every bride’s dream. To design a bridal gown inspired by Disney’s Princesses® is an ingenuous concept to work off that sentiment”, states one House of Brides buyer.

House of Brides exhibits Kirstie Kelly for Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings® at House of Brides stores in Chicago and Orland Park. Both stores carry the wedding dress, bridesmaid dress, flowergirl dress, jewelry, and hair accessory collections.

House of Brides in Chicago and Orland Park feature the Platinum Bridal Gown. The Platinum Bridal Gown is inspired by Disney’s® Cinderella. For every Platinum Bridal Gown House of Brides sells, Kirstie Kelly donates $125.00 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation®. House of Brides promotes the campaign with online advertisements and in-store signage. House of Brides also hosts Kirstie Kelly for Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings® Trunk Shows up to 4 times a year at their Chicago and Orland Park stores. The stores give special emphasis to the Platinum Bridal Gown during these trunk shows to drive sales of the wedding dress and thus, increase the donation amount.

Unless you have a ton of money at your disposal, you probably want to get the best deal that you can get while still getting a dream gown for your wedding. You should never give up on the style and even specific dress that you want, but you do have to think about what you can really afford. When money is tight, it is in your best interest to look for discount wedding dresses to see if there is something that you fall in love with at an amazing price.

When you know money is tight, there is one huge mistake you can make. There is an excitement like no other that comes with getting married, and that means many brides to be race out to find wedding magazines. The problem with this is that you are going to fall in love with a dress you see inside, and it can be way out of your price range. If you don’t see these first, you will have much better luck when looking at discount wedding dresses. Not knowing what exactly you want can help you fall in love with the discount versions just as easily.

What most don’t realize is that discount wedding dresses can be just as nice as the expensive ones without having to spend a fortune. Most don’t see that saving money is just as important as looking amazing, and they do not have to be exclusive of one another. The materials may not be as luxurious on discount wedding dresses, but the style and look can be just as nice. You are only going to wear it once anyway, so less impressive but still nice fabric is not really all that big of a deal if you really think about it.

Unless you have to have the most up to the minute styles, you can get your dream dress from your dream designer as discount wedding dresses. Once a dress has gone a year on the shelves without being sold, it is off a season. That can mean incredible discounts on what was an expensive dress just a year ago. I bought my wedding dress this way. It was a thousand dollars a year before, but I got it from a store selling discount wedding dresses for a little over a hundred dollars. For me, that was an amazing deal, and there is no reason why you can’t find one for yourself.

The lure of the designer name is the same for every day clothing as it is with wedding dresses. Though some don’t care about a label, those that do understandably want a good label on the dress they are going to wear on the day of their wedding. You don’t have to go with a no name brand if you don’t have a lot of money to spend on your wedding day gown. You have to think about where you can get discount designer wedding dresses. These are actually more common than you may think.

One thing you should remember about all designers is that even the best ones can make mistakes. This means that you can find discount designer wedding dresses that have flaws that come from manufacturing the garments. This does not mean the design is bad, or that the dress is ugly, it just means that something went wrong while it was being put together. This is a great way to get discount designer wedding dresses that look amazing. You do have to look these over to be sure that the flaws are not visible, or that they are ones that you can live with on your wedding day.

You can also find discount designer wedding dresses by getting ones that are off season. These are often at a substantial discount, making them an amazing deal. You may also want to search through classifieds and consignment shops for discount designer wedding dresses. Many will end up selling theirs this way, and the deals are great. This only works if you are willing to wear a dress that has already seen one wedding day, however. Don’t worry, they can be professionally cleaned, but if you are superstitious, that might not work out for you after all.

The key to finding discount designer wedding dresses is to know where to look. The Internet is one of your best tools when it comes to this endeavor. Look through classifieds for dresses, and also through discount stores. You may have to search a bit to find the best sources for these designer dresses for weddings, but they are out there if you are willing to put the time into it. When you do this, you can have the designer dress of your dreams without paying the full price to get it. Even better, you are the only one that is going to know it if you choose to keep the information to yourself.

Brides Against Breast Cancer gives Charleston area Brides the chance to buy their wedding dress at deeply discounted price, while helping grant the final wishes of those suffering from terminal breast cancer. Admission is free and the doors are open from 1PM to 9PM on August 8 and from 10PM to 6PM on August 9. Come on Charleston Brides, you were going to buy a dress anyways, why not help cancer patients at the same time.

The perfect dress a perfect wedding makes but an Australian photographer is advising brides to destroy their prized gowns for nuptial pictures to remember.

Seeking to stand out from the hundreds of studios vying for a slice of the lucrative wedding business, Sydney-based Adam Cavanagh snaps stylish, fashion-magazine-like shots of brides in dresses that have been soaked, splattered with paint or muddied.

While several studios in the United States and other parts of the world offer “trash-the-dress” photographs, Cavanagh says the popularity of the service is just gaining ground in Australia.

“In the U.S., there’s a photo of a bride on fire, well not really on fire, but it looked a bit Joan of Arc, it was the shock value,” Cavanagh told Reuters.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 100,000 marriages take place each year.

Cavanagh said he wanted to give Australian brides an opportunity to be creative and daring in what many couples consider to be the most lasting, and often expensive, memento of their wedding.

Packages, ranging in price from A$2,950 to A$5,500 (around $2,800 to $5,300), include pictures shot in scenic locations such as waterfalls, windswept beaches at sunset, building facades and wooden boardwalks.

But to ensure brides look beautiful on the big day, with their dress intact, the “trashing” photographs are taken after the couple have returned from their honeymoon.

“The extreme trashers are very rare,” Cavanagh said. “Usually it’s just getting wet, where you can still recover the dress, or getting in the sand or mud, making it look more like a model shoot than a bridal photo.”

Loren Vincent from Sydney and her husband took the plunge, literally, and had pictures taken in their full wedding finery under a waterfall in the Blue Mountains resort area.

“I initially thought, ‘oh my God why would anyone want to trash their wedding dress?’ But it was heaps of fun,” she said.

“I got better photos in the trash-the-dress photos than I did on my actual wedding day because we were just smiling at cameras all day. And my dress came out of it all fine.”

($1=1.040 Australian Dollar)

Carpenter certainly had a fairytale wedding, what with her dressed as Cinderella, the groom as Prince Charming and the vicar as the Bishop from Disney’s cartoon.

The 29-year-old bride walked down the aisle with her dad 49, all decked up in the attire of lovable movie ogre Shrek.

Groom Lee Scothern, 36, who took his vows as Prince Charming, changed into an Evel Knievel costume and rode into the reception aboard a motorbike.

The cast for the fairytale wedding also included the couple’s seven-year-old son Finlay, who came as pantomime character Buttons and their daughter Summer, five, was dressed as Peter Pan’s fairy pal Tinkerbell.

And almost all the 300 guests came to the wedding in fancy dress costumes including Ali G, Zorro, Dracula, a nun, and Roman gladiators.

With a chauffeur dressed as a ginger-bread man, Sam had her brides-maids dressed as Disney princess characters.

“We just thought it would be fun and it turned out really well. The outfits were just amazing,” The Sun quoted student nurse Sam, a saying.

And the wedding was not only about costumes, as Sam and Lee even used their big day as a fund-raiser. They made 400 pounds for toys at Sheffield Children’s Hospital where Finlay has had limb construction.

Okay, it’s time for the moment of truth. The economy is bad. Economist can raddled off why they think it is, and what contributing, but the truth of the matter is most of us are tighten our budget and weddings can be very costly affairs. If you are in the military you can cut your wedding cost drastically by having everyone were the uniforms, even the bride. The bride wearing her uniform was very popular during WWII. This can easily trim hundreds if not thousands off your wedding budget.

Are you having a red, white and blue wedding? Consider ditching the white dress in lue of another color? Red is growing in popularity. Will you ride the red wedding dress trend down the isle? Or consider a navy blue gown. You can save a good bit of money by buying your “wedding dress” in the “evening gown section, especially if you are going for a color other than white. When choosing a color keep in mind what the guys are wearing. You want to complement your groomsmen’s attire, not blend in with it. If your groomsmen are Marines, and wearing their uniforms, you may want to wear a red wedding dress with gold accents to match the red and gold accents on their uniform. Not to say you shouldn’t wear white if you are having a marine wedding, but the white dress, may blend in with the white on the uniform.

Okay so there is no way you can beat trying on dresses in the store. But why invest your time and money flipping through bridal magazines when you can see the same dresses online for free. Many local bridal shops have websites that list the designers or gowns they carry. Don’t waste time falling in love with a gown you can only get in New York or San Francisco. Look at your local bridal shops…who do they carry. Local shops are also a great resource for what gown will look best on you. Many local bridal shop owners have years of experience finding the perfect dress for brides, they will know what cuts and colors will look best on you. Trust your local vendors, you won’t regret it.