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Most earth-friendly guru's will agree that when it comes to green living one of the very best ways to do it is to recycle, recycle and recycle. You wouldn't think this could be applicable to a wedding dress, no matter how special an old gown might be. All the best will in the world might not be able to do something with your mother's 1960's wedding dress, or even the Flapper gown your great-grandmother wore.

Time can ravage fabrics and render them absolutely useless. But, rather than sighing regretfully and then putting that special family dress aside, take it to someone who specialises in restoring old gowns. In England, that someone is Heirloom Couture.

Even if the dress seems to be beyond repair, Heirloom Couture will take key components and details from the gown you bring them and make something new from them. It doesn't, of course, have to be a family heirloom. Any vintage dress you take to them can have new life breathed into it.

In this age of cheap mass production, it's wonderful to find ways to hold onto, and use, precious things from our past.

For most brides, the wedding dress is hugely sentimental -- even though you will probably never wear it again. So instead of just keeping it in the back of your closet, why not do something with it?

Here are some suggestions we've collected from brides and wedding professionals:

• Use the skirt to make a bassinet lining for your future children.
• Use the material in a wedding quilt.
• Use the fabric in a christening gown for your children
• Make handkerchiefs from the gown fabric, and have your monogram and wedding date stitched in.
• Make decorative pillows for your home from your gown fabric.
• Use the fabric to make smaller accessories like headbands, garters, and purses that you can pass down to your future daughters to use in their weddings, or give to your friends for theirs.

Of course, all of these ideas require cutting up your gown. If you can't bear that idea, there's really nothing wrong with storing it in your closet in hopes that maybe one day your future daughters will want to wear it when they walk down the aisle. But before you get your hopes up too much, just remember how we feel about the fashions of decades past.

Then again, there's always Halloween...

Multi-award winning design duo, Marguerite Hannah and her husband, Alan, of Alan Hannah, have come up trumps with this fabulous, short, full-skirted dress. Perfect for a civil ceremony, be it on a beach, in a garden or even in a romantic country lodge, this dress is fun, feminine and flirty.

Layers of tulle and those gorgeous full-blown, fabric roses add a soft and romantic air of innocence, whilst the slight up-catching of the hem is a nod to cheekiness. It's a seriously cute dress and we love it.

Find it in Alan Hannah's Topaz collection and for a list of stockists in your region, click here.

Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com has chosen their 2008 winner for the toilet paper dress competition from among 564 entries, and we are impressed! You might remember last year's contest, and it just gets better every year.

Katrina Chalifoux from Illinois won this year's competition with her floral-patterned sheath wedding dress made from Charmin toilet paper. Seriously folks, the dresses in this competition would be amazing made of any material, let alone toilet tissue! It took her two weeks to use just TP, glue, and tape to create this dress.

Katrina won a $1000 gift card for her efforts, while second place won $500 and third took home $250. To see the top three entries, check out the contest link here.

Most of the buzz about the Kung Fu Panda premiere at the Cannes Film Festival revolved around a pregnant and glowing Angelina Jolie. However, there was another actress on that red carpet equally worthy of admiration.

Lucy Liu looked absolutely amazing in a white Cavalli gown -- a gown that would be just perfect for a bride. Here's why we adored it:

• Subtly sexy -- The deep, sexy v-neck mixed with the sweet lace makes for one fabulous frock.
  
  
• Gorgeous glow -- Sometimes girls with fairer skin shy away from wearing white, instead opting for a cream or champagne hue, but Lucy shows that those with pale skin can look amazing in white.
  
  
• Red carpet romance -- The soft curls of Lucy's hair paired with the feminine cut of the dress makes for a really romantic look.

If you're in love with this look as much as we are, read on to see how you can incorporate it into your wedding:

We thoroughly enjoyed the photo shoot montage from the Sex and the City movie (and if you haven't seen it, don't worry -- that's not giving much away). Our only complaint would be that we didn't get to see each dress long enough!

Well, that problem has been solved. Our friends at Harper Collins sent us a copy of the Sex and the City: The Movie book, and included in it is a fabulous picture of each dress!

For modern style with an African influence, try a wedding or bridesmaid dress from designer Therez Fleetwood. Fleetwood bases her designs on the idea that our culture today is a melting pot influenced by countries around the world and that a woman's gown should reflect her own unique personality and style. Inspired by color, shape and texture and incorporating details with beading, lace, and shells, she creates custom bridal designs for brides around the world. Whether you're looking for a strong African style or a way to express your roots more subtly, in Fleetwood's designs, you'll find shapes and cuts that are truly unmatched.

Nearly ten years ago Baywatch babe Carmen Electra fell madly in love with and married Dennis Rodman, the NBA "bad boy" who was as well-known for his outrageous tattoos, hairstyles, and off-court antics as he was for his basketball skills. It sounds like it could be romantic, but the rumor is that Dennis was highly inebriated on something other than love for his new wife.

Nine days after the vow swap, the couple officially called it quits. No word as to whether Carmen was insecure about the way Dennis looked in a wedding dress or not, but regardless of the reasons, none of us were at all surprised to see the union end.

Interested in getting married in a vintage gown worn by a fashion icon? You could be in luck -- Jerry Hall is auctioning off the Antony Price white lace mini dress that she wore for her 1990 Fiji wedding to rockstar Mick Jagger for charity. And don't be afraid that it'll break the bank, because the guide price puts it between about $575 and $1000.

She'll be auctioning off a number of other items of clothing, including a kimono that was a wedding gift from Jagger, a brown mink and fox fur cape Hall purchased with her first modeling paycheck when she was 17, and many gowns by designers like Vivienne Westwood and Gianni Versace.

The proceeds from the auction will benefit the homelessness charity Emmaus, and Hall is making an attempt to find a balance between raising as much money as possible and making the auction accessible to everyone who might be interested.

Not long ago, we introduced you to the wonderful world of the fantasy wedding dress. True, pulling off a corset dress with billowing satin isn't for every bride, but every bride certainly loves picking out their bridal jewelry.

Well, the same excellent UK-based site offers unusual, quirky tiaras, necklaces, bracelets, and many other fanciful jewelry delights that would pair up perfectly with a bride, whether or not you're wearing a full-fledged fantasy gown. However, keep in mind that high demand for this particular site is limiting jewelry to wedding gown customers at this time, but don't let that stop you from exploring the whimsical gallery for ideas!

Yes, we know we've urged you to order your wedding dress with plenty of time so you can get alterations made without rushing -- and we stand by that. However, if you order your dress (or buy it off the rack) WAAAAY ahead of time, there is one danger -- what if you decide you don't like it anymore?

This post at Weddingbee describes Miss Canary's trepidation at trying on her dress, which had hung in her closet for 10 months. She was quite concerned that she wouldn't like it anymore.

There are some unfair things about the bridal industry. For one thing, you'll probably wear a size (or two, or three) up from what you normally wear. Then, to add insult to injury, if you end up in a plus size gown, there's a good chance you'll incur a plus size charge. This depends on the designer, of course, but some designers charge quite a bit more for sizes over 16.

That doesn't mean plus size brides don't have options, though. Check out Torrid's line of bridal gowns for women of a certain size -- they're affordable and stylish, and they could be exactly what you're looking for. Check out the gallery to see what they're offering.

We knew that Jenna Bush planned to wear an Oscar de la Renta gown for her wedding this Saturday to Henry Hager. We had also heard the buzz that it was a "simple" dress, but Oscar de la Renta isn't exactly known for "simple" designs, so we've been dying to see the dress.

As it turns out, it was fairly simple in terms of the cut -- it was a curve-skimming v-neck gown with a very short train. However, the cut was the only thing simple about it -- the detail of the organza gown was extraordinary. It was a perfect dress for her outdoor wedding and reception at the Bush family's Prairie Chapel Ranch -- not overwhelming, but undeniably gorgeous.

Jenna accessorized her gown simply, wearing lovely quartz earrings and a few small, white flowers in her hair. She opted against wearing a veil (which is a smart thing to consider for an outdoor wedding -- wind can make wearing a veil difficult), and carried an understated bouquet of white flowers, which complimented the beading and embroidery of the gown.

Stella McCartney has confidence, that's for sure. When talking to People magazine about Scarlett Johansson's recent engagement to Ryan Reynolds, she said, "I'm definitely doing her wedding dress. She doesn't know it yet."

Okay, it might not be confidence -- it might be a sense of humor. The designer, who designed Madonna's dress for her wedding to Guy Ritchie in 2000, went on to describe what she imagined for Scarlett: "You know, some kind of didgy, black thing. Latex! Latex for Scarlett!"

While we're pretty sure there won't be any latex involved in the dress (though we're sure many of her fans would love to see it happen), we're dying to know what she chooses to wear. She's made several questionable dress choices for the red carpet in the last few years, so it'll be interesting to see whether she's learned from these mistakes or simply continues to feel invincible.

We know it doesn't sound pretty, but we're pretty sure you know exactly what we're talking about when we say armpit flab. It's impossible to keep track of the number of times we've listened to brides and bridesmaids complain about that little bit of skin (or fat, or pudge, or whatever you want to call it) that creeps over a strapless dress near your armpit. It's not particularly flattering, but it happens to most women.

A post at FitSugar gives instructions for an exercise that targets that specific area -- the Lying Peck Fly. If you're really concerned about that area, give it a try.