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Ashley and Colin’s Date Night Inspired Florida Elopement: Mopeds, Cocktails and Key Lime Pie by Anna Holden Photo
Ashley and Colin were married on 9th September 2025 in Key West, Florida. Their Key West...
22
Sep
2026
By Boho
Best Places to Buy Wedding Bands in 2026
Five retailers made this list, all checked on September 1, 2026. Treat the numbers below as a snapshot, since band pricing moves with metal costs.
Photo by One Carat Store
1. Rare Carat: Best Overall Best Wedding Band Retailer
Diamond-accented or plain metal, every band gets the same treatment before it leaves Rare Carat’s facility. Trained staff check the laser inscription against the grading report under 60x to 110x magnification, then run UV fluorescence testing as a second pass on anything with a stone set into it.
Two things push it past the rest of the field here. First, the above-mentioned in-house check. Second, the sheer range: 2,300-plus setting styles across 7 metal choices, close to 16,100 combinations pulled from the same 2 million-plus certified diamond catalog, enough variety to match almost any engagement ring already picked out.
Pros:
- 7 metal options, spanning eternity, comfort-fit, and diamond-set styles
- HD imagery and 360-degree video on the actual stone or band, not a stock rendering
- Gemologist access at no cost, over 100 of them, none working commission
- 30-day returns and one free resize in the first year on standard bands (Eternity bands lose their resizing window after the first 30 days)
- Lifetime manufacturer’s warranty included
- Shipping runs free and insured, no order minimum
Cons: International orders outside the US and Canada aren’t an option yet.
Photo by Birgit Meyke
2. Brilliant Earth
Couples who want to try bands on side by side can do that at one of Brilliant Earth’s physical locations, or handle it over video for those who’d rather skip the trip.
Pros:
- Both in-store and virtual appointment options exist
- Matching-set styles pair naturally with their engagement ring line
- Sourcing practices are documented, not just claimed
Cons:
- Anything with a diamond set into it runs 15% to 25% above what similar pieces cost elsewhere
- Plain metal bands make up a smaller slice of the catalog than the diamond-accented ones
- Band-specific return terms are harder to find than the policy written for rings
photo by In Love and Adventure – Elopement Photography – full wedding here
22
Sep
2026
By Boho
I am taking you to the woodlands of Canada today for the quaint and handmade wedding of Mabel and Dylan, who were married on 19th July 2025 at The Chelsea Pub in Quebec. Hailey Oldfield Photography tells us a bit more about the day; ‘Mabel, a theatre director and opera singer, and Dylan, an economist who works with the prime minister in the Parilament of Canada, made a formidable pair. How they were in real life was warm, giggling and filled with joy, celebrating each other and surrounded by their family at their intimate wedding in Quebec. Mabel’s love for creation was evident in the handmade details – a bouquet picked by the women of her family, neck ribbons made by the best man, and guest favours as linocut prints. They were married in the loft of a rustic restaurant, did their couple photos at the nearby forest and ice cream parlour, and danced their first dance to the tune of Harvest Moon.’
21
Sep
2026
By Boho
Every year, countless romantics flock to Paris with a velvet box hidden in their pocket, dreaming of the perfect moment. At the heart of this dream is a singular, powerful image: a heartfelt, emotionally charged eiffel tower proposal. The scene is almost mythical—the iconic landmark sparkling in the background, a partner overwhelmed with joy, and a “yes” that echoes through the most romantic city in the world. But behind this cinematic fantasy lies a complex reality that few anticipate. The choice of location, often overlooked in the whirlwind of excitement, is the single most critical factor determining whether the moment becomes a cherished memory or a logistical headache.
The truth is, the most famous public locations are a double-edged sword. While they offer undeniable grandeur, they also come with a host of challenges that can derail the intimacy of such a personal moment. From navigating unforeseen crowds to battling the elements, a spontaneous proposal in a public square can quickly lose its magic. This guide dissects the realities of proposing in Paris, weighing the spectacle of public venues against the serene exclusivity of private ones. It’s a crucial decision, one that proposal planning studios like Vika Krol help couples navigate daily. Understanding this trade-off is the first step toward crafting an experience that isn’t just beautiful, but genuinely and authentically yours.
Eiffel Tower Proposal Realities: Public Spots vs. Private Views
Photo by lo lindo
| Decision Factor | Public Locations (e.g., Champ de Mars) | Private Venues (e.g., Rooftop Terrace) |
| Atmosphere & Intimacy | Grandiose and open, but shared with crowds, vendors, and other couples. Zero privacy. | Exclusive and intimate. The moment belongs entirely to the couple. Complete privacy. |
| Logistical Control | Almost none. Subject to weather, public events, security patrols, and tourist behavior. | Total control over timing, lighting, music, and decor. A curated, stress-free environment. |
| Scenography & Decor | Ideal for large-scale elements: fireworks, giant marquee letters, and large musical ensembles. | Perfect for refined, elegant decor. Some restrictions on size, open flames, or musician types. |
| Guest List Size | Virtually limitless. The best option for proposals involving dozens of family members and friends. | Often limited to a small, intimate group (typically under 10 guests) for comfort and exclusivity. |
| Photography & Videography | Photographers must navigate crowds, resulting in unpredictable backgrounds and potential interruptions. | A controlled environment ensures perfect, unobstructed shots with curated lighting and guaranteed privacy. |
| Best For | The couple seeking a grand, public spectacle with large-scale productions and many guests. | The couple prioritizing emotional intimacy, privacy, and flawless execution. |
Photo by Qaisar Mehmood
18
Sep
2026
By Boho
Search for Italy wedding destinations and you’ll get the same answers you got five years ago. Lake Como. Tuscany. The Amalfi Coast. Scroll any wedding feed and it’s the same handful of terraces, the same cypress avenues, the same villa staircase photographed from the same angle by a different couple.
Italy is 1,200 kilometres long, with two mountain ranges and eight thousand kilometres of coastline. The idea that it offers three wedding destinations is a marketing accident, not a fact.
We spoke to Maximilian Figel, who handles communication and coordination at Kiss Me Italy, about where couples are actually going now, what it costs, and which places only work under conditions nobody mentions in advance.
The Italy Wedding Destinations Nobody Talks About
photo by Claudio Fasci – full wedding here
Has demand really shifted, or does it just look that way?
“It’s shifted, and you can hear it in how the first conversation goes.”
“Five years ago a couple would open with ‘we want Lake Como’, before they’d looked at a single property. Now they arrive having already seen forty versions of a Como wedding on their phones, and increasingly the first thing they say is that they want somewhere that won’t look like everybody else’s.”
“That’s a real change. It used to be about the name of the place. Now it’s about whether the photographs will be recognisably theirs. Harder brief, more interesting one.”
photo by Liam Collard – full wedding here
17
Sep
2026
By Boho
Weddings ask couples to be two people at once. One of them is dreaming — picturing the light at golden hour, the song for the first dance, the faces of everyone they love in a single room. The other is doing arithmetic. These two people share a bank account, and they rarely want the same thing on the same day.
That tension is the real reason wedding planning gets stressful. It isn’t the seating chart. It’s the quiet worry that the celebration you want and the financial life you want are competing for the same dollars, and that choosing one means shortchanging the other. Plenty of couples resolve it by picking a side. They either scale the day down until it stops feeling like theirs, or they spend past what they planned and carry the difference into the marriage.
There’s a third option, and it’s less dramatic than either. You can build a wedding that looks and feels expensive to your guests while running finances underneath it that are almost aggressively dull. The two aren’t opposites. They just require different kinds of attention.
Beautiful Wedding, Boring Finances: How to Have Both
photo by Hipster Wedding Asia – full wedding here
Why the Two Feel Like Opposites
The One-Day Mindset
A wedding compresses an enormous amount of meaning into a few hours, and that compression distorts how money feels. A $600 line item looks small next to a number like thirty thousand. Fourteen small line items later, the total has moved and nobody noticed it move. The framing does the damage. Once “it’s just one day” becomes the reasoning, every individual upgrade sounds reasonable in isolation.
Scale matters here. The Knot’s annual Real Weddings Study has tracked average spending in the low thirty-thousands for several years running, which means most couples are making the largest discretionary purchase of their lives so far, often without having made a large purchase before.
What “Boring” Actually Means
Boring finances are not stingy finances. Boring means predictable. It means the money for the venue was set aside months ago, the deposit schedule is written down, and no one is checking a balance at midnight to see whether the florist’s invoice will clear. A boring financial plan produces no surprises and no arguments. That’s the entire point of it.
Couples who get this right tend to separate the two jobs completely. The celebration gets creativity and taste. The funding gets structure and repetition. Mixing those jobs is what makes planning miserable.
photo by Jackie Marko Photography. – full wedding here< /h4>
