Brides get your wish lists ready, Frette, the Italian maker of high-quality linens, has created a wedding registry which recently launched both online and in stores. Now affianced couples can select from linens, home accessories, Frette to Wear for men and women, bath and the Essentials Collection. Upon registration the bride and groom will receive their own personalized his and hers embroidered Frette100% Egyptian cotton terry robes. For every $5,000 worth of purchases off your registry you will receive a $500 gift card. After one year, Frette will offer a one time savings of 10 percent on the remaining items in your registry.

Last month I attended the FRETTE Beverly Hills Designer Event on Rodeo Drive checking out bedrooms designed by Barbara Lazaroff, Mark Cutler and Martyn Lawrence-Bullard Furniture (a few pictures in the gallery below). As a parting gift, Frette was handing out a set of linen napkins (shown after the jump). One commenter chosen at random will receive the napkins, just leave me a note with your tip for an elegant table.

There are many ways to measure progress in Iraq. Most of them tend to involve unpleasant and horrifying metrics, with the goal to keep them as low as possible. But, every now and then, it's possible to find something to celebrate. These days, it's an increase in upscale Iraqi weddings. More than mere nuptials, the country has seen a spike in elaborate and well attended ceremonies.

During the week following Ramadan, a holiday called Eid al-Fitr, approximately 630 couples tied the knot in Baghdad's six most luxurious hotels, according to the Tourism and Antiques Ministry. This rivals the number of weddings at these hotels conducted in both July and August.

In past years, the high volume of weddings, particularly during Eid, wouldn't have been possible, as potential celebrants would have feared insurgent attacks, suicide bombers and other threats to safety. Though precise data isn't available, September is estimated to be the busiest wedding month since the war began in 2003.

Want the kind of wedding that your friends and family will always remember? A destination wedding can feel like a risky option in this economy, but you'll be surprised -- a vacation may be just what everyone needs. The Ritz-Carlton is making destination weddings even more enticing this summer by offering the Reconnect Package at many of their hotels, including their sunny Caribbean & Mexico locations!

The package is more than just a high-priced luxury wedding tied up in a bow. Actually, a lot of the services are free! The Reconnect package includes:

• Ceremony Location (such as the above)
  
• Wedding Specialist
• Wedding Concierge
• Minister
• Signature Bouquet
• Signature Boutonniere
• Signature Location Décor

Also, expect a $100 daily resort credit and a free three-night stay on your first anniversary! Sound to good to be true? It's not, you just need 25 friends and family members to book rooms.

What's more, your wedding guests will enjoy a $100 daily resort credit for use at restaurants, the spa, and for recreation activities such as the Culinary Center at The Ritz-Carlton, Cancun, where guests can explore cooking, wine, and Mexican tequilas, the award-winning White Witch Golf Course at The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort, Rose Hall, Jamaica, Silver Rain, a La Prairie Spa at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, BLT Steak at The Ritz-Carlton, San Juan Hotel, Spa & Casino, and sailing on the Lady Lynsey at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas.

Want to see what it will look like? Here are some exclusive Luxist photographs of the wedding setup at the Ritz-Carlton, San Juan Hotel, Spa and Casino -- at sunset, no less.

We at Luxist want you to be prepared and properly educated for all situations. Summer wedding season is nigh, so here is our guide to wedding gifts, created with the help of NYC Lifestyle Concierge Lora Chio, a personal shopper to the Manhattan elite. Lora answered all our etiquette questions and gave us some great ideas -- tips for brides and grooms getting ready to register, too!

Luxist: If you can't make the wedding, do you still have to send a gift?

Lora Chio: If you get an invitation, you have to send a gift. Yup. This means that if you don't know the bride, but she invites you to her shower, you need to send a gift (regardless of whether or not you attend; regardless of whether or not she knows your name).

L: Is sending money ever okay? How much should you send?

LC: The unspoken rule of thumb for giving cash is to basically pay for your plates. For example, if you are at a wedding where you believe the reception rings in at $100 per head, and you were allowed to bring a date, you should give $200. That's just a starting point -- many other considerations should be made before you decide on a dollar amount:

• How close are you with the couple? Very? Give a little more.
• Did they give you money at your wedding? If yes, you should give the same amount (or $1 more, just to be clever).
• Did you have to travel for the wedding (and therefore pay for a hotel, a rental car, plane tickets, etc.)? Feel free to knock the dollar amount back a little -- you've already done a lot to be there for the special day.

L: When it is okay to get a gift that's not on the registry?

LC: Buying off-registry is totally acceptable if you feel like you know the bride or groom well enough to give them something they will love. Registries were designed to give a newly married couple a little boost -- a starter kit, if you will. While registering for gifts is very exciting (you get to point a gun at stuff!), many trigger-happy couples regret having to keep half of Bloomingdale's in their storage units because their 700 sq ft apartment doesn't have room for soft-boiled egg cups.

L: What's a good example of an appropriate off-registry gift?

LC: The key to success with a rogue gift (i.e. not on the registry) is having an alternative that you are sure the couple will love. I like to do personalized gift baskets with lots of little things that will make the recipient happy. Ten years ago, before sushi was in corner delis, I sent a friend a home sushi set because she loved sushi -- I wrapped each individual piece as a gift and put them all in a big glass floor vase. She loved being able to open 35 little gifts.

L: Since you often shop for other people, you don't always know the bride and groom. Are there any safe bets for good wedding gifts -- even for people you don't know?

LC: Safe bets for good wedding gifts are often consumable -- something that can be used up and help create a experience for the couple long after the circus has left town. Everyone loves getting nice wine, tickets to a great show, gift certificates for fancy dinners, but if you want to give a tangible present, here are some of my favorite things to give and get:

LC: Actually, I have two more.

More than $30,000 in diamond jewelry will be given away during the InStyle Weddings Diamond Giveaways Sweepstakes. You can win a diamond jewelry set comprising a pair of 1/3 carat diamond solitaire earrings and a 3/8 carat princess cut diamond solitaire pendant in 14K white gold. There will be two prizes weekly (16 winners total), valued at almost $4,000. You can enter daily until 11:59 p.m. (ET) on April 30, 2009.

Lots of people have special inscriptions on their wedding rings, like initials, dates, or even entire wedding vows engraved inside the bands, but designer Sakurako Shimizu is taking custom inscriptions to a whole new level.

First she records a sound on her computer using sound editing software. Next, she takes the picture in the software created by the sound and uses a laser to cut the waveform into her jewelry designs. The pictured wedding bands feature the design of the sound of a couple whispering "I do" into the audio recorder.

Shimizu takes custom orders for these rings, so you and your betrothed can wear your very own words of love to each other. Her Waveform series isn't just for wedding rings -- her portfolio also includes necklaces, brooches, earrings, and bracelets. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes a bride-to-be drool -- it is an incredibly romantic idea. If you've already got the perfect wedding bands, perhaps a Waveform bracelet would make a good anniversary gift. Contact designer Sakurako Shimizu at her website for more information.

How much would you spend on a wedding if money were no object? For most celebrities it isn't, and the result is wedding costs skyrocketing into the hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. Forbes recently compiled a list of the 20 most expensive celebrity weddings, going back as far as 20 years. Whether paying for 50,000 exotic flowers or renting an entire island to escape the paparazzi, celebrities spare no expense when it comes to having exactly what they want. The top 5 spenders, in order, are:

• Liza Minelli and David Gest: $3.5 million
• Paul McCartney and Heather MIlls: $3 million
  
• Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar: $2.5 million
• Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: $2 million
• Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Fortensky: $2 million

Others on the list of 20 include David and Victoria Beckham, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, and of course Donald Trump and Melania Knauss.

Sadly, 40% of the couples on the list are now divorced (including obviously Brad and Jennifer above), so feel free to check out this list of the most expensive celebrity divorces -- a few made both lists!

We talked once before about the TV show My Super Sweet 16, where parents spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a teen's birthday party. The new show on the WE network makes those parties look like small potatoes, but at least it does so tastefully. Platinum Weddings is all about how fantastically wealthy couples celebrate the biggest day of their lives. With budgets of more than half a million dollars - compared to the national average of $28,000 - these couples leave no stone unpolished and no rose petal unscattered as they perfect their weddings.

Lana and Victor Fuchs star in this week's episode (which airs July 30th at 8pm EST) have a budget of $1.5 million for their Vegas ceremony.

I've mentioned in my previous post on the Perfect Flat that I have a soft spot for shoes that keep me close to the ground. With wedding season in full-swing, I've decided to invest in a pair of shoes that will last me through the entire matrimonial social season.

The trouble, of course, is that I have a rainbow array of dresses to which I must match my kicks. I've got the Maid of Honor dress for my sister's wedding (pale blue), the bridesmaid dress for my best friend's wedding  (bright pink), and the all-purpose-guest-dress for the other four weddings I must attend (lime green).

Finding a pair of shoes to wear with all of these colors is not for the faint of heart. That's why I've got my eye on Christian Dior's Diorantik flat. This Grecian-inspired sandal has snakeskin-print, braided straps and gold metal Dior buckles. But best of all, they match everything. Price: $485.

They are Diorantik, Diorlicious, and Diormatic!