When not whiling away the hours between food blogs and artfully curated Tumblrs, weddings are our little indulgence. The frocks, the flowers, the tears and the tiaras—we love it all.

This new digital wedding magazine from the U.K. is utterly divine, and features everything from gorgeous letterpress to sumptuous cakes, plus baubles and dresses galore.

It wouldn’t be an English wedding without hats, and Reverie spotlights milliner Edwina Ibbotson in its debut issue. We’re swooning over Emma Franklin’s gorgeous rings and we too would like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to prepare our post-nuptial feast.

And don’t you just love that colour-drenched L.A. wedding? The bride looks happy enough to fly away with her red balloon. —Athena Tsavliris

www.reveriemag.com

Holidays call for light and breezy dresses worn with flats and a barefaced glow.

These ones ($66) from Etsy seller Ramies tick every box. They are custom-made to your digits, feature charming accents (pleats, pockets and pretty buttons) and come in a comfy, breathable linen.

I chose the Summertime dress in sorbet pinks and lilacs, but it is available in every colour you could possibly wish for.

Sadly, my summer will not include a Roman holiday, but this dress will happily take me to Muskoka and back. —Athena Tsavliris

www.etsy.com/shop/ramies

You don't want to surrender your prepster knits, but the summa-time heat's not giving you a choice. Solution? A trompe l'oeil sweater-dress with the lightest possible feel.

Fresh off the cruise ship is this Jean-Paul Gaultier cardigan-print dress, long with sheer sleeves, at Opening Ceremony (US$675). But we like a local alternative, and dressmaker Breeyn McCarney's cable-print number sells for (way) less at all-Canadian e-boutique Ukamaku. She stitches and ruches each one from eco-conscious bamboo jersey, and does it to fit your precise measurements.

Hence, when you order online, allow seven days for exquisite production. —SNP

$150 at Ukamaku.com

Social agenda bigger than your budget? Rent your next party look for a fraction of the tag.

In a world where nothing goes un-Twitpic'd, anyone who follows that “never be photographed in the same thing twice” is having serious credit issues. Or getting really good at borrowing. Enter RentFrockRepeat.com, delivering single-use luxury to Canadian women: just pick a party dress in your size (0-16), register and enter your event date, and rent ahead. Bonus: get a second size, free, just in case.

Co-founders Lisa Delorme and Kristy Wieber—who brainstormed the site after being invited to a wedding, but not wanting to drop a month's rent on a one-night-only dress—buy stock directly from designers. Their taste is pretty, safe. A Yigal Azrouël jersey dress in Sunkist orange is $185 to rent (would be over $1,000 to buy); Shoshanna's printed silk numbers are $95; a Catherine Malandrino LBD is $65.

Wear it like its yours, but go easy on the red wine.

RentFrockRepeat.com

Tattered tulle and a grass-stained hem? Toronto brides bring gowns from ever designer imaginable to Courtesy Gown Preservation for the white glove treatment.

Owner Gus Polyzois can identify and treat just about any stain, not to mention bring back luster to a family heirloom.

The backroom is a sea of silk, satin, organza and tulle. One by one, each dress is meticulously cleaned and boxed away, forever.

Or until a little girl decides to play dress-up.

Courtesy Gown Preservation, 577 Eglinton Ave. W., Toronto, 416-488-6255, http://courtesygown.com

In 1923, when Mary Brooks Picken of the Woman's Institute first introduced her one hour dress, few people took her seriously. The critics were silenced when the pretty flapper dress was completed in 34 minutes flat at a New York City demonstration.

“You may receive a phone call at one o'clock inviting you to a little impromptu gathering of friends at three, and you can go, if you wish, wearing a dainty new frock made in the time you would ordinarily spend wondering what to wear,” says the now hard-to- find book The One Hour Dress.

Download a digital version of The One Hour Dress ($17) and fashion your very own frock. Your first attempt may take more than an hour, but before long, you’ll be sewing up a runway of dresses.

www.onehourdress.com

Madewell’s Canadian fans are breathing a sigh of relief: its online shop has launched and yes, it ships north of the border.

Build your outfit from head to toe at Madewell.com. This flirty pointillist dress (pictured, US$148) would turn Seurat’s head. Pair it with the strappy Cypress sandal in brown or black (US$98), and finish the look with a statement necklace like this one in twisted metal and crystal (US$98). 

Don’t even get us started on the denim bar.  Suffice to say, all’s well that’s Madewell.

So you’re not quite as swift with the Singer as your mom once was.

Thank goodness there’s another mother who’ll whip up a gorgeous handmade dress for your budding fashionista. With au courant details like 1920s drop waists and Liberty of London fabrics, the modern frocks by Vancouver line Mette will have her standing apart from the crowd.

And not because she’s wearing a bright orange polyester shift—that was you at age 4.

Dresses from $40, www.mette.ca

Summer’s arrival means weddings and garden parties have suddenly packed your social calendar.

We know at least two lovely ladies that found their perfect frocks at Cabaret Vintage. Inside the boudoir on Queen, a bride-to-be pounced on her dream 1950s mermaid gown. Another walked in with a swatch of Tiffany blue fabric and left with a dress Mad Men’s Joan Holloway would die for.

Cabaret’s selection is impressive, regularly refreshed and reasonably priced. Look for the owner, Tao, who will listen patiently to your needs and offer gentle suggestions.

He also knows the best seamstresses in town, useful if you don’t have Holloway’s hourglass curves.

Cabaret Vintage, 672 Queen St. W, Toronto, 416-504-7126, www.cabaretvintage.com

If this lovely spring weather is making you want to freshen up your wardrobe with a new flirty frock or two, we know just the place.

Open only a few weeks, Robber is brimming with delightful warm-weather options like a Franziska cotton chambray jumpsuit ($210) or a pretty plaid dress ($239) from Vancouver’s Dace.

Look for other Canadian labels such as Sunja Link and Erin Templeton as well as some ultra feminine pieces from Sweden’s Dunderon and Australia’s Life with Bird.

Here’s to patios, Pimm's and dressing pretty for summer.

Robber, 863 Queen St. W., Toronto, 647-351-0724, www.robberstore.com