I did love my dress. Its story is rather mundane, but i was proud of it.
I have blogged about this before. In fact i had to spend some time searching for it. I've not used labels - i'm finding that was a mistake. At some time in the future i may go back & add them. If i do that, you can disregard the notification. I think if you are notified about things, it alerts you to edits, too. So you might end up with a lot of old posts in your box.
I did post on our wedding, mostly back in March. Most of these pics are the same as those i just used. But i had to post again for our anniversary, for this is the first since i've begun blogging! Anyway, i did about 5 posts with pics. This one with some details is the most extensive. (If you're interested, you could just go back to the March archives.)
My sisters shopped for the dress with me. We found it at an outlet store for $44. It was just a rather plain, strapless dress but the back with the gold roses was so pretty. They tried to talk me out of it, for it was a little tight. But i was SURE i could lose some weight before the wedding. I talk about that in the "confession/TMI" part of the "some details" post.
I had seen a dress a i fell in love with online, but it was more than i wanted to spend, so i set out to make this one similar. It had deep, long lace over the bodice & arms. So i purchased some lace & beads. Spent about as much on them as i did for the dress. I tea-stained the lace to match the dress, & then hand beaded the lace. I did it at work in "down time" of which i had quite a lot in those days. The beaded fringe is mostly cream beads with a gold one to match the train at the end. And the rosettes of the lace are outlined in beads. Then i put a braid of gold & cream over it to use to attach to the dress. I did the same for my shoes, too. I tea-stained some simple white ballet slippers & beaded them with lace & embroidery. They are not visible in a single pic. They did have a silver sixpence tucked under the lace to fulfill the " . . . something blue, with a silver sixpence in her shoe."
Sis #2 attached the lace to the bodice of the dress for me the AM of the wedding. I had been working & planning for months, but a lot of things happened at the last minute. The dress also did not have a train. But it was too long for me, so Dear Friend Brenda hemmed the front of it & that created the train in the back.
My sisters were right (thus the TMI story) & i didn't realize how this dress would look on. We had a lot of pics not for public view because of the amount of cleavage shown, & so sometimes i remember our wedding with some embarrassment because of that. But hey! It is long over, we had a good time, & we're MARRIED! The wedding is only a day. An important one, but only the beginning of a life together.
Sadly, that dress is no more.
I wasn't careful in its storage, & the kitties evidently used the smooth satin as a ladder to the top shelf in our closet. So i decided there wasn't much i could do for it. I removed the hand beaded lace & the lace with gold roses at the back. I think i saved the buttons, too. And then the dress was discarded.
A couple of pics of handsome Duane for good measure. And one of the wedding flowers. My bouquet was daisies with baby's breath around them. The bride's maids were daisies with Michaelmas daisies (purple asters).
I did push myself really hard when my family was here. And then went to work for a couple of days. Sadly, i've spent most of today recovering. But we are planning a dinner out together tonight. Duane is treating me to horseback riding for an anniversary present, & he created the most beautiful & thoughtful card. I didn't do much. He bought something he wanted & we're calling it an anniversary present. (Well we DID do something . . . :P)
I keep editing this! Just a post script . . . daisies are delicate. They last a long time in water, but as a boutonniere they looked sad at the end of the night after Duane had been hugged over & over!
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6 comments:
You worked really hard to make the dress look so pretty.
Your Dress was unique! How wonderful! If i ever do get married, I hope I find a dress that fits me well! Being a fatty sure puts shopping for dresses as one of the least things I like to do.
Well, daisies may be delicate but how wonderful that it was limp after Duane got hugged so much - limp with love!
I love this dress and the detail work is beautiful! Oh, your cleavage isn't immodest at all, you look like a woman - no apologies! You look so romantic!
CM - shopping for clothes is also one of my least favorite things. I was lucky to come close to finding a dress that did fit me. And if i had lost the weight i wanted, that dress would have slid off me, without being altered!
I love the dress, too, "Stef" but you're only seeing the pics i choose to share. You are NOT seeing the ones where i'm falling out of the front of it. They are not becoming at all. But, as i said, we had a lovely day. :)
Kathryn, I could swear I put up a post yesterday saying "Congratulations" and all that, but I think it must not have posted. I'm sorry, I have no clue what could have happened.
May the years to come be even happier than the years preceding!
It's a lovely dress, and the story of it isn't mundane at all :-) You did lovely work, and put your heart and hard work into a lovely memory. For goodness sake, don't worry about having a bit of cleavage on your wedding day! Only a very unkind person would ever look at a bride and think anything of the sort!
You look radiantly happy, so does Duane, and that's what everyone who attended noticed, and remembers. It was a very joyful event, clearly.
When I think back on all the weddings I've attended, I never remember the fashions but I remember the ones where there was a lot of happiness.
Okay, that's not strictly true. The first wedding I ever went to featured people dressed in powder blue tuxedos and (brace yourself) the women were dressed as little Dutch girls. Clogs, tulips, the wimple-like headdress, no kidding.
Feeling better about that cleavage issue, aren't you? That was the wedding of a friend's sister, and I was ten at the time. Years later we sat and looked through the pictures, and even the bride herself couldn't quite explain the Dutch theme. She and her husband were both Irish.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time..." she sort of trailed off.
My friend and I rallied, "Look at it this way, it is by far, the most unique look at a wedding, very memorable."
They're still happily married, and that's what counts.
Hi Kathryn, thanks for stopping by my website recently. I love the beadwork you have done on your dress...so beautiful! Lots of patience!
MGM
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