The Ensemble
With the bodice covered in lovely beading, the dress had an all-lace overlay, and an attached tulle wrap that created the effect of off-the-shoulder sleeves. Underneath, I wore a medium-flare A-line crinoline which shortened the dress to my ankles.
The veil was my mother's. It originally had a rather large 70s-style band of artificial, beaded flowers, but I removed it. It also started out a bright diamond white, so I tea-dyed it for a creamier effect. It came out a little on the beige side, so I had it cleaned when it went to the dry cleaners to steam the wrinkles out, and it came out this color!
For the story of how I found the dress, see below...
Inspiration for my Dress
Noticing a trend? I was 1,000% sure that I wanted my dress to be off-the shoulder. I have always thought it to be the most beautiful and classy neckline, but have never really worn one. I also want to feel like a princess! For me, that means that when I turn, the material had better swoosh around me. It means billowing and softness. As you have probably noticed, lace and tulle are my favorites. Doing my research, I quickly learned that dreams and budget do not always coordinate to make your life easy. So instead of going to bridal shops, on my next visit overseas I had a tailor(ette?) start making a dress to my specifications. She quoted me $1200, about the top end of what I could afford to spend on the dress at that point in budget planning. Fast-forward a few months, I got back to the states and was looking online for bridesmaid dress inspiration. Google threw a vintage clothing website at me. As far as I could see, it had nothing that would work for BM dresses, but I kept perusing for the sake of all the delightful vintagey-ness there was to see. *Click* wedding dresses. Boring, too 70s, yuck… *HOLD EVERYTHING AND STARE FISH-FACED AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN* It was my perfect dress! My roommate noticed that I had abandoned the conversation, so she came over to see what I was staring at… and… cue jaw-drop. "That's your dress, isn't it?" "YES." And- here's the clincher- the measurements MATCHED MINE EXACTLY. Oh wait, there's another clincher. It cost me 320 dollars. In sum: my dream dress is now hanging in my closet. I still have not decided whether to show it to y'all or not... FI has ways of finding things out...
The Ladies
Oh, bridesmaids' dresses. They were an adventure. At first I figured my girls could just pick out their own dresses to my guidelines-- a particular range of shades of blue, tea length, ix-nay on strapless-- and that way everyone would be happy! But FI and my BM roommate nixed that (mother would have too, had she been informed of this intention) because "then they won't match!" Oh, prejudicial attachments to matchy-matchiness. So the aforementioned BM and I spent an eternity searching for a dress that a) I thought everyone would like, b) at least some of them would wear again, c) that everyone could afford, and d) that matched my modesty specifications. Much trickier than it sounds. Oh, and I wanted her to see how it looks in real life, so no internet shopping. Eventually we found a great one, and ordered it. A month or so later, the salon called with their apologies, but the dress I had ordered had been discontinued. Thankfully, we found a replacement. The new one is chiffon, a material I had actually been in love with from the start but couldn't insist on because the current styles were putting the number of acceptable dresses in this city in the single digits. It's not an A-line (universally flattering, adorable in my book, and preferred by one BM), but it looked adorable on two girls, it still flares out a little, and I'm hoping it will look good on everyone.
UPDATE: It did! :D
If you want to look it up, it's by Forever Yours, style number 711102. Our dresses are sapphire with a cream (technically "latte") ribbon.
UPDATE: It did! :D
If you want to look it up, it's by Forever Yours, style number 711102. Our dresses are sapphire with a cream (technically "latte") ribbon.
The Gentlemen
The gentlemen wore charcoal gray suits with an ivory shirt. My wonderful DH found neckties to match the bridesmaid dresses. It matched perfectly! He spent an entire afternoon searching for me. ^_^