While I may have neglected my blog over the holidays I did manage to get a lot done on the wedding front. I booked the caterer and started finalizing menus, confirmed our place to stay in Hood River for the wedding weekend, secured the next day picnic spot and am generally getting a better idea of the decor for the wedding. It's tough being so far from home and my parents and not having them a part of the every day planning process so it was good to get their input on a lot of the details over the holidays. My wonderful friends, sister and mom organized a wedding shower for me while I was home and it turned out great. It was exactly as I would have planned it myself - a relaxed afternoon with all the lovely ladies in my life (those in the Midwest) together in one spot eating good food, drinking mimosas and catching up on old times and future plans - wedding plans!
After the shower my mom and I went to Vogue Fabrics (a giant fabric store in Chicago) with my friend who is making my wedding dress to pick out all the fabric for my dress. Talk about intimidating! There were rows and rows of lace, satin, taffeta, ribbons, bows, beads, embellishments - horrible for someone as indecisive as me. Even if you like a fabric it's very tough to envision what the final product will look like. I brought along some print outs and magazine pages of dresses I've been falling in love with to give some direction to the ladies helping me.
And of course my favorite dress that I dedicated a whole post to...
It was not an easy decision nor was it a cost saving one! I figured having my dress made would save a lot of money...not so much. I ended up picking a beautiful alencon lace and silky satin material for the underneath that will feel nice against my body as opposed to some of the dresses I had previously tried on that felt stiff and scratchy. When I looked at the price on the laces I didn't think they seemed high at all - until they told me that the price on the tag was PER yard! Yikes! It still wasn't as bad as buying a dress off the rack at a bridal boutique and the woman told me with the materials I bought there is no way I'd be able to buy that same dress made by a designer for under $10,000 so I made me feel a whole lot better considering I would never spend a fraction of that on a dress. Now it's time to cross my fingers and hope that the dress turns out better than I can even imagine - I have faith in Lynn...she's done some amazing wedding dresses including my sister's dress.
On the drive home from the fabric store my mom and I started talking about her wedding dress and the style of dresses back in the day. No one wore strapless dresses in fact quite the opposite - most of the dresses went clear up to your neck! I had no idea she even still had her dress so we were definitely going to pull it out of the back of her closet when we got home. I thought maybe there might be some materials I could use from it for my dress. I certainly couldn't wear her dress, let alone get my pinky toe in since she is about 4'11 and was a size 2 at the time she wore it - although it even looked smaller than that on the hanger.
Awww...how cute was my tiny Mom on her wedding day? Her dress wasn't bad given the style back in the day and the material was such a beautiful satin with some lace appliques. She carried daisies which she said everyone used - it's so funny how styles come and go and come back again. Not sure if I can use anything from it but it was fun to get it out and watch her try to put it on again and talk about when she was buying her dress. Remember my friend Emily and her fabulous bolero made from her mom's wedding gown? Maybe I could do something like this?
Have you asked your mom to see her wedding dress? You never know what you mind find - have her dig it out.
