Diary of a Wedding Dress: Part 2

The last post I did on my wedding dress progress wasn't anywhere near where I ended up. I didn't use any of the motifs I made. My original plan was to create a netting overlay to give my dress that dreamy floating look, but once I got there I thought it was too much and went back to the basics of the dress. In the end all I ended up doing was adding straps and a sash and taking up the hem. I think it had enough detail already and I liked the simplicity of it.

Here is a front view of the dress before I added the sash and straps. It's in the process of being hemmed here.

Back view: the buttons down the back and the way the back splits open are what made me fall in love with this dress! I don't think I got any pictures of it bustled up but it looks amazing bustled. It reminds me of a ball gown from the late 1800's when it's bustled.

 While sewing a wedding dress one must watch Disney princess movies! While hemming we watched Tangled. I adore this movie!

The hem had all these beautiful beaded lace motifs...which had to be carefully taken off and hand sewn back on.

 But I am a very lucky princess...I have fairies you see...they helped me. :)

 Here is the strap and sash mock up out of muslin:

 And now on to pictures of the finished dress on my wedding day! All pictures from here on are by Marina Koslow.

 The sash and straps were made out of a piece of vintage satin a lady gave me awhile ago. Upon furthur inspection the the scrap of fabric I realized it was a panel from a vintage wedding dress...it still had the button loops on it and everything! So that is my something old. :)

And there is is! I loved how it turned out which I am so glad...there was a point I was afraid I wouldn't and you can't have that when it's your own wedding dress! In case any of you are curious about the designer it's an Alfred Angelo dress, and yes that's the same company that makes the Disney princess wedding dresses. :)
Looking back, as fun as it would have been to make my dress starting from scratch, I'm so glad I didn't. Planning a wedding is stressful enough and I also made 6 of the 9 bridesmaid dresses so it would have been overload! And besides...this dress was perfect. :)
More on the bridesmaid dresses later this week!

Diary of a Wedding Dress: A Tiny First Peek

The Journey Begins...

I have been having ever so much fun today pulling out my wedding dress (with Disney's Cinderella movie playing in the background) and beginning work on adding the little bits of 'me' to it. The first thing I'm doing, which may be the only thing you get to see until after the wedding, is adding some sparkle to some motif decorations I bought. Everything fits perfectly on my new wood tray, a wedding present from my parents. They made me a set of three, dad built them and mom did the painting. I love it so much!

But back to the dress...my fiancée was with me when I bought these tiny glass beads and a bag of sequins. "You're putting sequins on your dress!?" He asked me. I don't think he trusts me. heehee I told him to trust me...it's going to be perfect. :) And I know he does, he just likes to tease.

Here is a close up of what the trim looks like before I added my touches.

Then I cut the flowers apart, this one gets just one silver sequin behind two glass beads. The sequin, you see, works as a mirror to give the glass beads a more stunning reflection. :)

This poor piece got snipped in the middle. I'm much more careful when cutting these apart now.
I'm going to try to use each little piece...they are all so pretty. :)
This is just one of the little touches I am adding to my dress. But you'll just have to wait, I'm afraid, to see just where and how they go.

One more thing I will tell you about my dress is that the designer is Alfred Angelo, the designer of the Disney Fairy Tale Weddings line I posted about awhile back. :) I knew I liked that guy. How can you not, with a name like Alfred? ;)

I hope you have a happy weekend!

~Anna Kristine