Wedding Dress, etc.
Dear n,
Do you remember this day? Ahhh it was such a good one. I absolutely loved my time leading up to the wedding, and especially the process of designing my dress.
Did I tell you about how I got to design my dress and get it custom made? Well, it was so crazy because long (ish - it just felt long to me) before we got engaged, I had already started looking at dresses because the wedding date was quite soon. I was scouring online and checking out bridal shops online and realizing that these dresses were waaaay out of budget. I was getting overwhelmed because it seemed like any and every store with ‘wedding’ attached to it suddenly had a MASSIVE extra price tag attached.
I scoured other sources to get creative - Lulus online, a store in Quebec with white dresses between 100-200 dollars, bridesmaid dresses in white, etc, etc, etc. I was honestly going to order it, cross my fingers, and just hope I would have enough time for alterations when Canada came and our wedding was a few weeks away. I was actually okay with that and had found some really pretty ones, which maybe I’ll post again at the bottom just for fun! (Wedding dress shopping is always fun).
Right before I was going to order, we got engaged (yipee!) and J’s mom told me there was a dressmaker she knew who could make my wedding dress. I can’t really go into the details but let’s just say that everything worked out amazingly and I was so blessed to make my dress. It was something I had been dreaming about and hoping for a long, long, long time but I had never really told you, or anyone because I didn’t think it would happen.
An amazing part of being able to custom design my dress was that I was able to see its sustainability in action - which made me happy. I went with the dressmaker to the fabric store and selected the three fabrics myself (the lace, chiffon, and the lining). I knew a part of the sustainability process by buying the fabrics at a local Cape Town fabric store. The one part of the sustainability link that was missing for me was knowing where the fabric came from before it arrived at the fabric store.
The dressmaker worked with me on my design and made it by hand. I got to go periodically to try the dress on and see her work in progress. It was amazing paying her and knowing who was doing the labor and to see the efforts right in front of me!
My design was made to enhance my beauty - so I was wearing a dress, and it wasn’t wearing me. My facial features are quite soft so I didn’t want something that would take away from that. I created the top to be quite open and romantic without showing too much cleavage and with the dainty romantic lace sleeves. My bodice hung just off my shoulders (YAY for custom-made!).
I drool over an open back. Really. Any open back and I am DONE FOR. I think it is so sexy while being modest and romantic and not too suggestive. I also wanted to show my back with a fully open back, and you can see that she made a partially open back with the exposed lace and little buttons.
I debated long and hard between form-fitting and flowy for the skirt, but also there are so many more options too - like your silhouette. I decided to keep it simple and romantic to really show off my body and accentuate my curves in a way that was delicate and didn’t overwhelm my frame. I also wanted to be true to myself and my style and not go for something way different from who I am and my Nay style. Do you see the way the lining shapes me under the chiffon and shows off my figure underneath? Loving that.
Sooooo the big secret to this dress was that it was a two-piece! YUP. I don’t know if you could tell originally, but I had the top and bottom made as two pieces so that I can do the little surprise below! I wanted to be able to take off the long skirt and change into something fun and form-fitting afterward to get my dance on! My other hope was that I would be able to still wear a shorter skirt on other occasions and not just on my wedding day! My longer dress converted into a short fun dress by having the same top, but a lace pencil skirt instead!
What about when you get married? What if you want to make sustainable choices for your wedding gown?
If it is too expensive to have your own dress custom made so you can be an integral part of the sustainability choices, then here are some ideas you can look into!
Buy bridesmaid dresses from sustainable/ethical brand like Symbology or FROCK
Buy a sustainable/ethical wedding dress from a sustainable brand like Indiebride or Reformation
Hire your Wedding Dress/bridesmaid dresses from somewhere like dresst or Chic by Choice
Buy a white dress from an ethical brand who is not ‘wedding’ like Belles of London or Christy Dawn
I don’t know if you’ll go for this - but thrift your dress
Buy secondhand from sites like Still White
Redesign and reuse a family members’ dress
