The Dress Story

Something old, something new;
Something borrowed, something blue.

There are some wedding traditions that I prefer to ignore. Like the garter toss. But there are some that I made a point to keep. Like getting married on the upswing of the clock and following the little poem above. The "old" part of my wedding was the dress. It was my mom's altered and updated.

Here's a picture of my mom and dad on their wedding day:

Did you catch the pleats in the skirt? Totally cool for 1982. Not so much for 2007. When I was 13 my mom asked my sister and I if we ever might want to wear her wedding dress. Since at 13 I hated the world, I am sure I responded with something like, "Ummm... no. I'd rather die." So my mom broke the seal on the stored wedding dress to see if it still fit (I think it did). Fast forward 10 years and now I am engaged. When I was thinking about what I should do for my wedding dress, I figured I would humor my mom and try her's on. It fit perfectly. I did some research on how old wedding dresses can be restored and up-dated. Unfortunately, opening it 10 years ago let the dress yellow a bit. Here's a view of the back when I tried it on:

After some alterations here's what it looked like on my wedding day:

Photo taken by Bonnie Burman.

The dress got a major make-over. It was whitened and we took the sleeves and the high neck off of the dress. We also replaced the skirt to get rid of the pleats and lace and have a more simple skirt. I'm not really into that much lace. I wanted a simple, yet elegant dress and got one! Our seamstress did a great job. Here are some pictures of the work in action:

The dress turned out perfect. It was exactly the right dress for me. Which is funny because it was exactly the right dress for my mom. It was the first one she tried on 25 years ago. Plus, I didn't have to go gown shopping. I think I may have called the wedding off or eloped if I had to pick out a wedding dress. When we were at the bridal shop looking for bridesmaid dresses I watched girls try on wedding dresses. They did not look like they were having fun! With every new dress they tried on, the looked a little bit more stressed. It probably didn't help that most of the dresses were strapless and those squeeze the begeebees out of you and look horrible on most body types.

Anyway, here's the dress again in it original state, in progress and then finished:

Photograph taken by Lori Pritchard

It was an honor to be able to wear my mom's dress. I loved having a dress that was so unique and special. Thanks mom for letting me rip apart your dress to make it mine!