Wedding Blog

It’s me, Miss Lily! I’m back from my travels to the land of the blazing sun and have so much to blog about I barely know where to begin. I lie! I know exactly where to begin: MY DRESS!

To be perfectly honest, I’d given zero thought to what sort of wedding dress I wanted to wear before I got engaged. Whatsmore, I always knew my Mom’s dress was in a big box in my closet, but I never had the urge to open it. What’s wrong with me, you ask? Beats me– genetic defect.

Still, I adore dresses and no one exactly had to prod me to Mark Ingram to try a few on. It was fun to have someone swathe me in satins and silks and lace and tulle. There was a Rivini dress in particular that I liked, but I never had that heart pounding moment that you hear about. I kind of thought that related to my genetic defect issue.

When I took a trip to Arizona in April, I asked my Mom to pull down the big box with her dress in it. Having only seen the dress in pictures, I really wasn’t too sure what it looked like. All I knew was that it is a Pricilla of Boston dress that my Aunt first wore in 1965 and my Mom wore in 1972. I’m pretty sentimental and have a penchant for old things so once the box came down, I was excited. What I found inside was this: an ivory empire waist dress with a lacy short sleeve bodice, silk a-line skirt, and a lace train that fanned out from the shoulders. It sounds kind of cool, kind of crazy, right? I tried it on and it fit almost perfectly, which was a really strange feeling. I didn’t have the lump in my throat, but I knew then that I wanted to wear my Mom’s dress… but change a few things in the process.

One of the big missions of my trip last week was to go to the seamstress and work on how we were going to change the dress. The incredible seamstress had already taken the sleeves off and lowered the bodice by the time I got there so we could play with ideas.

My Mom, Mr. Lily’s Mom, and I all hunkered down to play with fabric. We pinned this way and that way. I liked one thing, the Moms another, vice versa, or some other combination of the group. Until, the lovely seamstress tried one last thing and we all stared in awe.

All four of us said, “THAT’S IT!”

And it was!

From there, the dress built itself! It was so ^%$$#$ing amazing. In three (several hour) sessions, we (aka the fabulous seamstress) had the whole thing basted together. The last day I was there, I looked at myself in the mirror and felt this stinging sensation in my eyes. No joke. Really. The dress was exactly what I hadn’t known I wanted and I was just utterly blown away. I blinked really hard so no tears could actually escape and fall on my dress, but I –who really didn’t care if “the dress moment” never came– turned to the Moms and said, ‘I think I might cry.” They laughed like I was a lunatic, but I could tell they were happy too!

Note: I wish I could share pictures of the dress with you, but it will have to wait until after the big day, lest Mr. Lily’s prying eyes catch a glimpse too early!