Weddingbee Blog

I have been wanting to blog about my dress situation for weeks, but this subject has been really touchy for me! Right after I joined the hive, Mrs. Onion asked me if I would be making my own wedding dress. I’m sorry that I rudely avoided your question, Mrs. Onion! Whether to make or buy my gown was an extremely hard decision to make, and I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. I seriously labored over the decision for months.

I’ve made some wedding worthy dresses in the past. Lace, Tulle, Satin… these are fabrics that I am very familiar with. My first dress was bias cut and made from chiffon! I was out of my mind. Here are some examples of my work:

I was going for the vintage bullet bra look here.

The back of the skirt was all hand sewn! My hands hurt just thinking about it.

I used wire to create an over skirt with organza.

This could work for a bride in black…

The question was so much more complicated than I initially thought. My gut reaction was easy- I did want to make my dress! Although, since I have made some really involved dresses in the past, I know how much work and attention needs to go in, and how they can consume my life! I honestly felt that If I did make the dress, many more things that I would like to personally craft for our wedding would fall off of the table, if not 90 % of them. There was also a huge possibility that I would become unhappy and resent the dress by the wedding. Think of how much one can stress out over a project that takes a whole weekend… this would be many, many weekends.

There were other reasons that made me want to buy a gown instead of designing it myself:

1. Mr. Taffy and I moved in together a month after he proposed. I would not have a private area to work on the dress, and he would see it for sure before the wedding. I may be old fashioned, but I really wanted my dress to be a surprise. When I sew, my projects happen to become scattered all over… it would be impossible to work on it in small sections when he wasn’t home, and hide all of the materials every time he came into the house.

2. It is more difficult to fuss over fitting details when you are making a dress for yourself. I didn’t want to worry constantly about the fit, in addition to the design, in addition to the deadline to finish!

3. This was maybe the biggest reason- I am laid off, and currently looking for a new job. This was tough- you would think that I would have all of the time in the world to sew, since I’m not working, but it is way more important for me to spend my energy job searching than sewing my wedding gown.

4. It wouldn’t save money. The quality of fabrics that I would want would probably cost as much as a purchased gown, and the hours and hours of work to design and sew the garment… don’t even get me started!

My mom made her wedding dress and veil. Here I am playing dress up with her gown as a child:

My mom’s advice? A very firm “Don’t do it!!!” She said that she was sewing things until the night before the wedding… late into the night! Can you imagine the stress???

Ok, as you may have guessed by now, I decided to purchase my wedding gown. In some ways it broke my heart, but I know that I made the right decision. I did have one hard rule to meet: The dress had to either be too complicated for me to make, or the fabric had to be something not easily available to me, or too expensive at the consumer level.

I’m also making some compromises: I’ll be making my veil, and I might make a bolero or a shrug to wear over my gown. Do you remember the bolero that I made for Miss J?

This way, I will still have the satisfaction of designing and making things for my bridal attire, and creating these things won’t eat up my time and budget. Making your own veil can save you lots of money!

*phew* That was a little painful to write. Can you still tell that I feel a little guilty? Although I do have to say, the feeling did fade a lot when my dress arrived last week, and even more when I tried it on! I’ll be posting some pictures soon…

Have any readers thought about making or made their own gown?

PS- please be kind with the comments… this is a touchy subject!