Wedding Blog

Oh yes. I have been dying to share my wedding dress with you!!! I was waiting for two reasons- first I had to suck it up and write about my decision to not design and make my dress. That was pretty tough. The second reason- I did not bring a camera to try dresses on, mostly because I was still thinking about designing the dress. I wanted to take pictures for the blog in my actual dress, in my actual size, so I had been waiting for her arrival! Luckily, she came in a few weeks ago.

When the time came to go dress shopping, my first idea was to go to Chicago. My lovely roommate Michalena from fashion school at FIT is from Chicago, and opened a bridal boutique there three-and-a-half years ago. I had been to the store for her opening party, and knew that Michalena had wonderful taste and would carry designers that I loved. Her boutique is called Vegas to Venice. I was thrilled to find out that Mrs. Peacock went there for her bridesmaids’ dresses! (Small world!)

The more I thought about it, and the more that Michalena and I talked, we both agreed that finding a dress locally made more sense. With that, I set out to find a dress, shopping in Ann Arbor, Birmingham, Dearborn, Plymouth, Berkley… all over metro Detroit.

Mr. Taffy, don’t even think about taking a peek! I repeat, do not “read more”!

If you remember, I had some criteria that the dress had 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 was also looking for something with a vintage and romantic feel. I love glitter and sparkles, but for some reason felt that I would prefer a matte look for the dress—no shiny satin or beading for me!

Without further ado, here she is!

Initially I was too scared to post pictures of the dress pre-wedding, so I chopped off my head in every picture and encouraged my mom to take detail shots, just in case Mr. T should come upon them!

I present to you, Jasmine Couture style T834: (Warning, they didn’t steam the dress, and it is quite wrinkled!)

The full back- I love the back of the dress!!!

Here is a detail of the back- I love how the lace comes up over the dress a bit. Don’t mind the zipper poking out, my mom didn’t zip it all the way, and we didn’t button all of the buttons!

Here is the full front. Note: This dress comes with a sash and I will be wearing it around the waist. I was so excited to go try the dress on that I forgot to bring the sash with me! (I don’t like the color of the sash that came with the dress, so I bought ribbon of the same width in a color that I loved.) Also, I was wearing a crinoline that was too poofy- usually the lace is more draped at the bottom.

Here’s some skirt detail without the crinoline:

And from my point of view looking down, I think with the crinoline:

I did forget my sash, but had a swatch of the same ribbon (but in a smaller width) in my trusty binder. Here’s how the color looks with the dress:

My mom holding the swatch next to the bodice:

I love my dress!!! It absolutely made my criteria—although the style is very simple, there is no way I could have found all of the silk organza and Alencon lace for a reasonable price. And, the boutique that I chose offered me 10% off of the gown and free alterations, so I felt like the cost of the dress was a lot less. As soon as I tried it on, I felt the relief of not designing the dress myself. I will be able to focus on so many other creative projects as a result!

What do you think of the dress???