Weddingbee Blog

In a previous post, I talked about swapping the embellishments on the dress I bought at David’s Bridal. I wish I took more step by steps to show you but I was so nervous doing this that there were many moments where I was just completely focused on not ruining the dress!

To begin, I looked really closely at the original applique and noticed that it actually was not attached very securely and was easy to remove—most of it was on there with some kind of light adhesive and a small amount of thread. I didn’t want to remove all of it completely though because combining the two metal tones softened the look a bit. In this close up photo, you can see where I left some of the silver appliques and layered the champagne beading on top of it.

My original plan was to add more flowers but it was tough to find fabric that matched exactly so I left the flower as is. In this next photo, you’ll see the two types of beaded trim more clearly—one of them was a flower shape to create more organic style and the other had swarovski rhinestones in it.

I didn’t want it to look pasted on so I cut them both apart to create a more free form applique. (There’s the head of the beaded flower peeking out in the bottom right of the fabric flower.)

It starts to look like too much beading going on, right? Yikes. I was counting on the fact that this area was actually going to rest under my right arm so some of the beading was going to be hidden most of the time. The original applique went up the satin strip and after I removed it, I saw little holes from the original so I had to cover those up. In the next photo, you’ll see how it was starting to look from the front- the beading is not quite so overwhelming.

Over the next couple of days, I carefully snipped the two types of beaded trim and filled in the spaces. It took so long because I could only work about 30 minutes at a time on this before my eyes just started glazing over. Having fresh eyes each day really helped!

Once most of the trim was on, I was staring at the whole thing and thinking that something wasn’t right. I finally realized that the flower was not actually attached properly on the dress and was drooping so a bit of sewing took care of that.

I didn’t get rid of the old trim because I wanted to continue the layered look around the back of the dress. Since my trim didn’t have any large leafy shapes, this really helped finish the look.

I was still a bit nervous about how it came out afterwards but now, looking back at the wedding, I’m thrilled that I took the time to do this. Since the dress came from David’s Bridal, I’ve seen it rocked by many other brides. Adding this bit of sparkle made the dress uniquely mine and I received so many compliments about it at the wedding.

What do you guys think? Would you do something like this for your wedding dress? How would you make it uniquely yours?