Weddingbee Blog

The past weekend was a whirlwind. We got SO much done. I will get into all of the food/reception fun in a bit but one of the most exciting parts of the weekend was finding and opening a bunch of dusty boxes. Boxes that held wedding dresses!

In honor of my trip to Michigan my grandmother dug out my great Aunt’s and Mama Aardvark’s wedding dresses. Step-mama Aardvark also found hers and busted it open (from is cryogenically frozen state) for a great round of show and tell!

All of these dresses really got me into the wedding spirit and got me thinking about how to incorporate little pieces into my own Bridal look.

Enough yip yapping on my part! How about some pictures?

This is the lovely box my Great Aunt’s dress was in. I think someday I would like to be a wedding box illustrator.

Inside the box was this lovely. I loved the vintage look and feel. It had a high neck and was very heavy. I don’t think I could get it on even if I was greased up and in the most super spanx ever made…

The veil, however, fit just fine. It was totally different than anything I had ever seen. Lots of layers….

A nun-like lace panel in the back….

And my very favorite part, was that cap! How cute is that! Totally not helping my veil problems!

Above is my mom’s veil. I have to say I kinda love it. It was all wrinkled and smooshed in a much less fancy box than my Aunt had but it was still lovely. My mom and grandma made it together about 25 years ago!

View from the top.

Here comes the bride! Haha It could use a good steaming but it was really fun to wear!

My favorite part was this bow. I have decided that this bow will be making its way into my wedding day look but you will have to wait to see how!

One thing that was really fun (funny) about this veil was that it had an under layer of extra short tule to give it some extra height! I bet it had been all steamed it would have been pretty large! (Gotta love the ’80s!)

Of course this post is not only about veils! There were dresses in those dusty boxes too! And what fun is pulling out an old dress if you can’t even try it on!

Turns out my mom’s fit! Barely! It was an effort to zip and was a bit short but I got it on!

She, of course, had a big hoop skirt under it when she was a bride but this is how it looked on me… (Dig the sleeves?)

Sorry about the bra straps! I did not know we would be having a fashion show when I went to my grandma’s!

I LOVE the way Mama Aardvark’s dress looked bustled!

The next day step-mama Aardvark had found her dress and wanted to break the super seal that it had been packed in some 14 years ago!

Papa Aardvark said it looked like an open casket without a head…Morbid much?? But I must say it is a little creepy! I was glad to see it out of the box!

Showing off her veil! It was so Pretty! I may end up wearing it for the reception. It has a very fancy headband (crown?) that is so fun.

Papa Aardvark wanted to get in on the dress up too! This was a bit of tissue paper from the packaging…Very chic.

Of course when the dress came out, so did the photo album! Not much has changed in 14 years!

(Apparently seeing Step-Mama in a veil brought back memories for Papa A too!)

Above is one of my favorite pictures of Step-Mama Aardvark and myself. I was nine when they got married so I remember the whole thing quite well. This was my first time seeing her all done up!

In the picture below I am dressed with the rest of the bridesmaids and on the far left.

Fourteen years later and the dresses still look great! Step-Mama Aardvark still looks foxy in her dress. She kept saying how impressed she was that she still liked it. She had been afraid that it would be terribly dated by now but I think she looks a lot like Kate Middleton.

Of course there was no hope that I would fit into my bridesmaid dress but my bridesmaid Sis looked smashing in it! (She is almost 3 years older than I was at the time and quite a bit taller but about the same size in the shoulders.)

She’s still got it! (Even with a towel on her head! (She wanted to shower before trying it on)) Grandma A in the back is very impressed!

And then it was my turn to try it. I never went shopping for a dress, so these two days of trying on my moms’ dresses were about a close as I came to that experience. It was fun to put them on, but I knew when I first saw my pattern that it was the perfect dress for me.

Here I am in Step-mama’s dress. Please ignore the hair. Not sure what was happening there.

One detail of Step mama’s dress that I fell for hard and fast was the giant butt bow. I don’t know why I like it so much but it captured my imagination and I took it with me (along with her veil) when I went back to Wisconsin. You will have to stay tuned to see how t will be worked into my look the day of!

Did you play dress up with family members’ dresses? Did the dresses seem pretty dated, or are they totally re-wearable?