Introduction

When I got engaged during the summer of 2003, I dusted off my wedding planning notebook which was a collective of bridal dress pictures ripped from magazines and wedding ideas I'd gathered over the years, beginning with my formative youth. Yes, I was one of "those girls" whom would imagine up to a certain extent, what I wanted my big day to look like. Little did I know that life would take me down a different road than I ever imagined!

By the time I'd found the man I wanted to get on with the rest of my life with, I was in my early thirties. A far cry from the bride of 26 I had always imagined I would be! My fiance was nine years my senior and had been married before (divorced for ten years prior to our engagement). So after he spontaneously asked me to marry him, after a blissfully perfect afternoon on the solstice that June in 2003, I asked him: since you have done this already once before, what would you [like to] do differently, this time? His pensive answer included only inviting the people he really wanted to share in the specialness of the day (and not because he/we had to invite certain people) and to make the day what we wanted it to be.

I couldn't have agreed with him more!

We both loved fall and decided that fall of 2004 would be the perfect time to have our wedding. This also gave us an advantage with over a year and a half to save and prepared to pull off the biggest and obviously, the most expensive party celebration of our lives. Being older, we didn't expect our parents to help foot the bill. And as I share the details and planning of what transpired, you may agree with our philosophy that there are many benefits in paying for your own wedding yourself, however you choose to pull that off.

Our tale is one of creativity, necessary resourcefulness, ingenuity, and not without its fair share of drama. Since I did my own fair share of idea borrowing for our big day, I am a huge advocate of sharing our wedding details (and instructions) with you so that maybe you can use them as a launching point for your own wedding day plans. Sometimes, it's just one thing that maybe you didn't think of or think could be available to you that you can glean is now, in the grand scheme of things. And as my mantra would soon become throughout our entire wedding planning period, "I'll learn to do it myself!" maybe this will inspire you that all things are possible in achieving your dreams, however cliche that sounds!

Our Engagement

The day my now husband proposed was Saturday, June 21, 2003. It was the summer solstice.

We woked up that morning, a beautiful summers day in the desert, and made rosemary scones with peach butter, which were eaten while we watched "The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys".

A nap followed after which we went downstairs in the early afternoon to have cocktails.

Egads - We were out of lemons!!!

This meant we couldn't make my favorite, the Lemon Drop.  Boo!

So we set out for Eddie's house (aka "Casa"). While we were there checking on his cats, we sat down to watch "Moulin Rouge" (one of my favorite movies, still, to this day).

We finally tore ourselves away from the flick to head off to the grocery store to buy lemons, commenting to each other what a perfectly blissful, wonderful and lazy day it had been so far in every aspect.

Upon returning to the "Hutch" (my digs) we made proper cocktails: a Lemon Drop for me, Bombay Sapphire martini for Eddie, with homemade Bleu Cheese stuffed olives. While sipping our drinks, we flipped through the days mail and catalogs together.

Then, needing something to nosh on with our beverages, I made a goat-cheese appetizer to enjoy with our drinks. We realized later, along with the perfect day thus far, that the appetizer cwas the catalyst for Eddie to spontaneously pull me into his lap at the dining room table and propose marriage!

I replied quickly, yet emphatically with,"You Betcha!"

Eddie then made me sit in his chair and he got down on one knee to ask me the official and old-fashioned way.

Same answer as before...

I then asked him if this meant I could now, officially, buy wedding magazines at the store?

Yes, yes it did.

And so, it was settled.

And realizing that we were very happy, and not really very hungry any more, we went upstairs to watch "Brazil" on DVD.

Our Wedding Day Vision

One of the first things we had to determine, before we dove headfirst into our plans, was to determine what we wanted our wedding to look like. We both were huge foodies, who loved to cook, eat, drink, entertain and had a penchant for bygone eras. (We both came into our relationship with record turntables AND record collections in early 2003. If you don't know what either are, I'd recommend you Google it!) 

I started to envision a 5 pm wedding ceremony, with an elegant retro-vintage vibe. My soon-to-be husband had introduced me to the Thin Man movies and we fancied ourselves a modern-day Nick and Nora Charles.

While those movies were done in the 1930's, we loved the cocktail element they portrayed and how people actually dressed up and looked sharp when the occassion (and there were many) called for it. We were both smitten with the gorgeously tightly fitted, double-breasted suits of that era for men. Wouldn't it be great to have a tuxedo that looked like that?!

Early when we had just started dating, we watched the original "SpyKids" movie together. If you have not seen that movie, the beginning of the movie starts with how the parents met and their dramatic wedding day. I instantly fell in love with this fictional couples wedding cake: a tall-tiered number, bright yellow with bold flowers piped in frosting across the sides and a Day of the Dead wedding couple figurine for the cake topper.

It indulged my love of bright colors, being untraditional in the usual-boring-typical wedding cake look, and the Day of the Dead figures incorporated my Mexican-American fiances heritage while providing a fun and funky element. When we first watched the movie and saw the wedding cake, we agreed that should we get married someday, we wanted our cake to look JUST.LIKE.THAT.  (Right after we were engaged, I bought my first official wedding planning magazine and a DVD copy of the "SpyKids" movie!)

Plans and ideas began to take shape and form off of our initial concepts.

A vintage, Spanish-inspired wedding venue perhaps? (Old Laurelhurst Church below...)

And while we didn't want to go completely Mexican (no Mariachi bands, thank you!) in our wedding plans and themes, we did want to incorporate some elements into the ceremony and the overall scheme including a Day of the Dead bridal couple cake topper...

I imagined 1950's inspired cocktail dresses for each of our wedding attendants to wear and for those dresses to have elbow-length gloves as a key accessory.

We knew we wanted food to be an important focus at our reception dinner.  Meanwhile, I was dying to have Chivari ballroom chairs for the ceremony and reception, my favorite since childhood.

I also wanted silver beaded glass Belmont plate chargers for the dinner portion of the reception.

Together, we envisioned a three or four-piece jazz band playing during dinner and a post-ceremony cocktail hour with a bar that served signature cocktails. We preferred a formal sit down dinner instead of a dinner buffet and wanted to make our wedding a throwback to a bygone era of long ago: a time when manners and etiquette and formality meant something and was appreciated.

We knew we wanted a smaller wedding (no more than about 75 guests invited) and that we wanted it to be a representation of the two of us.

Finally, we had an outline for the rest of our plans to begin falling into and expanding into place!

Copying is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

I love color. I'd originally spied these bright, vivid and modern Claudia Calhoun invitations in a Martha Stewart Wedding's magazine I believe. I found a shop that carried them and they were kind enough to send samples out for me to see.

Unfortunately, the colors in the magazine were much brighter (due to typical photography and printing inconsistencies) and the actual items in person, more dull in color. I was dejected at first. Until I saw the other sample the salesperson had included in my sample package. They were gorgeous!

Simple, classy, elegant and very expensive looking.

Actually, they were quite expensive in reality...

 

The were letterpressed and boy, did I want them so badly! But alas, we couldn't afford them. They were gorgeous, though. I'd never considered chocolate/espresso brown wedding invites before (I know, I was thinking hot pink and red so why was this a stretch!) because frankly, I wasn't big on the color brown in my clothing choices or in my home decor choices. Yet, these exuded the very feel and image we were going for with our wedding: vintage/retro cocktails from the 1930's - 1950's.

Hence, these beautiful Claudia Calhouns became my crafty "gateway drug", so to speak, and began what would become my mantra throughout our wedding planning days: If we can't afford it or find it, we'll do it ourselves.

(Apologies in advance for the quality of the pictures to come, they were taken way after our wedding celebration and many of the items you'll see are from the scrapbook I made to keep a sample and memory of everything created for our big day.)

Below you'll see the final version of the invite I created off of the Calhoun version above. I found a DIY paper supplier called Envelopments that has nearly everything under the sun paper-wise to make your paper goods. I found a dark brown matte cardstock that was very close to the Calhoun model and a beautiful Citrine metallic paper to mimic the ink printed on the Calhoun as well. For my lettering, I learned how to emboss, and that is an addiction within itself!

I originally wanted to have a local paper printer do raised-ink printing (very tactile) on our invites and envelopes. I would provide the paper, they provide the service. However, I soon found out that this was a frustrating request. No one would touch the project! I heard every excuse in the book except the real reason, which I suspect was that the job was too small for them to bother with (we only needed 70-75 invitation sets printed).

So that is how I learned to emboss. And as you'll see in other posts, I got pretty darn good at it, too.

Fortunately with the Citrine metallic paper, it didn't absorb the ink jet ink on our trusty Epson Stylus Photo R300 printer very quickly. Which meant I could shake on my own custom blend of embossing powder (part gold, party pewter), then tap the excess off, and have the powder remain on the printed out portion of the paper. Hit it with the embossing heat gun while keeping the gun moving so as not to burn and warp the paper too much, and presto, a beautiful raised invitation that looked an awfully lot like the Calhoun version.

I did that over 75 times alone just for the inside of the invite. I'd also end up embossing all the response cards...

As well as all the envelopes associated with the invite suite.

For the return address for the back of the vellum outer mailing envelopes, I had a rubber stamp made in the same font as on the invites and response cards and again used the embossing powder and the heat gun. For the star motif invite seal(actually the star on the center of our china pattern) we took a picture of that, made an image of it on the computer and I had a rubber stamp made of that, too, and embossed a bazillion of those. They sealed up the pocketfold envelopes the invitation was attached to in the center and also were affixed to the center of matching brown folded cards which were used as thank you cards for wedding gifts and the like. (For the thank you cards, I used a silver metallic Gelly pen which showed up beautifully on the dark paper.)

I swapped services with a co-workers partner whom had gorgeous handwriting. She wrote each guests name on the back of the pocketfold invitation in metallic silver Gelly pen and I did some sewing repairs on a blouse my co-worker had needing repair.

On the vellum mailing envelope I handwrote out each guest name and address using Gelly pens in burgundy metallic ink. It was a dark maroon-brown color that looked perfect with the invites and stood out on the vellum for the post office.

I still get comments to this day about how beautiful our wedding invitations were and I'm still quite pleased with how well everything turned out! You didn't see a lot of colored wedding invitations back in 2003-2004 for more formal weddings like you do today. I do like that they still hold up over time and don't look dated or passe as some styles can unfortunately do.

A Wedding Date Trumps A Ring. Really.

I have lots of older women friends, and not many my own age. No complaints in that department. It's probably because I am the oldest in my family and always wanted an older sister of my own! One of these wise, older friends gave me a piece of wisdom that I think bears repeating if you are looking to get engaged or are engaged to be married: You don't need a (engagement) ring but you do need a date.

Setting a wedding date really solidifies that you are both making plans for the future. It gives you your deadline, your end-date, and it tells the world that you plan to go in the direction of this goal. And while there is a percentage of people who have a date and end up calling the wedding off, you tend to hear more about people with a ring and no date, whom never end up sealing the deal than vice-versa, right?

When we got engaged in June, my fiance couldn't afford an engagement ring, or at least, the ring I hoped to have. So, we waited until the end of the year when we knew he'd get his holiday bonus from work and could make that happen. Delayed gratification. In the meantime, we each wore inexpensive but simple silver bands, engraved on the inside with our aliases for each other until that time. And that worked out very well for us. It meant we both had an "engagement" ring of sorts to wear for a period of time (my fiance continued to wear his silver band up until our wedding day) which completely summed up the team partnership we had regarding our relationship from the start.

Waiting until the end of the year when he got his bonus check meant another important thing for us: my ring was then completely paid for (including my wedding band which we tucked away for the future ceremony) once we placed the order for it. And how nice was it for me to know that I was wearing a beautiful engagement ring that was already paid for?

Yep, priceless.

We Heart Blue Nile

We bought my engagement and wedding band on Blue Nile. Yep, the online jewelry retailer you may or may not be familiar with.

I had some images of rings I'd liked from their website. I was fancying a pear-shaped center stone with side stones and hoped it would have a more vintage-inspired band design.

This one below was in the running for a longest time because the band was like a metal ribbon. As the months continued, I realized it wouldn't look quite right with the simple platnium wedding band we'd plan to buy for me.

Peeve: It drives me bonkers when someone has a wedding ring and engagement ring that do not compliment each other. They don't have to be identical bands, but please, put some thought into it! I knew someone once who had a beautiful three-stone, vintage-looking engagement ring who then ruined its beauty by putting a masculine, yellow gold band with five diamonds across the top for their wedding band.

And then, for some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted the sides of my engagement ring band to be made up with alternating-shaped smaller diamonds. I had seen a couple styles I liked, but when we went to a few of the nicer jewelry stores in Las Vegas at the time, I didn't like anything that they showed me. Also, we got some quotes on diamond accented bands and center stones and they were a lot more than we had budgeted for and in reality, could afford.

Remember, there is a huge mark-up in fine jewelry and with a box store, you're also paying for the staff, decor, utilities and on-hand inventory.

We went back home, a little shellshocked from the sticker prices and I jumped on the internet again and searched through the Blue Nile web site. They actually had the very band style I had been seeing in my mind and wanted but that the local stores didn't offer.

When my husband got his holiday bonus that December, he went to the BlueNile web site and started reading up on diamond cut, quality, everything. He knew the ring style I hoped to have but still checked to make sure it was at the top of my list now six months later. It was. I remember he asked me, "What's more important to you, size or sparkle?" For me, it was a balanced combination of the two (and based on what we could afford, too, natch). Between our budget and his newly accquired ring knowledge, he was able to build my actual ring on the site where we could review and edit before finalizing the sale.

Let me share a few reasons why we felt 110% comfortable buying my engagement ring from Blue Nile: first, I had purchased a diamond three-stone pendant as a thirtieth birthday present to myself two years earlier from them. It was the best experience! Their very friendly and helpful customer service when I called about a question, the quick and secure delivery, beautiful presentation and absolute quality all won me over. Also, it was hard to beat their prices. (My experience has proven that Blue Nile isn't selling cheaper quality jewelry like you find in the lower-end mass jewelry stores in the malls and like.) Especially since we saved a ton of money by not having to pay local sales tax. (Blue Nile also provides apprasils for the diamond jewelry it sells to you, even if it is under a carat in weight. This was very handy when we added both rings to our home owners insurance policy.)

My ring arrived and I absolutely love it! It looked even nicer in person than I could have imagined. My center stone was just under a carat in total weight. The pear-cut makes it actually look much larger than it is. The side stones really compliment it, too! (Note: while pictures of pear shaped gemstones are always shown pointing downward, I prefer to wear my engagement ring with the point facing away from my body, so, outward not inward.)

When we'd ordered my engagement ring, we'd ordered a simple platinum wedding band to accompany it. It was beautiful, too. The wedding band went off to the safe deposit box for safe keeping while we continued with our wedding plans and details.

As we got closer to our wedding date, Eddie pulled our purchased and paid for wedding bands out of the safe deposit box. I remember, I saw the boxes on our dresser that afternoon, and almost opened it up to see the band again and try it on for fun. However, for whatever reason, I didn't.

On the day of our wedding, in the afternoon at the "official" ceremony as we liked to call it, I was completely shocked and happily surprised when Eddie slipped a different wedding band on my finger. It was the diamond wedding band that complimented my engagement ring and that I had secretly wished we had purchased, instead!  He told me after our ceremony, that he knew how much I loved "the sparkles" and that he thought it was only right that I have the band that matched, instead. He added that the woman at Blue Nile customer service was most helpful in getting the ring swapped out for him, prior to him taking it to the safe deposit box.

I'm so glad I didn't open the box that day because it was another wonderful surprise and special moment that I will always treasure. And still to this day, I really, really, really LOVE my wedding set. It is well-made, sparkles like you wouldn't believe, and I still get compliments on the style from strangers. We also love that we didn't break the bank for it like we would have if we'd paid full-retail, and then, that we were fortunate to have it paid for when we bought it.

I also love that if I just want to wear my wedding band without the engagement ring (which doesn't happen very often, actually) I still have something that sparkles on my ring finger!

Wedding Party & Family Flowers

This is my sketch and "brain" on figuring out how all our wedding party and wedding flowers would look on our big day. I needed to incorporate the same flowers but in different combinations that made sense for their different purposes.

My floral choices were the following: Amazon roses, Casablanca lilies, curly willow, Gloriosa lilies and purple Asters. Silver wire was used as an accent in just about everything and added a beautiful and elegant effect. (You should be able to click on the image to  make it larger.)

Drawing everything out and figuring out the different floral combinations necessary proved to be not only theraputic, but gave me a handy cheat sheet to give to the florist when I placed my floral order eight months earlier...And just like we would hear from the chef at our tasting, the florist I choose gushed how excited they were that I had chosen the flowers I had for our wedding day, as many they had not worked with before and were not the "usual" choice that brides go with. In hindsight, I'm not sure still if I should have been flattered or concerned by that confession...

Lesson Learned: Our ceremony arrangements below were delivered separately from our other floral items. Actually, the arrangements below barely made it to the ceremony on time!  We had to place a call to the florist asking where they were after the bridal party flowers were the only thing delivered to the hotel by the time deadline. The florist said traffic was to blame, but I think that they most likely didn't do a trial-run of how to construct these arrangements with the fruit slices and their last minute assembly panic is what delayed their being sent out at the same time as the other flowers. When we returned from our honeymoon, we not only had the square vases we provided below returned from the hotel, but also narrower square vases which the florist had to set inside them to achieve the vase effect you see below. Tip: make sure your florist has experience creating your vision and if not, that they do a practice run before your big day, not on your big day!

The ceremony flowers consisted of Casablanca lilies, Gloriosa lilies and lots of curly willow. The vases were filled with slices of oranges and grapefruit to pull in the orange & pink silk of Jill's Maid of Honor dress. Plus, it added a nice colorful impact to the scenery.

You can see the unity and flow in the immediate bridal party flowers below...



My bridal bouquet contained Gloriosa lilies, Casablanca lilies, curly willow and shaped snake grass. Only my bouquet and the ceremony floral arrangements would contain the Casablanca lilies.





Eddie's boutonniere turned out to be stunning! It contained a Gloriosa lily to compliment my bridal arrangement, a purple Aster and was wrapped and looped with silver wire.

Since our vision of our wedding day was that of a retro/vintage feel, I was excited to give Jill a curly willow ball to carry down the aisle as something different, but to also go nicely with her dress. The florist and I selected a sheer purple ribbon (to compliment the purple Asters that were used) and attached a Gloriosa lily to the top and bottom (to compliment and tie into my bouquet) and then it was all wrapped with silver wire. I still have it, actually, hanging in a corner of my sewing room!

Anastasia had a non-traditional role being the Woman of Honor. To compliment her dress, she carried a silver-plated tussy mussy holder filled with Amazon roses (whose color popped against her black dress and tied into the citrus slices at the front of the aisle and Jill's dress) curly willow and purple Asters. Again, everything was looped with silver wire to keep that consistent and the overall result, elegant.

I had a tussy mussy made for Eddie's mother to carry, instead of the usual Mother of the Groom corsage. It was nearly idential to Anastasia's, except that her's had five roses and curly willow and Mary's only contained three roses and no curly willow. Additionally, I had a tussy mussy made for Vivian, made using just purple Asters and wrapped in silver wire. All the silver plated tussy mussy holders came with charms that we had engraved with the recipents name on one side and our wedding date, on the other. Eddie's grandmother, a last minute attendee, carried a tussy mussy that was just wrapped with ribbon for the handle that we had added to our order the day prior to our wedding day.

Because we had invited a small number of guests, many whom were close but extended family, I decided to just have flowers for immediate family and chose more feminine boutonnieres made for Eddie's two sisters to wear on their dresses instead of the usual corsages. Both sisters boutonnieres had an Amazon rose and a purple Aster, wrapped and looped with silver wire.

Eddie's father and his two nephews all wore boutonnieres of an Amazon rose with silver wire. Our nephews each had a boutonniere, too, because they handed out maracas to our wedding guests near the end of the ceremony (as well as being the only nephews in attendance).

I had boutonnieres made of purple Asters and wrapped and looped with silver wire for those friends who played a special role in our wedding ceremony. This included my dear friend Nancy who did two poetry readings, Steve who cued the recorded music required for the processionals and recessionals as well as playing the guitar and singing during the service, and Mike who performed our wedding ceremony for us (his wife, Vivian, the recipient of a matching purple Aster tussy mussy bouquet mentioned earlier).

Finally, I had boutonnieres made of greenery and wrapped and looped with silver wire for our two wedding day coordinators, sisters Pat and Lucy.

My Bridal Bouquet

The English have an affinity and knack for beautiful flowers at their weddings. I had picked up a beautiful seasonal English wedding floral magazine at the bookstore to give me some ideas and inspiration for my bridal bouquet.

When I saw this bridal bouquet, I fell head-over-heels in love with it! Plus, it showcased the Gloriosa lilies which I had already decided to incorporate into our wedding floral choices.

My version contained Casablanca lilies as the main floral flower, with Gloriosa lilies as the accent color. Snake grass bent into squared shapes copied the magazine image and curly willow pulled in the ceremony arrangements to tie the wedding flowers together. Lesson learned: the florist didn't finish the backside of the floral holder as I had requested and its plastic construction was visible in many of the pre-wedding portraits I had taken on the grand staircase. Covering the back of the holder in white satin ribbon may not be a big deal for some, but for me, it was. I'm all about the details, even if they are only going to be seen by a select few.

Another view of my bridal bouquet. I am also holding the dendrobium orchid "lasso" (lei) we used in the ceremony. A second lesson learned, the lasso/lei were two strands of orchids loosely tied together. I'd explained to the florist when placing my order how we were going to be using it during the ceremony. However, the florist didn't secure the two sections tightly enough, together, and it separated on one side during the unity ceremony. Eeek!

Down The Aisle in My Own Unique Style

I walked down the aisle to a David Bowie song for my wedding processional.

I know, how cool is that?!

Both Eddie and I are huge Bowie fans and I knew I wanted something different to play than "Here Comes The Bride"...

So I chose "5:15 The Angels Have Gone" which had a marvelous beginning, perfect walking tempo and swelling musical emotion before Mr. Jones began to croon. The song has a synthesizer break at the start, which aligned perfectly with my stepping out onto the balcony in a "ta da!" moment before beginning my walk down the aisle. I made a point of stopping by the hotel once I knew I wanted to use this song, and I counted the number of steps out of the foyer onto the balcony and then down to the front so I could make sure there was enough time for everything without feeling rushed.

It was perfect!

We included this beautiful song on our wedding CD that we gave to our guests, which included all the songs used in our wedding, reception and dinner.

You can listen to the song here.

A Menu for All Senses

I'm pointing to our name on the directory at the Four Seasons. We were there to have our wedding dinner tasting, including the wines we wanted to serve. Looking back, the tasting was a great way to experience our wedding dinner, since on our actual wedding day, we didn't eat much from nerves and excitement and the whirlwind of making sure we hit all our scheduled wedding milestones (after ceremony photography, first dance, toasts, cake cutting).




Our first course, a cold smoked, cured and candied salmon with mustard dill sauce.




Spiced butternut squash soup with maple, pumpkin oil and toasted pine nuts...

Missing, is a picture of our salad course, which was spinach and arugula with roasted walnut and anjou pears, seared foi gras, with a dried cranberry dressing.




Colorado lamb rack with leek and asiago cabernet whipped potatoes, tarragon jus.

The chef gushed to us about how excited he was to see (and to prepare) our menu for our tasting and our upcoming wedding. Normally, he confided, most bride and grooms go the safe route of chicken (and often, do a buffet). But he complimented us on our "adventuous" choices! We replied, we just loved food and wanted to share an amazing meal with those people we loved on our big day.




As you can see, I was never very far from my trusty note pad and sketch pad...

Attendant Attire

I never have understood why some women out there would asked their closest friends (and/or siblings) to be a member of their wedding party, and then dress them in some hideous outfit. How obnoxious and mean is that?  Of course, we could arm chair diagnois that this is classic Bridezilla behavior, of not wanting to share the spotlight on their wedding day. Yet I knew that for our wedding, I wanted our attendants to look as beautiful as possible, and that we would provide their outfits for them as their gift from us for being in our wedding.

As we were having a small wedding, we each only had an attendant each. I knew whom I wanted to my Maid of Honor, my oldest friend, met on the first day of high school.  I knew right away, right after I got engaged and asked her to be my MOH, that I wanted to put her in an iridescent orange and pink silk. The color would be gorgeous on her with her coloring, and perfect for the fall wedding we were planning.

My original inspiration was this dress I saw in a magazine on Renee Zellweger designed by the impeccable Carolina Herrera:

It's not very easy to see, but it was a simple and classic silhouette from the 1950's, fitted, sleeveless bodice and full, tea-length skirt. Ultra-feminine!

My scrapbook shows the two patterns I used to get the "bones" of each of the garmets constructed. I originally planned to make Jill's dress from the full-skirted option on the Retro Butterick re-issue pattern.

However, Butterick didn't re-size the original pattern for the modern woman, so the bodice I'd make for Jill, was way too small for her! I kept the skirt portion, but created a simple bateau neck, Princess-seamed bodice to attach to it for her, instead.

For Anastasia's dress (she was my husband's "Best Woman") I wanted to make her something that went with the vintage and retro cocktail-vibe we were planning for our wedding overall, but I also wanted her dress to compliment my husbands tuxedo. The Vogue Easy Options sundress pattern was perfect for this.

I found a fabulous black jacquard fabric at the fabric store, and bought some black semi-matte satin fabric to make the waistband and the double lapel detail that I added to the dress on my own to give the dress a tuxedo look. The jacquard had a puckery-embossed effect and was easy to work with and looked beautiful once finished.  The rhinestone and black enamel buttons at the front waist were beyond perfect!

I added a flat, squared black bow at the base of the bodice back for decoration and to reference the style of bows from the 1950's. Okay, truth be told and lesson learned, I had to conceal the waistband seams since they did not match up after I installed the invisible zipper. This is a common complaint with invisible zippers as it relates to home sewing. They disappear into the garmet seams so you don't see them, but trying to match up any cross seams can be a nightmare. Fortunately, this flat and squared bow hid the mis-matched seam and added to the beauty of the finished garment.

The inside was lined in satin and trimmed in leopard ribbon.

The finished result!  Black hose, black net tulle underskirt that showed under her dress, black gloves and low kitten-heeled, ankle-strapped shoes with diamond-look buckles finished the look, perfectly.!

Jill tries on her dress a month before the wedding so I can see how it fits and looks with the gloves and her shoes. (Apologies for the blurry photos!) You can see I hadn't decided on the waist decoration at this point, yet.

The final result. I gave her a net underskirt that peeked out, too. That and the same shoe style for her and Anastasia created unity and cohesion between their outfits.

Another lesson learned: Jill's shoes proved a challenge. Since her dress was a weave of orange and hot pink silk fibers (that gave a gold iridescent sheen) having her shoes match or blend in was harder than I anticipated. I took a sample of fabric with the shoes to the shoe repair to be dyed, where they assured me they would match the goldish orange in the fabric sample. Instead, when I picked them up, they were bright, bright orange and looked completely wrong with her dress. I remedied the situation by buying some gold fabric paint at the craft store, and literally painted it on her shoes. (Her shoes were a combination crepe toe box and heel with satin trim, heel and ankle straps.)  Surprisingly, the gold fabric paint when brushed over the orange dye job, turned into the perfect shade and matched up to her dress, beautifully!

I was so pleased with the end result, that I painted another pair of satin mules that I wore for the rehearsal dinner in orange paint and then painted them again with gold to get the same result as Jill's.

My final detail for Jill's dress, a rectangular rhinestone buckle I'd originally intended for a belt for her dress, repurposed within a 1950's inspired bow decoration (thank you, Jackie O. First Lady fashions coffee table book I own and consulted for reference and inspiration!).