lace and silk and fine lil' things

wow, it's been many months since i have updated this...i've finally narrowed down my fabrics for my dress from a pile of all sorts of beautiful things to just a few, that look nice and classic and simple...i've been working a lot, and so not a whole ton to update on here.

here's what i have so far in regards to the gown...lace v-neck with lace capsleeves and silk dupioni skirt....only the bodice is really assembled, the rest is pinned on....but it's neat to finally see it come together:


yesterday we spent the day driving around the santa barbara area looking at park venues. we thought something nice and lush would be nice. there are still a few places up in ojai we need to look at, as well as the alice keck gardens which we missed in SB, but i think we might have found our spot. i just need to do some calling around to see if it's available for the date we need.

we sat down yesterday at dinner and discussed the 'guest list'. originally it was just going to be immediate family (isn't that always how it starts? ) and looks like we're going to have more people than expected. It should either diffuse any tension amongst everyone....or make matters worse. LOL. we'll see! but it made me start thinking about how I'd like to do the invites...

I remember stumbling across some really neat art noveau invitations on someones blog earlier this year. it was a nice simple linear frame with a waterlily or some sort of flora near the bottom. and so i have that in mind....and i would like to incorporate some gold leaf as well. make it look as vintage as possible....

sorta along the lines of this layout (from unitipress):

honeymoon

...i think we might have decided on putting our savings for a week trip to hawaii....one of the smaller islands....nice!

ring....

.....thursday march 18....1/2 carat diamond solitaire in a classic tiffany setting....

something old....

pearls....my birthstone and something i adore in vintage jewlery. when i first started dating my fiance, he gave me this darling lil pearl ring surrounded by tiny lil diamonds....i admit that sadly it's been through the mill, as they say. it has a scratch on it, but it holds a lot of memories...

dresses....

i think perhaps after becoming eye-strained going over hundreds of wedding dress sites, weddings for dummies pages, some amazing DIY blogs...i've found a style that i think pretty much nails down the look im going for....





open back, bias skirt....lace....i like the tied waist as well....and lil cap sleeves. i thought at first maybe i wanted strapless....but as good as strapless works, it's also a pain in the butt. unless it's literally skin tight, that corset top likes to shimmy on down eventually and you're pulling it up, trying to get the boobs in right, all that. so i's honestly the last thing i want to have to worry about...straps and lil lace cap sleeves ensure there will be no fidgeting...


i think monique lhuillier really nailed it...so now it's just a case of finding the right fabric and lace to pull it off...

a dress

when i was a little girl, my mom used to do wedding dress alterations....it's how she started out with her business, which now mainly consists of upholstery and slip covers. She liked doing wedding dresses....she made her own in fact from a mccals pattern from the 60's....but also was mixed about it all. brides can be very fickle creatures....from gaining and losing weight, so changing their minds on dresses all together at the last second, so oh so many things.

my mom did everything from wedding dress alterations, to wedding dresses from scraps, to bridesmaids in every different size. She used to have fittings done at our home, and I remember silently watching in fascination as brides would come in with their stacks of bridal magazines and post it notes....of which i got to flip through over and over again after they left. The princess ideal was there: full skirts, mermaid skirts, lace upon miles of lace. I started fashion design drawing from the pages of wedding magazines. I used to want to design them. There was just something so special about the yards of white silk and the sequins and lace.

funny, because now, so much of that just doesn't appeal to me. So much of it is just pageant gown and over the top to me. I've been to two weddings, never thinking I'd actually be a bride one of these days. The first was my older sisters, with a pirate theme. The second, the most to the T classic religious wedding you could possibly imagine straight down to the vows and abstinence that follows. Two completely opposite ceremonies, and neither one similar to what I have in mind for my own.

I've always loved times past. I think over the years I have finally been able to nail it down to that time period between 1900 and 1940. That time which I probably should have been born in, instead of now. The time of the death cult victorians, to the breach from corsets and the up stir of human rights. The time of the follies and of breast binding and of flappers. of jazz and paris and art noveau and gustave klimt. A time of upheaval, a time of war, a time of loved ones going off in woolen green uniforms, some to return, some not, the longing always present. The attention to detail always there...

I collect antiques and vintage clothing and fabrics. I have an enire drawer devoted to laces I have picked up for the past 10 years or so....and I'm kinda trying to bring all those things of past together to help weave this thing I am doing about a year from now.

As far as dresses go, I think I want something old....or looks that way. My favorite thing ever is a bias cut dress, and silk charmeuse creates that so beautifully. I have a dress from a japanese family I picked up at a flea market from 1931 i think...gorgeous hand-done bias cut. I am deeply considering cutting a pattern from it and elaborating upon something like it so perfect with yards of lace and tulle...

in my weekly searches on google....i've only stumbled across a few dresses that actually appeal to me....which is a bit shocking to me, as I thought if i started looking, I'd be overwhelmed with options...

i love the silouette on this one in particular, but i think it might be rather uncomfortable since it's so form fitting:


this is a bit more classic, bu then again, perhaps a bit too simple...from jcrew:



this is vintage, from the 1940's....still a bit too classic, but gives a really neat idea of things you can do with details....




and of course, these are not designer, but vintage, and are closer to what i would love to wear that anything else:

im engaged....

as of sometime around midnight thursday...october 8!
the first few days were a haze, i had too much sirah to drink that nite, but it was good haze. we had lunch with my fiances side of the family that sunday and i told my mom saturday...and now i am starting to think of all the technicalities....and so i figure a blog might just be the best way to organize myself through this whole process. wish me luck!