Wedding Details: The Red Dress
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 11:29AM While we wait for the Wedding Ceremony video to edited, we will post details about the making of the wedding. These upcoming posts are not only for your edification but to serve as an online memory book of odds and ends from the wedding.
For as long as I had envisioned my wedding I had never imagined myself wearing a traditional white wedding gown. Not that there was anything wrong with a white wedding dress, I just knew that was not what I would wear on my wedding day. In high school I thought it would be neat to have a winter themed wedding in Tahoe and I dreamed of an ice blue ball gown. In college I flip-flopped between a Hawaiian or a Baroque themed wedding. As cool as I thought it would be to wear a colorful hibiscus sarong I did not know how I would convince family and friends to fly to O'ahu for the weekend. Nevermind a french baroque themed wedding, as it would have literally made us broke (har).
We agreed in 2009 that our theme colors would be red & black and that the ceremony would be held in San Francisco. As we researched reception locations the theme came to us naturally, Neo-Victorian.
I started conversing with Arlene Terrell of WidowsWeeds.com some time after New Years. When I thought that I would never find a local seamstress to create my red wedding gown I happened to stumble upon a very beautiful collection of historically accurate Victorian era mourning gowns.
Lovely mourning gown
Grey suit detailThe skirt detail of the above grey suit is what convinced me to contact Arlene post haste and inquire about making my red dress. The amazing attention to detail and her deftness working with modern fabrics gave me enough information to tell me that this woman knows exactly what she's doing.
By mid August, Arlene completed my red gown. We conversed only via email, never met in person and ALL measurements were made with the help of the ladies of Dark Garden corsetry and a well traveled test bodice.
Front
Holy Crap! Look at that train!!!
You may have also saw on occasion that I let my voluminous petticoat peek out from beneath the dress (how scandalous). It was made for me by Etsy seamstress, Dawn's Atelier. She managed to create the rainbow, 6 tiered petticoat 2 weeks before the wedding. I failed miserably at finding a floor length petticoat on Haight & Ashbury that I could dye at home. I love it so and hope to find another excuse to wear it again.
It was so hot underneath!
Reader Comments (1)
wow, so beautiful,Great design ,i love those dress,Thanks for your sharing