Sunday, March 2, 2008

I now pronounce you...

You know how with every dude (or potential dude) you get (or potentially get) you have a totally different concept of the perfect wedding? Or maybe it was just me.
Anyway, for one dude I had this idea that the perfect wedding would be sort of an anti-wedding. The beach ceremony would be performed by an Elvis impersonator (in sparkly white jumpsuit, natch) who would pronounce us man and wife and then maybe strike a pose, lip curled and hips thrust, disco finger outstretched in a move that would make John Travolta green with envy. The music would be provided by a mariachi band, who would bust out once in a while with a classically anti-love song. If we could prevent the food from getting filled with sand (my mom and step dad were married on the beach, and it was a huge fiasco trying to keep the sand out of the food) there would be chocolate dipped strawberries, lobster, and fondue. Basically the most impossible to consume foods imaginable. He'd be in casual, possibly plaid. I'd be in a tea-length pink eyelet dress.
Well, that dude didn't pan out, and I ended up marrying a much nicer dude while dressed in crimson in a ceremony which didn't involve Elvis, mariachi, or sand, but this dress reminds me of that "perfect" little anti-wedding I envisioned once upon a time.
*sigh* oh, the possibilities...

This dress also started life as a much longer gown. I showed it, but the model that was going to wear it was switched into another outfit at the last minute, leaving this poor dress on a much smaller, shorter girl, whom it hadn't been hemmed for. It just dragged on the ground a lot. I was terribly... well, not upset, at that point in the game I was merely resigned to whatever fate it was destined for. After the show I had it dry cleaned, and then chopped off the entire bottom of the gown, including the perfectly aligned train I had so carefully executed, and re-hemmed it to a one-size-fits-all tea-length. I have to say, with Spring quickly approaching, that I am happier with it this way than I would have been reworking the entire bottom half of the dress to salvage it from runway marks. As a side note, this dress involved so much more hand work than I had anticipated, from sewing the gores into the hem to attaching the piping and binding at the top, so many hours of hand stitching went into this that even I was surprised. It's going to be posted for sale in my Etsy store on Monday, so wish it luck. It would really love to be a sweet sun dress or someone's beloved bridal ensemble.
It wouldn't mind the Church of Elvis one bit.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

oh my! i felt so sad reading how you had to chop the hem off that lovely dress!

but it does look so pretty as a tea dress as well. i giggled a lot reading about the anti-wedding...so fun! i would have loved one like that. pity i got myself marrieded off already!

Nnairda's said...

The dress is beautiful. Good luck! I know whoever get's it will love the story behind it.