you, me and dupree wedding dress...how it was made!

I've been meaning to do this post forever! We documented the creation of my Kate Hudson/You, Me and Dupree inspired wedding dress and wanted to share it with you all. It was a long process but the end result was absolutely perfect...besides having to walk a bit like a geisha...and everything I imagined for a breezy beach wedding!

{SIDENOTE: Since it was a dance costume shop that my seamstress worked at, the only time they could fit me in for fittings was around 8:30 am on Saturday mornings...please excuse my ugly, pale, pasty, tiredness...you wouldn't look good either after driving 40 minutes through snow and rain storms to get to your appointment at 8:30 am on a Saturday morning!!!}

So, to begin, after I initially went to talk with my very pregnant seamstress, Kristen Whitham, at Unique Dancewear & More Inc. about my desired dress, she took measurements and then I went in for my first fitting. Gotta say, was not quite the dress I had in mind!! She assured me this was trial of the lining of the dress in a very inexpensive fabric. Basically this was the template to make sure the structure would support the rest of the dress. Phew...

But then she showed me the fabric and I was happy and was able to imagine what it was going to end up looking like! It was a shiny silk lining with a very light, matte, sheer silk top layer. It was so beautiful!

Then came the second fitting. The right fabric, the right idea, but a little bit too much material! I felt like I was playing dress-up in someone else's dress!

So this was where I got the geisha idea!! Yes it looks good in the pictures, but a nice straight line does not make for easy walking! Oh the price we pay for fashion...

Third fitting...we added some sneaky straps that I could tuck into the dress in case I needed the extra security when dancing. In the end I didn't need them but I thought we were pretty clever!

In this fitting I still felt like there was too much fabric in the lower half, and also in an effort to put as little fabric as possible into the dress due to the impending Israeli heat, we attempted a shorter, thigh-length lining. However we noticed that you could actually see it and it cut-off the beautiful line of the dress making it yucky...crap!! So I ended up paying more money to have them add more expensive silk material to the lining so it went down to the floor.

I don't have pictures of the fourth fitting unfortunately but with the added length to the lining, as well having the excess fabric taken out, it looked like the dress I had wanted. However, when I got it home and tried it on again, I realized how hot that floor length silk lining was and started to freak out! This wasn't the light, airy dress I had in mind! But then Grandma Bloomer saved the day...taking a huge risk, she cut off the silk addition they had just added and re-attached one of those $5 flimsy slips with the bit of lace at the bottom that you can buy at Walmart, and low and behold it did the trick! No ugly line, light and airy and a whopping $195 cheaper than the wasted fabric addition!! Oh Grandma Bloomer, you're my hero. Totally wish I had mentioned this problem to her before I paid the $200 extra for fabric I didn't need!

Voila! The finished product...light and breezy and perfect! Couldn't have been happier...