I recently attended the wedding of my brother’s best childhood friend Joe. I knew Joe’s bride Carey was planning on repurposing her soon to be mother-in-law Addie’s wedding dress as a reception dress. Once I saw the dress at the wedding I knew I had to do a blog post on it. The story is best told from the bride herself, so I give you the story of Addie’s wedding dress told by Carey.
I was never a girl who thought about my dream wedding. In fact, I always figured if I did get married it would be a pretty casual occasion and I’d wear a short dress. Well, those plans fell through when I fell in love with a Catholic boy who wanted to have a traditional ceremony.
Knowing I needed to wear a longer dress at the church, I was inspired by a friend who had recently gotten married and did her “first look” photos in a fun, short dress. That way the groom was still able to see her as a bride when she walked down the aisle for the first time, but they had the opportunity to take some fun photos before the ceremony. I had always thought my mother-in-law’s dress was gorgeous, though slightly dated, (understandable since it’s 40 years old) and when she mentioned that I was welcome to alter it, I jumped at the chance!
It fit fairly well to begin with, but she’s only 4′ 11″ and probably weighed about 100 pounds on her wedding day, so it was tight in the neck and arms. I knew I wanted to shorten the sleeves and the hem and alter the neckline, but otherwise I left a lot of the design in the hands of Margo at Eltsa Sewing in Seattle. It was her idea to follow the line of the original lace for a graduated hemline and I couldn’t have been happier with the finished product. I kept it a secret from Addie until the day of and her reaction was priceless! It was so fun to wear a dress that not only felt like me, but also meant something special to her.
Knowing I needed to wear a longer dress at the church, I was inspired by a friend who had recently gotten married and did her “first look” photos in a fun, short dress. That way the groom was still able to see her as a bride when she walked down the aisle for the first time, but they had the opportunity to take some fun photos before the ceremony. I had always thought my mother-in-law’s dress was gorgeous, though slightly dated, (understandable since it’s 40 years old) and when she mentioned that I was welcome to alter it, I jumped at the chance!
It fit fairly well to begin with, but she’s only 4′ 11″ and probably weighed about 100 pounds on her wedding day, so it was tight in the neck and arms. I knew I wanted to shorten the sleeves and the hem and alter the neckline, but otherwise I left a lot of the design in the hands of Margo at Eltsa Sewing in Seattle. It was her idea to follow the line of the original lace for a graduated hemline and I couldn’t have been happier with the finished product. I kept it a secret from Addie until the day of and her reaction was priceless! It was so fun to wear a dress that not only felt like me, but also meant something special to her.
Addie’s reaction to the dress is priceless
As you can see the dress turned out amazing, such a sweet story and a wonderful idea!
Cheers,
Jess
Cheers,
Jess
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