How We Made My Wedding Dress: The Prologue

When I was little, my mom designed and made custom wedding gowns out of our home.  She made over 100 wedding gowns, plus veils, bridesmaid dresses, mother of the bride dresses, and more!  I was little enough to not fully understand the work she was doing,  but it sure was fun having people over to play dress up all the time!

She eventually started a women's clothing store, then got into costuming, and is now interested in quilting (see her awesome patterns here), but she always vowed to make one more dress - mine!

I had seen dresses I liked on TV and in magazines, but we wanted to have me try on a few to see what styles best flattered my body and tastes.  Over Thanksgiving, we visited two stores in the Atlanta area to get inspiration!

I tried on about 50 dresses between the two shops, and actually almost bought one at the first store.  It was beautiful, neither of us would change a thing about it, and it was priced reasonably.  However, at the second store I really liked some qualities of another dress and couldn't get it out of my mind.  So the solution?  Design a totally unique dress combining the best parts of both!

Mom is headed to the garment district of LA this week to look for fabric, and then she'll start making the pattern!  She's planning to make a practice dress in black so she'll have a better estimate of the yardage required.  It'll be in black so I'll have a beautiful ball gown on hand!  Can't wait!!!

Some inspiration:

Dress 1
Dress 2
Dress 4

Bonnie Projects