The Recipe

Setting out to make your own wedding dress is a pretty big undertaking and, to be very honest, if I didn't have a partner in crime, I'd have no idea where to even start. I want to know though. What ARE the steps to making your own wedding gown?

Throughout my journey of turning this dream into a reality I'll keep updating this "Recipe" so that by the time I'm done, every step we took will be baked into this blog. Below is how we are getting started. Updates to follow :)

Ingredients:
1. Design or Idea
2. 1 Pattern for your design or idea
3. 1 Dress Form
4. 1 Seamstress, Amazing Future Mother-in-Law, or Sewing Machine
5. Yards of Material as determined by your pattern
6. Non-sentimental Extras: Zippers, decals, boobie pads etc.
7. Sentimental Extras: Mom's wedding dresses, something old, new, borrowed, blue
8. Helpers or Elves

9. Fitness (optional)
10. Expectation Management (optional)


1. Design or Idea
I took a day and went with my Mom and my future Mother-in-Law (Nancy) to try on dresses. Before this I had kind of a general idea of things I liked and even had something in mind that I was hoping to find. After perusing the racks I tried one on that I thought would be the winner and then I saw the "fairy princess dress." This is the dress I wanted mine to be based on as soon as I saw it. Nancy even snapped the perfect picture of the moment I looked at myself in the mirror with it on for the first time. The expression on my face says it all... That was the winner.

2. Dress Pattern

After determining the winner we had to find a dress pattern that somewhat resembled the general shape of what we were going for. This turned out to be a our first challenge. I spent many days scouring the internet for something that had the shape I was looking for. I finally came across a pink nightmare that, with minor alterations, would work perfectly. The pattern provides the exact shape for the underpiece of my dress. The overlay of my dress will be made of a really soft tulle that will mask the lace transition shown in the pattern and give it the fitted look through the hips and seamlessly flow into the rest of the gown. This overlay will also provide the straps that are simply an extension of the tulle tied in a knot. Super simple but extremely beautiful.

3.  Dress Form
If you have chosen the seamstress route, she probably has the form and you won't need to worry about this but if you're DIYing it then this is really important. After putting a plea on Facebook for a form that we could use for a few months, Nancy's roommate from college, Gwen, offered us the use of hers that adjusts so changing sizes would be no sweat. You can also find these online but if you're not planning on making any other dresses, it is really helpful to have someone amazingly kind offer to lend you one. Thank you Gwen!!

4. Seamstress, Amazing Future Mother-in-Law, or Sewing Machine

Me and Nancy

This ingredient is the most important one. Nancy is my Wedding Gown Guru for this project. She is awesome for even agreeing to take this on with me and I can't tell you how grateful I am to have her in my life.... and also for raising an amazing man that I get to grow old with. It seems a little agregious to imply in my ingredients list that you could just replace her with a measly sewing machine and I, in fact, don't think that is possible. If you have the knowledge of how to sew and use a pattern though, you have a Nancy in your own head and that's pretty cool. All the power to you and your sewing machine. For me though, I wouldn't trade her for a factory or anything else. She is going to teach me how to fish.. and by fish I mean make a wedding dress and that's quite a bit more complicated I think. Nonetheless, its the thought that counts and I hope one day I can help someone make something so special like she is doing for me.

5. Material
There is so much fabric to choose from! With an August wedding in mind I knew I wanted something that would be light and airy but still firm enough to give me the shape of the dress that I tried on. I went with a cotton blend for the underneath and a soft tulle for the overlay. Neither of these were "bridal" fabric specifically but they do have that kind of thing available but it tends to be pricier. This part of the recipe is all about personal preference. I recommend going to a fabric place so you can touch it and see how the fabric all looks together. When it comes time to actually purchase the fabric I recommend checking it out online. I found the exact fabric I found in the store for almost half the cost on the store's website. This is a great way to save some money without sacrificing anything at all!

6.  Extra Tidbits
After a quick online search Nancy was able to find the leaf decals from the original dress I tried on and they were not very expensive at all. Other than that we have not purchased any of these other extra's yet but, again, this is where the internet will be your bestie. I recommend searching online outlets first for what you're looking for that will bring your design to life.

7.  Sentimental Tidbits

Mom and Me

I wasn't crazy about the applique in the center of the dress I tried on. I wanted to something a little less blingy and a little more organic. This was an excellent opportunity to incorporate pieces of my Mom's wedding dress. Her dress has a beautiful embroidery applique made of crawling flowers that I plan to disassemble and then reorient onto my dress. I think this will give the dress a gorgeous sentimental uniqueness that I wouldn't have been able to do without the opportunity to make my own dress. I'm looking forward to this part most of all and I will dish on all the details in a blog post once we get to this step.

8.  Helpers and Elves
I'm not sure how one entices elves to be helpers in a project like this but I've heard cream goes a long way in attracting them. Luckily I have a few human helpers that are going to assist with the sewing on of the little leaf decals and other such steps. My Mom, Nancy, Aunt Laurie, and others are going to be called on to help with this. I plan to make it sort of like a book club where we have snacks and drinks and spend the day chatting and sewing. I envision this as a sort of throwback to the kind of get-togethers that made Tupperware and Pampered Chef parties so exciting when I was a kid.

9. Fitness
Over the past 2 years I've made a considerable effort to get my weight under control. This is something I've struggled with my whole life but I feel like I've made some seriously awesome improvements. I have 15 more pounds to lose to reach my goal I set two years ago and I am absolutely confident that it won't add stress to this dress making process. I think that something that could easily ruin a project like this so if fitness is in your plan I recommend making that the first step in your plan so you have plenty of time to get your body into the shape you want it for the dress you want. If you try to do it while you're making the dress you run the risk of being hangry and I think that is the cause of at least 46% of bridezillas.Remember... If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong...

10. Expectation Management
Want a Vera Wang look? Then shell out the however hundreds of thousands of dollars Vera asks for because she's a professional and if you expect to look like a Vera bride then this path probably isn't for you. I have no interest in any of the ideals that those traditional dresses stand for and I am going to feel beautiful in whatever dress I wear and I'm going to be proud to wear it. That's what it's all about. I'm going to look amazing in this dress, no matter what it looks like. Is that conceited? Probably and I don't give a rip because if ever there was a time that I need to look at myself and say " you are f!@#ing gorgeous!" my wedding day is it and no harm can come of me being conceited on that day.

Those are the basics. As we continue I'll be documenting each stage and giving more detail about how we went about each step. 

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
Week 2