Wedding Business: The Bridesmaid Dresses

So I suppose with all my excuses about not updating as much due to wedding business I should probably start putting my money where my mouth is and actually show you what I've been doing all these months.

First up, the Bridesmaid Dresses. I would show you my wedding dress, but as it's staying a secret from Mr. Fiance I'll just have to post about it the day after the wedding... which is 8 WEEKS AWAY. Holy what? Did I just write that? I did. There's so much still to do! Darn handmade weddings...

Anyways, we'll worry about that later. Back to business here. First the girlies. When I first started discussing the wedding with Mr. Fiance he let me know that he really wanted to wear tails. He is one of the few men I know who owns his own tuxedo and wears it on a fairly regular basis for networking and so on. He wanted to wear something special for his wedding and so this whole idea of the tails was born.

This of course meant that the girls (including me) would need to be in full length gowns. Let me tell you how fun it is to find a flattering full length gown these days, particularly one that would go with my somewhat unique wedding gown. So the search began.

In January I flew up to New York where my mother and sister reside. We planned a day long shopping trip that took us all over Saratoga Springs and the surrounding area. We met up with one of my Bridesmaids, Bradlea, and another good (and honest) friend of mine, Jen, and off we went.

Bradlea and my sister tried on mmmm..... maybe 25 gowns or so for me. Honestly it probably could have been more considering we spent an entire 8 hours shopping. Eventually we stumbled across this little gem by accident. I only pulled it out of the rack because it happened to be the only sample in the color I was looking for (an iridescent non-blingy gold) and I wanted to check the color on the girls.

The Beautiful Mrs. Bradlea who was just married in November. She is modeling Bari Jay 233.

The dress was really cute, had sleeves (a key criterion for me), and was sampled in the exact color I wanted. Someone was telling me to buy this dress. We tried on a few more dresses for giggles, but I had pretty much made up my mind after seeing this one. A few days later I had my girls go ahead and order this style.

Here are the images used on Bari Jay's website. This poor girl has been photo-shopped to within an inch of her life, poor thing. I don't think these images do the dress justice at all, but it is enough to give you a general idea of what the gown looks like.

Mr. Fiance if you are reading this stop now. I'm about to give away a spoiler here. For everyone else, another key reason why I enjoyed these dresses is they have the same short quasi train in the back as my gown. They match perfectly with my dress down to the weight of the fabric. These dresses are chiffon, my gown is organza so they both have a very light airy quality to them. I am very excited to see these on my girls come October!

Wedding Business: Save the Dates

Somewhere along the way I decided that I wanted to be "crafty" with my wedding. This was all well and good until I remembered the size of my guest list, but luckily I've got some lovely ladies in my life who have been more than helpful with all my crazy schemes.

First scheme.  Save the Dates.

I started making these about a week ago with my friend and bridesmaid Stacey, but we spent most of the session coming up with the design and color arrangement. So this saturday my little sister flew down from New York to finish them up with me (as well as handle other maid-of-honor duties).

It took us about half a season of TrueBlood, but we managed to get all the save-the-dates done in one evening. She stamped, I addressed, and we still liked each other at the end of the day.

Here I am at about 12pm after destroying my living room and going on our second mysterious coffee company run. There you can see one of my traditional working faces. The other one is with my tongue hanging out and is decidedly less attractive. Yes, Readers, I confess. I am a tongue sticker-outer when I sew, but since I was only addressing I used my head tapping lip puckering concentration face.

The save the dates weren't overly complicated. I hit the craft store and picked out a few different stamps that I liked. One batch of letters, one pack of swirls and a nifty humming bird stamp that caught my eye. I used three different colors of ink in three different textures. One metallic gold stamp pad, one goldish chalk texture pad, and a little kid's washable yellow ink. All the other yellows I found just were not bright enough so I'm just praying that no one gets these wet because that ink is going to run.

Interesting fact. Briana loved stamps when she was kid. As a result she has excellent stamping skills. No missing pieces just good solid stamp lines 97% of the time. Best of all she works for free.

In any case the next step was to get some paper. I picked up some index card weight paper at the office supply store, designed the postcard face and printed them out. We went with post cards mainly for economy's sake. The stamps were cheaper ($0.44 - $0.28 x a ton of cards =savings!) and I didn't need to purchase envelopes. I managed to make each save the date cost me $0.63 including the postage. The cheapskate frugal gal in me did the happy money saved dance. Now I can afford to spend a little more on formal invitations which is great because I really want to have foiling or raised gold lettering.

This is about the time Briana's stamping arm was ready to give out. 

So we took a coffee break. In case you are wondering it was delicious and energizing and that definitely had nothing to do with the two shots of espresso I had them add. 

And ended up with these. Over 100 Save the dates, all hand stamped and hand addressed. I feel very accomplished. I'm also really happy with them. Simple, in my colors, cheap, and special because we made them ourselves.

Best of all is the color of the bird matches the flowers our florist picked out for us.

These roses were huge! 3 inches across at least. I would have brought more flowers home, but everything else in the bouquets are not in season. It was really important to me that we used fall flowers since that's my favorite season for flowers. And speaking of flowers I'll have to post some pictures of my Georgia flower garden. Just for the record you can totally plant things in red clay and somehow they grow.

New information on an inspiration post and LOTS of updates!

Hello, Dearest Readers! I've got quite a few updates for you today! First, and most exciting of all is that I was contacted by Ms. Mady Genco Nichas about a post I had made back in August. I had posted this photo of Ms. Mady's Grandmother and Grandfather's wedding.

Apparently someone in Ms. Mady's family found this blog and showed it to Mrs. Vita Genco (the Bride). Mrs. Vita wasn't able to contact me directly, but Ms. Mady gave me all sorts of info on this photo and I really wanted to share it with all of you. When I posted the photo and my questions from Mrs. Vita's wedding I never expected to hear about the wedding especially from the Bride herself! I just thought the info was too cool not to share with all of you.

Ms. Mady tells me that the wedding was in 1952. Mrs. Vita's mother made the wedding dress and all the Bridesmaid's dresses. That's seven full gowns, quite the accomplishment in my eyes! Everyone looks so beautiful. Mrs. Vita's mother was obviously an amazing seamstress because those gowns look fantastic. I especially love Mrs. Vita's gown because of that fantastic train. Ms. Mady tells me the train was so long because it represented her purity. How cool is that! I had no idea that there was still a connection between train length and purity in the 1950s. I had known about a similar tradition in the late 1800s, but I did not know that tradition extended as late as the 1950s. I guess the explains the trend towards long trains in the 1920s and 1930s as well.

The best part of Ms. Mady's information? The color of the bridesmaid dresses of course! I'm told that they were lilac so my guess of pastel pink or blue was pretty close. Thank you so much for sharing all that information with us Ms. Mady and Mrs. Vita!

After geeking out on that bit of information I guess I should move on to the rest of the updates. Second on the list is that Ms. Lisette at What Would Nancy Drew Wear? is doing another sew-along. This time she's tackling a Sense & Sensibility ensemble.

I wouldn't exactly call this sew-along a vintage sew along, but I'm a total Jane Austin geek so I enrolled myself. If you're worried about the complexity of this project don't be. Ms. Lisette has giving her sew-along a nice slow pace. The patterns are a little pricey, but they're actually quite reasonable for reproduction patterns. So if you're interested in one of these cute ensembles for yourself head on over there and let Ms. Lisette know.

And don't forget that Ms. Tasia is running her Sewaholic Pendrell blouse sew-along right now and Ms. Gertie is mid-way through her Crepe sew-along.

Third on my update list is that I spent the morning with some awesome folks from the Peachtree City Powercore team. Powercore is a really fantastic business networking group that Mr. Fiancé is a member of. They're a group of great professionals who provide fantastic services. They gave me some great ideas for future blog posts and put me in contact with some really interesting people. I can't tell you too much about what's going on because nothing is set in stone yet, but there are some really great sources of vintage and historical awesomeness around here in the near future.

Fourth: Don't forget that I'm giving away this free knitting pattern to anyone that mentions or links to $25 Vintage.

It could be in your facebook, on your twitter, in an email to a friend, or even on your own blog if you like. I've gone through and updated all the instructions, yardage requirements, gauge, added a terminology key, included a high resolution photo, and added my own little comments. It comes in a pretty pdf and is the first of $25 Vintage free pattern releases! Hurray! All you've got to do is leave a comment for me or copy me on the email and I'll get that pdf sent right to your inbox. 


But wait there's more! Fifth Point! We've reserved our church for the wedding! So reception venue, dress, and ceremony are all taken care of. My wedding is started to feel so real. I even spoke with someone this morning about ordering save-the-dates! 8.5 months to go!


And finally you have got to check out the hilarity over at Molly's Garage Sale Adventures. She's making this:

with that fabric. It's so fantastic it hurts!

Have a great day everyone!

Updates, updates, updates

Point 1. Look what I picked up yesterday!

A super cute pillow from Mrs. Eleanor over at Unfamiliar Ceiling. You might remember Mrs. Eleanor from the Ruby Shorts Sew-along a few months back. She's also one of the recipients of a secret surprise if I ever make it over to the UPS store. Things have been nuts around here, but I suppose that's the holidays. With the layoff my whole world got turned upside-down and we're still trying to righten ourselves. Don't get me wrong- I love seeing family and friends over the Holidays! But darn if I haven't had a night at home since November...

But anyways this cute little pillow is going right into my sewing room. It's really too cute. If you like this pillow I suggest you check out her etsy store. I especially love her line of Matryoshka plush dolls.

So cute! I think these would be cute stocking stuffers for a little girl (or not so little girl) that you know. This month has been a little rough for her family and I'm sure they would appreciate any business you could send their way.

Point 2!

The New Vintage Lady posted a nice tutorial about dying your own cotton stockings. I actually didn't know that dyed stockings were popular for young ladies in the 1940s. Awesome!

Point 3!

Regan over at Stitch-In-My-Side is running a Burdastyle sew-along. If you've never read any of Regan's tutorials you totally should. They're very clear and she includes lots and lots of pictures. The subject for this sew-along is the Marie skirt. It's a free pattern so it's a great way to use up some of those misc yards of fabric you've got lying around.

I plan on jumping into this thing, but I've got my own ideas about how I want mine to look. I've already decided to replace the waistband with some wide elastic, but I'm really looking forward to Regan's tutorials and howtos. Oh and did I mention the pattern is free? How can you say no to that?


Point 4!

I might have found THE dress while wedding gown shopping last night. I can't post a photo because Fiancé reads this blog from time to time, but I can tell you it has a great Hollywood feel to it. I've got a few more shops to hit before I make the purchase so it may not be the one, but I'm feeling pretty confident about this one.

New York Trip Part 2

Part 1

Friday we hopped in the car and drove up to Albany for Bradlea and Mike's wedding. 

Fiance enjoyed snapping some photos of the city as we drove in. He's only been to New York a handful of times and this was his first trip to the Capitol. Albany is an old city and has some awesome architecture. I think the building above is an administrative building at SUNY Albany.

We arrived at the church about an hour early. I've gotten to used to the Atlanta traffic. I expect any trip undertaken during rush hour to take an additional hour to complete. This isn't really the case in Albany, NY. It's a small city and it's pretty easy to navigate.  So my excellently executed leave-early-because-of-traffic plan was a bust.

We putzed around outside for a bit, but went inside once we started to get cold. Not that it was blisteringly cold by any stretch. It was actually in the 50s that day, but there was a lot of wind. That and I am southern folk now. 

The inside of the church was cute. Bradlea only had a few of these simple bouquets hung around the church, but they really gave the place a nice feel. Bradlea is a classy lady with classy tastes.

About 20 minutes later my bridesmaid and ex-college roommate Tiffany showed up. (She came to visit a few months ago you may recall). It was awesome to see her twice in one year and it was also great to see her boyfriend Kern who I hadn't seen in over two years. I like this photo of Kern. I call this look his "lecturing a bunch of bored college students" face.

The wedding kicked off at 4:30pm and was beautiful. Bradlea went for a long sheath dress with an empire waist. She looked absolutely beautiful.

Bradlea roomed with Tiffany and myself back in art school. Her Fiance Mike didn't technically live with us, but he slept at our place way more often than he slept at his own place. Their wedding took place on their 7th anniversary of dating. The ceremony was very sweet and I was able to hold in the tears, though my eyelashes did get stuck together with mascara. Wet eyes and all that.

After the ceremony we headed over to the reception hall. It was dark when we arrived, but we went back the next morning to snap a picture of the outside of the building. The reception venue is an old converted bank. It was built in 1927. Can we say vintage geek out? The walls and floor are marble and there were these great deco carvings and light fixtures inside. I'm pretty sure someone had to remind me not to stare more than once that evening.

We partook in some of the libations and then went to find the crew. We spent most of the night with our table mates Tiffany and the beautiful Jen. Jen was an honorary member of the old apartment crew. She even put up with our crazy Spice Girls Halloween costume idea.

Halloween 2006, the Riverknoll 35 crew. Renata as Baby Spice, Tiffany as Sporty Spice, yours truly as Ginger Spice, Bradlea (the bride) as Scary Spice and Jen as Posh Spice. Good times, good embarrassing times. 

 

After some awesome food and cocktails the bride and groom arrived and had their first dance. There may or may not have been more wet eyes and sticky mascara on my part.

This picture gives you some idea of the inside of the old building. It was gorgeous. We danced and partied way too long into the night.

The Mrs

 

 and the Mr.

And yes I totally made them stop their wedding rounds and snap a few pictures with me. I'm like that. How do you all like my 1950s red satin wiggle dress with pearls? It's one of my favorites.

New York Trip Part 1

Hey all! How have you been? I've been fantastic. Today was a great day and it looks like things are turning around for the better. Hurray!

I want to thank you guys for sticking with me these last few weeks while I was off job hunting, gallivanting, and wedding attending. The last few weeks have been busy and a bit of a ride, but I promise to give you all my pre-mentioned blog posts on the Logan costume's construction, secret surprise presents, and autocromes this week. I also vow to give you a sneak preview of the Holiday Dress and to show off my very first real Christmas Tree. Stay tuned!

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog. Fiance and I had a lovely holiday and we hope you did too! This was one of those great years when we got to spend Thanksgiving with both sides of the family. With his parents in Georgia and my parents in New York we normally have to choose who to spend what holiday with, but thanks to my good friend/ex-roomate/bridesmaid now bridesmatron's wedding and my family members putting up with thanksgiving dinner happening 5 days early everything worked out.

We started the trip late Wednesday night. Our flight left at 5:30pm from Atlanta and thanks to some strong tail winds we made the trip in about one hour and forty minutes. Only problem was that we had to land in a 45mph crosswinds at a teeny-tiny airport in Newburgh, NY. I knew things were going to be rough when the flight attendant started holding his arms up in the air and pretending we were all on a rollercoaster.

Neither of us ended up loosing our lunches, but several people in the back of the plane didn't make it. I'll also note that there was a real shortage of vomit-bags on this trip, probably because they had already made the same landing in the same wind earlier that day. We did eventually make it to the ground where I promptly rushed to the terminal bathroom and washed my face for about 15 minutes, trying not to lose my cookies and also trying to curb the nausea. Fiance fared much better than I did during the landing.

Thankfully the rest of the trip to my parent's house was on land and it was quite enjoyable. We hung out with my parents for a little bit that night and then hit-the-hay.

The next morning we went in search of a Bridal gift for Miss Bradlea (the aforementioned bridesmaid/matron/roomate/etc) and enjoyed lunch at a great little place called Crew. The food was fantastic, though I'll admit that I was less than impressed with their Iced Tea. I guess after living in Georgia for two years now I've become a tea snob and only like brewed ice tea. Crew's tea was powdered, but other than that I have no complaints. The atmosphere was great and the food was delicious. If you're ever in Poughkeepsie, NY go try it out.

After lunch we decided to take a walk over the Hudson.

The Walkway over the Hudson is a neat little state park that was built over an old train bridge that had burned in the 1970s. For most of my life the railway bridge just sat rotting away, but a few years ago the state turned the decaying bridge into a public walkway. It's really quite neat.

 

It was great to see the FDR bridge from the walkway. I can't tell you how many times I've driven across that bridge in the past, looked at the railroad bridge and wished they'd do something with it. Now they have!

Totally drove across that bridge at least 5 times a week for most of my life. No bridges near me in GA, unless you count traffic bridges like spaghetti junction.

We stopped for photo ops as well. Mom and Dad were good sports about posing with me for 20 something photos. Anyone like my new hair? It was a present from my Mom.

 

Grabbed a few with Fiance as well. 

Then we contemplated the river, unsolvable equations and the meaning of life. 

But only for about five seconds.

After that we snapped a few more photos before it got too dark and a little too cold.

Then it was back to my parent's house where my mother made us delicious delicious lasagna. I ate too much.

How did your Holiday's go? Tell me all about them :)

A 1930s Trousseau

This is a cross post from my Wedding Blog over at Wedspace.com, but I thought you all might get a kick out of it. I guess I've got 30s on the brain again. I hope you enjoy!

Delineator Cover ca. 1932 (I think)

Trousseau. Not a term we tend to use very often anymore. I'm sure there are plenty of Brides who have never even heard of the term "trousseau." So what is it and why was it important?

Lets think back to the days before feminism. Back to the days when women were not expected to work more than part time outside the home. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word trousseau as:

trous·seau, n. [French, from Old French, diminutive of trousse, bundle. See truss.] The possessions, such as clothing and linens, that a bride assembles for her marriage.

In short it was those items such as bed linens, napkins, clothing, crocheted doilies, candlesticks and anything else that a woman was going to take with her into her husband's home. The concept is similar to that of a Hope Chest. You fill a box with all those things you'll need to for married life.

This isn't a very popular practice anymore. Most women today work full time and we simply purchase what we need when we need it. Our culture is also not one that focuses on preserving items long term. How many of us buy a dress at Express or Kohls with the expectation of carefully storing it, always wearing a smock or apron over it when working in it, carefully altering it by hand when size adjustments must be made, and with the intent to wear said dress for the next 15 years? Certainly not me.

In the 1930s the Trousseau was a very common practice and many magazines for young women had lists suggesting what one should include. Here is a list from the April 1930 Good Housekeeping magazine.

Trousseau Budget 1930
White Satin Wedding Gown - $39.50 (about $496 today)
Tulle Veil (3 yards at $3.25per yard) - $9.75 (about $122)
Going away 3-piece suit - $16.95 (about $214)
Afternoon Dress for Formal Parties - $29.50 (about $375)
Street Dress of Silk or Wool - $25.00 (about $314)
Coat in Tweed or cloth - $39.50 (about $496)
Sweater, Cardigan, and Skirt Costume - $16.75 (about $210)
Washable Silk Sports Frock - $6.95 (about $87)
Sleeveless picque Dress with Jacket - $10.75 (about $135)
Lacy Diner Dress with Jacket - $25.00 (about $314)
Evening Wrap (to be made at home) - $15.00 (about $188)
Two Hats, One of Felt, One of Straw - $18.00 (about $226)
Shoes: Street, Afternoon, Evening Slippers, and One Pair of Bedroom Slippers or One Pair of Mules - $33.50 (about $420)
Negligee in Satin or Silk - $15.00 (about $188)
Lingerie, Girdles, and Stockings - $65.00 (about 816.00)
Accessories: Bag, 4 Pairs of Gloves, and 1 Dozen Handkerchiefs - $20.00 (about $251)
____________
Grand Total: $386.15 or about $4,848 in today's money.

Note that this was published in April 1930, about 7 months after the great stock market crash that started the Great Depression in the United States.

The September 1933 issue of the Delineator Magazine suggests a similar Trousseau, but one that's slightly more affordable. The magazine focused on needle work, dressmaking, and millinery. They were know for providing images of the latest fashions with just enough information to recreate a similar look at home. Making your own Trousseau was often much more reasonable pricewise. The September 1933 Delineator gives us this illustration and description.

A 1933 Trousseau
"The going-away outfit. She chooses a suit for a dramatic get-away. Or, if she is marrying simply, at the City Hall, she wears this for the ceremony, too. It is eel brown ribbed wool and the fur is flattering blue fox." "Her wool gadabout frock. For this backbone-f-the-trousseau frock she hits on olive green, with the touch of satin that is inevitable on smart wool frocks. The beret and the gloves are sating too." "Her dress-up frock. It's satin-and she uses the dull side for the dress itself, the shiny side for the small touches. It would be marvelous in rosy red, but every bit as smart in black or eel brown.

"A go-with-everything wrap. It's a wager one-the smartest wrap of the year. It belongs to her white frock but it's worn with the dinner dress, too. If she prefers a contrasting fabric, we suggest velvet or bengaline." "Her 'grand' evening frock. To look grandest, this season, white satin is the thing at night. That's why we urge it for this frock with the Vionnetish neckline. The wrap belonging to this dress is the black one." "And this for small evenings. A dress that can take dinners, dancing, the theatre, or any other kind of 'don't dress' evening in its stride. It's black satin and the coat of the white satin frock will go perfectly with it."

So if one were so inclined what would one include in their modern day trousseau? Susan Breslow Sardone recommends new clothes, sports wear, vacation wear, and luggage. She suggests that you keep your trousseau true to your personal style. Don't think of it like an image make-over, you're just collecting things that you will need.

I can tell you that my "trousseau" consists of several mismatched dish sets from college, banged up clothing from high school and art school (mostly covered in paint), and two pairs of twin sheets. Oh, and about 3 bath towels.

-Nancy

Vintage wedding photo on Awkward Family Photos

I was browsing through the archives of http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com and found this photo.

Aside from the fact that the dresses seem to match the drapes behind them, I actually really like these bridesmaid dresses. The flower girl's dress is just adorable. We're not having a flower girl, but if we were I wouldn't be opposed to putting her in a cute dress like that.

So what do you think? Am I crazy for loving these gowns?

New Camera Request Approved!!

My birthday is just around the corner and my birthday gift has been approved!!! I requested a lovely new camera. My mother has approved my request! Mom, you are Awesome! I just can't wait to be able to upload photos again. Scratch that, I can't wait to be able to actually get photos off the camera again! Time for a happy dance!

Oh and that Vintage wedding dress shop I went to? It doesn't have vintage wedding dresses anymore so I totally lied about putting photos up. Now it's a somewhat alternative bridal boutique. We still had a really fun time, but we were not allowed to take photos because of designer copyright. I really enjoyed my first wedding dress shopping experience. If you are in Atlanta wedding dress shopping someday go there. The staff was wonderful! All the dresses were so unique and beautiful, but not vintage. Here are some real vintage wedding dresses to make up for it.

Albert & Vita Genco Wedding, Mid-1950s. Tell me you don't love that glorious full train. It's a bit much for me, but it is very elegant. I also love the bridesmaids's gowns. Love the sleeves. I wonder what color they were? Some sort of pastel. Pink and light blue were very popular colors of the time. I think my bridesmaids would be a little upset with me if I made them wear these today but I really do think those dresses are just so sweet and pretty. Perfect for the time.

This lady is such a doll. I really love her hat and veil. It's simple, elegant, and not overdone. This is more of a "me" look. I won't be having my wedding on a cold day (hopefully), but if I did I would love to have a coat like this to wear over it. I can certainly appreciate the more formal, long train dresses of the time, but my heart is in the simpler more elegant straight line dresses that would fit under a lovely coat like this.

Penn-De Hann wedding. August 1953. Look at all that lace! I have a love for lace. In fact at the bridal store the other day I ran straight for the lace dresses. So so beautiful. It is very unusual to see men in anything other than the white tuxedo jacket in the mid 1950s. Very formal weddings still had tuxes with the tails, striped pants, and glove combo. Some men still wore suits for more low key weddings, but these white tuxes were definitely very popular.

This is my absolute favorite dress of the bunch. Simple, elegant, not too much. And those buttons! Couldn't you just die? This is the Chorley-Lally wedding December 1954. I just love her shoes too. I want to build a time machine just so I can go back in time and get them. (Someday I might get over the white strappy shoe love, maybe..)

In the late 1950s we don't see many of the white coat tuxes anymore. I thought this photo was interesting because the men were wearing black tux jackets with white pants. The bridesmaids are so cute in their pink dresses. I love the daisy bouquets and of course the lovely hats. One of the groomsmen in the back doesn't seem to be having a very good day...

And finally this couple. Mendham-French wedding 1956. Men's formal tuxes still look the same. I really like her high necked wedding dress with eyelet fabric. It's so pretty! If you don't click on any others you have to click on this one to see the dress fabric. I wish they made attractive long sleeved wedding dresses today. I would be very tempted.

What do you think? Which dress is your favorite? Would you wear these dresses?