I had the joy and pleasure of making my first wedding dress. My best friend Carmen asked if I'd do a dress for her reception and I agreed, albeit a little nervously. Normally brides scare the crap out of me. They are all tense and angry and generally scary. Carmen on the other hand was none of those things. She wanted only a dress created by me for her most special day. We talked about design, bouncing ideas back and forth till we came up with a great general outline. From there it was up to me...
Carmen loves shiny so I chose hemp/ silk charmeuse...absolutely amazing fabric. Soft shine on one side and raw silk looking on the back side. I wanted to try dip dyeing for this dress in the worst way. The trick was (A) I had only enough fabric to make the dress once, (B) it had to be finished before I dyed it so there was no weird lines, and (C) me being the big chicken procrastinator I am, waited till it was 3 days before she was showing up for a fitting :).
All went amazingly perfect. This dress was made for her, fit perfect and was flattering. Best of all I got to put all the love for my best friend into it....
I also made the little flower girl dress that Ari is wearing. There were 2 of those sweet little girls walking down the aisle. They made sure to get every last rose petal out of that basket.
The bride and groom took care of their guests with lots of good food and great music. But best of all, they took care of each other. They wrote vows that brought everyone to tears. Peter (the groom) had all of Carmen's friends records love songs for her on her wedding day. Each guest got a cd to take home. And my little Ari, who is extremely shy, got up on the dance floor and sang a song she made up on the spot in front of 100 people! Truly the perfect wedding....
