#Darlipsweddingdress

Every dress I make gets a little part of my soul- a little bit of "me". Some dresses get just a tiny bit and some get a lot of it. This dress got a lot of it, and I am soo proud of how it turned out. I think I was intimidated by writing this post because it's like the final farewell to a project that took a multitude of hours, but today is the one year anniversary of this dress' special day it's time. The only picture I managed to snap the day of the wedding was the one above, all of the other photos in this post were captured by the amazing photographer Rena Schild.

Sarah and I started planning her wedding way before she was engaged- That's what best friends do right? It's a fun thing to talk about! And ever since Sarah asked me to make her dress I knew what it should look like- I could just picture it. So the day came when the boyfriend popped the question becoming a fiance and the journey to create the perfect wedding dress began. 

It was quite an adventure, which included a trip to a salon to try on dresses for shapes, sketches of dresses to determine dream details, fabric store hunting to find the perfect fabric, muslin fittings to ensure perfect fit. One of Sarah's favorite stories is how I had her over for dinner and fabric swatch looking and I said "I found the fabric for your dress but we will see what you think". When she got there I spread three or four swatches on the table and asked  her what she thought of them, I didn't tell her which I was in love with because it needed to be her choice and I didn't want to sway her. She says it was like a test of our friendship- how "eye to eye" did we see on this dress! She picked the one I loved, so it must have been meant to be ;) 

The dress was crafted from seven yards of champagne colored taffeta, twelve yards of cream tulle, eight yards of delicate, vintage inspired rose printed lace, and tied around the middle with a wide satin sash. I think that part of the challenge of wedding dress creation is how much fabric it takes- sewing a wedding dress feels like wrestling an octopus at times. 

Sarah wanted a long romantic dress for the wedding and a shorter, simpler dress for the reception (so it would be easier to move in). I accomplished that by creating a tea length dress that would be worn the whole day with a long, full tulle skirt that would be worn over it just for the ceremony. The dress is lace covered taffeta with flattering sheer, elbow length sleeves and a full circle skirt- perfect for vintage pink petticoat underneath. The high round neck line contrasts nicely with the dramatic, hand cut scalloped lace, key hole back. To carry the romantic lace detail onto the skirt I hand cut hundreds of lace roses and petals and fused them to the tulle. I used bigger rose segments towards the hem and smaller ones towards the top so the roses would look like they were gracefully falling  towards the hem. I love the body of the tulle skirt, it moved in the most magical way. I hand cut a medium sized section of lace, stiffened it with interfacing, and attached it to ribbon for the matching hair piece. 

  

It took hours and I have to thank my mom and sister for their help corralling Cordelia so I could work and all their sewing advice and assistance. It is my biggest project to date and it was well worth it!

 

It was such a beautiful wedding with soo many hand made personal touches and details. (if you want to see more Darlips related wedding posts you can click here, here, here, and here) My heartfelt congratulations goes out to the bride and groom on today- their one year anniversary! 

Wedding Activity Books

A wedding can be a very boring affair for a kid, so after a suggestion from Sarah's soon to be sister in law (and good friend) I put together coloring books to keep the kids entertained during the less then action packed moments of the wedding. Each kid got a coloring book, an eight pack of crayons, and a card for them to color for the bride and groom.

A lot of the ideas for the book came from the one that this blogger made. She offers a free printable you can use, which really is wonderful. I recreated things (and added some new things) instead of directly using hers so I could make mine exactly the way I wanted it.  

The books had to be interesting for kids ages 2-10 which was a big challenge. In the end I decided to appeal to the older kids- figuring that Cordelia will color over anything, she doesn't care if it is a picture or a puzzle.

The cross word puzzle I made with an automated crossword maker by Discovery Education (found here). It's nice because it checks for accidental inappropriate words when it makes the puzzle.  The cartoon sketch of the bride and groom I drew myself. 

The books were a big hit so it was a  really gratifying project, and an idea I would recommend to others in the future!  

Over the weekend

Cordelia dominated the weekend- she made people smile and laugh, she kept people calm and happy. I don't really know how she managed it, but she was high spirited and only had one meltdown despite having no naps, and incredibly long days. 

Friday we drove down to Richmond, VA for the wedding weekend of one of my best friends Sarah. The festivities started with a picnic lunch at James River Cellars. It was nice and relaxing and it gave Cordelia a chance to get warm up to the wedding party, and their parents. She can be shy around large groups of people so I was worried how she would cope with the weekend's events. 

You can never take too many photos of the soon to be bride and groom during the wedding weekend, especially silly ones. 

Friday night we went swimming in the hotel pool (Cordelia's favorite part of the weekend was the pool) and then snuggled in the perfect, fluffy, wonderful, king size bed and watched Master Chef Junior. I was amazed by the show and added to my DVR as soon as I got home- they had 8 year olds making pasta from scratch in an hour! 

Saturday was for crafting, setting up, a rehearsal and a rehearsal dinner! I was really lucky to have soo many people for Cordelia to play with. If not for everyone Cordelia would have ended up a puddley mess and I would have been no help to the bride. Sarah played in the yard with Miss C and told her stories about the magical plants and friendly caterpillars. Nola and Kirsten let Cordelia drag them around as she stole all of their stuffed animals. Ada had her help with crafting. Kenneth took her to look for bugs and stick her feet in the creek. Louise, Tom, Janet, and Gary kept her out of trouble, smiled when she made messes,made sure she had everything she needed, and read her stories. 

That evening the bridesmaids kept the bride company in her room. We drank wine, ate chocolate, spent way too much time trying to figure out how to order room service, and watched awkward wedding movies. Good, solid, girl time.

Sunday was Wedding day and it was non stop. Sarah, her mother, and I woke up and went to the house at 7 am to put the finishing touches on everything. Then back to the hotel by 9 for breakfast, getting ready, photos, and more photos. Then the bridesmaids were off to the house to accept food, greet guests, and keep the ball rolling for the 2pm wedding. The wedding was beautiful, and perfect. The drive back was less so. 

I will share more photos later I'm sure, and I have a few sewing related posts to share because I was consumed by sewing projects for the wedding! Today Cordelia and I were kind of unproductive. We watched a couple of cartoons then drove out to fast food place with a play place (this might be my new tired day obsession) but, now I have lots of unpacking to do!