Say Yes to the Dress...es

I've had my wedding dress for about 7 years now. Not to say that's how long I've known I was going to get married, in fact, Adam and I weren't even dating seriously when I found it. It was at a Goodwill in Orange County. I was so in love with her. She was everything I ever wanted- vintage, ivory, small train, classic, etc- even had panniers! She was in perfect condition, not a spot, not a hole, not a tear to be found. Every button, still in tact all down the back. I tried her on and she fit perfectly. Nothing to be altered, absolute perfection. I knew then that even if I didn't wear her to my wedding, I wanted her to be mine. So I took her to the checkout. Total cost? $7 I was AMAZED. I Knew that long-term, she was mine, but short term? Well, I was renting out a room in a home in Garden Grove and this dress would eat up my all of my closet space. Not to mention, I was casually dating this guy and I didn't want him to find it in there one day and think I was nuts. So I asked grandma to store it for me. I delivered it to her still in the Goodwill bag, and there is sat for 6 years with a post-it note on the bag reading "Briana'a dress".

So then, 6 years later, we got engaged. We knew we wanted to get married in New Orleans and have a second line. That meant dancing through the French Quarter. But I really didn't want to drag this gorgeous dress through the street, potentially ruining it. That's when I started looking for 1950's cupcake dresses on Etsy. I wanted something shorter, but still vintage and possibly floral. I envisioned the perfect dress in my head, but I couldn't seem to find it for sale online anywhere, at least not in my price range. But thrifting is a hobby (or lifestyle, I guess you could say) of mine, so one day, while I was a Goodwill Outlet here in Los Angeles, I found her. I couldn't believe my luck. She was perfect and she was exactly what I was looking for. I couldn't tell if she fit, with long lace sleeves, I was so afraid to put any effort into zipping myself into it, and Adam wanted to wait until the wedding to see my dresses, so asking him for help was out. I had no idea if the dress would actually fit or if it was a lost cause. It was rather snug, but exactly how snug? I really didn't know. Enter David McCarthy, AKA everyone's fairy godmother. He came over once and zipped her up and I was stunned. With her cupcake style, subtle, tasteful sequins, perfect floral lace, She was exactly what I wanted. How much did she cost? $3.

I purchased a tiara from SixPennyBride an online shop out of the UK that makes them out of vintage jewelry. For months, I collected vintage flowers that matched so that I could make Adam a lapel pin and shoe clips for myself.

Which brings us to our last look. This one is very special.

My mother and nana both got married in the same dress. About a year before we got engaged, nana mentioned she was going to donate the dress. She couldn’t do that! It’s been worn by 2 generations! But I forgot to mention, they both got divorced after wearing it. If there’s one thing I learned about weddings, they are VERY superstitious. So although I didn’t want her to donate the dress, I absolutely didn’t want to wear it to my wedding.

Cut to the week of our engagement. I get the call. Nana has cancer. Throughout the next few months, nana is excited to dance to the jazz band at our New Orleans wedding, but fears she won’t be well enough to travel there. Upon one of our visits, she gives me the dress. She hands me a newspaper clipping with an advertisement for a thrift store taking wedding dresses to benefit veterans and tells me that if I’m not to wear it, it is to go to a very specific charity. I’m still not sold on this dress. The dress sits in the back of my fiancé’s car in a large, gold box for months.

In August, nana passes. She had planned and organized her entire funeral. As we carried her to her final resting place, a band played “When the Saints Go Marching In” exactly as she had planned. I wept. She wanted so badly to dance in my second line. But she knew she probably wouldn’t make it. So she did the next best thing.

Anyway, when I return home from the funeral, my friends are waiting to greet me. They wanted to see the dress, but more then that, they wanted to see it on me. I knew it wouldn’t fit, I’m much taller then both my mother and my grandmother, but they are convinced it will cheer me up, so I oblige. As one friend is buttoning the dress, the other is reading the newspaper clipping over: “We do not accept dresses older then 1990.” Well, there went that idea. This dress was custom made for nana in the 50s. I glance at myself in the mirror and am taken aback. The dress fits me. Perfectly. Of course, former generations wore hoops skirts, so I suppose that accounts for the length, but still- the dress is cursed right? And I already have the two other dresses!

The closer my wedding got the more it sat heavily with me that nana wouldn’t be there. She wouldn’t have a program to put in my baby book. She wouldn’t dance with my new husband to the utter delight of everyone in the room! She was a fantastic dancer.

The dress, now removed from the large gold box, remained in a bag at the top of my closet. Then it hit me. I don’t have to wear the dress as it was-in fact, I think even Nana would agree it needed an update. Yes, my wedding was a vintage affair, but I was ready to teach this old dress some new tricks. So I found inspiration and came up with a design and asked a talented friend of mine if she would be willing to turn this dress into something new.

She sewed with such quickness and precision, I had the dress back within days of handing it over to her. I’ll never forget the way my heart fluttered when I received the progress pics or the absolute and utter joy upon receiving a text that read, “this might be weird, but as I was washing the dress, I just kept thinking about my happy marriage, and how happy yours is going to be and I really believe it’s been bathed in love.” I cried. I'm still crying over that.

When I got the dress in the mail from her, I put it on by myself in my bedroom with the door closed, so my fiancé wouldn’t see. As I looked in the mirror, I could hear nana say in an awed, pleased tone, “oh, Pieface.” That was my nickname that only she called me. I would go on to try it on again, in front of people for the first time in New Orleans, surrounded by my bridesmaids and mother. I felt nana at the wedding and the reception and although I danced with my dad in the same dress that my mom wore to marry him (divorce, remember?), it was wonderful. The dress was unrecognizable and I’ve never felt so light in my feet.

I don't have a ton of great pics of this look. I wore it for the reception, and we were having way too much fun dancing and laughing to pose for more photos. Which, I'm sure is exactly how nana would have wanted it. But we did take these, and I'm absolutely enamored with them.