Flash back: DIY Wedding Party

We have a pretty big family. One big, happy, modern family, which continues to grow. I have five siblings, three siblings-in-law, four nephews and four nieces.My mom's remarriage brought five step siblings and one new niece to the family. My dad's remarriage added three step siblings. The Captain has a total of five siblings, two sibs-in-law, and three nephews. Between the two of us we have eight living grandparents.

They were my wedding party. To save on cash, we asked all the men to wear dark suites, white shirts, and we gifted them one of three different shades of yellow ties. I made the cutest bow ties for the little boys, made from a gold paisley brocade.  For the ladies, I only asked that they wear a combination of black and white with accessories and accents in yellow. I gifted them each a handcrafted necklace (made by yours truly) with a teardrop shaped yellow citrine stone in the center of either a yellow gold or sterling silver chain. And of course, I don't have photos of any of this. When I was doing the actual creation of everything I didn't blog the details, because I didn't want to give anything away. I wanted the actual wedding to be the big unveil. Bad idea. Looking back, I wish I'd have documented everything better.

The Captain. I made him get a new suit. Oh, it was difficult, but I prevailed! I wanted his tie to be different from the rest of the men, so we found a paler yellow with black pin dots.

My dress. You can read about the procurement of my dress here. Complete craziness. My mom flew out to Virginia to play wedding dress seamstress for a week and lovingly and patiently created a new bodice for the princess skirt. During my "final" fitting back in Utah during Thanksgiving, it no longer fit. I had realized somewhere in the middle of our engagement that when I am stressed I hold my right shoulder a good two inches higher than my left. I had been working on it, trying to manually keep my shoulders straight all fall. So when I tried on my dress again, the bodice was all skiwampus. Neither my mom nor I had any time or emotional space to do anything about it. I completely lost it. I had planned to take photos in my dress while I was in town, knowing that there would be no time for that come January and I was not taking my dress back with me to the east coast.

By some miracle we found an angel of a seamstress who agreed to see me and my dress. She took one look at me in it and started pinning. Then, when I asked if there was anyway she could turn it around in two days, she hummed and hawed and said yes. Yes! She would clear her schedule and work on it all night. I got a call from her the next morning. It fit perfectly. Another angel.

Something Old. For my footwear, I had really wanted to find something similar to this pair I found browsing theknot.com. They were the perfect yellow and a had pretty little kitten heel. Of course I couldn't even find any yellow shoes in the middle of winter. I did find this pair of off-white wedges. I followed this tutorial from Martha Stewart and made a flower for the toes out of the extra lace from my dress and some vintage lace from my very own mother's wedding dress. I loved how they turned out and the connection to my mom that they created.

 

Something new. I commissioned my sister, Emily (who was at the time making hair pieces and headbands under the guise of Motely Handmade) to make a flower clip for my hair. It's the one thing that I have with me from my apparel that day. I ordered the pearl button online [find the site] and left it with her in November. In January she gave me this.

Something borrowed. My mother's pearl drop earrings. Something blue. I also made a simple garter, elastic cased in cream satin (also left over from my dress) with a blue bow.

Au Revoir outfit. Also borrowed, though I kind of wish I had stolen it. Such a cute number my mom had hanging in her closet NWT.