Monday, April 29, 2013

My Mom's 1982 Wedding Dress

Good morning!

Well, folks, I lived through the madness of an entire weekend of wedding dress shopping, but there's good news! I did manage to find "the one"!!! AAAAH, CUE MASSIVE EXCITEMENT OVER HAVING A DRESS TO WEAR TO MY UPCOMING CEREMONY. I still have to run out to Franklin to pick it up some time this week as it had to be ordered from Ohio, but we've already locked in the promise to buy it when it does make its way south to Williamson County. Commitment! What a wedding's all about, right?

I can't show you photos of the dress because it's still in transit PLUS I am being super superstitious about not letting Matthew see me in my big dress before the big day. Just for fun, though, here's a series of photos of me trying on my mom's wedding dress from year of our Lord 1982. Take a look!

I mentioned to Eartha that my grandma's tv is so big, you can almost picture me getting married to Brian Williams from the nightly news in some of the unedited photos, as he is truly lifesize.

Background to this story: my mom is always right. UGH, HOW IT GRIEVES ME TO ADMIT IT. My ma is honestly, 99.9% of the time, completely correct in most of her advice-giving. She may not know the most politic way to express this rightness, but I find myself, even at this advanced age, to be in constant state of wonder at her mysterious proclamations coming true. Case in point, trying on this dress. The actual act of putting it on was prefaced by weeks, and weeks, AND WEEKS of her going, "Try my dress on TRY MY DRESS ON try my dress on! You'll like it! Really, you should at least try it!". And me trying to politely demur, as I had memories of some of her bridesmaids' blasted out, feathered perms in the eighties' and was extremely leery of  being forced to walk down the aisle in something out of Falcon Crest

No, no, no, NO NO NO NO NO. (to the tune of "Nobody but Me")

The box, it bears noting, has an illustration of a blushing, mid-seventies' era bride in all her wedding finery, and a line of brides WITHOUT FACES lining up behind her as far as the eye can see. Ostensibly, these are her future progeny and her progeny's progeny, and on and on...hopefully, they are not some creatures chasing her out of a Silent Hill like nightmare scene. "Your Wedding Dress, for generations to come!" reads the legend  in calligraphy across the bottom of the illustration, in swooping, copperplate hand. What the...ok, that's seriously awesome, but what is going on with that? I wish I'd thought to take a picture. We ignored this ancient curse and opened the box anyway.

I now know that I want a bouquet that drapes like this, and that I can pull of a maxi-dress with neck-to-wrist coverage!
The dress was really in very good condition and very pretty, with a good deal of lace in the front and a modest train in the back. The empire waist of the top portion BUT JUST fit, and in spite of the three or four inch height difference between my mother and I, I think it's a good length, too! I immediately emailed these photos of dress to my friend Kelsey and my sister Sus and my vintage-comrade-in-arms Eartha Kitsch with the hopes that they would allay my fears that I did, in fact, look like I was guesting on a very special episode of The Facts of Life. But they were supportive! I was particularly into the lace at the top of the dress, the seventies' pouf of the sheer sleeves terminating in tight, snapped wrist-closures (I know I'm wrong for that, but I love it), the sweet little train, and the traditional veil. It really came down to, in the end, if I wanted to have a very seventies' influenced, vintage-style dress, or if I wanted to stick to my guns in the tiny-waist, strapless, big ol' round skirt silhouette that my Kennedy era heart cries out for. 

WHAT. A DRESS. PEOPLE. LOOK AT THAT DRESS. source
Luckily, after some starts and stops at David's Bridal, we found a dream of a dress at (OF ALL PLACES) a boutique in the Cool Springs Mall. I want to do a whole post on it some time later this year, but know that it's supremely flattering, a beautiful antique ivory color, silk for days, and makes me look not a little like Deborah Kerr in The King and I (without the sleeves! Dear Lord, what were they thinking with those sleeves?) in the best, childhood dream way possible. SUCCESS. 

One last look at the dress that could have been! I'll have to dig out my folks' wedding pictures some time and show them to you. My mom really was a supremely pretty bride in this same dress. Maybe someday one of her granddaughters will be, too!

I love this goofy little picture! It's secretly making me have a tiny pang I can't wear ALL the wedding dresses!

Did you have any particular inspiration in your head when you chose a wedding gown, all you brides out there? Did you stick to your original image, or did you find yourself falling in love with something completely outside the box? What did your mom's wedding dress look like?

I promise, for you regular readers, to get back to our normal vintage rantings and ramblings tomorrow! I found a few things at the flea market this weekend and some items last week for the house, so it won't be all bride talk all the time, I promise! I'm just so excited about the progress we're making on having this whole thing come together! :)

Have a great Monday, and I'll see you all tomorrow!

21 comments:

  1. How pretty! I love the sleeves....and the neckline....and the veil...ALL of it! Just beautiful! Isn't it interesting that, once you take away all the bad '70s and '80s hair (ok, it was ESPECIALLY bad in the '80s!), the wedding dresses from those years are actually quite beautiful and even classic looking. Can't wait to see pics of your mom in it on the original 'day'!! Do a post soon!! :)
    My mom and dad were married in the mid '70s. Mom wanted a simple dress, so my grandmother made her one. White dotted swiss maxi with a sweetheart neckline, empire waist and little cap sleeves. No veil, but she had a great 'shag' cut! And fab strappy white platform sandles! Unfortunately, it was storage stained and couldn't be cleaned so she threw it out a few years ago...yup, threw it out! What the??? But that's my mom for ya! I guess she figured, she still had the man, why keep the dress! LOL! I have a pattern for a dress that is almost identical to it and have often said that I may make a short version of it for my reception...if I ever find anyone to actually marry, that is.....LOL!
    Look forward to seeing your final dress!! So exciting!!

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    1. Oh, I love that your grandma made your mom's dress. Too bad it got stained and tossed, it sounded pretty from your description! That would be so neat to use the similar pattern in the shorter cut for your own reception some day! :)

      And about my mom's dress, I know! Her hair was just curled for the reception, so she fared better than her bridesmaids against the test of time. I'll have to steal her wedding album and get back with you on a post so you can see!

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  2. Jackie dress: WOW!

    You look cute, Lisa. My mom's 1972 wedding dress was similar to your mom's: long sleeves, long skirt, empire waist. Her waist-length strawberry blond hair was a great accessory!

    One day I saw a wedding photo of my in-laws and freaked out--my MIL's dress looked so similar to my mom's. Sure enough, they married a year apart.

    Glad you found a dress you love!

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    1. PS--My mom made a wedding veil for my sister, who wed in 2005, and I wore it in my wedding, 2010.

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    2. Thanks! And I bet her hair was a glory! I'm trying to figure out if I should cut mine before the ceremony or just let sleeping dogs lie. Because if I can do ONE THING in this life, it's receive bad hair cuts! I love that you used the same veil as your sister that your mom made...I'm thinking about using my aunt Donna's veil for a "something borrowed", but I haven't seen it in person yet.

      Isn't that funny about the MIL vs. your mom photos! I love how specific-to-the-date style things were back before the 90's...nowadays, it would be hard to date a photo just by the clothes.

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  3. I'm so happy you found THE dress. Can't wait to see you looking all elegant in it!

    PS: Your moms dress is pretty cool. My mom's dress had bell sleeves- an automatic no no

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    1. Yay, thank you! :) I was surprised by how "un-80's" my mom's turned out to be. Sleeves seem to be the main way vintage formals go wrong-- another inch or two of fabric on my mom's dress's sleeves and I would have been too wizardly.

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  4. How funny...I pulled out my plastic-entoumbed dress the other day (circa 1992) and opened it up. I tried to put it on, but couldn't pull it over my hips. My daughter - age 15 - tried it on and liked it, but I could never see her wearing it - so off it went to the resale shop. I am so sentimental about these things, but I want my daughter to be able to pick out her own dream dress. I loved your shots in your mom's dress, and I bet she teared up a bit to see you in it!!! Happy wedding planning!

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    1. Oh, there were some horrific moments with hips-and-wedding-dresses during these trying on sessions. Lemme tell ya! I think it's sweet you want your daughter to have her own dream dress. I was torn about wearing my mom's, because again, it is very pretty, but when she saw me in the one we're going to get, she and I both pretty much knew we had to get it. Life events! Why do they make us so emotional!

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  5. Awww...I bet your mom had a fantastic time seeing you in her dress, even if it's not the right dress for your wedding. I tried on my mother's 1969 wedding dress once--it has a bell-shaped skirt that I thought was "weird" at the time, but it's just very era-specific. I finally removed my 1997 first wedding dress from it's sealed box when the box got some water damage this winter (thanks wet basement, you suck). It is ivory with a lace overlay that is similar to one of the ones you posted that you liked. I don't know if my daughter will ever use it, but I'm hoping that she might want to incorporate some of the handmade French lace that is on it, because it is very beautiful--I was thinking that I could have the lace put on a slip for under her dress as her "something old."

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    1. 1969 wedding dress! I wish I could get into my aunt Donna's, but she was slim, Lord, she was slim. And that lace on your 1997 one sounds BEAUTIFUL. Wouldn't it be so neat to use it on your daughter's slip! I still have to think of how I'm going to incorporate the blue and the old and the new! :)

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  6. thats awesome, circle of life coming full circle with the daughter in the mother's wedding dress. touching stuff...almost turned my black heart red. ha

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    1. Haha, thanks! It's weird how emotional all this stuff is when I thought it would be more cut and dried, no joke.

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  7. I am so glad you found an amazing dress and have no doubt that it is fabulous. Also, I first skimmed this and didn't see that it was you trying on the dress and was like "HOLY HELL, SHE IS A CLONE OF HER MOTHER!" Then I read it and was like "oh ok...that's lisa. I'm dumb."

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    1. HAHAHAHAHAHAH FOREVER...that is so funny. You're not dumb, but this cracked me UP when I read it. Confession: I AM an exact clone of my dad. When I share some family photos later on, you will be actually amazed by how strong that side of the family's genes are. I never got to go "Maybe I'm adopted" at any point in my angry, sent-to-room moments in childhood because there was no mistakin' it! :)

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  8. Oh man, I think that dress is beautiful! I can totally understand why you stuck it out to find THE ONE (and I'm so happy you did, yay!!), though. Now I want to see pictures of your mom in the dress on her wedding day. I bet she was a babe, too.

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    1. Haha, thanks, lady! I'll do a whole post about the dress sometime in the future, but boy, am I excited to go get it later this week!

      My mom was r-e-e-a-l-l-y pretty on her big day. And her great hair! I was telling Kimmie about how my dad and I are clones, EXCEPT THAT he has blonde hair that turned sandy as he got older, and I have my mom's light brown hair. I need to get mine cut so it will hold a curl again!

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  9. these photos are so sweet! and that dress really does look good! i can't wait to see the one you picked! also, i can't stop laughing at kimmie up there thinking these were pictures of your mom!

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    1. No, I know, that was the funniest. "HOW! HOW ARE THEY IDENTICAL! Oh, never mind." She cracks me up. And thanks about the dress! I'm excited to show "the one" later on down the road!! :)

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  10. Holy macaroni. I can't wait to see the final dress. I can tell it's going to be GREAT.

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  11. You look awesome in your Mom's dress! How lucky you have her generous offer!

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