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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

Fave wedding dresses

As you may remember, I am making my wedding dress, which is so exciting and fun!!  It means I get to collect pictures of fave dresses and put them together to make my ideal dress!  If I can focus and pick my absolute favorite elements...

I have gone back and forth many times, with J.Crew Weddings being my original inspiration.  But since trying on some dresses at bridal shops, I've realized I really like the embellishment and froofiness of some 3-D pretty texture.  I also originally said no lace and no beading, but now I'm thinking I want some lace in addition to self-fabric flower embellishment.  I also have been thinking for some time about pale grey instead of white--you can see some of my fabric here.

I have been sure since Day 1 that I do not want a strapless dress.  They can be gorgeous but they aren't "me"!  So when I save pictures of strapless dresses, I do it because I like other elements of them.

Here are some of my favorites!

From Style Me Pretty:

From Ruffled:
By Elizabeth Dye of The English Dept:
From BHLDN:
Alice Padrul:
Casablanca (I tried this one on at the store and loved it! Except for the straplessness. The flowers were less puffy in person):
From OnceWed (Monique Lhullier dress):
Green Wedding Shoes:
Jim Hjelm:
Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier Douglas Hannant:
From Polka Dot Bride:
Pronovias:
So many pretty things!  It is hard to pick and choose what my favorite elements are, but I have a draft design going.  I am going to start on it this weekend with my mom.  So excited to see it start coming together!

Did you make your wedding dress?  Where did you draw inspiration from?  Did you buy a dress, and find the perfect one somewhere after searching for a long time??

16 comments

  1. I can most definitely see you in a mix of the Alice Padrul and BHLDN dresses. :)

    I really like the idea of making your own dress though I'm too novice for such a task. Luckily, I found my dress on the first try. I showed Mrs. Debbie at the bridal shop two pictures of my favorites...They didn't have them, but she said she had something that was a mix of the two. I tried it on, and that was that. Then I spent the afternoon trying on hideous dresses for kicks. :)

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  2. I eloped and then we threw a reception party a few months later so I didn't wear a wedding gown. I wanted something custom that I could wear again so I opted to have a corset made. It is a gorgeous antique gold brocade. I paired it with a black satin pencil skirt.
    I knew when we started planning the party that I just would not have the time to shop for the perfect dress. I knew what I wanted and I acted on that. It saved me soooo much heartache. Best decision I ever made.

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  3. LOVE that first dress!! I have a similar style taste in dresses as you. I am not girly enough to want to wear all the poofiness and sparkles! I just love how romantic the combination of silks, lace, and flowers are..

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  4. I just left a note on your previous post (the daytime lacy dress) with details about my DIY wedding dress - how funny. :) It's a lot simpler than what you're looking for, I think, and I don't know if you're going to work from a pattern. But if you are, the one piece of wisdom I gained was that you can find inspiration in the unlikeliest patterns! I had a rough idea of what I wanted (a simple tea-length dress with a lace overlay), and when I was flipping through the pattern books, this one caught my eye: http://images.patternreview.com/sewing/patterns/vogue/8473/8473.jpg. I liked the bust details and imagined it in the fabric I was thinking of. It ended up being exactly what I wanted!

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  5. I had my wedding dress made from scratch and I LOVED it. I found one in a store that was way out of my price range, but I really liked how it fit. I too was against strapless dresses, really slimmin down the selection in stores! Because I am not super confident in my sewing skills, I worked with a seamstress family friend. We got the lace from Nottingham England (aparently the lace capital of the world?!?) and I would totally recommend the person that sold it to us. She called from overseas to see if we liked it and if we could send her some pictures. We were able to take all of the elements of the dress that I loved, and then added ones that I loved even more. I will try to do a wedding post on my blog soon so that you can see it, but I think it was the perfect decision to not buy it in the store! You will love your dress and it will be one of a kind when you are done!

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  6. Oh how beautiful and feminine! I love all of those! One of my favorite wedding dress trends right now are the flowers! If I had to pick all over again I would look at some with flowers..and probably lace! How fun that you get to deseign your own! :) Good luck!!

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  7. That Monique Lhullier Dress is heaven! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

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  8. My mom thought about making my dress for 2 seconds. We dreamed about it at the fabric store and found a beautiful pattern, fabric, and lace, and thennnnnn I said, yaaaa pretty sure we won't like each other after this process so lets just BUY it :-)

    There are so many different things I love about all of those! Hard to choose! But can't wait to see what you come up with because I KNOW it will be awesome.

    Have you thought about doing a tutorial of How to sew from a pattern? How is that I can sew something perfectly from a blog tutorial but have NOOO idea how to sew from a pattern. Explain that :-)

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  9. I made my sister's and a good friend's wedding dresses (nothing as elaborate as yours though!) for them, and I wanted to make my own. I had even bought silk in Hongkong (I live in the Philippines) years before. Then one day after a lot of delays in our wedding date (sister got married in Europe, then brother got married in Europe then future father-in-law dies in the Philippines) we decided just to get married civilly first and I had 3 days to do something about my dress. Luckily I had my mothers grey lace, short 50's style wedding dress (which fitted me) with me as I had hope to be able to incorporate into my own wedding dress. It had a big 40 year old stain on the thigh, so we spent one evening trying unsuccessfully to remove it but then I ended up having to cut up the matching jacket so that i would have a piece of lace to sew over the stain. All in all I was very happy with the dress as it connected me on my wedding day to my mother who passed away many years before....

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  10. That is so great that you are making your own dress! For my dress, I had several pictures of dresses that I had saved since I was a sophomore in high school. Since I wasn't an experienced seamstress, I had my aunt sew it for me. We worked together with my mom and grandma (who also sew) to pull all the elements together that I loved. It was so special to have us share this experience and I absolutely loved the end product! It was my perfect, one-of-a-kind dress.

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  11. You all are awesome!! I love hearing all your different stories. I am so excited and it sounds like you all were too, and were able to find the right thing that fit your budget and taste. This whole process rocks (or it can if it's not too stressful!).

    @Meagan, I will think on a Sewing Circle post about how to sew from a pattern. Thanks for the question!!

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  12. I got married this past October. I actually found my wedding dress at a vintage shop here in Chicago called Lenny and Me. The dress is a 50's style vintage with sequins and tulle in the underskirt. It fit perfectly with my budget (only $89!) and with the style we were going for. I searched and searched until I saw that dress and knew it was the right choice!

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  13. I saw my own dress. I searched for weeks and didn´t find the One. Gave up, bought satin and lace and saw the dream gown. The look? I was married 1984 so it was very fluffy…. ;-)

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  14. Oooh, love all the embellishments! Can't wait to see which you incorporate into your dress!

    I made my own dress, and the dress was fabulous, but the making was a headache and a half due to stuff completely out of my control (a flood, the fabric mildewing, etc). My dress looked ridiculously simple, but was actually an incredibly complicated, difficult cut which still makes expert seamstresses gasp when they see it up close, which makes me very, very proud!

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