I made my own Wedding Dress !
Hi ! I got married on the 1st December 2023 but never got around to post this, so a bit late but here we are !
I couldn’t afford the dresses I liked so I decided to wing it and make my own.
I had never sewed anything before other than fixing holes or turning pants into shorts so I asked my mom for help, she was anxious because she doesn’t have any experience either but she was happy to help me.
We don’t own a sewing machine so we did everything by hand. I would go to her every week end for 3 months and we would struggle together.
We didn’t know how to work with measurements so we did everything directly on me - I got stung by needles at least a thousand times ahah.
I bought the tule in a local fabric shop, the fabric under the tule (to keep the lower part from being see through) is an old white bedsheet and the leaves come from a Chinese website. We made the breast support by cutting out an old bra and put it into a lace bodysuit, that way I had the support without needing a back strap.
The bodysuit was our main support, we created everything on top of it.
At some point my mom was busy and couldn’t help me anymore so my sister came to sew the leaves in my back together during two weekends.
In the end it took way longer than anticipated (400+ hours of work total !). I was still sewing into the night before taking the plane, crying from the stress because I thought that I wouldn’t be able to finish in time.
We actually finished the dress 30 minutes before the ceremony which was chaotic but I love it because now I have photos of my sister, mother and grandmother all working with me on the morning of my wedding to make sure the dress is completed !
I don’t have much contact with them anymore so I cherish these photos.
We didn’t know how to make an effective closing system that wouldn’t be too visible so they sewed the dress shut on me on the morning of my wedding and we had to break it to free me out of it ahah.
Fun fact : we couldn’t figure how to force the leaves in my back to stay flat, so on the morning of the wedding I asked my best friend to glue them to my back with fake eyelash glue ! Worked like a charm.
A piece of the leaves broke off at the end of the day (you can see it on the photo where I climb into the Jeep) but otherwise it was perfect !
Funny story : before buying the tule I actually bought white mosquito net fabric because I didn’t know any better ! I only realized my mistake because I went looking for a matching color thread at the fabric shop. The lady working there had a good laugh explaining to me what I was proudly showing her. She was nice about it though and helped me buy the right tule after she was done laughing at my dumb ass holding 10 meters of mosquito net.
Anyway, I hope that you’ll like it, it was a crazy adventure and I’m happy/anxious to share.
P.S. Yes the slit was judged outrageous and way too high, I got remarks for it, but honestly I loved it and my husband too so no regrets !