Wedding dresses under 2000 kr

A few people have asked me where I got my wedding dress, and I have to disappoint future brides when I tell them the dress is not from a known bridal designer, and actually a fake Dolce and Gabbana gown found in a small shop in Tallinn. However, if you are interested in the style I wore, or have a small dress budget, I have a few tips for you.

1. Skip the bridal salons and go to every other store that sells dresses. You will not get the same kind of service, but that is part of what you pay for with a wedding gown. The downside: This might be easier in the spring/summer when white dresses are more weather appropriate than the rest of the year. 

2. Go to the bridal salons (yes...) to try on dresses and get an idea of what you like and what you don't like. While trying on many gorgeous dresses I realized I felt very uncomfortable in the heavy and structured gowns, and the ones I liked were way way out of my budget.

3. Try vintage for a unique dress at a good price. But beware of alteration costs, unless you or your mom likes to sew. Try finding a seller that will let you try it on and return it if it doesn't fit. 

4. Bridesmaid dresses can often be found in white/cream for the fraction of the cost of a wedding gown. They will probably be less elaborate than wedding gowns, but that might be what you are after!

5. Consider a non-white dress! Gold sequins anyone? 

Here are a few picks from around the web that I would have considered for myself a year ago. All under 2000 kr, with just one exception...

1. ModCloth Wed and Where, 758 kr

No lace, but with the same silhouette as my own wedding dress.

2. ASOS Floral Embellished Maxi Dress, 875 kr

A smilar, flowy dress. 

 

What I Wore: Wedding Edition

Finally I can share details of the dress that I worked on for so long! My wedding dress was a cap sleeve, ivory lace, round neck, sheath gown with a sash - to use all the wedding terminology... The store didn´t have my size, so it had to be taken in a little, which I decided to do myself. This was a lot harder than I had thought, mainly because I wanted it to be impeccable. In the end I settled for about 99% satisfaction, and with only a week left before the wedding there wasn´t really anything else to do about it. I loved wearing the dress, it was light and airy and comfortable, not heavy and itchy like many of the other wedding gowns I tried on.

Another challenge was that the fabric was very thin, so I had to add extra lining. I found the perfect silk slip to go underneath, and when everything else was done, I basted it to the dress and plan to remove it so I can reuse it for something else later. I also changed the back of the dress to make a V-neck instead of a round collar, added lace to make tiny cap sleeves, and a ribbon sash around the waist. More on the dress process here. 

I loved my vintage accessories. Early on I knew I wanted to wear the bracelet my grandma gave me. I also wanted to have something borrowed, and was lucky I got to choose between several vintage pairs of earrings from Mike's family. I settled for a pair of white rhinestone clip-ons from the 1950s, but there were some other really pretty ones too.

I was very happy I had a cardigan. Despite the sunny weather, Ålesund was quite windy on June 28th, and because of the sun we had to resort to pictures in the shade. I had first scoured Etsy for hours to find the perfect, fun and vintage cardigan. I found it, ordered it... but it never arrived! So a week before the wedding I went to the closest mall, found a very plain peach cardigan and settled with that decision. In addition, for parts of the photo shoot I was actually wearing long-johns! You can't see it, but it's there.

Matching shoes and nail polish with my maid of honor was the closest I got to a cohesive bridal party look. (Though I did make sure the best man had a neutral colored tie.) But since we were all wearing flowers I think that settled the matter if anyone was in doubt. 

I wore the veil for the ceremony and some pictures, but decided to leave it off for the rest of the day. To be honest, a veil is kind of in the way, especially if there is any wind or lots of hugging involved. The cap and lace matched my ivory gown, but the tulle itself was a very different shade of white. It is more noticeable in the pictures than I thought it would be, but that´s not a big deal.

My wedding garb was really a DIY and budget effort. In total, the outfit cost me around 4000 kr, and a little more than half of that was for the dress and everything I needed for alterations. An added bonus is that with some minor updates, everything but the veil can be used again. Or is there any other occasion than your own wedding that calls for a juliet cap veil?? It would be sweet to use it again.

Dress: A Dolce & Gabbana knock-off from a small dress shop in Tallinn, Estonia
Slip: Else Maries Undertøyssalong, Skien
Veil: Vintage, via Adorned in Grace
Cardigan: Cubus
Red sandals: Esprit
White pumps: Vintage (already owned)
Bracelet: Inherited from my grandma
Earrings: Something borrowed - they were Mike's great-grandmothers
Handkerchief: Inherited. Also Mike's great-grandmothers
Hair and makeup: Anniken at Fri Frisør
Flowers: Blomsterstua Ålesund

Photos: Irene Lovund

Wedding dress alteration, continued

Yes,  lately my feelings resemble the expression on this card... Only 17 days to go!

After talking to my mom about shoes for the wedding I changed my mind and decided to wear white pumps for the ceremony. Considering the veil I have chosen, my fun sandals just wouldn´t work with the outfit. But the plan is to change shoes later, when I take the veil off. If I hadn´t already owned a pair of white pumps I am not sure I would settle for this solution though. And another happy result is that I don´t have to hem the dress! The ceremony is where I would be most worried about tripping, so I think I can live with a little long dress later, as long as it fits when we are in the church. I hope this logic works out practically as well.

In addition to taking the dress in, I also wanted to alter the back. This meant shortening a zipper from the top. Since I am not an expert on tutorials, I will link to a couple here and here.

But then I didn´t know what to do - should I add a sash or not? And what about the pretty lace trim. Ahhhh... Luckily, my maid of honor came over to help me make that decision. I am so close to being done now, which is about time. Pictures of the finished product will have to wait a few more weeks.

PS. For amazing cards for a wedding/any other occasion, check out Emily McDowells shop on etsy.

Wedding dress update

You might know that I am working on tweaking my wedding dress, so I thought I would come with an update, perhaps only for especially interested crafters. No pictures, but I guess you will be understanding considering the subject.

The extra slip I bought needed a small change in the back to match the dress perfectly. With slippy silk, that took a little longer than anticipated, but turned out very well in the end. Hand-basting is the key here.

The dress was basically two separate dresses, one in a lace fabric, and one a lining/slip. Since I had to take both of them in, it seemed just as easy to make them into one dress with interfacing instead of the two original ones. After careful investigation and research (see blogs with tutorials here and here...) for the dress itself, I decided to rip open a lot of seams and do this thoroughly. What is implied here is that I normally don´t follow all these careful steps, being a lot more careless with my restyled thrift store finds like this skirt.

The next step was basting the lining to the dress by hand. No risks taken here. After trying it on, then more basting and needles and fittings, I could finally sew some stitches on the sewing machine. Now the bodice fits me, almost like a glove, and I am one step closer to a wearable wedding dress. I am optimistic to this project and look forward to continue working on it.

Tomorrow morning we are off for our Easter holiday in Ålesund and Bergen. There will be lots of wedding planning, and I look forward to seeing friends and family. Especially little Øyvind, who called today and said his first words to me: "hello" and "aunt"! Too precious.

Pins and needles

When I posted about wedding dresses earlier, I got a lot of responses from people who thought I was making my dress from scratch. Lets clear up this misunderstanding: I am merely fixing a dress I bought. Taking it in to fit, hemming it to the right length and perhaps a tweak here and there for a more interesting style. Sounds easy enough, but since it is a WEDDING DRESS, it is also very scary. I have never been so nervous to start a sewing project, in fear of making a total mess of it.

Well, now there are pins in it. I haven't let the scissors touch it yet, and I need a new needle for my sewing machine (a 60/8 to be exact), but I think I am more mentally prepared for the project. I have also miraculously found a slip that fits perfectly under my dress: it is long, simple, has no frills or lace and just the perfect silhouette. It was also half price, which matters a lot when you buy silk! Now I don't have to worry about sewing a new lining, and can go with Plan A.

PS. Sewing art by Ello Lovey

Stop shop: A White Dress

When I started my Live Simply project I had a hunch I would be engaged before the year was over, and in my mind, there was allowance for a white dress on my exceptions list. (Obviously I didnt share that with the rest of the world.)

To keep in with my project, I looked at vintage dresses, but trying them on can be very tricky when they are on the other side of the country (or planet!). I do think it can be a great alternative, and there are several small shops on Etsy that specialize in vintage wedding dresses. If you live in a big city, this might be a lot easier.

One evening, after a few to many episodes of "Say yes to the dress", I found this video where a girl goes out to find why wedding dresses are so expensive:


I am not sure if I agree with her. Perhaps the dresses are worth their price, considering the fabric, labor, advertisement and so on. The questions is rather if the price of a wedding dress is worth it to me.

Another issue is that most wedding dresses, with layers of tulle and ball gown silhouettes, seems designed to make girls feel and look like a princess. And while I guess it is okay to be a princess for your wedding day, after trying on a lot of these dresses, I realized I didn´t like to wear them. They were heavy, stiff and not very much like me.

Personally I do not feel comfortable spending a huge amount on a dress that will definitely only be worn for one day. That might be the reason I ended up buying a white dress from a small non-bridal store in Tallinn, because it was comfortable, pretty and had a decent price. They didn´t have my size though, so now I am reading tutorials on "How to sew lace", and blogs by brides who made their own wedding dresses. At least there will be one major DIY project for this wedding!