Wedding Rehearsal Dress

As I've mentioned in previous posts, the prep for my wedding last June was kinda frantic. Between defending/graduating/moving in the few months leading up to the wedding, there was a LOT to do right there at the end. Case in point: two days before we left to drive to the wedding location, I hadn't even designed my rehearsal dress yet. I threw it together using royal blue peach skin fabric. I am now completely in love with this fabric. The top didn't fit very well, so I added pleats after the fact. Overall, I'm pleased with how the dress turned out, and I wore it again to a friend's beach wedding later in the summer.

The skirt was the original "easy breezy skirt," and the top was modified from my standard bodice pattern that I use as the base of most tops.

The dress was perfect for my rehearsal. The only problem: in my haste to print out directions and contact information about five minutes before it was time for the rehearsal to start, I forgot the beautiful bouquet my attendants made me at my bridal shower :(

At the rehearsal

Re-wearing the dress at a beach wedding

Back of the dress

My lovely bouquet that I left right on the bed in my rush to get to my rehearsal on time!

Wedding Memorial Candles

Photo by Sean Marshall Lin
Names blurred to maintain privacy.

Honoring our deceased relatives at our wedding was important to us, but we also wanted our guests to focus on the happiness of celebrating with everyone present, not who was missing. We thought candles were an appropriate choice. We had seven in total: my paternal grandfather and dog, and my husband's maternal grandparents, paternal grandfather and stepmother, and aunt. We used our wedding fonts and logo on these candles to tie in with everything else.

My bridal assistants started the procession into the church ahead of the living grandparents. They lit the candles for the four deceased immediate grandparents and carried them down the aisle so all our grandparents were part of the procession. These four candles remained lit on the alter through our wedding ceremony.

All seven candles were on display during the entire reception. They were tucked off to the side of the head table, so everyone saw them, but it wasn't as glaringly obvious as an empty chair or something.

Making these was pretty simple. You need a white candle (I got mine at Walmart for ~$3 each, but I did have to visit two different stores because each one only had ~3-4 in stock), vellum paper (I purchased this at Michael's), a printer that can handle the paper (ours kept thinking it was jammed, but my husband's parents' printer worked fine), wax paper, and a hair dryer:

1. Print your design on vellum paper.
2. Cut out your design. I recommend rounding the corners.
3. Blow dry the front of the candle until it starts to feel warm and soft but isn't melting.
4. Place your cut out design on the candle. The initial blow drying step should help hold the design in place so you only need one hand to hold it, but it won't be sticky enough to hold it alone.
5. Wrap the whole thing in wax paper. Be careful not to budge the printout so it's not crooked.
6. Blow dry the heck out of it! You only need to blow dry the part where your design is, but heat that area well. Make sure you don't focus the heat all on one spot for too long (if it melts to the point of dripping, the candle will end up lumpy), but make sure you move it slowly enough to get some melting.
7. Roll the candle on a flat surface to make sure the vellum is smooth on the candle.
8. Let the candle cool, and remove the wax paper. If there are loose corners, roll on the wax paper again and blow dry some more.

Each of our candles included the preferred name of the deceased person (like Mom-mom), the full name of the person, and their lifespan below a picture of either me or my husband with the person we were remembering.

Bridal assistants started the procession, carrying the memorial candles. Names on the candles are blurred for this public posting. Photo by Sean Marshall Lin.

Bridesmaid Gift #3: Handmade Jewelry

Photo by Sean Marshall Lin

This was by the most time consuming and expensive bridesmaid gift, but it was well worth it. If you haven't already seen the bridesmaid dresses that I designed and made from scratch, you can start here if you're interested. In addition to making the dresses (the bridesmaids paid me for the supplies), I also gave each of my bridesmaids and bridal assistants three gifts: an initialed robe (click here to view), an initialed hanger (click here to view), and a handmade jewelry set (earrings and a necklace for the bridesmaids and earrings and a bracelet for the bridal assistants and moms). 

I ordered all the supplies at Fire Mountain Gems: sterling silver for the chain and other metal parts, and Swarovski Crystal for the crystal parts. I made the necklaces and bracelets adjustable but kept in mind approximate wrist sizes. The jewelry really tied everything together and contributed to a sense of colorful sameness. My own jewelry was Swarovski, so that matched, too.

I have no jewelry-making experience, so I won't try to teach you how I did it (I learned myself by watching videos and looking at examples throughout the process), but I hope you enjoy seeing the final product.

Bridesmaids' necklaces and earrings. The message reads "I'm such a lucky bride to have you by my side." The bridal assistants have the same message, obviously.

Bridesmaid Gift #2: Initialed Hangers

Photo by Sean Marshall Lin

This is another half-handmade gift. I gave each of my bridesmaids and bridal assistants three gifts: an initialed robe (click here to view), an initialed hanger, and a handmade jewelry set (view here).

Hopefully my attendants have something fun hanging on the hanger now. They added another personal detail to the wedding day itself, too.

Making these was incredibly simple. I ordered these satin covered hangers from Amazon. I purchased small wooden letters from Walmart that I painted silver. I attached the letters with a ribbon, and I also sewed onsmall clusters of beads to prevent straps from slipping off the hanger. I sewed on multiple clusters per side so my bridesmaids can use them for other clothing in the future. Who doesn't need another hanger?

Bead clusters I sewed on top to keep straps in place

Bridesmaid Gift #1: Initialed Robes

My bridesmaids and bridal assistants were great. They threw me a wonderful shower and bachelorette party and traveled from all over the Eastern and Central time zones for both my shower/bachelorette weekend and my wedding weekend. I wanted to make sure I expressed my gratitude properly.

I gave each of them three gifts, all that could be used the day of the wedding and (hopefully) in the future: a robe with their first initial, a hanger with their first initial (view here), and a homemade jewelry set (view here). The moms also got the robe and jewelry. I'll post separately on the jewelry and hangers, but I'll share the robes here.

Wedding Flowers

Photos by Sean Marshall Lin

If you haven't already seen my posts on my bridesmaid dresses, which I designed and sewed from scratch, you can view the whole sequence starting here.

Flowers weren't something that was incredibly important to me going into the wedding planning process. And they still weren't that important to me in the weeks leading up to the wedding. When I saw my wedding pictures, though, I was THRILLED with how I ended up handling my wedding flowers and centerpiece flowers!

It was important to me that all the bridesmaid bouquets were the same to tie everything together. That was my only real prerequisite. I've seen pictures from other weddings with a rainbow color scheme where the bridesmaids each have a totally different bouquet to highlight flowers and foliage in their dress color, but I'm really not a fan. It seems to lend itself to more of a hippie vibe, and I wanted the flowers to contribute to a traditional feel... uniformity, uniformity, uniformity.

Wedding Guest Book

photo by Sean Marshall Lin

Our wedding was game-themed.

No, we didn't have people play games or anything, but our table names were some of our favorite games (instead of boring table numbers), our favors were decks of cards, our Save the Date was game themed, we had a Candyland table for a dessert candy bar, etc.

For our guest book, we used the game Jenga. Our guests signed Jenga pieces. We just played our "guest book" for the first time, and it was so much fun! Each time we removed a piece, we read the message aloud. Once the tower toppled, we read all the pieces that never got pulled out. We had enough for two sets (or potentially for one extremely large tower).

I loved our Jenga guest book, and it fit perfectly with everything else!

photo by Sean Marshall Lin

Bridesmaid Dresses: the final product

In case you're arriving at this post from a link on pinterest or elsewhere, it's part of a series in which I documented the creation of bridesmaid dresses for my wedding. In total, it was about an 18 month project (from asking the bridesmaids to getting married). To see the whole bridesmaid dress creation sequence (dress design, dress assembly, and the finishing touches/fine details), go back to the first post in this series (click here). Here is the finished product!

Our wedding was fairly traditional. We got married in a church and had the reception at a country club. The dresses were perfect for our wedding, and I just LOVED the vivid colors. They turned out really well, and they looked especially good on the dance floor for twirling with their full skirts!

I asked each girl to incorporate a silk gladiolus flower into her hair (separate post coming on these flowers). I asked them to wear their hair in an updo because 1) late June is hot!, and 2) I wanted the criss-crossed back to show. The bridesmaid flowers were white roses with gladiolus in their color incorporated for a pop of color. I asked everyone to just wear silver strappy shoes of their choice, and to be honest, I wasn't looking at anyone's shoes! I had six bridesmaids and two bridal assistants. I'll have a separate post on my bridal assistants. I asked them to wear periwinkle/indigo to go with the color scheme.

Please feel free to pin or share these pictures, but make sure our awesome photographer's name remains associated in the captions. Our photographer was excellent, and you can check out his other work here.

Photo Credit: Sean Marshall Lin

Photo Credit: Sean Marshall Lin

Bridesmaid Dresses: Finishing Touches

This is the fourth of five posts documenting the creation of my bridesmaid dresses. Click here to go to the start.

There were a lot of finer details involved in these dresses than the casual observer might notice. These dresses have a lightly gathered round neckline, a full circle skirt with a rolled hem, a slightly dropped waist (1" below the natural waist), an invisible zipper with a hook and eye closure at the top, a straight skirt lining for modesty purposes (the bodice is also lined), interlocking straps, and a criss-crossed pleated waistband. 

Working in reverse order from that list...

The waistbands were a PAIN to make. After making one, I realized I didn't have enough time (or hands) in my life to pleat them all. Hence, a pressing party. I enlisted the help of some lab members (6 extra hands and one extra iron!) who helped me bang out the remaining five in about 4 hours. Each waistband has four pieces—the base (the flat back of the waistband), a back piece that is pleated horizontally, and two front pieces, each pleated horizontally and then criss-crossed. Having two people work on pressing one piece saved many burnt fingers—this fabric conducts heat very well, and trying to hold a pleat in place with one hand while ironing with the other was not fun.

Pleating party

Assembling my bridesmaid dresses

This is the third post in a series on my bridesmaid dresses. Click here to see the first and link to the rest :)

I put together the bodice and lining and then double checked each girl's measurements before attaching the skirt. Since the skirt was all one piece (except where I had cut the circle to insert the zipper and back seam), any bodice alterations after attaching the skirt required removal of the skirt. The skirt did not have side seams. I saved attaching the straps for my bridal shower weekend, when everyone flew in and could try on their dresses. Only one dress required major alterations (removing the skirt and zipper), which wasn't too bad.

Here is a short sequence of dress assembly pictures!

Bodices sewn, straps pinned into place, back pinned
shut, lining complete except back; yellow, pink (red),
purple, and blue dresses.

Bridesmaid Dresses

I've fallen off the radar for the past year as I prepared for my wedding and completed my PhD. Now I can share all the things I created for the wedding since they're not a secret anymore!

First, the most exciting and biggest project of all: the bridesmaid dresses. Since this was an 18 month project, I'll break it into smaller posts over the next few days :)

Please note: the photos shown above were assembled from our professional wedding photos.
Photo credit: Sean Marshall Lin

The Color Scheme
Our wedding was fairly traditional. We got married in a church and had the reception at a country club. I used a rainbow color scheme for my wedding. Everything--invitations, place cards, memorial candles, programs, etc. followed this color scheme, but the table linens were all white. The flowers also turned out great--the girls had white roses with gladiolus in their respective colors. Some of the colors didn't exist naturally, so I dyed silk flowers (another post to follow) to match, and the florist incorporated them in with the live white roses.

I chose the rainbow color scheme for two reasons: 1) I just love colors and couldn't imagine choosing only one, and 2) My parents had a rainbow color scheme for their wedding.

Designing bridesmaid dresses

Since the bridesmaid dresses were an 18 month project, I've broken this into smaller posts. This is the second, here's the first (summary) post!

Choosing the Dress Design
I modified the typical choose a bridesmaid dress routine—bride chooses a bunch of dresses she likes, bridesmaids tell her which they like/dislike, new ones enter the field, bridesmaids try them on and email each other pictures, etc. I decided to use pinterest for this part of the procedure. I created a shared pinterest board between all my bridesmaids and asked them to pin their favorite dresses with minimal guidance from me. They knew I was looking for short/knee length and not strapless. I did have two other features in mind, but I didn't want to sway them before I got a sense of their tastes. We commented on them, etc., until I felt ready to design a dress. I feel like this was a really good way to choose a dress, and even if you're not designing your own, it would be a good way to make sure you don't choose something anyone hates/that you do choose something your girls will like.

How to choose a bridesmaid dress

Black and white polka dots!

My apologies for the blurry picture--my camera is broken,
so this is the best I got... this is the bride with her bridesmaids,
all wearing black and white (by chance)!

This dress has been in the works for nearly a year. I actually finished it in early August, wore it twice and took pictures, and have been too busy to get it on the blog! Anyway, I made this dress for a friend's rehearsal dinner, but I cheated and wore it on vacation in August first. 

All our outfits for the weekend ready to go to the car--you can
see the knotted straps best in this picture, so I included it