Dress Update

Alright, now that Kathryn (the dress designer) and I are on the same page as far as the design goes, she has begun sourcing materials to make the dress with (and the official cost estimate.) She apparently had in stock some silky ivory satin for the main part of the dress and has been diligently shopping for the rest. Because we decided on lace for the parts of the dress, she has been lace shopping. And I have, by proxy, been getting a lace education. She has decided that Alencon lace (pronounced al-an-sawn, it's French) would be best. Through some google searches, I have learned that Alencon lace is "is a needle lace that originated in Alençon, France. It is sometimes called the 'Queen of lace.'" I have also learned that "Alencon lace is Chantilly Lace which has been re-embroidered with a very fine rayon cord" and that Kathryn only uses hand-made lace. Yes. Hand made. As in there are some French ladies making it by hand at some Chateau right now. Okay, not right now, b/c apparently it takes a year to make hand-made lace which is what makes is so fancy. This might be the most fancy, fussy, over the top thing about the wedding so far. It's so fancy sounding, it almost makes me uncomfortable. But Kathryn says, "there is so much lace out there but the good stuff is rare, hand-made and usually made wider for entire dresses. It also comes and goes quickly especially now during high wedding season. It takes aprox one year for the hand-made lace to be made.....it is a very specialized industry." Whew! Anyway, we believe we have found some lace that may work and I'm posting it here.



*Warning: apparently it's only yellowed in the picture. Kathryn assures me in real life it's light ivory and matches the satin. Before I decide for sure, I'm going to check out the lace on my mom's veil again to see if we can't get a close match.

But Kathryn hasn't just been doing lace shopping. She's also been shopping for the Tiffany Blue sash I may or may not wear with the dress. She's mailing me samples and I have pics as well.



I think I actually found the perfect ribbon at Kate's Paperie a few weeks ago, so when the sample comes in, I may go by, pick some up and compare.

Finally, Kathryn has been coming up with even more ideas for the dress. Today she sent me this brilliance:

"There are lots of things that can be done with the edging of the gown. For example you could have lace set in place at the edge of the gown, and you could have aqua tulle set into your petticoat that peaked out slightly when you walked or danced."

Umm, awesome? I asked her if she thought it would be too much with the sash and she assured me it wouldn't as long as it was subtle. She also mention doing the sash in reversible white and aqua blue. What do you guys think? Is the reversible sash necessary? What about the blue tulle peeking out from under the ground? Awesome or childish? She said we could make these decisions at the end, but i'm curious about what you guys think. And, just for fun, she sent me a new and improved dress sketch.

NOT FOR MATT'S EYES




So what do you think? Should I push back for more lace on the bottom? Wait to see how it turns out? And isn't this thing getting awesome?