made for me...

or i was made for them...custom dresses, that is.

Prom 2000: My mom made me this dress. I wish I had a picture of the back; horizontal strings of pearls held the dress together with my back peeking in between each string. It was amazing!


Here's me and the seamstress, my mom!


My custom wedding gown, made from my mom's wedding gown. Pictured with the bestie.


Me and the seamstress, Janet Brunton.

I guess I'm made for white dresses too. :-)

the week before

was soooooooooooper busy!! I can't believe it went by so freakin fast. I feel like I hardly got anything done.

My cousin flew in from the Philippines on Saturday evening.

how gorgeous is she?? would you believe me if i told you she's the big 3-0...and she has 2 children?? crazy, right? yea...unbelievable!

We showed her around the OC...mostly where to shop. And then I had to drag her along to do my wedding chores which I had set out to finish before the week was over.

We went to Janet's to pick up my dress, but lo' and behold, I had lost some inches...and Janet needed to take in my dress one more time. Sprinkles cupcakes, grease, and late night Mexican food could not keep the pounds from falling off...i was staying up into the wee hours of the morning trying to straighten out our guest list...finalizing the seating chart...practicing our 1st dance, practicing the father-daughter dance...etc, etc, etc. Don't worry though...I believe I'm back to regular eating habits!

Okay...so while we were at Janet's, we also picked up my mom's dress:


How great does the color look? However...dilemma...my cousin got a dress custom-made for my mom in the Philippines...it was a lovely shade of plum...decorated with jewels in the front, rouched to be form fitting, accented with flutter sleeves, and it looked exactly like what a mother-of-the-bride should wear. I'll share those pictures when I get the pros back.

And after a second trip to Janet's...I got to pick her up and take her home!


Here she is...all done and ready to go...and perfect! Check out Darci's (With This Ring) post on my dress! She's got a great before and after shot of my gown. Janet added these final touches: added my mom's buttons (originally on the cuffs of her dress) to the back, sewed the flowers down on my top, and she also added delicate button loops. It truly was the gown of my dreams!

Mom's/My wedding dress update: Amazingness cont'd

Last night was my 2nd to last meeting with Janet Brunton.

I cried like 102384712835 times. It truly is amazing. And I super love that it's my mom's dress, and it's my dress.

Dee, step away. Don't even try to look!

I can't do it justice without showing you its progress starting from the beginning:

My mom's dress...as she wore it...minus the right sleeve. =|

taken apart and the beginning of redesign.

with the redesigned top (which needs to be reshaped again) and the first 2 tiers.

with new top and all tiers added.

Janet added a train!

she's lookin gorgeous!

and last night:

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Janet attached the rest of Mom's lace to the sweetheart top. Amazing, no?

i'm super happy with how it's coming along!

my top, up close.

up closer...

the 2 styles of scalloped lace we're trying to choose from to use as the trim for the sweetheart top.

went with the smaller scalloped lace...this is how the lace will look on my top.

here's the rounded train.

i'm sorry...I can't get enough of this dress!

how the lace will look in the back.

from far away-ish

from the side.

bustled...amazing, right?

bustle from the side

walking...

and here's one of me crying...yea...she's the one.

what next? Janet will attach the tulle to the dress so that it doesn't pop out in random places as you've seen in the pictures. It'll help as I won't be standing still all night. Janet will attach the lace trim to the top, complete my bustle, and clean up anything else. And we're still trying ways we can incorporate the buttons from my mom's sleeves on the dress. Janet is one of my favorite vendors to work with!!

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the amazing-ness that is my dress!

I had another appointment with my fabulous seasmstress, Ms. Janet Brunton, on Monday.

O. M. G. My dress is amazing!!! I love love love it!!

Dee, please...no looking further!

Let's start from the beginning:

My mom's dress...as she wore it...minus the right sleeve. =|

taken apart and the beginning of redesign.

with the redesigned top (which needs to be reshaped again) and the first 2 tiers.

and this Monday:

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breathe. yes. this is her. my dress. isn't she beautiful? i'm not wearing my shoes right now...hold on.

my new train!

seriously...how gorgeous is it!?!

close-up of the top. Janet reshaped it and added cups. the lace will need to layered over them again. and then the edges will be lined ever so slightly with lace.

and of course, i'll be getting a bustle.

Janet will round out my train.

i love it i love it i love it!

what still needs to be done: attach the lace. adjust the tier lengths. fix the shape of the train. bustle it. take it in a little more.

It's been amazing watching the transformation. Janet is amazing! Seriously...OC Brides...let her know what you need: janetbrunton@gmail.com.

2 more appointments!

Thanks for watching!

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more progress on my wedding dress

Had another fitting last night!! Yay!! The dress is turning out really great! I can't be more pleased!

Dee, I would much appreciate you stop here right now if you're reading...though i hope you're not since I asked you after my last fitting to stop reading my blog! Thanks babe! Those seeing my blog on readers and through RSS feed, I've made my posts expandable.

Here we go...

So let's back up a bit first...

Here is what the dress originally looked like:

One of the sleeves was already taken off. Please forgive the angle. and please forgive my scrubbiness; I had gone to the gym that day.

This was my dress a month ago:

We were adjusting the top, and trying to figure out how long the tiers should be.

I brought my earrings and bracelet, and i styled my hair (like at a stop light on the way to Janet's) the way I want it for the wedding...a side bun with my fringe sweeped over to the right.

And here is how it looked last night:

The lovely Janet Brunton sewed my mom's original lace bodice to the restyled top. And we're testing out the first 2 tiers to make sure we like the effect of the tulle underneath and to get the right measurements for all the tiers.

The top needs a little more work. I want more of the sweetheart shape.

Here's a look at the back. A hook & eye will need to be put on the dress.

Pretend the top is more of a sweetheart shape.

Playing around with the tiers. We're figuring out the length that will make the bottom 3 tiers equidistant lengths of each other.

Here's a close-up of the seam Janet suggested for the tiers (see first tier). I love it!

imagining how far the dress would come out with crinoline underneath.

testing the scalloped lace on the sweetheart top.

scalloped lace going through to the back.

testing the other lace (orig. lined the tiers) on the other side of my sweetheart top.

other lace on the back.

testing 2nd lace as belt. which lace for the top?

Janet, working her magic.

a peek at my Sergio Rossi shoes...the dress is missing the 4th tier.

Janet is going to make a train for me! Where her finger is where the would end...i think i want to go a little longer!

testing the belt in the front...pinned the bodice in a little bit more (on one side only...so i'll look lopsided in the next few pictures)

belt turned around. it looks better in pictures; i didn't really like it in person.

belt folded in half.

More dresses I had Janet work on...

Here's my day-after brunch dress. It was a size 0, but the top was made for someone with a C-cup.

My fancy dress for our engagment pix. The top was really loose on me...Janet took it in.

this dress is so much fun! this is where my camera died on us. =(

i love all my dresses! i can't wait for our next appointment!

next appt: next month

wedding gown to do list: pick lace trim for the sweetheart top. fix sweetheart top shape. have cups added to gown. take in bodice a little bit more. sew tiers to dress. decide on train length.

can't wait to share more!

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