Wedding Wednesday: My Dress!

"The" Dress...

I have dreams of my dress still, its lovely textures and layers - the layers (or labors) of love...

As I mentioned before, I was lucky enough to have my wedding dress made by my Mother and my Aunts

Being in design for years now, I am around so many fabrics daily

Trying on dresses in a couple boutiques made me appreciate the beauty of the fabric even more

Most dresses I tried on, I couldn't get past the poor quality fabric they were made up of

I did of course fall for two gowns that were priced upwards of $6,000 but even those weren't perfect in my eyes

For years I had admired a specific dress by Oscar de le Renta, however with a price tag of over $14,000, it wasn't for me and besides, it was from his 2008 line

I casually showed my Auntie Susie an image of it I found on ebay and she softly said, "we can do that"

Well, by "we" she was referring to herself and her counterpart, my Mother's sister, Priscilla (better known as "Auntie Cilla" to family and my close friends)

Auntie Cilla said, "with out a doubt, we can do that!"

When she said "we" she meant with the help of the other lovely ladies in my family

The dress is made completely of silk, specifically a Pinder and Pindler 100% Douppioni Silk called Diva in colour white

My Aunts spent endless days and nights working on every detail from wrapping me in duct tape to capture my exact measurements, shopping for fabrics, creating mock-ups, testing fabric, cutting, measuring, creating spreadsheets, shredding, gluing, pinning... you name it

My Auntie Cilla is the most selfless person I know, she calculated everything to a tee, she's the engineer in our family

Not only was she Head Seamstress, she also opened her home up for months to anyone willing to help

There is even a 'check-in' on Facebook for my aunt and uncles now, 'The Aunties Sweatshop'

Thank You:

Auntie Susie

Auntie Cilla

Mom
Auntie Lid
Auntie Nelli
Auntie Jan
Auntie Patty
Auntie Donna

*A special thank you to my loving uncle:

 Thank you Uncle Johnny for giving up your man cave to so many women for months on end!

I cannot thank you all enough for all the love you put into my wedding dress

I will cherish my dress forever, but most of all the memories

You have made me the happiest girl in the world
If that doesn't make someone feel special, I don't know what would!

I love you

Love,

"Tori-Bray" Schuler

Mac getting her pearls latched, the dress hanging nicely

MFD prepping the dress

Perfection!

All that detail!

Getting zipped up!

Full gown

The garment bag Auntie Cilla designed and made with Auntie Susie

This brought tears to my eyes, stitched into the hem of one of the layers of petticoats

My favorite picture

Lovely ladies hard at work:

Mom, Auntie Patty, Auntie Cilla and Auntie Susie all hard at work

Auntie Lid shredding silk for endless hours

Head Seamstress, Auntie Susie diligently confirming strip size to her spreadsheet, YES spreadsheet!

Planning!

Not only did they make my dress from scratch, they even made our ring bearer pillows, monogrammed our cake linens and handkerchiefs for Brad:
Cake table linens monogrammed in navy

The ring bearer pillows made of my dress material
They had our monogram on each of the pillows :)