Something Borrowed: Walking down the Aisle & Wearing my Mom's Dress

I love family, stories, sentimental things, vintage items, and Southern belle classy couture.

Fortunately, my wedding dress - borrowed from my mom - fulfilled all of that. 

Sometime in late high school, my mom and I came across her wedding dress tucked away in a box in the back of a closet, covered by a layer of dust. We decided to pull it out, unsure of what we would find... partly expecting it to be yellowed, wrinkled, and in poor condition. 

Much to our surprise and delight, it was in fantastic condition - still bright white, fresh looking and barely wrinkled. Even better, when I tried it on, we realized it was almost a perfect fit. 

From that moment, I decided I wanted to wear her gown as my wedding dress. 

However, it wasn't until almost a decade later that I was married: this past May 17th. 

It was an outdoor wedding, riverside and under chandeliers hanging from oak trees - the perfect setting for a vintagey, southern-belle-like wedding dress: 

But I didn't just slip into the dress that Saturday. Below is the story of the transformation of my mom's dress into the wedding dress of my dreams :)

My now husband proposed to me at Thanksgiving but I didn't return home from grad school until Christmas break. It was then that my mom and I dug out that box in the back of her closet and - with fingers crossed - opened it, worried that it might have lost some of its impressiveness since the preservation seal had been broken when we opened the box nearly 10 years prior. 

Much to our amazement, the dress was still in great condition. This is when I tried it on in our living room last Christmas: 

It was a little big and I needed to de-1980s the sleeves and add my own personality with touches of my favorite color, purple, but other than that we were thrilled with how it looked over 30 years after my mom wore it. 

This is a picture of my mom from her wedding day back in 1982; rather than purple, hers had pink details with flowers at the neckline and along the ruffled hem:

Plus, you won't believe it BUT my mom still had the Brides magazine that she first saw her dress in!?! It was showcased on the front cover: 

My mom had loved how different that dress was but never expected to actually be able to find it - she was married before the age of google and the far-reaches of the internet to track down her dream dress ;) Fortunately, as fate would have it, after several unsuccessful shopping trips, she stumbled upon THAT dress and upon trying it on, she knew she had to have it. She called my grandmother who drove to the store and agreed that it was the perfect fit and look for my mom so they bought it on the spot. 

To turn my mom's perfect dress into my perfect dress, we weren't sure how much it would cost and who on earth we could trust to cut, sew and update the dress. Fortunately, my fabulous wedding planner, Bethany Boles Hewitt, told us of the equally fabulous seamstress, Pat Wilcox. 

My mom and I set up a meeting with Mrs. Pat and I invited my granny along as well. Mrs. Pat was affordable, sweet, creative and totally got our vision for the dress. I described what I was hoping for and she magically made it happen. We met with her 4 times: my Christmas break in December, my Spring break in March, the end of April after the semester was over and then early May right before the wedding.

Here are a few photos of the process... 

After my first visit with Mrs. Pat, she sent me on a mission to find the material that she would turn into the details. I picked out purple and silvery chiffon + a few lace trims with the help of one of my bridesmaids, Anna. 

Here is an example of  one of the end products. This is a close up of one of the chiffon flowers she just whipped up from scratch, including individual beads sewn in to shimmer in the sunlight since I was having an outdoor wedding - her attention to detail and her creativity was phenomenal.

This was the bare bones of the dress without the details and with the sleeves taken down considerably: 

But Mrs. Pat didn't waste anything so she took parts of the sleeves (with all that 1980s excess) and added them to flowers and other details on the gown. She truly reinvented all of parts of my mom's dress. Here are a few more photos of the in between phase when we were experimenting with a few different options:

               

And these were photos from the final fitting:

During this process, we got to know Mrs. Pat and she got to know us. Seeing my mom and granny there at every visit and also learning my love for family and sentimental touches, Mrs. Pat emailed me the sweetest idea. She said it used to be a tradition to add the bride's name and wedding date to the hem of the wedding dress passed down. She wanted to know if I would like for her to add my mom's wedded name and wedding date along with my would-be wedded name and wedding date to the hem of the dress. I did not hesitate because I adored the idea. It was a sweet moment when we revealed it to my mom at the final fitting a couple weeks before the wedding; the embroidery is pictured below: 

The other mushy gushy but super sweet moment of wearing my mom's dress down the aisle was that my Daddy got to see both my mom and his daughter as a bride in the same gown. Here he is escorting me to the ceremony: 

So after 4 visits and about $500 with countless hours of cutting, creating and sewing, Mrs. Pat took this:

And turned it into the classy, sassy, Southern-belle like wedding dress of my dreams with touches of purple, sparkle and lace... and a story to tell

And the dress of my dreams was the perfect fit for the day I married the man of my dreams :) 

I'm not sure he and I will have a little girl one day but you better believe my mom and I had the wedding dress preserved just in case I one day have a girl who wants to carry on the tradition and wear our dress at her wedding...