1914 "Antique Dress" Reproduction!!

*Warning* Photo Heavy Post!!

Good  Monday to you all!!  I hope that you had a wonderful month of June!  I do apologize for my absence, but the relief I thought would come after the Anniversary party didn't, in fact the anxiety got worse, along with other symptoms that I had been having but are now stronger.  We have discovered that I have adrenal fatigue (sorry Facebook friends if you are reading this again!!) and so I'm taking steps to correct my wacked out stress hormones and attempting to heal myself!  I have put off posting about my Silver Anniversary dress because the thought of taking photos of the dress, editing them and the writing about it caused me no amount of stress.  I really enjoy writing about my dresses and love editing the photos and doing my research and many times a post takes about 1-2 hours.  Well, right now, that is just so overwhelming.  But yesterday I felt good enough to take the pictures and edit them and today feels like a good day to blog about it!  So here we are!

Long ago when Mom and I started planning for our Silver and Gold Wedding Anniversary party, I knew exactly what dress I wanted to recreate!  This magnificent beauty from Antique Dress!!  I seem to have an affinity for this website and their fabulous dresses!! (Remember my 1898 Wedding Ensemble?) The combination of silk satin, gossamer lace, copious quantities of waxed orange blossoms!!  My mouth watered and my eyes dilated just looking at her!

I had originally planned on making it out of silk satin and some lovely lace I found on eBay from China, but family issues, the hard time Colton was having with school along with his depression, mixed with my own personal health/anxiety issues caused me to put this lovely dress recreation on the waaaaaay back burner and relegate it to the "maybe some day" file on the computer.  

Well....the closer it got to the party date, the more excited I got about making the dress and even though I had my 1898 wedding dress, I wanted something special just for this special day.  Then happiness occurred and Greg said he needed to go out of town for a job and was taking Colton with him!!!  I don't like it when my Greg is away from me, but this time I was, "Yes!!  I can sew literally ALL DAY and not have to worry about what I'd cook for dinner or putting make up on or leaving the house for anything!!!!"  I didn't have the time or money to order silk satin so off to the local stores I went. I ended up making it out of a really nice weight poly satin from Hobby Lobby and lace and wonderfully soft, drapey, veil tulle from JoAnn's bridal collection!  

Cody works so he was gone from the house 8:20-6:30, so I quite literally sewed non stop, breaking only for food and the powder room.  In the evenings, Cody and I went out which was fun as we seldom have time alone, so those Mama/19 year old son times were so sweet!  Greg and Colton were supposed to be gone Wednesday night until Monday or Tuesday evening...5-6 whole days to knock out this surprise dress for the party!  Well, Sunday afternoon, Rosie Dog started barking furiously and I look out the window and there is Greg's pick-up and trailer!  I bounded out of the house, I was so happy that he was home!  Gone was my 1-2 extra days of non-stop sewing, but I didn't care cause my love was back home!  In all actuality, it was foolish of me to think I could get the dress completed in that time because 90% of the making of it consisted of draping the lace and soft tulle.  The dress took me waaaaay longer that I had originally thought...over 110 hours!! In the end, the crazy press to complete it and all the hours was totally worth it to see the look on my Greg's face!!!

I eventually want to add orange blossom vines to the front of the dress and over the shoulder, but I need to locate more original blossoms.  I am also going to be making a new suite of underwear to go under it.  The sheerness of the tulle at the shoulders kept me from wearing my already made princess petticoat and corset cover, so new undies are in the planning stage!!

Fabrics Used: 

Poly Satin from Hobby Lobby

Soft poly veil tulle from JoAnn's Bridal Collection

Lace from JoAnn's Bridal Collection

Patterns Used:

Dress Base: Laughing Moon #104 greatly modified

Over draping: all tulle and lace draping was draped by me...that took the longest time!!

Following are images of my dress followed by the original.  At the bottom are "action" pics of me wearing it at the party.  I did a lot of editing as any shade of white on a sunny day photos horribly!!!

Again, photos of the original dress, courtesy of  Antique Dress

Here she is!!!

Action Shots!!

I hope you have a lovely week dear readers and friends!!  I am off to watch Austenland and contemplate future bridal dresses that need to be made by September!!

Blessings!

g

Gold and Silver Wedding Anniversary Party

Good Sunday, almost Monday to you all!  I hope you all have been doing well!  I do want to thank all of you who wrote emails to me, commented on the blog, or messaged me on Facebook about my previous post concerning anxiety and stress.  You all truly blessed me and your thoughts and prayers are most coveted!  I am doing much better, especially since the weeks leading up to yesterday are over and I can now concertedly work on healing myself and getting back to my wonderful normal!  I am happy to report that Colton is doing much better as well and we are together working on getting back to us and making this summer a super fun one!!  Thank you for your kind words, thoughts and prayers concerning my sweet boy!!

Yesterday Mom, Dad, Greg and I along with our close family and friends celebrated our wedding anniversaries.  Greg and I celebrated 25 years on January 3rd and Mom and Dad will celebrate 50 years on October 7th.  Mom and I felt that a month that fell somewhat in the middle of the two dates would be a fabulous time to have a Gold and Silver Wedding Anniversary Party!  It was held The Bishops' House in Boise. Being a small venue, we had a limit on attendance, but it was a very intimate and lovely affair none the less! I had been wanting for many years leading up to this quarter of a century mark, to have a grand anniversary party in a fabulous Victorian House, where the attendees wore Victorian garb if they so chose.  But I didn't know anyone who 1) owned one or 2) would let us hold a party there!  Then we discovered The House and voila!!  Our plans started in earnest!

Warning:  This is a very heavy picture post!!

Anniversary "Party" and Family

My beloved husband and me

Our two awesome boys!

My Sweet Mama and Daddy.  They have been such a great example of what a Godly marriage looks like.  I love these two dearly!!

Mom, Dad and their FABULOUS children!!  My brother Matt and my sister Kelly and ours truly!

Greg's Mom, Pam flew in for the celebration!  It was so good having her there!

The "Groom" and his Mama!

Mom did such a wonderful job on her dress and she looked radiant!!

Decorations and Food!!

For the decorations, we chose to simply utilize the wedding artifacts we use in our "Dressing the Victorian Bride" program.  Easy Peasy!  We didn't have to purchase anything that we wouldn't use down the road!  Plus it added a very lovely feel to the Victorian House!

My mementoes of my wedding day consisted of my shoes, Greg's cuff links and shirt studs, our wedding invitation and napkin, Greg's boutonniere, my garter, flowers from my wedding bouquet, repaired cake topper, our toasting glasses, our photograph, my dress and veil. 

Mom made a lovely shadow box filled with her ring pillow, original ring in the original box, show clips, garter, Dad's cuff links and tie pin and her going away bouquet.  She also repaired her cake topper, had her marriage license framed, a champagne bottle from their honeymoon, her veil, dress and photograph of the wedding party!

We were thrilled to be able to use the over the top punch bowl!!  It was such a fabulous addition to the serving pieces!

The cake came from Sugar Rush Cupcakery in Boise.  The middle layer was Pink Champagne!!!!

Marilyn and Aubrielle Holly were our party coordinators and they enlisted the help of my Mother-in-Law Pam, my Sister-in-Law Chrissy and my cousin Linda to help in the kitchen assembling the food that had been prepared the night before.  

The tea party-esque menu included:

Spicy egg salad sandwiches

Cucumber sandwiches

Roast beef sandwiches with herbed cream cheese spread and red root relish

Chicken, cranberry, cheese and almond sandwiches

Fruit stands

Vegetable stands

Scones with mock Devonshire cream and raspberry jam

Cream puff cups with custard

and

incredible cookies made by my sister!!!

We are so appreciative of all the work that went into keeping the food trays filled and looking FABULOUS so mom and I could enjoy our day!!  You ladies rocked!!!

In the middle of the table was placed Kelly's cookies.  She makes THE best sugar cookies I have ever tasted.  They are perfectly soft in the middle but with a little bit of a harder outer layer.  She made these blue (Mom's favorite color).  They were decorated with "W" for Walters and White, "50", "25", "G&G" for Greg and Gina and "R&L" for Ray and Lana!  Her labor or love (12 hours of work on Friday) was so greatly appreciated!  I'm actually eating one now!

One of the fun things we did was set up a Victorian "photo booth".  I wanted people to be able to take pictures using a great background and props to emulate cabinet cards of the past!  It was super fun!

We even cut the cake, fed bites to each other and drank a toast with our arms intertwined

!

A good portion of our lovely guests!

We were so blessed to be surrounded by close family and friends who have prayed with us, walked through the good, the bad and the ugly times with us, dropped whatever they were doing to come sit with us or just simply lent an ear during times of sorrow, frustration or pain.  They have laughed with us over something ridiculous, shared moments of utter joy, let us be our true selves (without running away screaming!!), and in general supported us during this thing called marriage.  To them I say a heartfelt "Thank you" and please know that you have blessed us greatly!

Surprise Vow Renewal Ceremony!!

One of the things that happened after the party was officially over was a vow renewal ceremony.  I hadn't wanted to do one but a few weeks before the party, I felt the urge to surprise Greg with one.  You see, our marriage hasn't always been as incredible as it is now.  Being raised differently and coming from different back grounds was a little bit like a radio trying to talk to a toaster.  We have both hurt each other and it has been really rough road, but God has been so faithful to the both of us and we have endured and our marriage is so much better than I ever thought it could have been!  So, I thought it would be a lovely thing to renew my vows to Greg.  I asked our dear friend Dave (who is a pastor) to perform the ceremony and he graciously agreed!  Talking to Greg afterwards he agreed that it was very special thing to do and that it meant a lot to him... "it was a very good surprise"!  He took the whole thing with his usual aplomb, he is that fabulous!

Greg and I walking down the aisle after Stacey McElyea had to "talk to us" downstairs while Mom, Pam, Marilyn and Aubrielle got everyone gathered around the Gazebo!

All in all it was a truly splendid day!  The weather totally cooperated, not too hot, not too cold!  It was joyful, non stressful and filled with happiness.  I am so grateful to my Mom and Dad for showing me that a marriage can be a good thing and to God for blessing me with my Greg, and Greg for not giving up on us and for those who are our cheerleaders!!

Here are two videos of the surprise vow renewal ceremony!  The short one was taken by Gracie McElyea and the longer one by Stacey McElyea.  I hope you enjoy them!

Photos taken by Colton and Mama!

Be Blessed my friends!

g