The Wedding Attire

Dress for success. The wedding attire can take a huge chunk out of the budget. The bride wants to be her most beautiful and has grown up with images of the perfect dress. An entire industry is devoted to making bridal dreams come true. But, we found many ways to bypass the price tag attached to the perfect dress. We began with magazine pictures and trips to several bridal shops to determine what we liked and wanted. We found poor quality fabrics and workmanship with exorbitant prices, and undergarments and accessories which, when labeled "bridal" were three times what they would have costs as "evening wear."

Perspective is a vital ingredient to dress shopping. The dress is worn once for a few hours. Then, relegated to a box or trunk or consignment shelf. The investment can be major and will never be recouped. Most are very uncomfortable, weighing more than any other dress she will ever wear, with several layers underneath than scratch, rustle and heat up. Keep comfort in mind. A form-fitting dress, multiple layers of petticoat, empty stomach and pre-wedding jitters are the recipe for disaster as many a bride can testify.

My mother, an experienced seamstress offered to make the dress. She combined several patterns to come up with the features my daughter wanted. The fabric was relatively inexpensive, but the lace and trims added significantly to the cost. My daughter hand-sewed five thousand sequins and seed pearls to the lace on the sleeves, bodice and train. Her dress was customized, exquisite and cost less than three hundred dollars. She used a crinoline hoop petticoat she had purchased several years before for a prom and ordered a strapless, longline bra from a department store catalogue.

We experimented with several options for a veil. Rather than pay a hundred dollars or more, we decided to make one. The netting is available, already cut to the right lengths from craft stores. We tried making a tiara from silk flowers and pearls but were not completely satisfied with the results. For about $45 the florist offered a headpiece of fresh roses, with veil. In one of the consignment shops we checked, my daughter found a new veil with a headpiece that matched the lace of her dress, and it cost less than all the other choices.

By the time the second daughter married, my mother could no loner sew her dress. We shopped at a bridal shop and bought one that cost more than we originally planned but was the perfect dress for her. Check carefully before you buy into a wedding shops "package." Their shoes were more expensive than the shoe store. The dry cleaning offer was $30 off of a $150 price. They did provide a hoop petticoat (which we already had). Be very aware that alterations can cost almost as much as the dress depending on what needs to be done. If the hem needs to be shortened, the dress may have to be taken apart at the waist and this is very expensive. An alternative is higher heels or more layers of petticoat. Be sure the dress fits comfortably, especially through the bodice if the bride is unaccustomed to wearing formal wear. Have her practice walking, dancing, going up or down stairs in it.

There were four bride's maids, two of whom were the bride's sisters. We took them shopping to a bridal shop to get an idea what would look best and meet their tastes, sizes and shapes. Bride's maid dresses in bridal shops ranged from seventy-five to several hundred dollars. Catalogue shopping provides a less expensive alternative. We chose dark green velvet and found dresses in a winter department store catalogue. In a pre-season sale, the dresses were thirty-two dollars each. I sewed a rhinestone trim along the neckline to add sparkle and they wore black heels instead of the one-use only dyed to match.

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