Wedding Dress Wednesday - Kendra

(mybigfatbeautifulwedding.com)

This afternoon, looking for some fresh Wedding Dress Wednesday inspiration, I googled "lace wedding dress." (Ok, maybe not so fresh - after all, 99% of the dresses I've posted so far have lace.)

One of the results on the first page was for mybigfatbeautifulwedding.com, the website for a bridal shop that sells custom wedding gowns at reasonable (actually: really cheap) prices. While they may need a professional to redesign their website, and ordering a custom gown from someone whose work I couldn't see in person, in advance, is not high on the list of things I want to do, I found a couple of dresses that I think are just gorgeous.

The Kendra, above, is one of them. I think I've got a lace problem, because how I feel about a dress is directly proportionate to how much lace it has. (See: Dalmacia, Mia Solano, Ivanka Trump) This dress is beautiful. It's described on the website as "Beautiful Strapless Styling With Sequin Encrusted Lace Overlay Bodice. Slimming Dropped Waist with slight A-line silhouette. Fitted Styling With Slimming Princess Seams On Bodice. Gorgeous All Over Ancelon Lace Over Lay. Lovely Train." (It's the eternal italics and overuse of capital letters that really make me think they need to redesign their website.)

The front:

Detail:

Wedding Dress Wednesday - Ivanka Trump's Wedding Dress

Ivanka Trump's wedding dress has gotten a lot of attention. I think it's well-deserved, but I also think it's amusing just how revolutionary a wedding dress with sleeves is these days.

(Getty Images)

According to Cathy Horyn of the NY Times, the dress, by Vera Wang, was inspired by Grace Kelly's wedding dress. Ivanka insisted on the sleeves and high neckline as a result of having converting to Orthodox Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner. (The implication, of course, being that if she had remained Catholic, there would have been no reason at all to be covered during a wedding ceremony.)

I love that this dress doesn't just happen to have sleeves; it was intentionally designed with modesty in mind, and what was the result? Classic - and classy - beauty.

I love designer Vera Wang's take on it: "She was actually very much about being covered and I seized on the chance to do a dress that wasn't naked and very Hollywood."

Where dreams propel us

I just got off the phone with the rectory of the parish where I grew up. I'd been inspired by last week's dreams to actually, you know, do something about this wedding. Something beyond just thinking about it.

The monsignor wasn't in - actually, I believe he was presiding at the funeral of a family friend - so I left my name and number with the receptionist, and gave them my parents' names, as it's my parents who are registered parishioners. Now I wait for him to return my phone call.

This just got real.

The Day of my Dreams

Two nights in a row, I've had dreams that it was suddenly my wedding day, and I hadn't planned or prepared for anything.

Do you think my subconscious might be trying to tell me something?

Wedding Dress Wednesday - Couture D'amour

(Mary's Bridal)

What do you think of this dress? I'm not a fan of the huge train (which isn't quite so evident here as it is on the website). Hmm, I suppose I should be learning about train lengths . . . is that cathedral length? Semi-cathedral? Anyway, it's too long for me, I think. I really like the body, especially the neckline (I think that's a sweetheart neckline?) The sleeves are pretty from this angle, but they are actually kind of bell-shaped at the bottom, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I do love the intricate beading and lace all over, though.

Opinions?

Surprise!

I have the best friends ever. Last week, on Tuesday night, they threw Ben and I surprise engagement party! My friends Lauren and Andy had been insisting that they wanted to get together with the two of us "for a little toast." When I showed up on the roof of Andy's apartment building after class, I hadn't been expecting anyone except Lauren and Andy to be meeting us. (Or I wouldn't have been, had I not run into another friend on my way in.) Instead, a dozen of our friends were there to surprise us and celebrate with us! Amanda even came up from Richmond just for the night!

Given the very busy fortnight I'd been having when Ben proposed, Spring Break, taking classes after work on most weeknights, and a few weekend-long events like Easter, it had been over a month since we'd gotten engaged, and yet we hadn't seen most of my friends in the interim.

I showed off the ring, they proposed a toast, there was delicious homemade cake (thanks, Lauren!). It was a wonderful evening, and we were thrilled that our friends put it together for us!

Wedding Dress Wednesday - Mia Solano M1054Z

When I started looking for pictures of dresses with sleeves, I was mostly looking for dresses with long, sheer, lacy sleeves, because I think they're pretty. Besides, most of the other besleeved options came from places like LatterDayBride.com, which, though it has some quite pretty dresses, has many dresses that look like someone put a T-shirt on over her wedding gown. Almost uniformly, the short-sleeved dresses I saw were like most of those at LatterDayBride, and had T-shirt style necklines and sleeves. I was thus pretty sure that short sleeves were not for me.

Until I came across this dress by Mia Solano.

(MiaSolano.com)

I can't even tell you why I love it, but I do. Unfortunately, you can't zoom on the Mia Solano website, so it's hard to see the lace pattern in detail, but I think it may be the texture of the dress that I find particularly attractive. I'm also fond of what the website calls the "rouched Satin band at the waist." (Note: I'm not sure rouching is what I though it was?)

What do you think of this short-sleeved dress?

My Engagement Ring

Photograph by Jamie Vitale

My engagement ring isn't just mine. It was Ben's grandmother's before it was mine, and it was his great-grandmother's before it was hers. I'd been waiting to post a picture until I had something better than the grainy cell-phone shot I first sent to my family in the immediate aftermath of the proposal, and luckily, my cousin Jamie the photographer took a picture at the St. Patrick's Day parade a couple weeks ago that features THE RING prominently.

The ring is perfect. It's a diamond surrounded by two smaller stones on either side, with a gold band. It's the perfect size, both in terms of the stone being exactly right (any bigger and I'd probably be uncomfortable wearing it), and, astonishingly, in terms of fitting my finger perfectly without having been sized. I'd given Ben my ring size, but he didn't need to use it. On top of that, it's a family heirloom, and I'm honored that he and his mother both wanted me to have this piece of their family's history. In case you hadn't noticed, everything from my hobbies to my college major (History) to my chosen career path (museums) reflects the fact that I love old stuff. Ben had told me before he proposed that his mom had offered us an heirloom ring from their family, and everyone I told this to had the exact same reaction: "Oh, you'll love that!" And I do.

In case you can't click the picture above to see a bigger version, you can find it on Jamie's blog, Mirror with a Memory.

(P.S. The chivalrous gentleman handing me a flower in that picture is not Ben, but my 4-year-old cousin James.)