Dearest readers,
Surprise! I wore a pink wedding dress! I am one of those 2013 brides. Inspired, perhaps, by Jessica Biel and Anne Hathaway and this beautiful Aussie bride.
But also inspired by matters of practicality. I live on a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean where bridal fashion options are limited. So I turned to the cocktail dress rack at Pronovias, where I found this sparkly number in a size four times too big, with attached sleeves and shoulder pads. I kid you not!
Lesson number one in finding your wedding dress: See the potential.
Since this was a cocktail dress it was significantly less expensive than a traditional white wedding dress. I could afford to have it taken apart and put back together, so I did. A Maltese seamstress took the dress down to my size, removed the shoulder pads, made the sleeves detachable (a day look and an evening look), and hemmed it for my short frame.
I know everyone says not to make too many changes to your dress, but I’m here to tell you to try it. See the potential. Find a seamstress who sees the potential. And then, while she cuts away at your dress, have a glass of champagne or two (it makes it all much less stressful).
Lesson number two in finding your perfect wedding dress: Trust your gut.
A few weeks before my wedding I made the big mistake of going to Pronovias.com and looking through their new collection of bridal dresses. The panic began. Would I feel like a bride in a pink wedding dress? Had I made a horrible mistake? Does it still fit right? What about that neckline, is it too narrow? Should I just go out and buy a new dress? Was I going crazy? Was I turning into a bridezilla?
I sent a panicked email to my mum, spent a week oscillating between emotions (I love my dress! I hate my dress!) and confusing my fiancé (I couldn’t very well tell him exactly why I was panicking without revealing what colour my dress was).
And then I made a plan.
I trusted my gut, which told me when I first saw my pink wedding dress – even when it was four sizes too big and had shoulder pads – that it felt like me. I trusted my gut, which was now telling me something wasn’t quite right.
So my mum and I agreed to make a veil together when I arrived in Canada, which would make the pink dress look more ‘bridal’ (it did). And we contacted a seamstress in my hometown who was willing to do some last minute adjustments to the dress.
And that panic went away.
On my wedding day I was so pleased with how my dress looked – and how I looked in it.
Modern, but traditional. Sparkly, but soft. A train and a veil, but an unexpected colour.
It all felt right.
If you’re worried about pulling off a coloured wedding dress – worried because it might not be ‘bridal’ enough – I recommend sitting down and thinking what, if not the white colour, makes a bridal outfit ‘bridal’ to you.
Is it the veil? The train? The hair and make up?
Take that element and adapt it to your outfit.
For me, it was the tulle veil. My veil cost about $20 to make and involved no sewing. I found soft tulle at a fabric store, cut it, and didn’t bother finishing the edges (tulle can be forgiving like that). It’s a Juliet Cap veil, so to fasten it to my head my mum found two small beaded brooches which we attached pins to, and then pinned onto my veil and into my hair above and behind my ears.
It couldn’t have been simpler, and I couldn’t have felt more like a bride while wearing it.
Even my husband, who hates veils (something about female oppression), liked it!
Tell me, were you a 2013 colored dress bride?
Would you rock a pink wedding dress?
I’d love to know! Comment below!
Photos by Evan McMaster / Dress: Zenit by Pronovias, Veil: DIY’ed / Suit: Separates by Gagliardi