This week both Eric and I began in earnest the pursuit of our apparel for the big day. He's been looking for a vintage-y suit, preferably three piece, preferably some shade of blue. His best man, who is also his boss, needed to buy a suit to attend a funeral, and as there was a buy-one-get-one-free sale at the Men's Warehouse, we thought we'd see what they had. We made plans to meet Brad and his wife Hilary at the store after work.
Mistake #1: Poor time budgeting on my part and preparations for the impending Nor'easter "Nemo" (they're naming winter storms now? When will the madness stop??) combined to make me late arriving. Brad had already gotten his suit and Eric was waiting for my feedback on a blue plaid suit that he had found.
Mistake #2: We had decided to get the suits first and then go next door to Red Robin for dinner. This made for four hungry, grouchy people. Not the best time for important judgement calls.
The sales staff was exceedingly aggressive. They barely let Eric try the suit on before they were ripping it off him to do alterations. I had found a photo of Jimmy Darmody, a character from Boardwalk Empire, who had the look we were shooting for (no pun intended). You can see the photo in this blogpost:
http://yayforweddings.blogspot.com/2013/01/marriage-gangster-style.html
After several horrible shirts, we finally found a blue one that really made the suit pop. Eric loved it, and the salesman called the tailor over for alterations.
So handsome! It is a three piece, but I didn't even get to see him in the whole ensemble, the salesman was rushing us so badly.
As the tailor made various adjustments, I realized that this is probably the only time that it's completely acceptable for another woman to grab Eric's butt! He looked pretty uncomfortable. It was pretty funny.
After the alterations were done, we had to pick out a tie. I initially liked a silvery gray tie that sort of matched the one Jimmy was wearing in the photo. Then I also found a brighter tie that had both navy and coral in it. We ended up getting the gray one, but now I'm thinking the other one pulls the ensemble together, although it's not as vintage looking:
Tie Number One
Tie Number Two
Finally, we were ready to check out. That's when we hit
Mistake #3: Not checking the receipt closely. The salesman had pushed the boys to get shoes, saying that you can't wear black shoes with a blue suit (Okay...). When we got (rushed) to the register, the total came to $1100! In our weakened hunger state, we went along with it, but after we got to the restaurant and had some fries under our belts, we went through the receipt and discovered that the shoes were $150! After dinner we marched back to the store and promptly returned the shoes.
The total damage was just under $500 each. Not terrible for a really nice new suit that can be worn to all sorts of occasions.
When it came to the dress, I knew I wanted to wear my mother's. She got married in a beautiful ivory satin gown handmade by my grandmother and aunt.
Isn't she stunning?
Surprisingly, the bodice part of the dress fit perfectly! My mom is quite a bit taller than I am, so it will have to be shortened by several inches. In addition, my parents got married in October, and the dress is way too heavy for an outdoor August ceremony. I knew the sleeves would have to come off, but wasn't sure how else I wanted to alter the dress, or how tough it would be. So I called in reinforcements, in the form of my colleague Megan. She and I are long-time sewing buddies, and ran a sewing skillshare at Hampshire for a few years. We met last Saturday in the classroom at work, which has great big work tables. I spread out the dress and we had a look-see.
Although I want to keep the dress pretty simple, I also would love for it to have some vintage elements to it. I thought about taking the sleeves off and gathering the straps with some ornamentation. I also considered cap sleeves, and extending the original waistline, which is Empire style, into a longer, banded version. As I am small, I have to be careful with both the fit and the accents, as I they can easily get overpowering. We searched around the internet for some inspiration, and came up with a few likes:
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At the end of our search, we decided that it would be better for me to hire a professional seamstress to first consult with me about possibilities, then do the alterations, rather than relying on our own skills and, more importantly, our limited time to work on it. I have several recommendations that I am currently investigating. But I want to thank Megan for generously offering her time and expertise on the project! It was a fun afternoon.
Stay tuned for more dress news!
