Ruffles and Lace! Satin and Sequins! Love it All!!!

I remember seeing this dress in an older Brides magazine while I was in high school. After I purchased my first magazine, I found out we could check them out of the school library.  That was fun going through all those old ones and seeing the gowns from the late 1970's and early 80's.  I am not really fond of the veil, it reminds me of an old curtain or something the way it sticks out on the sides.  Probably because it is so short.  Most veils go to at least the fingertips.  But I think the dress is adorable.  If I was getting married now would I wear something like this gown today?  Sure I would. Look at those baby ruffles!  So sweet!  But I would like a long train and this one never showed the back so I don't know if there was a train or not.  And at my age baby ruffles may not be appropriate?  Oh well, whatever!

When we were kids we played wedding all the time.  I always married David Cassidy or Donny Osmond.  And my mom had given me old sheer curtains to use as a veil.  That was a strange random memory that just popped up in my brain!  And she always bought see through robes and pretty fancy night gowns at our church rummage sale for my dress up box.  I'd be outside playing in the summer with a silk nightie and fancy robe (I suppose they were called Peignoirs?) on over my shorts and tank top and probably had a curtain on my head and dandelions in my hands.  I guess I was a wedding nut back then too!

Between 7th and 8th grade, I think it was, I got to sing at my cousin's wedding.  I sang Evergreen from A Star Is Born and You Light Up My Life.  I was so nervous.  But I guess I did ok for a 13 year old.  I had sung at church once or twice and Paper Roses at the school talent show but this wedding was a big deal to me.  This is my brother Kevin and I before the wedding that day.  I was obviously very proud of my corsage!  Since I am pointing at it. I loved my dress with the flowy thingy over it.  Poncho?  I guess it was like a poncho.  This is the only picture of me from that day that I know of.  Sorry it isn't very clear.

Oh yeah, and by the way, I never did get to marry Donny or David...Drat!

Oh well till next time...Guess I'll imagine Donny Osmond singing Go Away Little Girl.

1983 - Venturing into a Bridal Shop!

I spent all of my high school years so obsessed with weddings my friends hated it.  I wasn't really dating anyone special (there was a guy that moved out of state...He wanted to get engaged even!) But I was planning my dream wedding to someone else - probably Steve Perry from Journey.  Of course the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in July of 1981 didn't help!  That 25 foot train on her gown was magnificent.  (I have since seen her actual gown in person in the traveling Princess Diana exhibit.  It was absolutely stunning!)  Right after Christmas of my senior year my friend Mary and I went to the mall one Sunday afternoon.  I am sure we ate at Big Al's.  That was our favorite place to eat back then.  And some how we ended up in a bridal shop.  I think she told the sales lady that I was getting married that summer and we picked out one dress and I put it on.  I was so scared and nervous but they walked me out to the little step up with the mirrors all around and fluffed out that train and I thought I was Princess Diana!  That train was huge!  The sleeves were sheer and poofy with a slit that showed lace details and the fabric was chiffon over satin or taffeta.  They put a simple veil on and I was transformed from a homely little chubby school girl to a beautiful -but fake- bride.  They wrote the info down on a business card for me, which I still have in my Senior memory book.  I think the dress was under $200.  And we made an excuse about bringing my mom in to see it and we went on our way.  We walked around some more and ended up at the magazine rack in a store and I picked up my first Brides Magazine.  It was $3!  That was a couple hours of baby sitting money but I splurged anyway.  (I recently got that exact magazine off of Ebay!  I was so excited!!!)

That night I started looking through the magazine and low and behold there it was!  My Princess Diana gown!  I was so excited!  I showed my mom and my dad and my little brother.  I called Mary.  I took the magazine to school with me, you'd have thought I was getting married!!

Look at that 80's gown and tell me I didn't look just like Diana?  Yeah, well, now that I know all about trains and such I know this is just a very short chapel train but that first time in a gown, it sure felt like I had on a 25 foot train!  By comparison - here is a real 25 foot train...

25 foot train

Definitely not a 25 foot train!!

But I was 17 what did I know?  I knew that I would forever love weddings and the sheer poofy sleeves were my very favorite!  I soon learned that my favorite designers were Michele Piccione, Mori Lee and Eve of Milady.  They had such gorgeous gowns in my magazine.

These type of bishop sleeves quickly became my favorite and to this day I still like them the very best of all!

This one may be more like that first dress I saw in 1981!

The lace and the ruffles and the sequins and the pearls.  Oh how I loved it all!  And drove everyone crazy too!  Remember, I was only 17 and had no steady boyfriend so this was just a phase...or so they all thought.  More on that next time!  Till then keep pinning gorgeous vintage gowns on Pinterest!

What Started it all?

I blame my mom, it is all her fault that I became absolutely obsessed with weddings when I was in my sophomore year of high school!  Actually, it started way before high school now that I think about it.  I can remember sitting home on a sick day from school and planning my wedding and honeymoon clothes through the JC Penney catalog!  I was  about 14 when that movie came out about the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.  I can't remember anything about the movie now, but I do remember just assuming that chubby little short me from Kansas would someday be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader.  I pictured my wedding to one of our junior high school boys that played football and planned the whole thing that one sick day, while watching the Price is Right and the Young and the Restless.  Me being a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader and of course he was their quarterback!  I can't even remember who it was that I was thinking about.  It was a memorable day for fashion though I guess.

 But anyway, my mom and I went to every wedding they ever had at our church back in the 70's and 80's.  I was always so impressed by the long white dresses.  And the candles and flowers and all the pretty bridesmaids.  Oh and that friend of a friend who got up there with their guitar and sang so lovingly "If I could save time in a bottle..." or "White lace and promises, a kiss for luck and we're on our way!" I was so impressed! I loved to sing and I so wanted to be up there singing at someones wedding.   And the hats!  Loved seeing brides in those enormous picture hats!  I think that is what someone once called them.  Pastel colors were all the rage back then and our church had yellow windows so if anyone had an early evening wedding you would watch the wedding and see all those light limey green dresses and tuxes and then go downstairs for the reception and wait, what???  They were all in light blue!  The first time that happened I remember thinking they had changed clothes but I was then told about how the windows turned all the blues to greens.  Crazy! And those diamond rings those brides had.  I think I asked them all if I could see their rings as we went through the receiving line.  I can even remember one time one of the grooms pretended to be upset because I didn't ask to see his ring.  I giggled a lot at that I remember.

Then we would get downstairs for the reception - back then almost all the weddings we attended just served cake and punch in the church fellowship hall - and there would be that towering cake covered in the yummiest butter cream with roses and shells and stars and little strings and swirly flowers.  I never heard of Fondant until much later.  Most of the time there were stairs and bridges and a fountain too.  And they always had punch in a matching wedding color.  And those wonderful home made mints.  Then the little napkins with a cute picture and their names and wedding date in foil, I always tried to save those.

So back to my mom being to blame for my obsession with weddings.  I was in 10th grade back in about 1981 when our local newspaper published their annual wedding planning special booklet.  This time my mom told me to look at it.  I never read the paper except the funnies so that was unusual for me.  And there inside that paper was a wedding gown.  Not just any wedding gown but one that made me catch my breath.  It was lace and ruffles and netting and everything I could dream of.  I kept that paper till college and then cut that dress out and put it on a notebook which eventually ripped  but somewhere I still have the top half of that gown.  It looked a lot like these; the top dress was the skirt and the bottom dress was the top and sleeves of that gown.

And from that day on I was completely obsessed with wedding gowns! That is what started it all!