My Wedding Dress and Veil Details

So we got some of our wedding photos back recently which I am so excited to share with you all... not all of them, but enough that I can start the sharing process!! So today I wanted to share all of the details about my dress and veil and alllll of that! You can see more photos, here. This is going to both a photo and word-heavy post - I have so much to say!!! So keep scrolling and reading... you may want to grab a cup of coffee! 

The Dress

I went to three bridal boutiques. One in Charlotte, North Carolina, and two in Pittsburgh. The two in Pittsburgh that I went to were Anne Gregory and Bridal Beginning. 

First of all, trying on wedding dresses was probably the most fun wedding planning element for me! I have to say that a lot of wedding planning, to me, felt a bit like a job. I worked for an event planner here in Pittsburgh for two years out of college and loved it and so I was intimately familiar with the wedding planning process from start to execution. 

The one thing I was not at all familiar with, though, was trying on dresses and all of that!! So the dress shopping process felt really new and fresh and exciting for me and didn't have even an inkling of 'work' feeling to it. I went into trying on dresses with an open mind. What I thought I wanted is pretty much exactly what I ended up with, BUT, I've heard the advice to try on lots of other styles that you might not think you like. So I did. I tried mermaid, sheath, ball gown, long sleeve, blinged out, lacy, etc. You name it and I tried it on. It was SO fun! 

Honestly, when I was trying all of these dresses on, I didn't really feel like I could go wrong. From the second you try on any wedding gown, you'll instantly realize, this is something so special. And honestly, because of that, I didn't really feel like there was a gown that I actually disliked. I think they were ALL stunning. Sure, some were just not my style or taste, but the craftsmanship of these gowns is truly so beautiul and intricate, it was just such a treat to try them all on. They're all works of art and it made me realize how poorly made most clothing items are these days, ha! 

I really thought I was set on a dress from Anne Gregory. It was a Rosa Clara dress. Rosa Clara was always a frontrunner for me even before I had tried on dresses. Anytime I would see a dress in a magazine or online that I loved, I would look at the brand and 90% of the time it was Rosa Clara. This dress was done in a really gorgeous textured pique fabric... but it was pink. Now, it was an incredibly light shade of pink, blush really, and almost cream in a certain light, but it was pink. I, unfortunately, don't have a photo of that to share with you all because Ann Gregory does not allow you to take photos while you are there (which to me seems so silly). I almost said yes to the dress right then and there, but something held me back from doing so. 

We went out to lunch after the first appointment, and we had a second appointment at Bridal Beginning scheduled for after lunch and as much as I loved the Rosa Clara dress, I couldn't help but feel like the pink was just not for me.

We went to Bridal Beginning and I tried on so many dresses and it was nearing the end of our appointment and I was feeling a bit deflated. I actually ended up telling our saleswoman about the Rosa Clara dress and how I loved it so much but just couldn't be confident in my choice with the pink fabric (it couldn't be made in white). I described to her what that dress looked like and then our saleswoman said, 'wait a second, I think I have an idea'. 

Guys, she brought out a gray dress. At first, in my head, I was thinking, 'ok this woman doesn't understand what I am looking for'. And then she told me to try it on and that I could get it in white. I did, and I LOVED it. The Silhouette, the train, I loved so much about it but there were a few details I was not sold on. I didn't love the shiny sheen to the fabric of the gray dress. It would have been white but it would have had that same shine to it. I didn't love the open back with a fastener up at the top of the back (you can see in the first photo). The bodice looked too long to me and I felt like it needed something to 'finish' it off. 

So our saleswoman said that I could have something custom made by the brand Justin Alexander. and they would use that silhouette as the jumping-off point. I had never heard of the brand before. Granted, I am not someone who knows bridal designers or brands very well. As a side note, after learning some bridal designers, my favorites always seemed to be Sarah Nouri, Anne Barge, and Rosa Clara. Literally each time I put a dress on and really loved it, it was one of these three brands. Anyway, the custom situation made me nervous. Not seeing the fabric and final product and committing to something we sketched out was not exactly what I ever had in mind, but I held my breath and decided to go for it because in my head it was exactly what I wanted. 

I will say the one thing I noticed that was missing out of all the dresses I had tried on was a ballgown that was completely and entirely 'plain'. I tried on so many with a similar silhouette to what I wore and loved them all, but I personally didn't want even a hint of lace or sparkle or bows or frills of any kind. I wanted a totally unembellished dress and that was surprisingly hard to find in a ballgown silhouette! But, another thing to add and keep in mind is that most bridal designers will allow you to customize almost anything, and if they won't do it, someone who specializes in alterations can likely do it. 

I showed them a photo of a Sarah Nouri dress that I tried on in North Carolina and they were able to match the fabric so that it was more matte. I had the open back reworked, added a custom belt, had the deep V shortened a bit. and then had other alterations made once it came in by Bridal Beginning's seamstress. 

I started this process in early 2019 and then in late 2019 my dress came in and I loved it!!!! It was truly a home run, I was elated. 

At my last fitting! The dress had to be stored with a chair underneath of it so the train would not get messed up- it cracked me up because I got it home and it truly took up my entire guest bathroom. 

It took both of my parents to get the dress off the hanger and then my mom and my sister had to help me get into it! 

Once we got it to Bridal Beginning, the seamstress was able to begin more of the tailoring and customization. One thing I will say is that I did not know what to expect when it came to the cost of tailoring. I knew it would be expensive, but I was definitely hit with sticker shock. Granted, I  did make a lot of edits and I chose to have Bridal Beginning's in-house seamstress work on the dress instead of outsourcing that. Although I will say, thank the heavens that I had Bridal Beginning alter my dress because when things shut down back in March 2020, they stored my dress all the way until our wedding day. Had I not done that, I would have been stuck storing my own wedding dress for a long time and I would not have felt comfortable about that. My wedding dress took up our ENTIRE guest bathroom, it was so large and I wish I would have weighed it because I swear it probably weighed at least 20 pounds!! So anyway, the lesson of this story is that if you are a bride and doing your dress shopping, just keep in mind in some situations, alterations/tailoring can cost thousands. Crazy! But I do understand now that altering something like this takes someone so skilled and well-practiced!

The altering of the belt! Buttons were added to blend in with the red of the back! This was my seamstress's idea and I am so glad she suggested it!

So anyway, I had the seamstress make the armholes teardrop-shaped, the belt was worked into a V in the back, we added more layers of tulle underneath (just in the back) to give it more shape, the hem was done, etc. I will say, the custom design and the tailoring were worth every penny and the seamstress took her time and really was meticulous. It definitely looks like a lot of other dresses out there, but I think it's kind of cool to know that no one else out there actually has my exact dress!

I also loved the bustle. It was a 'French' style of bustle that made moving around so much easier than when the train was down. I was so worried about dancing in such a heavy dress but the bustle really made a huge difference and I was able to dance the night away effortlessly! 

When the train was down, I felt almost immobile, haha! Even with the dress bustled, going to the bathroom was an experience, I will say that. The seamstress gave me a good tip, if you have a heavy dress with a lot of layers, when you walk, you have to kick and that will keep you going. I thought that was odd advice, but once I had the dress on and started to walk more, I understood what she meant. I literally kicked down the aisle, ha!

The Veil

The church where we got married is supposedly the longest aisle in Pittsburgh, so I knew I wanted a dramatic train and a dramatic veil. 

For the veil, I originally ordered one on Etsy. It was plain and after my first fitting, I decided I didn't like it and needed to find something else. Another thing that was REALLY hard to find was a cathedral-length veil with a blusher that had no embellishments or lace on it. Again, I wanted plain as can be and that was just so tough to find! 

Enter in Hushed Commotion which is a company that creates stunning bridal accessories. They have this veil, The Jessica Full Gather, and as soon as I saw it, I knew that was it!!! They do custom work, so I worked with the owner, Thea, to do a custom Full Gather veil that was 130" with an attached 30" blusher. It truly blew me away and made my Etsy veil look like such poor quality. The way the tulle gathered at the comb was just stunning and I loved the fine texture of the tulle. It was almost silky when you touched it and I liked that it kind of just melded with my dress. 

What was also surprising to me in terms of finding a veil is that there are SO many different kinds. I really didn't understand the different types until I started trying different styles on. It was actually hard to find such a full veil... full meaning a lot of tulle gathered at the 'root' of the veil.

Also, there are several different places you can place the veil on your head, another thing you never in your life think about until you are putting these veils on your head, haha!! I realized immediately that I wanted mine higher up rather than down low. 

I wore the blusher down the aisle and then my dad lifted it when I got to the end of the aisle which was such a special moment. 

I kept the veil on from the moment I stepped into my dress and wore it for all of our photos. Once we went into our venue, we had a beautiful private room where Courtney Benedetti was (she did my hair- more on that in another post) and that's when she took the veil out and put my hair up. Listen, if you take one piece of my advice from wedding planning, if you are in Pittsburgh, hire Courtney. She is freaking AMAZING. Again more on the hair to come because I know I have had a ton of questions about specifics on that!