Prince Edward Island - Melissa & John Michael

It's New Year's Eve...time for one last holiday treat before we return to reality!  I've been saving these pictures for just such an occasion--they're so delicious that you can't help but feel full of joy when you look at them. Melissa and John Michael's gorgeous vintage-inspired wedding on Prince Edward Island was so dreamy, colorful, and full of delightful detail--unique, personal and just gorgeous.  Promise me you'll look through all of this bright golden glory, and you'll be happy that you did.

Melissa chose a different set of vintage buttons for each of her maids' Emmeline dresses, and each set of buttons had a special meaning for the girl who wore it--how brilliant is that?

Each girl chose her own belt or sash to add even more personal detail (and va-va-voom!)

Breakfast with the bridesmaids--too adorable!

 

I love everything about Melissa & John Michael's wedding...I love how personal it is, I love the colors, I love the vintage inspiration and all the thought that this beautiful couple put into their special day.  It was an honor to play a small part in this gorgeous event.  Congratulations, lovebirds! :-)

Silk seersucker simplicity

I'm so excited to be able to share a few photos of one of my favorite bridal gowns of the past wedding season - Joana's gorgeous silk seersucker Lydia gown!  Joana contacted me via Etsy nearly a year ago, knowing that she wanted a version of the Lydia gown but unsure of which fabric would be the best choice for her.  She loved the look of seersucker, but wanted something just a bit fancier.  Luckily, I had just seen (and fallen in love with) this GORGEOUS silk seersucker on one of my favorite fabric suppliers' websites.  After seeing the fabric for herself, Joana was as much in love with it as I was.  The texture and sheen of the silk fabric is just breathtaking!

 

As you can see, the dress came out beautifully - just perfect for an intimate family ceremony.  What more could you ask for?  Congrats and best wishes, lovebirds! :-)

Double wedding teaser!

It's a first in Annabel & Ruby history - a fabulous DIY double wedding!  Ana and Amber are twin sisters who contacted me via Etsy last year and told me they were planning a gorgeous outdoor ceremony with their respective menfolk.

Each girl wore an Annabel & Ruby gown in my favorite pale ivory cotton sateen fabric, and you can see how luminous and gorgeous the fabric is outdoors - I just love the subtle pearl-like glow.  And of course, the equally luminous lovebirds are looking mighty fine themselves!  Amber's dress is a reproduction of the J. Crew Lucinda gown, and Ana's dress is a reproduction of the J. Crew Erika gown.  Full blog entry with TONS of eye candy coming soon - stay tuned!

Blue belle, part two: Laura's Lilla dress

Well!  What a busy spring and summer it has been!  I've been away from the blog for quite a while, sewing my little fingers off...and keeping busy with other things as well.  (More on that later...)  For my first feature of this post-bridal season, I'm bringing it back to the custom creation of lovely Laura--the Lilla dress.  In February, I featured the Lilla dress and the process behind its design.

Laura was such a sweet bride and had a clear, unique vision for her wedding--as you can see from the gorgeous photos! (Photos by Laura's aunt of Five Foot Three Photography.)  I love the pale blue and cherry red color palette, those crepe-paper poms, the vintage/retro touches like Laura's fascinator and shrug--and that hot car! 

Though the weather was rainy, these two lovebirds clearly had the sweetest of days.  Congratulations, you two!  Thanks so much for letting me be a part of your special day. :-)

J. Crew Sascha gown reproduction

I'm always excited to share a new creation, and here's a really fun one!  Fans of the J. Crew wedding collection will recognize this design as a reproduction of the Sascha gown, a gorgeous and unique modified sweetheart dress in silk taffeta with intricate seaming details in the bodice and a dramatic taffeta flower at the waist.

A sweet bride named Bethany contacted me via Etsy several months ago looking for her own version of the Sascha dress in a less expensive fabric, and I was happy to oblige!  We found a really lovely champagne poly taffeta that looks so much like silk taffeta--we got super lucky.  The flash from the camera makes the taffeta look shiny, but it is soooo amazing in person...just light and lustrous and radiant.  Once the fabric was found, it was time to figure out the details. 

It was such fun to make this dress--I am in love with the seaming detail that adds shape and emphasis to the curves of the bodice.  And of course the gorgeous flower!  I may be a bit obsessed with making flowers now...Wouldn't corsages like this at the waist be so sweet for bridesmaids?  For that matter, I could totally see a shorter version of this dress as a bridesmaid dress as well!

Of course we had to have the delicate fabric-covered buttons up the back of the dress!  Just the perfect finishing touch.  This dress was a delight to make, and I'm hoping I'll have photos of the happy bride in her fabulous gown to share with all of you. :-)

Ella photo shoot

Time for another adventure in solitary photography!  As you may have noticed, the model in my most of my dress photos bears a striking resemblance to...ahem...a certain independent designer/seamstress/craft dork/mom/lapsed grad student...namely me. :-)  There are a couple of reasons for this: first of all, I am conveniently available and low-cost, and second of all, because when I'm making dress samples it's easiest to make them to fit me.  (No one else is around to poke with pins at two in the morning.  Except the Husbeast and Annabel, and I shudder to think of the consequences there...)

My ivory cotton sateen deep-v neck bridal gown (the J. Crew Genevieve reproduction) has been one of my most popular dresses, and I'm often contacted with requests to see the dress "on a real person."  I've only made the bridal version for other people, and I've never been lucky enough to make one that was anywhere close to my size so that I could try it on and snap some photos.  (Plus, I would feel guilty trying on one of my dear clients' dresses--that seems wrong somehow.)  I am hoping for pics from the brides who have this dress so that I can post them on the blog, but until they arrive, I decided that it was time to take matters into my own hands!

I was working on a tea-length version of the dress for a super-sweet bride named Lauren, and since it's always easier to make two of the same dress at once, I just went ahead and whipped up a knee-length version for myself.  It fits like a dream, makes my waist look tiny, has the sweet fabric-covered buttons up the back and the gorgeous ivory cotton sateen fabric that I love so much...plus a bit of organza interlining in the skirt, and built-in cups in the bust so that I don't have to wear a bra.  Could there be a more perfect dress for a beach wedding, or any casual outdoor event for that matter?

Husbeast is my sometime-photographer--he doesn't have any skills or anything, and mostly he spends the whole time pretending to be Austin Powers in the photo shoot sequences in the original movie ("Yeah baby, yeah!  You're a tiger!  You're a squirrel!  You're an angry squirrel!  And, I'm spent.")  Which does at least result in some good smiles on my part, though not the most artistic fashion photography.  However, Husbeast is pretty busy with school these days, so I was on my own with this shoot.

I don't have a tripod, or a fancy camera, or any space in my workshop/apartment for artistic staging (man, I can't wait to have my own work space!); however, I do have an ironing board, a stack of books, and a digital camera with a timer.  I can improvise.  I waited for a sunny day, did the best I could with my hair and makeup, put on the dress and started to vogue.  (Okay, just kidding about that last part.)  The pretty pink flowers belong to Annabel--she was the flower girl in a wedding last summer, and she caught the toss bouquet. :-)

I've decided that instead of continuing to refer to this gown as the "ivory cotton sateen deep-v bridal gown"--which began its life as the J. Crew Genevieve reproduction, but is now, I think, my own take on that original beautiful design--I re-christened the short version "Ella."  It just seemed right--simple, romantic, modern and classic all at the same time.  I love how the light plays on the texture of the cotton sateen in these pictures--it reminds me of how pearls look in the light.  So gorgeous.  Stay tuned for more photo shoot pics...the bridal Emmeline is next up!