I have been engaged for over three years now, and we're finally getting married on September 7th! About 2 years ago, my friend who was visiting me at the time went "Good Will Hunting" with me so we could find some "new" clothes for her. We went on my typical thrift store circuit looking for great bargains and stopped at one of my favorite stores. We perused the aisles of clothing--each on different sections of the store, when I came upon a tall rack of formal wear. I just happened to look through the rack and I found a wedding gown! I pulled it out from among the other dresses and it looked as if it were my size. I called my friend over and showed it to her and she said, "You ought to go try it on!" Well, I did, and when I came out of the fitting room, she gasped and said, "Oh that looks beautiful--and it fits you perfectly!" I liked the gown very much, and although I hadn't planned on looking at wedding dresses so early in our engagement---I decided to buy it, because it probably wouldn't be there on another day if I changed my mind. I have found other wedding dresses that I liked different elements of also--and I purchased a couple of them because I thought that I could use the lace off of this one and the rhinestones off of that one! Well, after buying the other dresses, I decided to check out the labels online to see if they were worth anything more than what I'd paid for them. Well, I changed my mind about tearing apart those pretty gowns, because they were around the $300-$700 range! Holy moly! Well, to make a long story short, I have tried on my original gown at different times during the past 2 years just to make sure that I still like it. The gown that I purchased is a special design from a bridal store---which retails for, I believe, about $250+. I wanted to make the gown "my own" by adding some special features, so I bought lace and appliques from different places and purchased a display mannequin to help with pinning on lace, etc. I tried several different ways of pinning the lace on the dress, and here is what I've come up with so far, with before and after pics, so you can get an idea. I've hand-sewn the bodice lace already, but I still have to add the shoulder lace straps--which I plan on doing today! They say, "One person's trash is another's treasure!" I am "sew" thankful to God for allowing me to find this pretty treasure---and thankful for the person who donated it too! May they be blessed!
My "thrifty" wedding gown!
Before pic
Added lace on the bodice, and the lace on shoulders is just pinned so far.
