Fancying up

Because I've been reading wedding blogs for *cough* a while now, I didn't really "plunge" into wedding planning like I think some people do. I've sort of been wading in the shallow end of the wedding pool, while some people get engaged and just cannonball off the diving board. So I'm doing wedding things by stages. One of these stages is picking a dress. And I think I have!

First, backstory. I LOVE vintage styles. I sewed my high school graduation dress from a vintage Vogue pattern, and over the years I've had a few very cute, vintage-y pieces. But since I've always been on a high school or college budget (i.e., no budget), I haven't been able to buy the vintage dresses, tops, and skirts that I love.

Vintage dress on Etsy via Pinterest

Retro-style shoes on Modcloth via Pinterest

What does this mean, wedding-wise? It means I wanted this:

Grace Kelly's wedding dress, 1956

And could afford, well, maybe this:

Vintage-style dress from UniqueVintage.com

What's a low-budget bride to do? Try to find a used dress for cheap, of course. And did I ever!

This is my mother's wedding dress and veil, which she wore in 1981. The dress hasn't been out of the box since she got it cleaned when my oldest brother was born in 1985. (We had an uh-oh moment when I pointed out that if the cleaners had sent her a box with something else in it, we'd be stuck with it--but that was just me worrying, and everything was fine!)

It fits! Perfectly! Do you see how perfectly it fits? The sleeves aren't too long, or too short, or too tight! The skirt touches the floor but doesn't drag! The bodice--okay, the bodice is a little tight, but I can go braless--problem solved.

Is this my ideal wedding dress? No. But I've been thinking, and I have the rest of my life to buy a dress like this.

I don't have the rest of my life to wear my mother's wedding dress. If I wear my mother's dress, I'll be connected to her in a way I never expected, which is pretty awesome. I'm always touched by stories of brides wearing their mothers' or even grandmothers' dresses, and I am really excited to be one of those girls.

Plus, free, vintage Alfred Angelo dresses don't just fall into your lap every day.

If you had the chance to wear your mother's dress, would you? (Or, for the dudelier types, are there any family-heirloom-things that you would wear?)