What to do When Wearing Your Mom’s Wedding Dress isn’t an Option, but you Still Want to..

{photo credit: Captured! Photography}

We knew four long months, FOUR LONG MONTHS, before our daughter had the big question popped! Though we knew an engagement was coming at some point, I think our now, son in-love, asked my husband way ahead of time, because he just was exploding with excitement! He was ready to get ring shopping! It sure wasn’t easy keeping things quiet from her and EVERYONE for FOUR long months! But, we didn’t want this incredibly exciting news to leak out and ruin the moment.

So, to channel my bursting excitement, I began thinking of ideas that my daughter would treasure on her wedding day. I pulled my tattered, yellowed wedding dress box from under the bed to see the condition of my gown. Sure enough the tissue stuffed gown had yellowed over time, but it was still so beautiful.

Years before, during her teen years, she and I had talked how she most likely would not be able to wear my gown because she was growing so tall. Sure enough that was the case. It would have had to be drastically altered anyway, as big poofy 80’s sleeves would not have been her first choice!

Knowing that she would want something that represented her Mama and Daddy’s wedding day (yes, she’s 24 and still calls us this…it melts my heart), I began to look at my gown for possible ways to repurpose it.

As I stared at it…

I thought how the sleeve would make the perfect bridal bouquet wrap!

After those FOUR LONG months passed, and she became engaged, we began brainstorming ideas together. I presented her with the thought of her bouquet wrapped with part of my dress and she absolutely loved the idea!

So, I cut the sleeve off just below that big 80’s poof.

It was a bit emotional (OK, I bawled my eyes out!) to take a scissors to it, but I figured I’d never wear the dress again, she’s my only daughter, and she’s not wearing the dress,  so it made it a bit easier. Actually, after I cut it, it got me thinking of all sorts of special ways I could repurpose my dress. My mind can drive me crazy like that with all these creative thoughts racing around!

Anyway, after hand washing the lace sleeve in cool water, I tea stained it using the method Ohnik Studio used when she tea dyed her wedding veil. Thanks for the tutorial, Evy!

My dress was originally a bright white and my daughter’s wedding dress was a light ivory. I was afraid to let the fabric sit in the tea for too long, as I wasn’t sure how the lace and netting were going to take the dye.  It ended up being an off white, which was a tad lighter than  her dress, but it was still was so lovely and so sentimental.

I added some extra pearls (2 sizes), off a free thrifted dress a friend gave me, and I sewed them in random places that I thought looked sweet.

The florist  worked to tuck and pin as needed to create her bouquet. I wish I had more photos to show you, but we haven’t gotten them all back from the photographer yet.

It really was beautiful and melted this Mama’s heart…

{photo credit: Captured! Photography}

If you don’t have a sleeve from a wedding gown, you can try this with any section of the bodice or hem. If your fabric piece is flat, you will safely need about 8″ wide by 12″ in length. With this amount, you should have enough to wrap the bouquet stems, tuck, and pin and still have extra to trim as needed.

I’ll be washing and wrapping this in acid free tissue paper. Who knows, maybe my future granddaughter will use it one day to wrap her bridal bouquet…and I’ll bawl my eyes out again!