Bolero Me Do?

If you look at any 1950s wedding pictures, you'll notice immediately a difference between the bridal attire then and bridal attire now. That most obvious of differences was the inclusion of sleeves. Any sleeves really - capped, short, 3/4 length, wrist length - as long as they provided the bride with that look of feminine modesty. *blush*

Although sleeves and interesting neckline treatments are slowly re-entering the scene, for a very long time strapless wedding gowns have exclusively dominated the marital market.

Which is sad really, considering how beautiful a well-placed piece of lace can look -

-witness Grace Kelly at her 1952 wedding to Prince Ranier of Monacco:

...simply breathtaking.

When I first started wedding planning, there was a definite dearth of bridal cover-up options. Now that sleeves, cover-ups, and boleros are hitting the cyber streets of etsy, my thoughts have returned to finding something to jazz up my ensemble.

If you recall, this is my dress (but not my veil, I'm sarcastically boogie-ing about the puffy tulle attached to me in this picture)

Which, with the addition of my "MEGA HUGE" petticoat and hoop skirt, will look like this in shape:

(Reem Acra dress, source lost, sorry...hey! That's my hair too!)

Having a bolero to wear to the ceremony and during pictures would be absolutely incredible, and would remove the need to wear a cardigan if I got chilly during the evening reception.

The following pictures and links are examples of wedding boleros and cover-ups available on etsy right now. All of the sellers noted below do custom work as well, so if I decide to wear a bolero, they can create something to suit me and my gown.

Sweet Little bridal Shrug by Rohm: $149

Custom Bridal Jacket from Rohm $159.00

Lace bolero available in any material, colour from Jocemclane: $75

Organza and lace bolero available in any colour, from Jocemclane: $75.00

Going to the Chapel Shrug by Sweet Charlotte: $45

Ethereal baroque wrap by Bonzie (Reserved, but she does do custom work); $55

Stand-up collar Satin Bridal Jacket by Rohm :$129

The million-dollar question is, should I custom order a bolero?

It would transform my dress into something more vintage-y, it would keep me warm, and it would (hopefully) look smashing.

What do you think? Should I take the jump, and if I do leap, should I go for something in satin (to match my dress), in lace (for a real vintage look), an unusual fabric (like the ones Bonzie makes)and what length of sleeve would look best?

my second favourite Dolly

Attention, vintage-loving brides!

 

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Have you heard of Dolly Couture?

  

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She offers affordable vintage reproductions of 1950s-1960s wedding gowns, and also offers custom-made dresses!  If I come into money before the wedding, I am SO ordering one these beauties for my going away dress!

Some of my favourites:

The Beverlywood ($595)

 

 Hastings on Hudson ($595)

 

 The Pasadena ($395)

 

So, yeah, umm, I am reduced into a quivering pile of drooling protoplasm. Seriously, if anyone is feeling philanthropic, now is the time to donate! :)

p.s. My first favourite Dolly? The inimitable Dolly Parton!

I Just Lap It Up Like Honey

 

As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite resources for planning our whimsical 1950s-inspired wedding has been Youtube.com and its wealth of home movies.

The other day, as I was endlessly sewing felt and button flowers to adorn the bridesmaids' bouquets (more on that, later), I came across this darling gem of retro cinema:

 

 

 

Helene Pashman and Robert Ames' wedding!

Not only was their wedding movie long enough to satiate my endless and undying hunger for vintage details , it also was deliciously corny.  No doubt the Pashman-Ames families paid a pretty penny for such a high-tech production, and I am so glad because I am lapping up every awkwardly scripted and staged moment like honey!

 

Yum!

 

Have you found wedding inspiration in uncommon places?

Vintage Brides! Take Notice!

Have you heard of Dolly Couture?

(Edmonton $375)

She offers affordable vintage reproductions of 1950s-1960s wedding gowns, and also offers custom-made dresses!

If I come into money in the next two weeks or so, I am SO ordering one these beauties for my going away dress!

Some of my favourites:

Pasadena $ 599

Los Cabos $375

Manhattan $349

Merin Country $449

So, yeah, umm, I am reduced into a quivering pile of drooling protoplasm.

Seriously, if anyone is feeling philanthropic, now is the time to donate! :)

Life is Sweeter and Completer in a Chevrolet Deluxe!

Thanks, everyone for all your kind suggestions on how to lighten my finish-your-wedding-plans-in-a-month-load! The suggestions to delegate were especially useful - I just didn't expect that people would delegate tasks upon themselves! :)


Exhibit A:


The lovely and uber-helpful Miss Gingerbread found a sweet ad in the Vancouver Craiglist, contacted the poster, and sent me the information she received.


Now, Mr. Shortcake and I will have this SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET 1952 black Chevrolet deluxe as our chariot-of-choice!



(image source)




(image from Rob Robson)

Thank you so much for your help, Miss Gingerbread.

YOU ROCK!






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How 1950's can you get? We are SO PUMPED!! :D


The car's owner, Rob, is also very excited by the thought of his car being in a 1950's - style wedding, and told us we could decorate "Walter" however we wanted! Woot! Woot!

What is your wedding transportation?

shortcake inspiration board, take #2 : please pass...the mustard?

Sweetness and light. Cotton candied--confectionary goodness - a wedding so sugary that guests would leave with aching abscesses along with their favors....

My original vision for our 1950s-inspired wedding revolved around pastels. Now, I love pastels as much as, or more than, any retailer of baby goods, and for my wedding it seemed only natural to incorporate my favorited faded shades:

 

 

 silver, petal pink, robin's egg blue, buttercream yellow, mint green, hot pink

It was cute. It was super cute. It was omg-I-can-eat-your-dimples-up-cute, and I loved it...

But that colour scheme was chosen early in my wedding planning, and I have to admit that more than few of my original plans were either altered, or abandoned completely, since our engagement began.

The more research I did into vintage colour schemes, interior design, and fashion trends from the 1950s-1960s, the more I realized that certain elements would need to be adjusted.

May I present the (hopefully final) atomic-age-awesomeness that is my new colour scheme...

 

  

silver, petal pink, ballet pink, mustard yellow/gold, buttercream yellow,"emerald" (vintage name for that colour) green, charcoal gray

 

This new scheme is really quite similar to the old one. Only blue and hot pink have been discarded, and the other colours have been muted and "dustified," as it were. We're going for a more subdued feeling now, still whimsical in many ways (hello, polka dots and pink fluffly bridesmaid dresses!), but more elegant than our wedding's first conception, and much more suited to early autumn.

Mustard yellow/gold is the biggest addition, and surprisingly works as well in weddings as it did in mid-century furniture and carpets. In my wedding, mustard will show its yellow face only in select touches here and there - for example, in the new invitation design my uber-artistic father and I are working on ( stay tuned!)

And just in case your stomach still turns at the thought of mustard yellow ( Mr. Shortcake. for one. was more than skeptical about my new "vision"), here is a better idea of how these colours will interact with each other:

 

So, do you like it? =D

 

IMAGE CREDITS:

Hk Department Store, Ebay; our deer cake topper, my pink polka dot scrapbook paper from K and company; Miss Strawberry's idea of crystals, Martha Stewart cake, my vintage brooch from ebay; cupcake wrapper seen on weddingbee; my colour scheme; pattern, Lauren Davis' wedding; envelopments pocket folder from unrecalled source; vintage bride image from flickr, I think; Citrus Moon graphic wallpaper, Knottie spro, Citrus Moon graphic wallpaper; Martha Stewart; Humphrey Bogart google image; www.vintageous.com dresses

 

FABU-LUXE, dah-ling!

So this is old news, but WB reader JFS, pointed out the smashing white dinner jackets worn by the groom and others at socialite Lauren Davis' wedding in January:

 

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OMG! Is the bride (pretty, but not amazingly gorgeous normally, IMHO), not the most stunning thing everI don't feel that I've emphasized that enough. Here, have an extra '??!'

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OMG!!!! (now I'm getting redundant) That train! That shrug/blanket/shawl/whatever is to die for (even more than Smitherman and Barnwell :)) !Davis, who is the Contributing Fashion Editor for Vogue, wed billionaire Andres Santo Domingo in the port city of Cartagena, Columbia. She wore a gown designed by Nina Ricci - a gown made of over 60m of jacquard silk, and took over 1,200 hours to make!

Vogue + billions of smackaroos apparently = OMG!!!

The ceremony was held in a historical church with no air-conditioning. Yikes. Sweaty, yes, but completely fabulous.

 CORRECTION: fabu-luxe!

Check out her multiple couture dress changes:

 

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And her drop veil:

 
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And her multi-hued grecian-goddess bridesmaids a la Cream puff:

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Even her guests were fabulous:

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Coveting. that. dress. would. kill. for. that. on. bridesmaids.

Not so much others:

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Niiiiceee. Over the shoulder diamond boulder holder!

 In sum, Lauren Davis had the most amazingly hot and sweaty Columbian wedding, and I am completely, utterly, and entirely, head over heels in lust for it. Oh, and Mr. Shortcake is SO wearing a white dinner jacket and black bow-tie!

 

The. End.

 

"Agnes, did you SEE what the groomsmen were WEARING?"

Bogart.







Bond.





Beefcake.












A classic formal wardrobe staple of the 1950s was the white dinner jacket - a look divinely dashing, conjuring up images of shaken (not stirred) martinis, breezeless tropical nights scented with cigars, and steamy kisses stolen away from the crowd on patios, in gardens....





...and at my wedding?






We love, love, LOVE the look of white dinner jackets with black bowties, cummberbunds, and trousers for Mr. Beefcake and the groomsmen- it will look smashing with the pink "New Look" style bridesmaid dresses, and it's SO debonair:






from style me pretty






from style me pretty




from wedding chicks

Unfortunately, it's also a seasonal look, best suited (pun intended) for warmer climes and times:

Foremost, keep it in its season or its place. The white jacket is meant to
look and be cool in hot weather. The rules aren't as strict as Memorial Day to
Labor Day anymore, but certainly not before May and not after September—unless,
of course, you're in the tropics or in the southern hemisphere. Martin Nicholls,
Alfred Dunhill's bespoke tailor and award winner for suiting Oscar-going stars
(see Made for You, page 240), even suggests it looks best in the casbah, at the
country club, along the shore or on a cruise—anywhere but the city.

~ Cigar
Aficionado

The Alternative:
Black tux and bow tie



What do you think? Would it be inappropriate for my groom and his frat pack to sport white dinner jackets in early October, or is the look just too swell to pass up?

"Like a Sparkly Shroud of Turin" - The Veil Hunt

When I found my dress, my lovely and incomparable assistant Kelly at Stella's Bridal Galleria gave me the matching veil to try on. It was, to the best of my knowledge/veil identification skills, a mantilla style, fingertip-length veil with scalloped edges and an intricate pattern of glass beads and Swavorski crystals.

 

I thought it looked quite lovely with the gown, but it lacked a matching blusher, and attaching a plain blusher looked, honestly, quite ridiculous. I'm dead set on having some sort of blusher/face shrouding apparatus, as I am completely and hopelessly in love with the idea of being "unveiled."

 

 (For example, check out kayrose's blusher - pure romance. THIS is what bridal dreams are made of!)

 

But, the mantilla veil was sparkly, and as anyone close (or within a hundred feet of me) will attest, I have a not-so-secret obsession with things that bling. In addition, wearing a mantilla veil (traditionally spanish) would be a sweet nod to my mother's heritage.

 

However, such a nod would cost $560 dollars. OUCH. Luckily for me, the veil sold (to someone else) before I had a chance to make any foolhardy decisions based on emotion and not on account balances. I did a brief search on 'da internetz' and came up with a couple of alternatives for waist-length, sparkly, scalloped-edge veils:

 

 

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Then I saw how breathtaking a drop veil could look and was smitten:

 

 

(Knottie srpro)

I searched again, and found a drop veil with Swavorski crystals:

 

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...and then I read this helpful thread on the boards. As some brilliant ladies suggested, you can have a mantilla veil and a blusher too! If you pull forward the front of the mantilla veil, and secure it so that it hangs over your face, it will look like a drop veil, and behave like a blusher.

Good idea? Grace Kelly thought so!

 

And so did Katharine McPhee from American Idol:

(pulled back for the big kiss)

 

 

NEED A REFRESHER COURSE IN VEIL 101? TRY:

The Knot Veil Bio

The Flirty Bride Veil FAQ

Mrs. Ladybug's Veil Guide

Caring for your veil by Mrs Lime

If you have a vintage style dress, make sure to check out these resources:

 

Brideshead Revisited: Vintage veils

Etsy: Vintage veils

Leah Couture Millnery

Bonbon Oiseau Millnery

Kasia Fink Birdcage Veils