Sweet Kelly is doing another “This is your life” friday..first it was showing rooms in your home and yard and this week..lucky yall;; it is “show us your wedding dress.” You are probably thinking “enough with the personal stuff” first the baby room and then baby pictures and now the WEDDING..well i promise no first date stories here or pictures of my first car (or horse) but i do want to share this because it involves caring for your heirlooms and a MONOGRAM. You see my love for monograms was probably birthed around this whole “wedding frenzy” time..blame Martha Stewart if I remember correctly. More on the monogram below.
OK so in 1998, Mr Wonderful and I wed in the chapel at Baylor University where we were students. So, instead of concentrating on my graduate seminars (it took me longer to finish grad school then it did for my husband to finish LAW school) I had a blast planning my wedding. I had my dress made at Auzell’s (on Washington Ave i believe)which is no longer in business but was a Waco staple for many years for fine fabrics and sewing, in fact they made the Cotton Palace dresses. Ok so Auzells made my dress and they were great..i wanted shantung but not ivory and they had bleached shantung which is more white..who knew?
front of the dress
and the back..i love the back and one up side to having it made custom was i could add this detail..little buttons ALL THE WAY to the floor..i was convinced it made me look taller next to Mr Tall!
I dont have any digital wedding photos or i would share..boy that shows how old we are;;
Ok so on to the monogram, I wanted the inside of the bodice monogramed with our duogram (that was so modern and yet traditional in 1998;;) but even classy Auzells just could not get it right..you could see the monogram THROUGH the shantung..not gonna work yall (I tried not to be a bridezilla but i really Auzells!) soo they MOVED the monogram to the petticoat (it was an a-line dress..dont worry, i wasnt doing the Scarlett thing) which i was not really OK with and wanted redone (are you shocked) plus the M was not larger than the H and E like it should have been (shocked Auzells did not know this!) but that’s ok, i didnt want to be difficult or anything;;. Really, I asked, several times but in the end the dress was delivered to Tidwell Bible Building THAT morning by the little guy from Auzells and i was so thrilled to FINALLY be saying “i do” I didnt really care..but really, that is nuts..i cant believe i did not have my dress until that morning. So here is the monogram (in blue of course) on the petticoat idea..i still think you could do it in the bodice and that would be nice..and i am sure you can find better variations all over the web today but back in 1998 i thought it was pretty unique.
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On to storage of the dress. Museums use acid free boxes and tissue to store textiles for the most part..you could sew in muslin support straps and hang on muslin covered padded hanger if you had a case to hang in but really it is best to box the item so there is no stress anywhere..most archival people (ok all that i know) cringe at the mention of the dry cleaning box but dont feel bad if you have done that..I boxed my dress so i could open it and look at it occassionally… BUT if you have yours in a cedar chest remove it NOW..cedar off-gases terribly and it is not good for your textile.. See i used my degree for something, my parents would be proud! Oh and a great place to get these supplies is Light Impressions or Gaylord.
ok yall I may have lied because now i want to do more personal posts about Waco and how much i miss it and the things i love and/or miss from there like Castle Heights, the Elite Cafe, Cox’s Department Store, OUR FIRST HOUSE on Morrow, the house on N 33rd St… (see gag!)..on and on..so you are forewarned!
