Printed Invites, Ready to Go!

But not quite cut out ;) I'll get there this week...






I decided that I wanted to do cute paper-doll style portraits of us for our invites, that guests can color and cut out themselves if they choose. If I had planned a bit better (or a bit further ahead of time), I would have made a note of this ON the actual invites... oh well. Originally I wanted to do letterpress but that was WAY expensive (heart attack expensive), so I decided to buy a bunch of pretty recycled paper and have them printed up full color by a local printer. I like them WAAAAAY better this way, I about died when they pulled the proof for me at the printer's... they're beautiful. Here are the working files, hopefully I'll have a pic of the finished invites once we get everything put together. I'm proud of these puppies!

Yes, we're both wearing our wedding outfits in the illustrations. I did our portraits in pencil, colored in PS, then did layout in AI. We're having a WWII USO show themed wedding, hence the stars and "softened patriotic" color scheme.

Vintage wedding gown

I am planning (still!) on making my own wedding dress - now that my invites are at the printer, I have time to focus on making the dress. Two months and counting!

However, I did receive a Plan B (a very gorgeous Plan B) last week, due to the graciousness of some good family friends who know my taste well. They rescued a wedding gown from the 1943 marriage of an aunt, which had been residing in someone's attic, boxed up and long-forgotten since the wedding day. That someone had decided to throw out the gown, and it was promptly snatched up by our friends and then gifted to me. How sweet of them!

On to the gown itself: Glorious. Glamorous. Gorgeous. Vintage 1943. 1943!

Ivory silk satin, slinky and smooth but with plenty of thickness. The gown fits me NEAR perfectly, the gown was made for a 'larger' woman (by 1943 standards) who just so happened to be my height and a bit larger in the waist than me. Perfect! The only adjustment needed is nipping in the waist a bit more, but it's a beautiful gown.

Complete with train, elegantly gored skirt falling from the waist, silk bows at the gore points... Long sleeves with a point at the wrist, buttons, slightly puffed sleeve caps (so forties!). The neckline is a sweetheart neckline, which actually sits very high on my chest but I could lower that if desired. Overall a gorgeous, Old Hollywood worthy gown - handmade with love for a 1943 bride, and now it's mine.

That's a mighty fine Plan B in my book. So if I don't get my dress made, I'll be walking down the aisle in vintage. Here's a very similar dress from that era - VERY similar!