BYU Bridal Guide with Heidi's Dress

The other day I received a bunch of emails from Amelia Lyon, the fabulous photographer who did Heidi's pictures.  She forwarded her responses to a whole lot of brides that wanted my info.  A big THANK YOU goes out to her.  Here is the story of why.

BYU's Bridal Guide used her picture of Heidi for a "The Dress" page.  It is the page that explains various terms of dress styles, etc.  You all know that page in dress magazines.  They credited the photographers but didn't think to put my name on the page.  No problem, thankfully Amelia passed on the info.  

Well, I decided to meet the people that put the magazine together.  I have always been curious about the publication.  So I thought it was the perfect excuse to introduce myself.  I know it is silly, but I am so glad I did.  I had a great conversation with Warren, the person in charge of the magazine, probably the most jovial person I have ever met.  He laughs with gusto, it makes me smile even now.  

We got to talk about wedding dresses.  It was interesting to hear his take on the whole thing.  We discussed the ins and outs of LDS wedding dresses.  For those of you outside of this culture, there are many guidelines you have to meet to wear a wedding dress that is appropriate.  Thus, most of the dresses you will see on this blog have sleeves and a more conservative neck line.  My question for those of you who are LDS.  Do you care if you wear the dress to the ceremony, or would you rather have a dress that is silk white or cream?  Would you rather have the over the top gown or go with one appropriate for the ceremony?  I usually avoid talking about this type of thing, but that is what a trip to BYU does to me.   

So that was the experience with the BYU bridal magazine and the happy people that run it.  The good news, Warren told me that they have had a big response to the dress.  I credit that to Heidi's open mind while making the dress and her genius choice of photographers.  I still can't get over the perfectness of that shoot!

Inspiration

I want to talk about inspiration while driving. 

I didn't have an appropriate photo for that subject, so I just threw up the decomposed necklaces used on Heidi's dress.  If anything, I am random.  More of her dress here. 

Okay, so the first ticket I received for speeding was in high school.  The officer was in plain sight.  I could have slowed down, but I was busy looking at the side slit thing found on my polo shirt hem.  Does anyone know the official name for those things?  I was on my way to school where I was going to tackle my first long sleeved polo shirt.  I am old, they were cool then.  

Well, I got the ticket, but I did figure out how to do it at that moment.  Worth it?  Probably not. 

Well, yesterday I was on my way to pick up my little guy from school.  I just finished with a fitting for a knit dress.  A completely different textile than my norm.  The bride knew that and hopefully also knew that it would take me a bit to do it correctly.  The fit was great but I didn't like where the darts were ending up.  I could have made it work because of the rushing over the darts, but I am one of those crazy people that can't sleep if certain details are not right.  So on the way down the canyon, inspiration hit.  I figured out how to re-do the pattern to eliminate those darts.  I LOVE it when that happens.  If you think about it enough, and you are lucky, inspiration will save the day.  Disclaimer, the solutions are usually so simple and beautiful, they should have been there all along.  It's just not how it works though.    

At that moment life was perfect.  I also knew I could change it completely and still have enough fabric.  Oh, and I think I was listening to a really good song on the radio.  That always helps.  

So the lesson: 

I am not afraid of changing it or starting over.  I think this happened slowly.  I know the first time I had to change something I was so frustrated.  I wanted to start on the change the next day.  I didn't, I did it right then, and I discovered it didn't take that long.  Since then I have changed, re-invented, started over, or just stewed over a detail for way to long.  I think I like it now.  It is part of the conquering of the dress.  That sounds harsh.  Okay, it is part of the evolution of the dress.  It's a process I have learned to enjoy and can't get enough of, it seems.       

This post is for Jeanette, my awesome sister that thinks I should "describe the process" more.  I am going with it, because I have no clue to what people want to see on this silly blog. 

Who needs this?

I received three packages today, it felt like Christmas!  The one from Europe is the one I am obsessing over.  So now I just need to find a bride that loves it as much as I do.  What do you think?

When I go fabric shopping I make a lot of stupid decisions.  This piece makes all of those other decisions worth it.  It holds it's own but could be embellished to make something frothy and delightful.  (Did I just say "delightful"?) 

So I will wait patiently til I meet the right person for this piece.  I love this game of matching. 

Rain melts snow

I couldn't post these photos until I knew it would be over.  The white winter wonderland will be followed by mud and rain and a few scattered days of warmth.  Funny how I view the latter as the better option. 

There is a good chance it will snow again, but I don't care, because today it rained. 

It rained and melted some snow.  We are still looking at feet and feet of snow, but we are on our way.  In the valley I smelled wet dirt, which is a measly 20 minutes away.  In the valley you can walk or run or ride a bike unencumbered by this....

Look, there's the husband.  I am always so happy that he deals with this aspect and I can just sit on the front porch eating bon bons.  Dang, I keep meaning to try bon bon's out.  Are they any good?  Okay, maybe I am snacking on some really beautiful dark chocolate.   

Bring on the dry heat of Utah and the long summer nights. 

silk trip

Just a little hello.  We came back from a wonderful trip to L.A.  I bought some awful lace and some insanely perfect lace.  I bought too much shantung silk.... I make wedding dresses, why all of the color?  Oh, because it is so good, you almost want to eat the stuff. 

I love when the garment district guys say, "I am loosing money on this for you, loosing money!"  That was by far my favorite phrase. 

It was great to see my dad's reaction to the district.  I think he was a bit overwhelmed.  Don't tell him I said that.  He would flatly deny it. 

Have a wonderful day.  Hopefully I will post a few pictures later.

L.A. Garment District

Today I ask for help. 

It looks like I will head to the Garment District for some much needed creative buying.  It is funny how I can justify traveling for the sake of fabric and trims.  I will always be this way. 

The last time I was in L.A., my sister and I met there to hit the textile show.  Being the people we are, we decided to walk to the show.  So we exited our Korean Hotel (we were the only "English as first language" people there) and started walking to the "tall buildings" in the distance.  In our little experience, big cities have one area with tall buildings.  The first set of buildings turned out not to be our destination.  There were others in the far distance.  I guess we didn't see them due to the curvature of the earth.  Go figure.  We walked and walked and walked like the true pioneer stalk we are.  It was a very hot day, which was to our benefit, because come to find out, we were in a questionable part of town.  Lucky for us, on that hot hot day, no one had the energy to pester two girls walking where we shouldn't have.  We finally had to get a cab, because we were on the wrong side of a major freeway.  For the record, we almost made it there. 

Of course the rest of the trip was just as memorable as the walk.  My sister got to see the "other side" of me.  I guess I can be quite shrewed while dealing with fabric reps.  We dinned on beautiful food that night, found more fabric the next day, and flew out. 

So now I will be returning.  I don't know my way around the L.A. market.  NYC's Garment District is much more familiar to me.  Does anyone have a favorite place there?  Is there some breathtaking restaurant we need to try?  I imagine SOMEONE knows SOMETHING about the area.  I would love some input!