As I was doing a crazy amount of ironing yesterday, I was watching "Say yes to the dress" on Netflix. Don't ask...I just wanted something that doesn't require much thought...Surprise, surprise, it did make me think :) Or more remember, my own wedding and my dress.
Honestly, it was crazy to see how much money some brides spend on a dress. There was one who bought a dress for $22000!! It's like a down payment on a house! On the other hand, there was the cutest Grandma of one of the girls who got married in 1944 and paid $25 for her dress :)
My own dress wasn't much more :) All because my wonderful Mom made it for me. She's an amazing seamstress (I wish she'd passed that gene on to me... sigh...and an even bigger sigh...) but it was her first ever wedding dress. I wanted something modest, and dresses like this are virtually non-existent in Russia. But I think, she did a great job:
Sorry for the grainy picture -it's a scanned version of it :). The funny thing that made this dress so cheap is that the "lace" we used was actually a curtain lacy fabric. We couldn't find a true "wedding" lace because they only sold it in a specialized store in a different city, and we would have to wait for three months for our order to arrive. We just didn't have time. But it still turned out great, and nobody noticed :)
I don't say everybody should go my route. I mean, if you have 20+ thousand dollars to spend on a wedding dress, kudos to you :) After all, a wedding is a very special day that you (hopefully) want to remember for the rest of your life. Whatever makes you look and feel special. I was just surprised at how expensive some of these dresses can be.
So now I'm curious about you :) How big or elaborate your wedding was? What about your dress? Do you have any regrets? And if you are not married yet, what do you want your wedding to be like? I want to know it all :)
And on very non-related topic, as part of my Twenty ways in 20 days, what made me happy today (on day 16) is that I finally joined Bloglovin. I'm going to miss Google reader (you know that I don't like change) but so far I'm liking Bloglovin. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be :) Have you made the switch? If you didn't, don't wait because Google reader/Blogger dashboard will dissapear in just a few days, on July 1st! And if you want to follow me on it, you can click on my button on the left. I would be happy if you did ;)
Lena your dress was beautiful! We had a pretty big wedding but it did not cost a fortune, we were careful about that. The whole wedding including the reception which was at a restaurant, dress, flowers & photographer was under $6000. We had about 120 guests so considering that it was not too bad a cost for the whole deal.
ReplyDeleteThat is pretty good for 120 people!
DeleteWonderful Wedding photo!!! Your dress is beautiful. I can't remember what I paid for my dress but it couldn't have been much as hubby and I paid for our own wedding, I'm thinking under $200.00 but that was 39 years ago! Ha For our DD#1 the cost was around $1,000.00, she found "The Dress" on the sale rack. Ditto for DD#3 but hers was only $600.00. Both DD's weddings were just what they wanted but we had to do some fancy footwork to stay on budget
ReplyDeleteThat's great that your girls had weddings they wanted, and still on a budget!
DeleteFor my wedding, I spent about $100.00 on a dress and got exactly what I wanted. Friends made all of the food for the rehearsal dinner and much of it for the reception. I arranged all of the flowers. While there were expenses, I happy we didn't spend more for our wedding. We were saving for a down payment on a house and that's where we wanted our money to go.
ReplyDeleteYou were really smart with your wedding arrangements and plans for the future. It's crazy for me to see how many young people nowadays want to have an extravagant wedding (that their parents are paying for!) with very vague plans for what will happen after!
DeleteLena, Your wedding dress is beautiful...
ReplyDeleteWe had a small wedding around 60 people....we prepared our own food, it was a very relaxed wedding and I was able to spend time with close friends and family... Wouldt not have changed a thing...
My wedding dress was rented....yup rented... I paid $300 to rent it...When I went to return it, they said I could have it because they just got a new line of wedding dresses....I don't have the dress anymore because I took it and made dress up clothes for my daughter... I wanted my daughter to have her own wedding dress one day...
Have a great day....
Lisa
I didn't know you can rent a wedding dress! How cool is that? Especially if they let you keep it afterwards :) Our wedding was about 60 people too, and it was a very modest one.
DeleteI posted a photo our wedding photo back on June 18th, and someone made that for me and as wedding dresses go it was pretty cheap. Dd just got married and hers was between $2,00 to $3,000 I think. She paid for it, but it was a custom one, as she took the bodice from one dress and the skirt from another dress.
ReplyDeleteAnd she looked amazing in her custom dress :)
Deletemy dress was $99 brand new. It was perfect in size and didn't have to be altered at all. Our wedding was done on less than $2000, including, flowers, invitations, music, refreshments and all. With the money we didn't spend on the wedding, we pretty much bought a much needed brand new car (a Focus) cash in hand. A lot of people (7 years later) still talk about our wedding and how meaningful it was. The dress doesn't make a beautiful bride.
ReplyDeleteAgree! Our wedding was about $2000 too but it was a pretty small one with modest arrangements. $99 is an awesome deal for a dress!
DeleteI think your dress is fantastic. And handmade by someone you love and loves you back? Priceless. Though I don't want to marry at all, if life so decides to take me down that route, there is no way on this side of heaven I'd be spending that much on the wedding itself, let alone in a one-time attire! I might even go as far as just renting the gown. Something simple, comfortable and fitting.
ReplyDeleteYou just haven't met the ONE yet...And no, I don't mean a dress :) On the other note, I didn't know you can rent a dress but, I think, it's a pretty cool idea!
DeleteI chose a dress that was discontinued (meaning we couldn't order it), but the floor model fit me perfectly, so I got it for 50% off! Compared with some of the dresses they pick out for you to try on, it was a total steal at $325, and it was beautiful! Including pictures, food, and entertainment, we tried to stay under 5k for our entire wedding, and we succeeded! Our parents helped out, but we definitely didn't take that as a license to spend their money. We knew we wanted a house in the near future, and 1 day of expensive was definitely not worth sacrificing our dream!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you could find what you were looking for right away!! It's definitely a steal for $325!
DeleteYour dress is beautiful and even more special because your mom made it! I didn't spend anything on my dress, other than to have it altered a bit. I wore my mom's dress. We had a church wedding with about 100 guests, but we didn't spend much at all. I think it was like $3000-3500 (this was almost 30 years ago). The reception was the most costly of it all. Funny, the thing I remember that I loved the most about it all was the ice sculpture we had done for the center of the buffet table. A huge basket made of ice, with real flowers in it. I just loved it :)
ReplyDeleteAwww, I wish my Mom kept her dress...She had a really pretty silky one. That centerpiece sounds really fun!
DeleteI love your dress and the fact that your mom made it :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have been married almost 28 years. We were right our of school, and paid for almost everything ourselves. My mom bought my dress, looking back I think so she could have more of a say in which one I picked! I don't remember what it cost. We had the reception at the church. I was working at a small grocery store at the time. My boss let me order everything form paper plates to ham for the sandwiches, and a case of white Pillsbury Plus white cake mixes at cost. My mother-in-law made the cake. My aunt and cousin took pictures, just handed us the rolls of film (back in the days of FILM! ) We had the negatives and could order what we wanted. I insisted on real flowers, had in season flowers, decorated the church with lavender mums.
It sounds like a very frugal and wonderful wedding :)
DeleteWhat a beautiful picture Lena, and your dress is beautiful! Your mom is a great seamstress!
ReplyDeleteHa...I used to always watch "Say yes to the Dress"! My youngest daughter and I loved it!
I think it is a big waste of money to spend alot. I think the simplier the dress, the more elegant and you can see the beauty of the bride more.
My dress was $100 in 1979...just went to a little small-town bridal shop!
I don't understand when people waste too much money on a dress! I guess, it's up to them but it doesn't make much of a sense to me.
DeleteYour dress was lovely! My dress was one that I had worn before, but it was lacy and white, so I figured why not! :) Our wedding was full of family and fun, but it was certainly on the cheap. My favorite part was that our gift to our guests was strawberry jam that my husband and I had made and canned together. But it'll be 10 years this year, so I guess a cheap wedding isn't a problem in the long run. :)
ReplyDeleteI love lacy dresses :) So pretty. And your guest gift idea was absolutely awesome!!
DeleteYour dress was gorgeous. We had around 140 guest, i wont mention any cost of the wedding but a few details, dress was snow white and we had a clear sky lots of sun so the photographer had to adjust his camera so my dress wont give a white flash back :) , it was a wedding to remember not just by us but our guests too, lasted almost 24 hours,party all the time,few friends remained untill the music stoped becouse they had no more strength to play more,so we packed up,left the ball room and went home continued there to celebrate,no sleeping at all. It was a fun day to remember!
ReplyDeleteI love your dress and because it's your mom's masterpiece! I went to find a seamstress instead of a designer to make my wedding dress. Saved me lots $$. Then I sold it to the seamstress so she can have it rented.
ReplyDelete