Where was I???!
Only a few short posts ago I began blogging about Margaret! The wedding is this weekend! Margaret’s custom mother-of-the-bride dress and jacket (as well as the bride Mary’s custom jacket and accessories) are now completely finished and gorgeous and I finally have time to fill you in on how we got there!
Last post, I shared the first sketch for Margaret’s custom mother-of-the-bride ensemble. While she liked it, she didn’t love it and asked for some very specific changes. She wanted the scoop part of the neckline to scoop “the other way” and to make it more of a halter, eliminate the sleeves, and she wanted to try a skirt from a different inspiration photo.
So I drew this new sketch to show her what that would look like!
Though there were some aspects of this new design that really I liked, this time I was the one who didn’t love it. During our process, Margaret was always very concerned about looking “too busty”. In my mind, this specific neckline accentuated her bustline, making it look larger, rather than being minimizing. But I needed her to see and and to make that decision for herself. This very well could be exactly the dress of her dreams!
Since I wasn’t confident that we had nailed it with this second sketch, I decided to also throw in a third “wild card” sketch. I wanted Margaret to be comfortable, and my challenge was that she was specifically asking me to create something that was out of her normal comfort zone. She wanted this dress to be something new for her. Something completely unexpected! Her day-to-day style is very flowy and carefree, but for her mother-of-the-bride dress, she only wanted to consider very structured options. Since she normally doesn’t wear or like these styles, it was a bit of a challenge!
But don’t get me wrong, this was a challenge that I was more than happy to take on! I love the puzzle that is finding the right design for the specific person for the specific occasion. Margaret and I both pushed each other beyond our original ideas to ultimately create something that was stunningly perfect.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Though Margaret’s normal attire is very easy and joyful (an aspect I didn’t want to lose in her design!), I think she was wanting to break free from her “not a care in the world” style because this day would be so different for her. On Mary’s wedding day she will have “ALL the care in the world”! Margaret cares very very deeply about her family and her daughter’s wedding day and she wanted her style to reflect that. While fun and carefree is what she is comfortable in, she really wanted to change her style to one of honor and grace for this special day. I tried to keep both of these styles in mind as I sketched another option.
Using inspirations and conversations from our consultations, I drew a completely different sketch as a mix between the styles she wears normally and the styles she envisioned herself wearing on her daughter’s wedding day.
The inspiration photos and detailed descriptions for both of these sketches can be found on her Design Proposal Website. I was anxious to hear what she thought of these two options!
(Note: She had mentioned that she no longer liked the idea of the shrug for the jacket, so I decided to wait until we could agree on a dress and then design a jacket to match.)
Once Margaret reviewed the two new sketches she was still loving the process and said “This is really coming along!! I am liking this direction.” But she still was not confident that either option was “the one”. We were meeting to take measurements the next day, so we discussed in person some additional changes and got one step closer to our gorgeous final design.
Next post! Sketch #4!
