Picture this.
It’s wedding day morning at the Bontje household. 7:30 am
The hairstylist is here (Krista rocks!). Micaela is trying on her dress one last time, as I wanted to check the fit at the back one last time before I handstitched the lining down. The fit was pefect- then I saw it….
The zipper had separated!! Ahh the horror. Aughh the look of fear and dismay on my face when I mentally went through my invisible zipper stash in my head and realized that there was not an ivory or white invisible zipper to be had!
Served me right really – using an generic brand, Fabricland zipper.
I was on tenterhooks till the fabric store opened at 9:30. In fact, I was waiting in front of the door 10 minutes early, with my hair already in wedding state, in case they happened to see me there with my hand on the doorknob, ready to sprint to the zipper section.
There was one other woman waiting as well. We struck up a conversation, compared family, sewing, and it was then that I found out that she owns a brick and mortar as well as an online fabric store! One that I never knew existed- less than 20 minutes from my house. I promised her that I would visit her, and review her shop here and on PatternReview, threw opent the door of the store, grabbed 4 invisible zippers, and ran to the checkout. My 18 minute drive home was consumed with reviewing all the steps I needed to do to quickly insert the zipper.
By 10:30 it was done! Whew, disaster averted and the bride looked radiant.
Wedding Day story #2
We are ready to go to the church. It just so happens that August 15 was also the day of our community’s townwide garage sale. One we never missed until this year. I jokingly suggested that since they had a few minutes to spare, they take some “bride goes garage sale-ing on her wedding day” photos. The photographer was game so off we went.
It was at their very first stop that a very humerous event occured. This is so indicative of things that happen to our Micaela. Every always turns out right in “Micaelaland”!
Micaela had decided she didn’t want a veil. She had an adorable headband and her hair was up and looking gorgeous. Someone happened to see a veil hanging up and she decided to try it on for a funny photo. It was a beautiful veil! “Mommy, will you buy it for me?” Micaela questioned. Now how can you say no to a one dollar purchase! We gave the guy a five, waved off the change and charged back to the cars eagerly looking forward to the rest of a perfect day! Oh by the way, it also happened to be the very same place where we bought twinkle lights to decorate the tent with at the previous years garage sale! We left the female owner of the house with tears of joy in her eyes.
So. I leave you with 2 questions.
1. Which brand of zipper do you trust your life- not to mention your Wedding Dress- on?
2. Do you have any Wedding Day humerous stories to share?
By the way, the rest of the day was magical! I will share more when I get photographers photos back. And now it is time to be excited for me as this is the first time in 2 years that I have not been in Wedding Mode! It was all so worth it. Baby Mode is looming on the horizon!
Some photo’s….
Review of the yellow dress to come. any guesses as to which current Vogue pattern it is?
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
The most memorable days are those that have amazing stories attached to them! Beautiful bride (who’s lucky to have such a dedicated mom/seamstress)!
I think the dress is V1102 (I think I see the gorgeous bow in the back). I love that dress and it has been on my to-do list for a while. Love the yellow version.
Backstory: we were married on Halloween.
Humorous Story
The reception was also a halloween party. The best man was changing clothes in church restroom, getting dressed as a vampire.
Unknown to him, they closed up the church, and turned on the alarm system. Exit Dracula. Sound alarms! Call Police!
The police enter, to find this vampiric fellow waiting with to be released from a locked church.
They absolutely did not believe he was going to a wedding reception, and followed him all the way there. Thankfully for us, he arrived in time to give the first toast!
Ya GOTTA have funny stories to balance any tension, tears, too-much-emotions, eh!!
Cute ones, Connie!!
TOny and I were waiting with our witnesses (his DS and my GF) for the justice ‘o the peace. Well, He came out and shook DS’s hand, saying “Congratulations!!”. Erik said, “Thanks, but it’s my POP who’s getting married!!” Erik and I are 5 years apart; Tony and I, 26 years and one week…
Then, we went to the Ritz Carlton for luncheon. They had name tags on the table for “Tony” and “Behonda”… THAT’s where I “got” the name for my dressform
Soft hug,
Rhonda in Montreal (PR)
I am so loving all the stories! You get an A for figuring out the pattern number Shannon!
I thought one of your girls was joking on Twitter when they said that Micaela had purchased a veil at a garage sale on the way to the wedding! Too funny! It sounds like it was a beautiful day and a gorgeous wedding! At my niece’s beach wedding, they had to delay the start of the wedding for a bit while the bridal party searched through the sand for the wedding ring which had been dropped! By the way, did you make it to the movie? How was it?
Ohhh you are a wonderful mother and such an impressive seamstress !!!! No funny wedding day story. May for my wedding with Robert some day, some year ?
She’s beautiful! You’ve done another marvelous job.
Let’s see, I’ve done a lot of bridesmaid dressing and wedding alterations. Last minute ones, too. Like at my SIL’s wedding, we all either made or had our dresses made. One bridesmaid who had her dress made had a broken invisible zip. Since the ceremony was to start in less than 30 minutes we could not replace it. My MIL of course, was beside herself, and shoved the bridesmaid at me (also a bridesmaid and 6 months pregnant with my daughter) and said, “Do something with her!”. Alright. Lacking anything but a needle and thread, I sewed her into the dress. She had to be cut out of it later than night, but I don’t think her husband minded.
Another wedding, same bridesmaid, except this time it was her sister getting married. I had to alter the top to her ensemble. No problem. I tried it on her, did the first round of alterations, retried it and one shoulder wasn’t quite right, too big. I know I measured it right – come to find out that one side of the top was cut a size larger than the other, so no wonder they were never even! So, I got it fixed, went to the wedding and was watching the bridesmaids make their entrances. Before the bridesmaid that I altered came through the door, was another one that I didn’t. Her bodice fit so perfectly, and I had to wonder who altered it. Then my bridesmaid came through and I thought she looked pretty good, especially with the trouble I had with the shoulders. Come to find out, my bridesmaid was pregnant, did not tell me, so her bust size got larger between the alteration and wedding. Day of the wedding, her bodice didn’t fit. The other bridesmaid’s bodice was too big. My MIL, in charge of the whole wedding had them swap bodices, and luckily they fit perfectly. I did end up doing that perfectily fitted bodice after all.
I’ve also sewn bustling loops in locker rooms and all sorts of other strange wedding adventures, but this is probably plenty for one comment.
But what were *you* wearing???? Impressed with your zip replacement. I totally would have sewn her into the dress.
One of my wedding stories is that I ended up making another sash for the flower girl in a back classroom an hour before the wedding.
I had given the mom of the 7 year-old girl fabric swatches to take with her for shoe matching or whatever. She, however, took the sash with her to go shopping and LOST IT! She didn’t figure out that the sash was gone until the day of the wedding. She was in tears when she called me to fess up. Thank goodness I had enough scraps to make another sash. I just took my machine and a small ironing board, etc. to church and set up my own little sweatshop.
I’m just glad I didn’t get too upset and that I was able to make another sash. The mother of the bride was smirking right along with me!
I wish I had a funny story to contribute … am so enjoying the others, and still chuckling over the garage sale veil and “Mommy will you buy it for me?”
I would have lost it if it were me dealing with the zipper. Well done you for staying calm. Micaela looked beautiful.
I have no idea if this is a funny story(s) or not. Here goes…
Back in the ’80’s those fancy headpieces were so in vogue. So I bought mine that went across the forehead and attached my veil to it–a cathedral length one. So many people stepped on my veil that the v-shaped headpiece in the front kept jamming into my forehead. Hence, a very bad headache on my wedding night LOL.
When we got back to our room after the reception, we were thinking of stepping out for a calzone at a pizza place we often frequented–gown, tux and all. But opted to stay in and order pizza through the hotel. It was the absolute worse pizza we’ve ever had. Truly like cardboard.
Now, as for the zippers, no invisible zippers for me. I have found they simply do not hold up well for the stress that I give zippers. In fact, today DD#1 had to return a skirt at the mall. The invisible zipper conked out after one wearing. Virtually all the clothes in this store have invisible zips and it really bothers me. I buy clothes from there too and am always waiting for the zipper to pop and break. I much prefer lapped or centered zips for durability.
As I told my DD#1, “I DON’T repair zippers!” It’s just drudgery.