Peacocks and Polka Dots: Our Very Vintage Wedding (that contained very little vintage)

In January for 2012 my fly boy asked me to marry him and of course I said yes. We quickly decided on the chapel at his Alma Mater the U.S. Naval Academy was the perfect place, and even more perfect was we were able to get married on our 6th anniversary to the day.

photo from http://www.cathousechat.com/cathouse_chat/2007/07/the-united-stat.html

Once we talked it over my love agreed that the wedding could have a vintage feel to it. I selected dark turquoise (as all shades of the color are my favorite) and gold for the colors and used peacock feathers for accents.

Photographer

I knew from the start that finding a photographer was going to be a challenge. My husband openly admits that art is not his thing so he let me make the choice as to who we would have take our photos. I wanted to find someone who had a vintage feel to their photos and was talented taking black and white photos. As fly boy and I both really like black and white photographs. I also find photos where it doesn't really seem like a photographer was present, but more like you are witnessing the event first hand, to be my preference, this type of photography is frequently called photo-journalistic. It also lends itself to a vintage feel as many photographs of major historical events during WWII through the early 1960s had this feel, photos were taken as things happened, and very rarely were there to many overly posed or worked photos. These photos also have a feeling of life and rawness, that many vintage photos had simply because photo editing wasn't all that possible. I found just the man for the job in Brian Virts, of Brian Virts Photography. He was absolutely amazing, I can't say that I saw him even once during our reception until he came to say good bye to me, and during our more formal photos he was never too pushy and he didn't over pose any of the photos. I can't sing his praises enough.

The Dress

I had always loved my Cuban grandmothers wedding dress but unfortunately for me it didn't make it out of Cuba. Even if the dress had of made it out of Cuba I am several inches taller than my Grandmother was so her dress would not have worked out well.

My grandparents on their wedding day in Cuba

But I have also always loved Grace Kelly's wedding style. When it came time to go shopping for my dress I went only with my mother (to many opinions make me indecisive and she is brutally honest, something I love) I chose to go to TLC Bridal in Frederick MD, I have worked with them several times on formal events and they are always been amazing. I will admit I honestly didn't expect anywhere in my little home town of Frederick to have what I was looking for, but I went armed with the images below and many others and was pleasantly surprised

from http://www.fashion-era.com/Weddings/1956_old_wedding_photos_royal.htm

from http://chupacabrabuzz.blogspot.com/2011/07/grace-kelly-wedding-bouquet_04.html

The ladies at TLC found this amazing dress for me, the only thing that was missing was the cummerbund that Grace Kelly had, so I had my seamstress cut up the skirt of an old prom dress and use that fabric.

Wearing my dress in my parents dining room the day we got it

http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

My dress once the cummerbund was added

http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

Hair and Makeup

I was very concerned with hair and makeup for the wedding as I had asked each of the girls to have a vintage hair style and vintage style makeup. I talk to Stacey at Atomic Cheesecake Studios (the photographer who did my pin up calender) and asked her if she was able to do the hair and make up for my wedding, she couldn't but she was able to point me in the direction of Josephine Love Makeup and Hair. While I had made the choice to do my own hair and makeup, partially because I am a control freak, partially because it is calming, and partially because if it didn't look just right I would rather only have myself to blame. but all of my girls except my maid -of - honor and S chose to use her for their hair and they all looked great. I also made a video tutorial for the girls on how to do their makeup for the day of. Each one of them did her own makeup and I think they all did a great job, as you will see below. For my own hair I took inspiration form the following pictures of Rita Hayworth.

and this is what I came up with

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

Bridesmaids Dresses

The next adventure was finding vintage reproduction bridesmaids dresses that wouldn't break the bank and would suit the many different body types I was working with. Ever the over achiever I had 8 bridesmaids, all with very different styles and very different figures, only one of whom had ever worn vintage style clothing for more than a costume. So the only solution I could see was to select vintage re-issued patterns and let each girl pick the style she was most comfortable in. I gave them 12 different options all from the Butterick or Vogue pattern companies. I initially wanted to use dupioni silk, or shantung silk, but as both were very costly, I found a much more reasonably priced satin backed shantung from fabric.com for around $6. My maid- of- honor was originally going to wear gold but we could not locate a gold fabric that she liked so together we selected a different turquoise in a dupioni that she really liked.

with all 8 girls

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

Both my maid -of - honor, L, and B picked this dress from Butterick , here are the final results

me and my L

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

me and B.

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

My husband's older sister JR and my friend S also picked this Vintage Vogue halter pattern

me and S (this is a great picture of her, not so much of me

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

me and my sister-in-law JR

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

JA picked a retro Butterick pattern that I had never made but absolutely loved and is now one of my favorite patterns

me and JA

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

MC picked this out of print Vintage Vogue pattern, that I have always loved. She pinned the front of her dress closed during the ceremony so that her tattoos would not be out in church, at the reception she took the safety pin out. (disclaimer: I have absolutely zero problem with tattoos. I myself have 2 large ones on both of my thighs one of peacock feathers and the other of orchids. I just felt that in church was the not the place for them. MC understood)

Me and MC My little bouffant beauty, the one girl who had worn vintage before the wedding
photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

My husband's little sister JL picked this Vintage Vogue pattern that I have made several times and I must say looked amazing on her. She picked it because she liked how it twirled

me and JL

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

JL twirling

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And finally we have M who was about 7 and a half or 8 months pregnant at the wedding. She called me about 5 or 6 months out and told me the news that she and her husband were having another baby. She wanted to make sure I was still ok with having her in the wedding at this point, which of course I was. Her mother made her dress for her a week before the wedding they took bits and pieces from several patterns to draft their own dress for here. I think it has a vintage feel without being one of those awful maternity tents that women wore in the 40s, 50s and early 60s

me and M, her mother did a great job on this dress.

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

Flowers

The selection of who would do the flowers for our wedding was easy it was going to be En Masse Flower Market in Frederick, MD. I had worked for Sharon for many years and knew she would be able to make anything I came up with happen after much thought I selected dark purple flowers for all of the flowers. Sharon and I found this amazing bouquet and it is what she fashioned my flowers after. I you look at my flowers there are two rosaries wrapped around the stems, women in the 40s and 50s frequently carried a rosary or bible at their wedding. The crystal rosary was a gift from my parents for my first communion, the less ornate silver rosary was my grandmother's that she smuggled out of Cuba.

the photo Sharon found

my flowers
photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

a great shot of the rosaries

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

Accessories

Now for the accessories for me and the girls. I told the girls that they could wear any jewelry that was gold or pearls. Most of the girls as you can see in the photos opted to wear pearls. JA even said it gave her a chance to wear the fancy set her husband gave her all together for the first time. I chose pearls because most women in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s owned at least one strand and they were considered the height of fashion for a refined lady to own. Though you don't see many pictures of women wearing them in the early 40s during the war that is only because it was war time and not seen as practical to wear them often. But I can guarantee when ladies were dressed up they brought our their pearls. And pearls also have a sweet femininity to them. I gave the girls the following guidelines for shoes, they must be gold, they must lend themselves to the time period, they can be however high or flat as you like, they may not be gym shoes, boots, or flip flops, and you are not allowed to wear flip flops at the reception, or go barefoot, so if you feet will hurt bring flats. I wanted each girl to be comfortable in her shoes, and I also do not think it is at all attractive when women who are dressed up go barefoot or changed into flip flops. I think it ruins the effect. I created a bridesmaids board on Pintrest mostly with shoes but also with ideas I had for them, this was to help guide them in the right direction. I also made peacock hair accessories for each girl and kept the ideas on a peacock hair things board on Pintrest. Then finally I made clutches for each of my girls, each one was different to fit her personality, 4 were turquoise, and 4 were shades of gold.

2 of the clutches the clutch with the butterflies was the one I made for M and the one with the scrolls was the one I made for S.
photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

For my accessories I also made a clutch for myself out of white satin and lace (I do not have a photo of of my clutch), and I also made a peacock hair accessories for myself

L took this picture of my hair clip as I was getting ready

As I was looking for veils I found this great diagram of veil lengths, that I used to determine my veils length. I selected to have it come to about fingertip length in the front and between fingertip and waltz length in the back. Now finding a veil well that wasn't so easy.

I began searching for a drop style veil that was this length , that I could find local to myself or my mother as I waited about 2 months out before I made up my mind about a veil. I found this absolutely stunning vintage style drop veil in the length I wanted but knew I would never find it in time.

That is when I turned to Etsy for help I found Lonnie Ann the owner of Veils and Beyond in Baltimore. She was able to get the veil to my mother in plenty of time for the wedding. She did a great job, here is what she made for me.

L took this picture as we were waiting to go upstairs

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

For my earrings and my garters I also turned to Etsy. I found a great pair of Art Deco style gold drop earrings pictures and linked below. I also found a great set of sparkly garters also pictures and linked below.

And finally I had to find shoes which I thought I had found in a great pair of teal suede shoes but they hurt far to much for my liking. So the search was on once again. I stumbled upon my wedding shoes looking for my bridesmaids. They are by Poetic License a company that makes many shoes that have a fun vintage flare to them. I love these shoes they didn't hurt at all and I have used them again.

photo courtesy of http://brianvirtsphotography.com/

The Devil is in the Details

So finally some details that made the day complete. For or cocktail hour and through dinner we had vintage style music played. Most of the music was 1940s, and none of it was Frank Sinatra as I feel he is over played. For each table I made peacock and gold numbers, and fly-boy and I folded over 175 little chair place cards to add a touch of humor to the day. I also made a champagne colored cover for our guest book which I then decorated with peacock feathers. And finally we had a 6 different types of cupcakes instead of cake (we did have a small one to cut) and one of them even included bacon for my husband.