The Sash

Oh the drama that is the wedding dress. In this case choosing the dress was a relatively easy and pain free experience. It took one day, two? or three? shops, I found the dress I loved, and that was that!

The sash, on the other hand was not that simple.



On the day I bought my dress, I tried on a gold/champagne/tannish sash {the photos in this post provide a good example}. When our lovely saleslady approached me with the sash, I made a face of slight displeasure ~ it was a color that never crossed my mind and I didn't expect to love, but after it was on, I loved every bit of it! The only question left was whether or not it would match the yet-to-be-decided bridesmaids' dresses, so I decided to wait and order it when we got the dresses.



Fast forward a month or two, and we're shopping for bridesmaids dresses. We pick out a fantastic yellow dress that will look good on everyone {and it has pockets!}. We ask our current not-so-lovely or with-it saleslady to bring out the "champagne" sash, and wouldn't you know it, as she approached with the sash, I made yet another face of displeasure. This was definitely not the same champagne sash we tried during our first visit, this one was a very light, almost white pinkish color... maybe the color of a baby's bottom? Questions were asked, it was denied that our "champagne" sash ever existed, or maybe it was no longer available, who knows when you're as ditzy as this sales lady was. Then she made some reference to Christmas, I made some retort about Christmas in Russia ~ who knew if either of us were making sense?

Oh the drama of the sash.

Bottom line, the awesome sash was no longer available. BUT it looked so good, and looked great with the bridesmaids dresses, AND maybe, just maybe, my mom was up for the challenge of making the sash...



So that is what we/she did. We bought a swatch fro the dress shop that was the same color and fabric as the sash we loved, found a near-perfect match at the fabric shop, and the fun began! The dress came with a white sash, so she took that apart to figure out how it was constructed and to have the templates necessary for cutting out the fabric. I wish we thought ahead and took pictures of the whole process for sharing.



It was a full family affair ~ my brother drew the vine designs on the bottom of each side. He did a great job of making them slightly different but balanced. My mom hand-stitched the embroidered design and added the bed detail. Looking to other beaded sashes, we realized that the key to a nice sparkly piece was to put a sequin under each bead or crystal.



The final sash was amazing! So much more personal and unique than anything we could have bought, and it looked lovely with the wedding shoes!


A number of buttons and loops were added to both my dress and the sash for bustling, but on the day of, we moved from ceremony to party so quickly that I never too the time to properly bustle anything. Instead, the sash was tied into a big bow, and off I went to socialize.



Unfortunately, in all of the merriment, we never slowed down to take a full detailed picture of my back to show the sash. For example, if you're curious what the back of the bridesmaids dresses looked like, I have it::

Back of the wedding dress and sash? Not so much, but like the day it was perfect.