The first dress just looks average to me - not ugly by any means, but not outstanding. Grandma’s dress, though, strikes me as far more elegant and individual, and you look great in it. If restoration is feasible, that’s the one I’d be going for.
May I say that substantial alteration on Grandmothers dress makes my skin crawl?
For a great reason for this statement, go watch the scene in 27 dresses when she finds out that her sister had the mothers dress butchered and barely scraps used in the new dress?
I think it would be a shame to do more than take in a few tucks here and there, or let seams out. Changing the neckline by removing fabric and trim makes it not grandma’s dress just an antique bit of satin and trim. Taking in the seams to make sleeves lie better is one thing, cutting away dress to modernize it is a bad thing.
I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be possible through alterations to just de-poof the sleeves a bit - unsquish them, but make a few tucks there so they’re not exactly puffed.
Wear one at the Wedding and one at the reception. Or the rehearsal dinner if it is in a fancy place.
I love your Grandmother’s gown. I like anything vintage as it is, but I believe your attendants’ dresses would look wonderful with the vintage gown. (You just need to smile in the picture of yourself in Grandma’s gown…)
Also meant to mention: if you do go with grandma’s dress, you can probably resell your dress online for about what you got for it. There are oodles of websites dedicated to that.
Yes, please do NOT alter your grandmother’s dress, other than maybe taking it in, or something, or rehemming it. I can’t tell you how many people go to buy vintage clothing and find it was ruined by someone altering it to look more “modern”. (NOT that I think you’re going to sell it, as this is a family heirloom.) Part of its charm is the old-fashioned look.
If you truly don’t like the look, then don’t wear it at all.
Interesting. It’s just one guy’s opinion, but I think exactly the opposite. I like the way grandma’s dress looks and complements her figure. Plus it’s got the family history angle, and it doesn’t look like just another standard modern wedding dress. I could understand a bit at wanting to depoof the sleeves, but it looks gorgeous, as is, to me.
I like the new dress better- it’s clean and white and lovely on it’s own, while Grandma’s dress is yellow and kind of strange looking. It’s a nice dress, too, and fits you well, but is too old fashioned for my taste.
New dress is actually ivory.
It’s funny that you all say it “looks like all the other wedding dresses” - I busted ass to find a dress that DIDN’T look like all the other wedding dresses. I suspect you guys may not have been looking for a while, since every flipping dress in the world is now strapless. I went to several places and out of hundreds and hundreds of dresses I’d find maybe ten that weren’t strapless to even try on. Frankly, that store bought dress was a triumph of “not like all the other ones”!
See, though, here’s the thing (and I was looking less than four years ago): it looks like A Wedding Dress. It involves boning and foofy underskirts and embroidered-on sparklies and that stiff material and that tight-bodice-into-A-line thing and all these elements that no one ever wears outside a Wedding Dress. There is no way that dress is anything but a Wedding Dress. Your grandmother’s one could be a wedding dress, or it could simply be a beautiful vintage dress (well, beautiful except for the sleeves) that really suits you.
There are people who are into wedding dresses that look like Wedding Dresses, and people who aren’t. To those of us who aren’t, they all look basically the same: Wedding Dress. Having sleeves doesn’t offset the overwhelming impression of Yet Another Wedding Dress.
As you’ve probably gathered, I didn’t wear a Wedding Dress. I wore a very beautiful dress that looked like an actual dress I would actually wear.
Which one you prefer is down to personal taste - I’m just explaining why so many of us think the new dress looks like every other wedding dress.
Agreed. All this talk of removing the sleeves or doing massive alterations is making me cringe. I mean, if you want to adjust it a bit to make it fit better, or fix the sleeves so that they hang properly, OK, but I wouldn’t do much more than that.
zweisa-hardtospell-mkeit said it all, and way better than I coulda. The new dress is nice. Grandma’s dress is amazing. Maybe if the photo of the new one was better, I’d say otherwise, but you look so much slimmer in Grandma’s dress it’s not even funny. It’s just so much more flattering and slinky and va-va-va voom. Really.
I don’t know about the neckline though. I like it, but if the embroidery needs work, it might be easier to simplify by maybe cutting out entirely. I think a talented seamstress could take that and make a simple V-neck or maybe a sweetheart neckline that would really work with the twist/ruching detail on the bodice while still being somewhat period. I’m thinking something like you’d see the singer in a nightclub wearing in a period, 1930s movie.
I love the sleeves. I love the flow of it. The new dress is nice, but wow - you’ve got something special in Grandma’s dress. And it’ll look amazing with the bridesmaid’s dresses (and holy cats! That model is tiny!).
Grandma’s dress, hands down.
The embroidery doesn’t need a lot of work - there’s basically one beaded thread that’s come undone and may be missing some beads. I could fix it myself if it were the only problem.
ETA - and I did, I admit, lose about 9 pounds between photos. Not that that’s a huge difference, but it’s probably a size.
Congrats on that!
Yeah, I still stand by using both dresses. I mean, why not? You’ve got 'em both. This will work especially well if you have a nighttime reception, since Grandma’s dress definitely has that evening dinner party feel, you know?
Truthfully, with Grandma’s dress, I’d know I’d look fab standing, but my concern would be how I look sitting. Satiny fabrics tend to be far less. . . forgiving. . . than other fabrics, even with a mad pair of Spanx (or 4) under 'em. Make sure you dance around in Grandma’s dress- sit, stand, bend over, do your favorite dance moves. Just to make sure you won’t be horrified when you get back your wedding photos and discover every single one of you sitting makes you want to cry (and this isn’t a fat or skinny thing-- I have a friend who is a 00, but her satiny dress made her look like she had a spare tire around her waist-- which she absolutely DOES NOT).
Anyway, as long as it passes the sitting test, I’d use grandma’s dress for the reception. Make some minor alterations, of course, but maybe dress it up with big blingy earrings or something. Actually if it were me, I’d do some vintage looking emeralds-- big and gorgeous. Something like this or these. They certainly don’t have to be real and costing millions like those to still look great, though.
That’s a good point - and also the satin wrinkle thing.
Another possible option if Grandma’s dress isn’t right for the reception: get with your photographer and do a set of photos in Grandma’s dress. Like, full on wedding photoshoot with you and the hubs, but you in that dress. That’d look lovely in some sunset photos. Then take your regular wedding pictures, but just have two fun sets :). It’d be great, you could stage Grandma’s all vintagey and adorable (lots of props from the antique store) and the ones in your dress all modern styled. It’d make for adorable side by side pictures. And that way, Grandma’s dress can still be a part of the shindig.
I do love the emerald earrings idea - my engagement ring is an emerald as well!
Try emitations.com
When I saw the new dress picture I thought you looked wonderful, in a wow-these wedding dresses are really structured to emphasize your waist-kind of way. I was expecting grandma’s dress to look horrible but my reaction to that one was wow-she’s got a stunning figure! I think the color of grandma’s is beautiful on you and I love the neckline and sleeves. What I would try to do is add some form of petticoat to turn it into a slight A-line. It looks like it has enough material and you wouldn’t have to worry about sitting or breathing or bulges if you added just a little fullness. It looks like it may have enough fabric. The sleeves would be better if the fit you better; they look a little long.
My major concern was whether it would fit with the overall look of the wedding, but seeing the bridesmaids’ dresses you like I can visualize a gorgeous vintage wedding party (I’d even consider going with the green dresses; they’d look beautiful against the ivory).
All that said, you look great in both and you could easily wear either or both, whichever makes you happiest and will be the least trouble on your wedding day.