I MADE A WEDDING DRESS!

Wedding Dress : By Maree Worrall-Bader & Sandra Snook

Flower Crown : By Maree

Photography : Rose Tinted Photography

To follow on from this weeks posts about my beautiful friend Jessie and her fiancé Jed, I finally can share with you the images of the wedding dress I made for her with help from my mother. They recently got married with a gorgeous wedding in Nuneaton, England! I couldn't be more excited for her, what a stunning bride!!

The ivory dress is a combination of a full skirt with soft layers of tulle, and a delicate bodice embroidered with lace appliqué. It has tulle straps that become invisible so it appears to be a strapless dress. But our favourite part was the back. We love how the tulle straps cross over, wrap round the waist and tie into a bow over a sheer lace back.

The design is based on a Grace Loves Lace dress which she instantly fell in love with, however the price tag was a little out of reach. Considering they were getting married in England where her family resides, most of the expense went towards the airfare. I knew of her struggles and of how cheesy/awful/tacky inexpensive wedding dresses can be, so I offered to make her dream gown. We kept the design elements that Jessie loved, but altered it to make it her own. She didn't wish to wear a traditional bridal veil, so I crafted the flower crown using pastel tones of pinks, purples and soft yellow to complete the look.

We set out with a budget of approximately $100 NZD for materials and I knew it could be done. We spent a day visiting the best fabric stores in Auckland and found everything we needed except the piece of lace for the back. The funny thing is I had a night dress given to me by my Mum who had never worn it (because it's a little bit on the dated side). I actually joked with Jessie when I showed it to her saying, " I made a start on your dress!" Her expression of shock/horror/politeness was priceless! But actually the night dress was a blessing. We used the skirt as a petticoat, and it had the perfect amount of pretty lace for the back!

If you remember, I also designed Jessie & Jed's wedding invites which you can see in this post. I also took some of their engagement photos in a styled shoot and put together their save the dates. I was pretty devastated that I couldn't actually attend their wedding, especially since I was so involved with helping out in the planning process. But I can tell you from the pictures that I've seen that it was a beautiful wedding with a gorgeous couple.

As for the making of the dress, it has a lot to do with the fact that I've grown up with an amazing Mother who is incredible at sewing. Most of the important garments I've ever worn including my wedding gown, engagement dress, 21st dress, school ball gown etc. have been handmade by us together. I'm so blessed to have her as a Mum, and I couldn't have done this wedding dress without her wisdom & knowledge. Sewing can be very stressful, and she has the patience of a saint. So when I would be super worried and frustrated when the overlocker keeps un-threading or when it wasn't quite fitting perfectly, she would be my calm. She always had the solution to any problems that arose. The thing with sewing is it always seems to be one step forward and two steps backwards. This is probably why I don't enjoy the sewing process so much, but I love designing garments, choosing fabrics and the final product! Plus seeing the joy & happiness Jessie felt when she had her final fitting made all the hiccups worth it!

JED & JESSIE'S SAVE THE DATE // ROSE TINTED DESIGN

Rose Tinted Design (c)

Here are the Save the date designs I did for Jed & Jess using photographs from their engagement shoot. The funny thing is I got a lot of their American guests confused cause I did the date DD/MM/YYYY, instead of the way they do it as MM/DD/YYYY. People were like "doesn't this mean you're already married??" But they did figure it out fairly quickly. Numbers definitely look better than text in these designs, plus it made for a hilarious story!

JED & JESSIE'S ENGAGEMENT SHOOT

Rose Tinted Photography

Aren't Jed & Jess the sweetest couple? There is a lovely story behind how these two got together She is from Ohio, USA and he is from Tauranga, New Zealand (but is of Filipino descent). They met whilst working at a camp in Townsville, Australia and started dating 2 days before the end of camp. He moved back to NZ, and she to England where her family is living. They then worked on a long distance relationship for two years with many skype calls, emails and fb comments. Thank goodness for the internet and modern love letters right?

They are now married and celebrated a gorgeous wedding in Nuneaton, England at the Kings Lodge for YMCA. I enjoyed helping Jessie out with some of the wedding planning here in NZ by taking her engagement photos, designing her invitations & save the dates. I even made her gorgeous wedding dress with help from my Mother. There are more photo's to follow this week, watch this space!

1920'S PORTRAIT OF GLORIA SWANSON // PHOTOGRAPHER : EDWARD STEICHEN

Photography : Edward Steichen

Model : Gloria Swanson

This is possibly one of my favourite portraits of all time. It was taken by American photographer Edward Steichen in 1924 of superstar Gloria Swanson. I find it was a modern work for it's time. She is captivating, but also stares confidently into the lens. This demonstrates a more confronting image of a woman that wouldn't have been seen very much at this point in history.

Steichen is regarded as one of the first photographers to capture modern fashion photographs. In his career as a photographer, he worked for renowned fashion magazines, Condé Nast, Vogue and Vanity Fair. His forward thinking inspired a way to combine fashion and photography together as a fine art.

SPRINGTIME CHERRY BLOSSOMS // ROSE TINTED PHOTOGRAPHY : PART TWO

Photography and Editing : Maree of Rose Tinted

Model : Eloise of Jazz Lips & Tulips

Here is part two of the Cherry Blossom shoot, this time of the gorgeous Eloise! She is such a great model, don't you think? She's also a great sister-in-law and dear friend.

I'm in love with her floral romper, I reckon it's the best one I've ever seen. Plus how cute is her straw hat? It looks especially pretty with one of my handmade flower crowns around the brim.

Be sure to drop by her stunning blog, Jazz Lips and Tulips. It's honestly an amazing site that she has put so much hard work into. She's not only creative but also technically minded, so she has taught herself a lot about HTML and CSS. She has also been a wonderful input in helping me set up this blog and an inspiration to keep posting my work.

SPRINGTIME CHERRY BLOSSOMS // ROSE TINTED PHOTOGRAPHY : PART ONE

Photography : Eloise of Jazz Lips and Tulips

Editing : Maree of Rose Tinted

On a sunny Spring afternoon, I went on a little photography adventure with my sister-in-law and dear friend, Eloise. We found a beautiful forest of Cherry Blossom trees, and marvelled at the opportunity to shoot in such a pretty setting.

Spring is such a wonderful season with the most beautiful flowers all in bloom, and the thrill of knowing summer is around the corner. I like the aspect of new beginnings and the motivation to "spring clean" as I have been doing this past week. Also the beginning of a new season wardrobe! There's nothing like that first day where you get to wear a dress without tights underneath! This was that first day for me, bring on more floral, pastel and crisp white frocks!

I also took some stunning photograph's of Eloise who is just so pretty it's not even fair. You will see them next post I promise! But she will also be sharing them on her gorgeous blog, so keep an eye out!

LILAC LADY WITH FLOWER CROWN // ROSE TINTED ILLUSTRATION

Lilac Lady : by Maree of Rose Tinted Illustration

Following on with my love of lilac, and as always a good flower crown.