Fantasy Wedding Set

There is no definite date yet, which gives me plenty of time to figure out how I would like to make my wedding dress and how I'd like the bride's maids dresses to look. I also have plenty of time to make sure things are up to my standards.

I am focusing on historically inspired dresses. The main time periods I'll be looking into are the Medieval and Renaissance Eras, with a stronger emphasis on the Medieval bliauts/bliants and houppelands. I've made several items from these time periods, so I'm not too worried. Not to mention, I'm not planning on making truly historically accurate dresses, which makes things much easier. I just need to decide on a lot of the details.

I've seen dresses that other people have made. Some are beautiful and well-crafted. However, there are so many that appear sub-par, whether store bought or handmade. They make me ask the question, "What were you thinking?!?" I hope I don't ask myself that question later on. I want my dress to be something I can hand down to future generations. A high quality, immaculately detailed piece that would be the pinnacle of anything I've ever made (and ever will). I also want the brides maids to have nice pieces too, similar styles but less detailing.

Here are are some images I am going to use for inspiration. I have more, but these will be my main focus. More will be added as I come across them (and I may add another page for just the art pieces I will use as references).

The first dress would be mine. The second would be for my bride's maids. The dots in the hair are little flowers and the lines are ribbons. Also, the dots on my dress will be the beadwork on the dress. (They are hard to see in this image... but the larger image I will be using personally shows it much better.)

I really like these!

The body of the dress would be a nice heavy velvet, cotton, or linen. No designs or patterns on this cloth. I would also want it to be a darker blue then the above image suggests. I would prefer to find a dark royal blue or midnight blue.

The under skirt, under sleeves, lining, and cloth accents would be a gold tone, either antique gold or dark harvest wheat. The cloth will be a patterned brocade. The image shows that color pretty well. The buttons would be covered in the same cloth as the part of the dress they are on. The beads would be gold toned and preferably made of glass, and the embroidery would be done in gold thread.

The neckline will be different than in the above picture as well. The top will go to a collar that will hang open and hopefully be stiffened to stand up slightly, showing a peek at the "underdress" (which will probably be just pieces attached to the dress to give the appearance of an underdress without the bulk of one).

I want this dress to be as luscious as possible without being gawdy or too grandiose.

The hair will have a veil that will actually be a beaded net. No cloth will be used. Instead, I would bead heavy duty thread or fishing/jewelry plastic wiring. The beads will be gold and hopefully glass, like the beads on the dress. The net would then be draped over the head/hair similarly to how veils would be.

I hope to also make the jewelry and the "bouquet". I will show a possible designs on here as soon as I can. These designs are still being worked out.

Even if this dress is never worn to my wedding, I would love to at least have it to pass on or use for other things. At the very least, I want to test my skills.

The veil will actually be beads strung together to form a net.
The rest I think is pretty self explanatory.

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