In the beginning my grandmother had talked about doing the alterations to our dresses herself. (She made my aunt's dress from scratch back in the day!) As the wedding gets closer and closer, she was less sure about being able to work with the chiffon material and instead referred us to a lady from her church who specializes in altering and making formal wear—Jamie. After several phone and text conversations with Jamie, we set up a time and she texted me her address.
I promptly deleted the text conversation without writing down her address. Oops.
I didn't realize this until I got in the car after getting my hair cut to drive to her house, when I was already running late, of course. Genius that I am, I realized my grandmother had sent me the address, so I whipped out my email, plugged the address into iOS maps, and was on my way. Parked, rushed out of the car, got almost to the door—and realized I had forgotten my wedding dress in the car. Back to the car, grabbed the dress, walked up to the door, rang the doorbell...and a large tattooed man opened the door. I knew her husband was a deacon at my grandmother's church and a camp director, so I was slightly surprised—but hey, tattoos don't mean anything! So I asked for Jamie, and my heart sank when the guy said "Jamie? Jamie who?"
Back to the car and I embarrassingly texted Jamie "Uhh, what's your address again?" Now I was fifteen minutes late but fortunately she lives just five minutes from there. I arrived at the adorable ranch house they're remodeling and she welcomed me into her sewing room. Thankfully my dress zipped right up.
Personal photo
I am pretty sure if I would have had to fight with my dress to get the zipper up after the day I was having, I would have just burst into tears right there. As you can tell, it's a pretty loose and flowing dress, except for the band right below my chest. As long as I can ease the zipper over my rib cage, I'm good to go and the dress is perfectly comfortable.
Jamie quickly pinned the hem and top and assured me it would be done quickly. We also set up a time to have my sisters come back—so last night we headed out again. Fortunately I made it to the right house on the first try this time! I have a lot more candids of Sister E and Sister A since I wasn't the subject of this dress fitting. Granted, like I hashtagged on Instagram last night... #theydkillmeiftheyknewIwaspostingthese.
Personal photo / "The neckline really doesn't need to go down to my belly button. This isn't the Oscars."
This is them explaining to Jamie what needs to be altered. The dresses were slightly too big on each of them so the sides needed to be pinned and the straps brought in some so the tops weren't gaping on them.
Personal photo / "I'm thinking about wearing a grey belt!"
Personal photo / "I'm calmly levitating while you pin me!"
Actually, maybe that last one was Jamie making sure the sides were pinned correctly. We did get one cute picture though!
Personal photo / "Can we be done now?"
People often confuse which one of us is oldest. I commented on this to Jamie, and her reply was, "Wait, you're the oldest?" Even though the gap from Sister A to me is three years and Sister E is in between, something about their height and features apparently makes them look older. This happens all the time!
One last story from our overall very successful dress fittings. We were standing in the hallway talking, and Jamie was telling us about all the custom dresses she does. Last summer alone she did fourteen weddings—which included making from scratch fourteen wedding dresses and all of the bridal party dresses! Not only that, she has four kids ranging in age from 2 to 16. She's crazy!
How did everyone else's dress fittings go? Any interesting stories? Did you choose an individual seamstress or go through a store, like David's Bridal?
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