Bridal Story- Gillian
Gillian will forever and always be the bride who came up to me at the OOAK Xmas Show 2017 and said ‘I love your designs, I have been following you online and I came here to meet you and ask you to make my wedding gown!’ My heart instantly burst, it was my first time meeting a bride this way and Gillian is the most infectious human; her laugh, her smile, her generosity, she is an all round amazing person. We worked together for over a year and it was such an incredible experience to get to know Gillian and her family.
OOAK became our meeting ground, we met for the first time at OOAK, but I moved out of Toronto shortly after meeting her, so we did multiply fittings at the Spring and Winter show, and because she booth sits for other vendors, I know that every year I will get to see her and get one of her awesome hugs! My brides always stay with me, it is this incredible year of their lives prepping for this big day and I get to be a small part of it, but with Gillian I have gotten to see her after her big day and that is pretty rare.
Right away Gillian had an idea of what she wanted, she envisioned her dress looking like a Spring garden, but still wanted a bridal look to her gown, also she definitely wanted pockets (obviously she came to the right person!) All of the pieces for her gown came together really easily, her final fabric choice ended up being perfect for the vibe she wanted. A beautiful sheer fabric that had pink flowers embroidered all over it, and with it being sheer, we were able to layer it with a white satin to create the bridal look Gillian had envisioned.
"I always knew I wanted a non traditional wedding dress; I wanted to wear colour down the aisle and have a tiara on my head.
I have worked the One of a Kind show in Toronto for the past few years and after some disappointed google searches of bland white dresses, I started going through the artisans from the site and seeing if any did custom dresses. Carissa and Copious popped out as a fellow fan of the bright and wonderful. With a show approaching, I went through her entire Instagram feed twice and finally with my sister on hand, approached her at the show. After talking to her for almost an hour, I knew I wanted to work with her. She was just as lovely and warm as I thought she would be and instantly had me excited for my dress.
Together we finalized a beautiful flowery gown, that put comfort just as high on the list as style. She even added pockets! It was everything I wanted plus more. Working with her at every step was easy and one of the best parts of organizing a wedding. She was calm yet excited, easy going but focused and my dress is one of the best things I have ever owned. One of my favourite parts was doing a final fitting on the OOAK floor after the show closed for the day. It had been a long tiring day, and we were rushing through, but as soon as I put the dress on, it felt like time stopped. It was perfect."
I feel so lucky that each year I get to be reunited with my "OOAK Bride" Gillian, although this last year I have missed seeing her and getting an amazing hug from her!
Each bride has her own vision of how she wants to look on her wedding day and it's when I get to meet them in person where that vision comes alive for me too. Once I met Vanya and got to hear her vision, I was excited and thrilled at the challenge her gown presented. She wanted to wear a skirt down the aisle, then wanted the skirt to open up in the front to show off her pants and finally she wanted to remove the skirt all together to be able to dance the night away.
Most designs are possible, but such a unique design for a wedding gown, it couldn't just be a couture design that was meant for the runway, it needed to be wearable in the REAL world. Functionality is a key feature in my wedding gown designs, my brides need to be stunning but also comfortable in their gown. I would need to think outside the box to make this look beautiful for a wedding outfit for Vanya, but she was so ready to go on the journey with me, so it was easy to say yes!
Because Vanya's wedding outfit had pants we had many fittings because getting a perfect fit on pants takes time, but once we nailed that it was on to figuring out how to create a skirt that did all she wanted. We ended up with a gathered skirt that had a hidden zipper that went from the hem up to the waistband which she could unzip when she was ready to reveal her second outfit! I put hidden hook and eye attachments so that she could pull back the skirt and keep it out of her way to show off her pants, much like the images she first sent me. Lastly the skirt could be totally removed for whenever she was ready to dance the night away.
I loved working on this piece with Vanya, each bride provides me with a new creative challenge and I cherish each women for our journey that we get to go on together.
