Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Lady in White (or Ivory, or Pink. . .)

In honor of my cousin Katie's wedding this weekend, and in response to my recent photo scanning, this post will be dedicated to some of the bridal fashions of women I know (and even my own lovely wedding dress!)

I have to start with my mom's dress. An interesting fact about it is that the dress was designed by Alfred Angelo for the wedding of Rocky Balboa and Adrian in the movie "Rocky II"! I found a picture of Adrian and Rocky online.

It's kind of hard to see the details, but it was the best still photo I could find. I didn't know this, but when I was searching for this picture I learned that the actress who played Adrian also played Constanzia Corleone in the Godfather (the mother of the baby in my baptism post a last week!) Crazy coincidence. I've never seen Rocky before.

I haven't scanned my parents' wedding album and for some reason the only picture I had of their wedding has my grandparents in it. . .I was too lazy to crop them out. They were married on June 28, 1980, and their wedding fashions were pretty understated compared to the styles of the 70's and the wild, puffy sleeved styles of the later 80's. That dress was quite a splurge, I gather, but hey, she deserved it after making her own prom dresses, sewing dresses for college formals and even sewing her bridesmaids their dresses! Of course it still fits too. . .she is a freak of nature! It was kind of tight for me when I tried it on as a 14 year old. . .blah!

Next will move on to my Grandma Dorothy and myself. I am combining our paragraphs because of these two cool pictures! We were married in the same church. I think it is crazy that we have a photo of ourselves in the exact same place!


That's me and Tim walking down the aisle.

This is my grandma and her dad walking down the aisle in June of 1954! It's a multi-generation tradition! Tim and his grandpa both have the same look on their face! Grandma's dress was also worn by her older sisters. It has a cool seam at the waist.


That is me in my lovely dress! It is ivory and I knew it was my favorite as soon as I tried it on. I pulled it off the rack and my mom kind of raised her eyebrows. She wasn't crazy about the sight of it in its plastic dress bag. Once it was on she said "Hmm! You should get that one!" I didn't commit right away, mostly because I didn't want to stop trying on dresses after one day. I love the pintuck seams in the skirt and the cap sleeves. Also, it has a corset back so it will fit for awhile!

That is my mom's parents at their wedding. You may have seen another photo of their wedding in my previous post. I love that wedding dress! It's so cute! The details. . .the rolled sleeves, the belt! The corsage instead of a bouquet! Also, she had some pretty sweet shoes on (you can see them in the previous photo.) I would definitely wear this dress if it would fit over one of my thighs (which it wouldn't) and if it hadn't been lost when it was used in a community fashion show during my mom's high school days. (Sad. . .) You can't see the color in the photo, but the dress was a light pink, not white. I have a feeling this wedding was done on a budget and they didn't have a professional photographer or alot of fancy flowers. (However, this didn't diminish the marriage!) They each had one attendant and the woman with her back to the camera is Grandma's sister, Gloria, the maid of honor. Her dress is at my grandparents' house still and it is so tiny that it was already too small for me and my cousins by the time we were old enough to know it existed. It is light blue and very cute as well. Oh, I should mention that my sister and I both wore her garter when we got married! It was "something blue"!

Awww, there is my sister Andrea and her husband Kirk. They were married in September of 2008. Her dress was by the same designer as mine but they are pretty different! It is kind of hard to see the details here as well, but it has lace overlay and had the occasional sequin to add sparkle. Very pretty. Our cousin Katie's dress is by the same designer too! You'll have to stay tuned for pictures of that one!

Now that I'm on a roll I wish I had more pictures and had included bridesmaid dresses as well. I wish I had a photo of Justin's parents wedding, which was (I believe?) in 1972. The bridesmaid dresses were the epitome of 1970's fashion with a pink bodice and a colorful pucci inspired print skirt! I haven't dug into his family photos with my scanner yet though! Also, I wish I had scanned a photo of my great-grandmothers dress from the 1920s which was a beautiful and expensive looking beaded sheath. So pretty! Once again, I would wear it if it would fit me!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello there- I was just researching Adrian's wedding dress from Rocky, and came across your blog. Ironically, my mother ALSO was married in this dress! (Married July 1980). It's been difficult to find out too much about it, other than it's designer Alfred Angelo. Do you have any more information about it?

Thanks! --Tracy

Maren said...

Wow! That is crazy! My mom will love to hear about another bride with her dress! I don't know much about it. . .what I wrote is about all I could find. . .I wish the pictures from the movie were better!

Anonymous said...

I also wore that dress. I was married Oct 1979. I recently contacted Alfred Angelo and they accepted my dress as a donation. Packing it up was very sad but I'm glad it will have a pleasant resting place.