Wedding Stories
The Dress
From the moment we set the date, the planning of our wedding became very much a family affair. Despite having been with my intended for over seven years, I had no definite ideas about what I wanted, other than the colour pink would feature and so would my beloved rose.
I had no idea about the dress either, only that I would know it was the right one when I came across it.
With no Internet I turned to the couple of bridal publications available at the time, but nothing caught my eye. My future mother-in-law made an early suggestion about a 'Flamenco Style' wedding dress (because of my spanish parentage), even bringing me back a beautiful Mother-of-Pearl comb from her holiday in Spain in a bid to cement the idea. But it proved too difficult to execute and besides my husband-to-be was completely against the idea of standing in front of all his friends in high waisted trousers and a bolero jacket!
I eventually came across the dress in DH.Evans in Oxford Street. It was the only one I tried on, white satin with a sweetheart neckline, a scalloped hem and embroidery detail. I returned with my mother and one of my sisters for a second opinion.
Being of such tiny stature (at the time!) meant my dress would need major alteration work, the assistant offered the services of the house seamstress, as it was " a big job that required a professional."
The dress would have to be taken apart, shortened from the waist because of the scalloped hem, further complicated by the fact the waist was not cut round but in a V shape. It would also have to be made narrower in the shoulders and taken in at the sides. But Mum was having none of it, she would do the alterations herself, the assistant looked horrified, but I knew my dress would be in good hands.
Mum was born in a tiny village near Valencia in Spain, where needlecraft skills such as embroidery and dressmaking were passed down from mother to daughter. Mum had made many of our childhood outfits, even staying up one entire night to produce a 'long dress' out of a patterned M&S sheet for a school play that my youngest sister had forgotten to tell her about until the very last minute.
On one occasion when Mum was a little girl and while all the villagers were taking their customary afternoon siesta, she helped herself to her mothers dressmaking scissors. She cruised up and down the nearby streets cutting a strip off the bottom of all the curtains that protected the heavy wooden doors from the blazing afternoon sun.
Back home, busy turning her samples into dresses for her dolls, the villagers awoke from their afternoon naps. Mystified by the phenomena that had occurred, they declared it 'a sign' by 'La Mare de Déu de Sales,' the patron saint of the village.
Needless to say, my wedding dress turned out beautifully. I still have it, it will of course never be worn again, but I could never get rid of it, how could I ?
Next Time, Vintage wheels and jellied eels
Antoinette Satchell © 2009
