That’s about all I’ve heard since I got back from my Honeymoon 🙂
I’m sorry I’ve made everyone wait so long and I will admit to procrastinating by taking a day to set up the new blog for BSC Perth WA, but if you don’t like that excuse I have a few more: I am terribly jet lagged, my first week back at work was ridiculously busy, I made a Pavlova on Sunday for dinner with friends and there are about 74 kagillion photos to look through 🙂
So, here it is, the most important project of my sewing life, my wedding dress. You’ve heard enough about the process so to fill in a bit more space with words I’ll tell you a little bit about where I got married.
My fiance and I were married at Wilton House in Wellington’s Otari-Wilton’s Bush.
Otari-Wilton’s Bush is the only public botanic garden in New Zealand dedicated solely to native plants, hence all the amazing ferns in our photos. It comprises of 100 hectares of native bush including Wellington’s largest area of original native forest (7 hectares fenced off by Job Wilton in 1860 and remains untouched to this day) and an 800-year-old Rimu tree.
The gardens are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and entry is free. There are over 14kms of incredible walking tracks you can take throughout the area including the 75-meter long Canopy Walkway, a self-guided Nature Trail and many beautiful picnic areas.
If you happen to find yourself in Wellington then I encourage you to visit and enjoy this amazing garden and all its amazing wildlife.
Back detail
Overall I’m really pleased I took up the challenge of sewing my own wedding dress. I had an amazing day and a wedding I’ll never forget in a dress I’ll never forget. Wellington didn’t let us down and Otari Wilton’s Bush is a significant part of Wellington’s history and Wilton House was the perfect venue for us.
Here’s a link to our photographers blog, you can read what he had to say about the day.
On a side note I didn’t end up using the petticoat I painstaking gathered because the dress sat better without it.
In the next day or so I’ll be putting together a post on my basic process in the hopes it will help put you over the line if you’re considering making your own dress (or one for someone who it close to you) so watch this space 😉
Update: See all the posts relating to my dress here:
the curious kiwi 
Pingback: Would you sew… your own Wedding Dress? « poppykettle
Just bump into your blog and found that you’ve made your wedding dress. Big well done! I’ve made my own too, I’m glad that there are sewers like you who do the same!!!
Yay 🙂 I’m so glad you found my blog, I love your blog too, you’ve made so beautiful pieces and your wedding dress is gorgeous. It’s such a great feeling isn’t it? xx
Thank you! I like your back details too!! The satisfaction and memory alone are definitely worth the effort spent!
you look sooooo beautiful!!! Wonderful dress!!!
Thanks Heidi xx
Gosh this new format is so interesting and chic. Ive never seen a blog like this!You must be genius with Html! I loved your dress. Did you use horsehair trim on the hem?
I know a little bit of HTML, enough to get me in trouble sometimes, hehe, and I’m trying to learn more. Most of this is a basic WordPress template, you just have to think outside the box to get what you want to show up where you want it, like in the sidebars 🙂
I just straight out hand-stitch hemmed my dress, sitting on my Mum’s living room floor, about 5 days before the big day, with some good music playing. No horsehair because I couldn’t source anything that was nice enough in quality. In real life you could hardly see my stitches but they do show up in the photos which annoyed me for a little bit but then it seems I’m the only one who notices them, that’s part of the problem with making your own dress. It’s hard not to get hung up on things that only you will notice/know about.
Oh Melissa, your dress is so beautiful. There is a hell of a lot of detailed and gorgeous work there. The lace! The lacing! Wow! You look gorgeous in your wedding photos too – congrats! Looking forward to hearing all about the day.
Ahhh, Mel! Congratulations! You look beautiful in the photos – and the dress looks fabulous too! Your labour of love well and truly paid off 🙂
Good luck and happy sewing years to come.
Beautiful dress, great sewing skills.
You look like a genuine princess in that beautiful dress. Bravo!! And I’m thrilled that my DH and I will be visiting NZ in a few weeks and will get to see this beautiful botanic garden.
You look gorgeous!! Great job on the dress! 😀
wow you look fab so so so pretty and that dress is wonderful cant believe you made it, bravissima bella donna xxxx