No Photos of the Tulle Dress I’ve Been Working On!

I love posting on Twitter my projects in progress. For the last two weeks. my Twitter feed has been filled with posts about a tulle wedding dress restoration and alteration project that has been dominating my house. And by dominating, I mean that there is tulle EVERYWHERE. Many have followed along, and have been asking, begging for photos. Unfortunately, there are no photos. I took on this project as a favour for a friend (I have exited the wedding dress world for the time being for the most part), and because occasionally, I like a crazy challenge. The thing is, this is someone else’s wedding dress. Now, I am sure my bride friend would send me some wedding photos to post somewhere some day in the future after the wedding is over, but for now I just can’t post photos.

I have had some real fun in posting in progress corset photos, and sharing my creative process by posting about works in progress. The response has been amazing, and I seem to have an audience who is actually interested in the mind of a crazy person, um, i mean creative person. It is great to be able to post photos of these works in progress, because they don’t belong to anyone yet; only to me, and the only consequence is that you as the viewer/reader have an idea of the mysterious process of making things. Weddings are different. There is that whole thing where the groom cannot see the dress until the day of at the ceremony when the bride is revealed walking down the aisle. Then there is the ownership part. Every single wedding dress has been a collaboration project between myself and the bride. Yes, I design the dress, and make it to fit with perfect details, but the concept begins with the bride and her dreams of her big day. The process has run the gamut of everything wonderful and awful about concept to production to finished product. But this process as it pertains to weddings is somewhat mysterious and secretive. A ton of work done in secret for the big reveal. And it’s more than that. It is also being advisor and confidant; which involves quite a bit of trust. And a tacit agreement to be the holder of the secret fabulous dress. That it will be perfect and gorgeous, to make her perfect and gorgeous for not only her groom, but also for her family and friends.

So therein lies the problem of photos. If you look at my blog and my website, there is a sore lack of wedding photos in comparison to the amount of weddings I have done. So many in fact that even though I may easily spend six months with someone, I would be loathe to tell you each dress and their person behind it. Many times I have been promised more photos, but have had few follow up with me, and I am just as bad. And as you may have witnessed with this particular project, is the sense of accomplishment, but also relief when the dress has left my hands and my studio. At which point I am onto the next thing, and not too interested in chasing after the past for a photo.