Enchanting Elopement

By: Natalie Barclay

The Intro

Congratulations, you have decided to elope! Now the planning begins. The thought that eventually crosses over every bride’s mind is “What am I going to wear?”. With elopements, the possibilities are truly endless! Gone are the custom ideals of a traditional wedding, gone is the expectation of others to wear a certain thing, and (best of all) gone are the judgmental opinions of others! But what do you wear? Where do you start?

This past August, Beauty by Design designer, Deborah, created a breathtaking elopement dress for bride Rachel. It meets the perfect combination of nontraditional and elegant, romantic yet whimsical, in a word it was perfectly enchanting.

The vibe

Not sure what kind of dress you are looking for? That’s okay! To start the process of any custom dress, we ask the bride to bring in any inspiration for the vision they have for their dress. Tell us your likes and dislikes, the theme of your wedding, traditional or nontraditional etc. In Rachel’s case she had more of a vibe than a vision. Rachel wanted to incorporate sustainability, art deco (1920’s) style, and Monet watercolor. For the sustainable aspect we decided to up-cycle an existing dress. To incorporate art deco style, we decided to create the silhouette of the dress to reflect a 1920’s art deco style. In order to include Monet elements, we took inspirations from the color pallets and stylistic choices in the famous impressionist artist’s paintings to make an homage to Monet’s work.

The Process

After we figured out Rachel’s “vibe” we asked her to come up with images of dresses that fit her style. All of her inspiration pictures were all very flowy and romantic. Deborah then created a couple different sketches compiling all the elements that the bride had mentioned. After the design of the dress was nailed down, it was time to pick out material! In order to make this dress sustainable we decided to use materials that we already had in studio! Not only was this more cost effective but it made the dress 100% up-cycled and sustainable (a great option for a money conscious or eco-friendly bride).

The Product

In the end we were so happy how all the elements came together. The dress was completely up-cycled! The base of the dress was a bridesmaid dress left at the studio, and the flower details and shoulder drape were made from leftover scraps from past projects. The dress had Monet’s stylistic elements. It had a Monet inspired color pallet, that shone through when Deborah, hand dyed the dress to make it the exact blue the bride had in mind. The dress’ silhouette was art deco inspired taking its form from 1920’s style dress. The dress was flowy, mid-length, with 1920’s Watteau inspired shoulder drape.

Rachel’s elopement dress was so unique, elegant, and playful! It was one of Deborah’s favorite up-cycle project to date. No matter if you wear a traditional white $5000 dress, a non-traditional $50 dress, or an up-cycled dress for your elopement, at the end of the day no one’s opinion matters but yours. You can still make your elopement special in your own way, choosing what YOU want to wear.

Wedding photography by @rileysheaglenn