Claire Kennedy Design

Charleston, SC

This is not what you would consider your first thought of a wedding destination, but it is a beautiful city that has a whole lot to offer for a wedding.

There is a lot of tradition here, and a lot of beautiful locations for weddings.

I'm here working on a wedding that is a ton of fun...more pictures on that in a minute.

But here's more of my constant fascination with the architecture of the town

Here is where the wedding is - the French Huguenot church in Charleston

This is a beautiful church with a lot of gorgeous buildings around it.  The bride will dress in a building just around the corner from the church which makes a beautiful procession to the church.  I did get a chance to glance at the graveyard and the memorial plaques on the inside.  They were sprinkled with the names of soldiers of past conflicts with the abbreviations of the wars they had fought in. 

One was particularly mysterious...C.S.A.

I finally remember back to my southern education that the Civil War was referred to the "War between the States", and thus the Confederate States Army.

But I am touched at the patriotism that is displayed on the walls of these churches and in the graveyards. 

Just up the street is the upstart Anglican church (OK, that's a joke for you religious types), St. Philips Church which graveyard has the graves of past governors and signers of the Declaration of Independence.  I get goosebumps on this stuff...but then I'm a history freak.

I'm just as charmed with these old walls and doors and windows that aren't quite level.  So around the corner from the Huguenot church is a lovely door and wall, so I snap a shot.

Although the sun isn't right, it's still a great shot.

But I think this looks very familiar

Oh yeah - I remember this door now!

Christina

It's hard to keep quiet and hold tight after I've finished a gown till the wedding, but it's been my habit not to show or talk about the gown (with anyone but the family - I have to talk to them!!!), before the wedding so that the bride gets to make a "wow" entrance.  This is not my normal way - I'm usually so excited about the gown it's hard to keep shut - and then after they've done down the isle - I get to show them!!!

And nothing is more fun than the heirloom bridal gown. This gown was the bride's maternal grandmother-in-law's bridal gown, probably from the 40's. Knowing the design (see my blog about pre WWII blog about the use of fabric), it was more like after the war.  Dresses of this period had intricate detail and beautiful beading.

The upper bodice was a cut out net, backed with an organza with the cut-out design trimmed in pearls. There were buttons on the sleeves that fit tightly around the wrist and lower arms.  As is common in these designs there is a puff in the sleeve even if it is small.  The sleeve also has a lot of ease in the elbow. These are the kinds of design fitting techniques that were common before the era of stretch. The gown also had a front inset piece that was the length of the dress, which meant that the length had to be fit from top to bottom - no waist line to fit or use as an alteration. Brides today require a close fit as most of the girls are used to knits, spandex, lycra and all the stretch that is available in fashion today.

This dress was not fit that way. Back in the 50's there were very few stretch fabrics - mostly knits - and designers actually fit "real" women's bodies. (The film "The Women"  was a testament to the different shapes of women's bodies that were fit all beautifully and all by Edith Head).

Understanding what the designer had originally intended and knowing what the girls like today, it was fairly easy to see where this bride wanted to go with this dress as she walks down the isle. The main thing to remember when altering heirloom gowns is that they are not only delicate due to the age of the fabric and threads, but the client usually likes the basic design and fit.  Some structural alterations that didn't destroy the design of the dress as well as a few fitting darts, made this a perfect gown for this bride.

It was a lot of fun to work with this lovely bride and this heirloom gown.

Waiting

Even though I usually work during the spring on my summer weddings, it's hard to hold all those beautiful designs till the happy day actually occurs.  This means I can't post any of my beautiful brides till after the happy day during the summer - so I have to wait.  I'm not good at waiting. That leads to something completely different!

I had purchased a beautifully painted piece of fabric at Fabrique in Dallas (a great shop that is not hard on your pocket book, unless you have a terrible weakness for fine fabric, then watch out!)  The fun thing about these panels is to plan out the cut-out.  I had long wanted to try this Burda pattern

So I thought nothing better than this hand-painted fabric, although the back would have to be altered.  The back had to be all one piece, which was fine, and I left the small "v" at the base of the back for interest and to keep with the front.  As usual, there was a lot more to this pattern than the envelope lets on.

Here it is all finished

Isn't this pretty?  The best part is in back (later).  I put two buttons (and probably need another one at the waist, just for modesty sake, but all you really need is that one shown on the pattern.  That line across the bust - you think it's decorative huh?....well, think again - it's a dart - those sneaky little people from Burda were sneaking in all that fit to make this a fab pattern.  Can't wait to cut this out again and use it.  I have a bunch of sarongs I've purchased on my dive trips, just for this sort of thing.  Might make them a little longer.

But back to the project at hand.  As much as I tried, I couldn't get all the little flowers just exactly where I wanted - you never can...so here come some paints - Fabrico Markers.  They are fabulous.  I have all the color groups.  And just had a little "artistic license" and drew some more flowers on the (my) left side with the large sunflower on the right....and something fun on the right cuff. 

One small design alteration - I did slim the sleeve to just above the wrist, and then flared out the line, but opened the seam about 1 - 2" above the wrist, with the cuff hitting pretty far over the thumb.  When I do this again, I will make this split further in back rather than on that seam - where jacket cuff is located.

Ok back to more pics

This is the back of the beautifully hand-painted panel.  It's just gorgeous.  I did make a pair of solid pants to go with this outfit and the whole outfit is wonderfully comfy and very fun to wear. 

I'll do it again, but probably make the tunic part longer and make it to wear with a pair of knit knicker-ish type pants I have.  I wanted to use this out fit something to wear "apres dive" however it's turned out way too nicely, and I use it to entertain when I have friends over.

Winter Weddings

Weddings are no longer seasonal.  They are all year round - why enjoy the fun just a couple of months?!!!  And heirloom veils are such a beautiful special part of a wedding.  They are that tradition handed down from generation to generation that make the wedding so special and of course cause any grandmother and mother to mist!

My latest veil client had brought a piece to me from her future mother-in-law. This is always just a little difficult as they usually aren't as active in the wedding, and so I'm particularly careful about any work we do with a veil like that and am adamant about returning it to the condition in which it was brought to me. 

This one came in a beautiful box, with the date and location where it was purchased.  Included in was an announcement from when it was first worn.  What love this veil has had.  I was impressed before I ever saw the veil, then I opened the box.....

It was gorgeous.  A small mantilla type veil, we could do just about anything we wanted with it.  The bride is getting married in the Catholic Cathedral down town, which has a large sanctuary, and her dress was relatively small and hardly any train, so she elected to have a large, long train for the ceremony.  This veil would be perfect.  She was reluctant to wear the veil during the reception, so we made it so that she could remove it and still have another fingertip veil for the reception. 

Back to the lace.   One of the ways to tell very fine lace from just ordinary lace is to count the different designs on the lace.  This lace was obviously hand made - being before machine made lace, and I counted 9 different designs at one time.

Here you can count 7 designs.  The bottom of the flower was a small pocket, maybe used for some treasure to hold during the wedding.  The original bride wore it with a little rice, a traditional symbol of fertility.

My next project is to create a veil that looks heirloom.  The one thing all the heirloom veils I've worked with have that this new one won't is usually a little discoloration or stain here and there.  I consider this like the fine patina on old silver from many years of polishing - or that warm color that pearls get after having been worn for decades!

Paige

Paige has very elegant and decisive tastes.  These are sometimes my easiest clients as they tell me what they want,  I do it and we're finished!!

Paige's family had this gorgeously antique veil which had been in 8 weddings;  Paige's was the 9th!  As is the tradition with many heirloom items, they are embroidered with all the names of the former brides who wore the veil. 

The veil lended itself to this sort of embroidery, where both sides of the upper veil had a small strip with all the former brides' names embroidered in it.

It is so much fun to share such a happy time with these girls.  IN this picture you can see how detailed and beautiful the veil was.  The strips were all around her crown area.  Without knowing it was there, it wasn't evident, even to the most discerning eye.

Here is part of the band....

and here is a close-up:
   

Katie

Each of my girls is so individual and yet so beautiful in their own individual way. Katie from "The Veil" fame.  This is the dress that went with that gorgeous dress

Living vicariously through my lovely girls is so much fun.  I'm also very fortunate to have wonderful clients.  Katie wanted something very specific which made it so much easier for me.  Here she is with the veil and dress.

The portrait or décolletage of this dress was fabulous.  For the photography shoot, the family had good friends in Colorado at a beautiful location.  The friends had a friend from LA who came for the shoot.  The LA friend turned out to be on staff at the FIDM in So. California.  This was originally a Lhuillier idea, that we took and customized it for Katie.  The friend  turned out to have been a teacher of Lhuillier's when she was at FIDM and was very impressed with the dress. 

This is always gratifying, but sometimes I think it's more so with the clients, as they are totally justified in my design and talent.  Fortunately my reputation precedes me and this does make it a lot easier for some clients who can not visualize the end result.

It's always in the details and the line of cut of the design.  When Katie talked about what shoe she wanted to wear, and brought them by, we immediately went to work to do something creative.  She dyed the shoes the under-color of her dress, and then we covered the shoes with lace.  They came out fabulous, and something she will be able to wear with other outfits in the future.

Whitney

As promised....as soon as they are down the isle....I can publish my photos.

Whitney has a fabulous figure and wanted to show it off.  One of the most fun things I do is personalize the dress.  My clients usually come to me with an idea, but they are independent enough to know what they want.  There is a great flare that I can add to the dress to make this not only her dress, but a picture perfect dress for her most special day.

This picture shows more of the detail.  The original dress had a piece that came straight down all the way to the front.  We didn't like it since it was tricky and conflicted with the overall design of the dress.  When we began to talk about how we were going to do the lower skirt, I showed her how classic this would look and she agreed.  These are the fun variations that make the dress so individually special for each one of my clients.