NEWARK — Amy Rine always knew that one day she would make her daughter’s wedding dress.
“It’s weird because the night she was born I was like someday we’re make her this dress that has flowers inside the netting on the bottom and they’re going to be like floaty,” Amy said. “And as a baby and as a child, I made all her dresses. And it’s just one dress that I never really did.”
The dress was the centerpiece of the wedding, Jullian Flowers said, and the rest of the decorations were kept simplistic to make the dress stand out.
“I made my wedding dress. My mom had made her wedding dress... I guess she really didn’t have that option,” Amy said.
“She made all my homecoming and prom dresses,” Jillian said, adding that she knew that her mom would eventually make her wedding dress. “She threatened my husband and said ‘you better give me two years notice.’”
Amy got her two years to make the wedding dress. Jillian got engaged in 2017 and started to plan her wedding. The first steps to that was Amy researching online for materials, and patterns, to make a wedding dress. The main thing they were looking for was fabric where the flowers could be easily seen. So, they decided to take a few trips to New York City to visit the garment district.
With Amy’s past in product development and working with different design companies, Jillian and Amy were able to meet with a consultant for Bridal Fabrics — a United Kingdom based company — and obtain a sample of Eugenie, a peachy nude color fabric with laced embroider fabrics and beading.
“She actually got a big swatch of it in for us,” Amy said, adding that they met with her at 8:30 that morning and had the rest of the day to run around the garment district. “I said can we take this swatch all day and she says go to this store and this store... so basically we worked off of her list.”
The list consisted of the things they needed to put under the lace fabric and everything else that goes into making a wedding dress. While in the garment district, they were able to visit Mood Fabrics, which was made famous by Project Runway. The store, Jillian said, was a bit of a disappointment and not at all fancy like that make it seem on the show.
“I knew from the beginning, I said this is it, this is my color,” she said about the fabric they chose. “We had went to Macey’s and I purchased my shoes. We kind of work backwards... I had the shoes because I knew the color. And then it was like everything we went around that determined jewelry, hair pieces and all that kind of stuff.”
After finding all the different fabrics needed for the dress, the next steps were to find a wedding dress style that Jillian actually wanted.
“In the two year process, we also went to Cincinnati, where I actually tried on dresses,” Jillian said. “Because of course what you think you want, looks terrible (once you put it) on.”
But they were able to find a design that she liked and they were able to work backwards to from there to make the pattern pieces necessary to actually make the dress. Amy said that it is a bit tricky to actually find pattern pieces online nowadays.
“I came back home from the (Cincinnati) trip and searched and searched online until I found the style,” Amy said. The style Jillian ended up with was a slim ballgown — something she said she would never wear. “Selling patterns are not very good anymore and they don’t sell very many wedding dress patterns. So, I actually purchased two, what would be vintage wedding dress patterns from the 90s.”
She was able to merge those two patterns together to come up with a design for the dress. From there, it was just a matter of making adjustments — like adding a belt and adding for flower details to the bodice, for the dress to be finished.
One of the most important thing Jillian and Amy wanted at the wedding as a good photographer. Jillian wanted the dress, which she calls a work of art, to be showcased since her mother barely got any good photos of her own wedding dress. So they hired a professional photographer who helped them submit photos of the wedding to be used online on Bridal Fabrics in the gallery.
“I think it’s great,” Jillian said about the fact that other to-be-brides can look at her wedding photos for inspiration online.
The tradition of the family making their own wedding dresses may stop in the future since Jillian didn’t really pick up sewing.
“So I did 4-H. I did five years of 4-H and I had excellent projects, might I add,” Jillian said, describing how she made jeans into a purse and a pair of pajamas. “Unfortunately, my 4-H judges were not so encouraging... so I got very discouraged and I said why would I put in all of this work if it’s not going to be recognized? And it’s just easier to had (Amy) stuff.”
As for the dress itself, it will get packed up and stored away just in case Jillian’s daughter wants to try it on.