A Wedding Gown Story by Marilyn Hellmuth
When my daughter was engaged, we started to look for a wedding gown. My daughter Julianne knew that she wanted a simple, sophisticated,elegant gown. She was finishing her postdoctoral studies at Yale in CT, I was in South Jersey. NY was a meet in the middle location and being the center of the fashion world, this arrangement worked out well.
We looked at many gowns in many places. There are a lot of bridal salons in New York City. Many of the gowns had too much embellishment, few were well made, and none of them were truly unique. Some of the gowns that caught our eye were too expensive for my daughter’s practical personality. She could not justify spending many thousands of dollars on a gown she would wear for such a short amount of time. Plus, she did not like the idea that any of these gowns would also be worn by many other brides across the country. Perhaps, having been a sewing teacher all my life made me too critical. I would look inside the gowns and mentally correct the construction method.
After many unsuccessful searches, I offered to make Julianne’s gown. We designed one according to what she described as a perfect wedding gown. I made the muslin, (3 of them before the design was perfect) fitted it to her, and then used the muslin as a pattern for the Duchesse Silk satin.
The process was a labor of love and a learning experience for me. Each project presents new challenges. I wanted her day to be perfect. We finished the gown several weeks before the wedding on July 20. It was worth all of the effort to make this happen. My daughter was exquisite on her wedding day.
Cleaning & Preserving Perfect Wedding Gown
This perfect wedding gown was especially sweet for us to clean and preserve knowing it was lovingly made by Julianne’s mother. What’s more the dress will mean even more over the years because of this. Marilyn selected Museum Method™ wedding dress preservation which will be easy to inspect and will help keep the gown from getting permanent creases. We know it will be a treasure for their family.
