From my younger days, I always told my big sister that she’d design my wedding gown since she liked to sketch designs and that sort of thing. She agreed and that was our little pact.
When the wedding bells sounded for me, I reminded her and we discussed the different ideas I had in mind. Initially, I wanted a mermaid fit but, I believe God had other plans. I also wanted an open back and didn’t want the dress to be ‘puffy’ or cinderella like in any way. I shared my thoughts with my sister and off she went to design me the dress I had in mind.
However, in my wrongful use of the word ‘a-line’ to describe the type of neck I wanted, my sister sketched a dress with an ‘a-line’ and that caused a bit of confusion for us when I first saw the sketch- the confusion was laughable though.
My desire as well had always been to have a tailor-made wedding dress. As God would have it, my brother had got married the previous year and his bride had tailored her gown. I asked her to help me with the number for the lady that had done the gowns she wore and she did. She also recommended I use her because she had not given her a hard time. Since I had not had any qualms with my sister in law’s gown, I decided to try her – I was told her name was ‘Harriet’. I later found out that her label is ‘Elijah Mcquinn’.
I contacted Elijah Mcquinn and even shared with her some ideas of the mermaid wedding gown I’d like and we set a date to meet. This was just 2 months to the wedding so, I really hoped she’d be fast.
When my sister sent me the sketch of the dress and it was not mermaid, I was a bit bothered but then I realized I liked it all the same because it was not cinderella and just flowed so nicely. My sister then taught me what ‘a-line’ meant and I had to tell Elijah Mcquinn that the idea for the dress had changed.
When Harriet and I met for that first time, I showed her the sketch and she liked the dress and even commended the sketch artist. We discussed the material and I thank God I knew the fabric of the wedding dress I wanted – it had to be satin with some lace! So, that didn’t take a lot of our time.
The next week after our first meeting, although most arcades in town were still closed, we went on the search for the material i had in mind. We found a shop with good fabrics and bought the satin and lace we needed from there. Harriet was so helpful in this cause especially since it had rained and she had done most of the moving already and called me when she finally found this shop where I met her.
Within a week, I had my first fitting and the dress had come out so beautifully! I was in love with its simplicity and open back. This one time, I think it was my second fitting, I went with my sister who had designed the dress and my brother, and my sister really liked how her design had turned out in reality. My brother on the other hand thought the dress lacked some ‘bling’ like he called it and Harriet suggested we add some pearls. We liked the idea and went with it.
When I went for my next fitting, I found the pearls on the dress and while the lower bit looked nice, the upper bit looked overwhelmed with the pearls so we decided to do away with the pearls on the upper bit. The other bit that needed to be adjusted was how the dress flowed too close to my body and made it look a bit funny. So, Harriet suggested we put in a bit of tulle to make it flow better. At first, I was against this idea because I thought the tulle would make it the puffy cinderella gown I didn’t want. But, I was convinced so I went and got some tulle since not even just a petticoat would work.
The tulle made the gown flow really well but then we had a set back with the bodice. Something wasn’t aligning well and it just kept pulling itself and making lines that looked funny. Harriet really worked hard to see that that was removed and the solution we came up with was to make the dress really high waist-higher than it already was and it worked. I thank God!
A week or two to the wedding, I did my final fitting and the dress was just perfect! I was so thankful to God for how amazingly He had brought it out using Elijah Mcquinn and how the whole process had been beautiful and light! It had been such a light and nice journey with them at Elijah Mcquinn and I was so thankful to God for that.
Elijah Mcquinn had my gown dry cleaned, pressed and ready for pick up the week before the wedding. My matron, who is also my sister, helped me pick it up and we kept it at home as we waited for its unveiling!
I never wanted to change and as such I didn’t have a changing dress. That’s why it was also important for me to have a gown that was light enough for me to wear all through the day.
Bride – Prilla
Gown – Elijah Mcquinn
weddings@satisfashionug.com
