#WhatsUpToday July

Hello friends and loved ones!  We apologize for the radio silence this past month; we've been moving!!! We've doubled our space, adding a huge costume rental and staging area, as well as a beautiful bridal and costume fitting and consultation area.  If you've been following our doings on Facebook and Twitter you've seen the slow slow transformation, but it's pretty cool to watch it all again in sequence.  And on Wednesday, October 16 from 4-8pm come join us for an open house to see our finished product! We'll be featuring door prizes, items for sale, and a tour of our gorgeous new facilities. Don't miss it, and bring your friends!

#WhatsUpToday December to January

At the beginning of December, we started a weekly series on Twitter that we've been tagging #whatsuptoday, and we recently reviewed all the pictures we've been taking.   What resulted is a slice-of-life trip down memory lane that we hope you enjoy as much as we did looking through it.    Our pictures range from Christmas decorating to ipod listening, from retail to custom to costumes.  Since we finished the 1812 project we have worked on inventorying our rental Closet, updating a vintage mink jacket, altering two different Inaugural gowns, creating several geisha costumes for a local production, and so much more.  We look forward to bringing you more slices of studio life, and we hope you look forward to seeing it!


December

 January

Looking forward to what February has in store? Check out our Twitter feed for real-time updates, or check back at the end of the month for our next #WhatsUpToday review.

Moms in the Studio

A few Saturdays ago, Meghan's and my moms came up to the studio for an afternoon of tea and wedding talk.  I made cucumber sandwiches, Meghan made lemon cookies, and Marilyn created a teascape worthy of the queen.  This was the first time either of our moms would be touring the studio and meeting Marilyn, so we were really excited to show off our work... and our dresses!

Both Meghan and I are going to update our mothers' dresses for our own weddings, but we will not be doing any major updates until after our current studio projects are finished.  We wanted our moms to see us in their dresses, cleaned and in their full glory before we changed them in any way.  We had a blast trying on our mothers' gowns and talking in depth about what we were going to do with them to update the dresses for our own weddings. And of course we took pictures.

***ATTENTION: SPOILER ALERT! If you are the fiance of either Meghan or myself, you should not go any farther in this post. I'm looking at you, Nick and Steve!!***

Now, then.

My parents got married on August 2, 1975, and Meghan's parents wed exactly 11 years later (to the day!)   Both gowns are long sleeved, and with ruffles and long, wide trains.  However, the differences in style and cut between 1975 and 1986 are immediately clear.  Meghan's dress has intricate beading and lace with a chiffon overlay to give it a "dreamy" effect; very Princess Di!  The lace on my mom's dress is of the large 70s style flowers seen so often in flashback reels, and the belled sleeves and empire waist popular of the time.  Both dresses have a flowy vintage feel that is very different from the structured bodices that are so popular right now.  We will be documenting our progress as we merge old and new to create something perfectly suited to our personal styles, without losing the deeply personal effect of wearing our mothers' dresses.

With the dresses on, we talked about our initial ideas for each update, which you can see a bit of on our Pinterest pages for Meghan and me.  We will discuss more details as we go, and share our updates here.

And without further ado, The Gowns!

Meghan; note the high collar, sweetheart neckline, and basque waist. 

The train

Meghan and her mom

Me: note the wide neck, belled sleeves, and empire waist.  

The train

Me and my mom (don't be fooled, I'm wearing obscenely high heels)

Checking In and Studio Walkthrough

Hello everyone! It's been a bit crazy here at the studio and I apologize for the lag time between posts. In the meantime, if you haven't already you should check out our video shot by meetlocalbiz.com, and see a bit of what we've been up to!