Tuesday, August 30, 2005
The Gown and The Invitation List
It’s now mid June. First, The Invitation List: assembled by TBTB, with TGTB giving family and friend addresses, it soon reaches over 100; as TBTB sees a wedding of about 65 people, this allows for a reasonable rejection rate. We think. But then there’s a snag: TBTB intends to design and produce the invitations. On the face of it, that’s doable. She not only has the computer skills needed to physically produce invitations, RSVP cards, and whatever else, she also earned a B.F.A. in graphic design at the Columbus College of Art and Design, which led her into a career in web page design before the Navy beckoned.
But in reality, TBTB’s producing the invitations is problematic. Her work days are pretty full, and her ship is heading off to the North Sea and Finland. And time marches on. Finally, after various relatives have inquired whether the wedding is still on, as they’ve not heard anything formal, we send an email: you must either get the invitations done now, or do something else. I do a backward timeline: if wedding is September 10th, then people need to have decided whether they’re coming or not by at least August 10th, in order to book flights, make arrangements, reserve hotels, etc. If they need to decide by August 10th, the invitations have to reach them by July 20th. That means they need to be mailed by July 15th. Which means we need to have completed invitations in order to assemble them by July 13th. Which means MOTB, who’s going to address the envelopes, needs to have the envelopes by July 8th. Which means you need to mail the envelopes by July 1st, unless you overnight them. And all of this is too late unless people have some formal advance notice, and don’t make plans for early September -- or, if they have children, need to start making arrangements for travel now.
TBTB gets the message. She sends “Save the Date” postcards immediately from Scotland, then hits all the deadlines for the invitations.
Now, The Gown. TBTB wants to make her gown. Apart from the fact that, if her schedule makes doing the invitations difficult, constructing a wedding gown (for a young woman who has never built a complete garment in her life, as far as I know, although she has knit several monumental and quite gorgeous scarves) is flatly impossible. Luckily (at least for TBTB, if not for FOTB) MOTB wants to make The Gown, as her mother did for her. I’m a bit skeptical at this; MOTB’s mother was a professional draper and seamstress at various points, and taught dressmaking and sewing in the New York Public Schools after having been head draper at Bergdorff Goodman’s in New York, then spending a couple of decades in her husband’s butcher store. MOTB sews occasionally. But nothing on the scale of A Wedding Gown.
TBTB thinks this a marvelous idea. And she has an idea! She saw a gown she thought was gorgeous on a tv scifi show, “Firefly.” She thoughtfully provides a DVD, so MO
TB can study the gown. Here it is. It’s black and red, hardly bride colors--and the actress’s hair obscures several key points: is the red overskirt part of a jacket with sleeves, or are the sleeves and apparent jacket part of the bodice? Is the neckline square or rounded? Is the actress’s bosom augmented or pushed up? Etc. We watch the requisite episode of “Firefly” again. And again. And pause it. And photograph it. And try to figure out the architecture of the gown, and of the body under it, to see how it needs to be adjusted to the no-quite-so-Hollywood-enhanced body of TBTB. MOTB makes sketches. TBTB corrects/amends them, when email can reach her in the North Sea. A look is agreed upon. White crepe-backed satin will be the dress, an elaborate white lace will be the overdress and jacket with long sleeves. JoAnn Fabric becomes a regular stop on shopping trips: what sort of interface? What thread? How to bind the edges of the lace?
We all are about to learn a great deal about linings, interfaces, FrayStop, the limits of machine stiches, and other unknown topics. The learning process will not be one of unmitigated delight at learning new things.
But in reality, TBTB’s producing the invitations is problematic. Her work days are pretty full, and her ship is heading off to the North Sea and Finland. And time marches on. Finally, after various relatives have inquired whether the wedding is still on, as they’ve not heard anything formal, we send an email: you must either get the invitations done now, or do something else. I do a backward timeline: if wedding is September 10th, then people need to have decided whether they’re coming or not by at least August 10th, in order to book flights, make arrangements, reserve hotels, etc. If they need to decide by August 10th, the invitations have to reach them by July 20th. That means they need to be mailed by July 15th. Which means we need to have completed invitations in order to assemble them by July 13th. Which means MOTB, who’s going to address the envelopes, needs to have the envelopes by July 8th. Which means you need to mail the envelopes by July 1st, unless you overnight them. And all of this is too late unless people have some formal advance notice, and don’t make plans for early September -- or, if they have children, need to start making arrangements for travel now.
TBTB gets the message. She sends “Save the Date” postcards immediately from Scotland, then hits all the deadlines for the invitations.
Now, The Gown. TBTB wants to make her gown. Apart from the fact that, if her schedule makes doing the invitations difficult, constructing a wedding gown (for a young woman who has never built a complete garment in her life, as far as I know, although she has knit several monumental and quite gorgeous scarves) is flatly impossible. Luckily (at least for TBTB, if not for FOTB) MOTB wants to make The Gown, as her mother did for her. I’m a bit skeptical at this; MOTB’s mother was a professional draper and seamstress at various points, and taught dressmaking and sewing in the New York Public Schools after having been head draper at Bergdorff Goodman’s in New York, then spending a couple of decades in her husband’s butcher store. MOTB sews occasionally. But nothing on the scale of A Wedding Gown.
TBTB thinks this a marvelous idea. And she has an idea! She saw a gown she thought was gorgeous on a tv scifi show, “Firefly.” She thoughtfully provides a DVD, so MO
TB can study the gown. Here it is. It’s black and red, hardly bride colors--and the actress’s hair obscures several key points: is the red overskirt part of a jacket with sleeves, or are the sleeves and apparent jacket part of the bodice? Is the neckline square or rounded? Is the actress’s bosom augmented or pushed up? Etc. We watch the requisite episode of “Firefly” again. And again. And pause it. And photograph it. And try to figure out the architecture of the gown, and of the body under it, to see how it needs to be adjusted to the no-quite-so-Hollywood-enhanced body of TBTB. MOTB makes sketches. TBTB corrects/amends them, when email can reach her in the North Sea. A look is agreed upon. White crepe-backed satin will be the dress, an elaborate white lace will be the overdress and jacket with long sleeves. JoAnn Fabric becomes a regular stop on shopping trips: what sort of interface? What thread? How to bind the edges of the lace?We all are about to learn a great deal about linings, interfaces, FrayStop, the limits of machine stiches, and other unknown topics. The learning process will not be one of unmitigated delight at learning new things.
