Real Brides: Veronica of My Hands Made It

Veronica from My Hands Made It continues to share some of her favorite DIY projects she is doing for her wedding. She is not only a very crafty bride, but she also makes wedding dresses made to order which you can see on her site. So it was only fitting (no pun intended) that she made her own wedding gown!

I made my wedding dress. Wha-what? Yeah that’s right. *high five* Now to be clear, I make wedding dresses for other people all of the time. But while making someone else’s dress can be a little stressful, making your own is terrifying. When Keith proposed, I knew, without a doubt, that I would be making my dress. Not only was I going to save tons of money but I also thought it was kind of old-fashioned and romantic. Um yeah, I wouldn’t exactly call the process of making one’s dress romantic. Frankly, every dress goes through a million stages before it’s ready and maybe some of these stages shouldn’t be seen by the bride – they’re not all pretty. I had moments of major insecurity and fear that I was completely destroying the most important dress of my life. Every imperfection was heart-wrenching. Yes I am serious – it was monumental.

But I pushed through the horrifying stages and now it’s ready, and I am out-of-my-mind excited. It’s crazy that it came from my own two hands. When I first started the design process I would walk to my bus stop in the mornings imagining my dress fluttering around my feet and blowing gently in the breeze. I longed for a frilly, frothy, flowy goddess of a dress with ruffles. No not just ruffles. Ruffles, ruffles, ruffles! And very 1930s. Something Ginger Rogers would wear while being thrown around the dance floor.

And it was pretty cool that I could change the overall design as I worked – making it more flattering for my shape, adding elements I had never even considered. The ruffled bolero is the crowning touch and I threw that together on a whim.

Even though it was an emotional, overwhelming, terrifying ordeal, it was also super fun at the same time. Sort of like the entire wedding planning process, right? I really don’t think I can describe how it felt the day I finished it. I put the dress and little matching bolero on the dress form, backed away a little and just stared at it, completely awestruck. So many ruffles. And all of a sudden the dress has gone from a source of stress and insecurity to something I deeply cherish and want to share with our future family. It’s my very own precious wedding dress, and I made it.

p.s. If you are at all considering taking on this project and you don’t have a ton of experience, BACK AWAY SLOWLY. I say this for your own good. Trust me on this one. xo

What is your biggest DIY project that you’re tackling out of love? Please share!