Inspirational Wedding Dresses

I am always perusing the Internet for inspirational wedding dresses. There aren't many that stand out among the puffs of tulle and cheap satin. When you come across a unique dress, it's like discovering a needle in a haystack.

The dress below was made by Dress Forms Design. I love its retro-chic styling with its own unique spin. I'm slowly falling in love with colored petticoats and knee length circle skirts. Train, schmain! I think what I love most about this dress is how obviously its style fits the bride. Her hair, the black satin ribbon, the button bouquet (made by the bride, princesslasertron). It's all so expressive which is exactly what a wedding dress should be.

Jacquelyn Kennedy's wedding dress was so beautiful! It's funny though, it doesn't have the same amazing quality on a mannequin as it does on Jackie-O herself. I love the tea length, the neckline, and the architectural ruffling on the skirt. So classically pretty.

I just love vintage wedding dresses. Who doesn't hold onto their own wedding dress thinking their own daughter would love to wear it some day. Of course, the changing of styles more often than not leaves what was once considered beautiful, sometimes horrifying.

I have a basement full of them. The most I've ever had at one time was 125 in my old studio! Some of them are hideous, but others are so inspiring. Although I always see them becoming something else, I love looking at the ones that have been lovingly cared for and withstood the many decades of fashion.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

This 50s vintage dress is available in Etsy seller KatieAmazing's shop

Cool wedding dresses also can be found by many indie designers. Etsy has a handful of beautiful, indie-designed wedding dresses.

I'll soon be launching another Etsy shop featuring wedding dresses and formal dresses called Entwined Apparel, so keep watching for my shop opening announcement! I'm hard at work on creations to fill it before I launch the shop.

Here are a few of my favorites on Etsy:

This dress is available in joanshum's Etsy shop for $5,000.
Her shop is full of beautiful and unique wedding gowns. Check it out!


I love the simple feel of this dress (which features a far from simple design)
I also love her Zooey Deschanel-ish model!
It's available in sarahseven's Etsy shop for $515


ktjean's Etsy shop features some beautiful custom dresses made from vintage slips
This is one example for $1,500

New Wedding Dress Design Sketches

I have some new sketches of dresses that I'm working on! I find that sketches help me organize my thoughts on a dress. I do them if I get stuck on a design. I do all my sketches on Photoshop which can be a bit tedious. I'm sure it would be much simpler to just actually sketch them, but it's a habit I can't break.

The first dress a slight play on my Autumn Fairy dress. It's satin and chiffon with dozens of silk leaves that have contrasting embroidered veins. The bodice is a simple spaghetti strap corset style that will be fully boned with lacing in the back. The leaves are ivory, white, pink and mocha. I seem to be stuck on a Neopolitan palette these days. I have the basic structure for the dress finished and the leaves are almost complete.

The next dress is all ivory silk with a v-neck, slightly off-the-shoulder bodice. The skirt is knee length with a petal-ed hem. Peeking out from the petals are layers of dusty rose and mocha colored petticoats. It has a retro feel with an offbeat edge.