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Transcript: 

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations. Hello and welcome to Love To Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns and Cedar Quilt Co. And the bride.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew and it’s basically all we ever talk about.

Helen: In this long-awaited episode, we’re talking about my wedding. We’re gonna go into detail about the wedding dress that I made, the design process, making wearable and non-wearable muslins, and sewing delicate embroidered tulle. We’re also going to chat about the other DIY elements of the day, like the food, flowers, dance party outfits, invitations, giant mushrooms, and floating jellyfish.

Caroline: It’s Helen’s handmade wedding!

Helen: Yay.

Caroline: If you love to sew, this is your show. Hi, Helen.

Helen: How are you?

Caroline: I’m so good. How are you?

Helen: I’m good. I’m married. It’s official.

Caroline: You’re married. How does it feel to be married?

Helen: Oh my gosh. It feels really good. Like, you know, lifestyle-wise, it’s exactly the same.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But I do feel like we’re in a post-wedding glow, like a lovey glow. You know, we’re like just smiling at each other a lot and we’re just enjoying the post-wedding vibes and it just feels good to have achieved such an incredible event, milestone, you know? We went for it, did it, it was amazing. And so we’re both feeling really happy and really good and really glad that we did it.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. You truly did so much for this day. It was such an incredible day. I can’t wait to ask you a million questions about it, especially about your wedding dress, which turned out so, so beautifully. Yeah, I’ve been really looking forward to this episode. But before we get into it, we wanna remind our listeners that the best way to support Love to Sew is by joining us over on Patreon or Apple Podcast subscriptions, where we talk about things like wedding prep, our personal lives…

Helen: Not anymore, but…

Caroline: No.

Helen: if you want the backstory of the wedding…

Caroline: Yeah. If you wanna go back and hear all about the process, yeah. We talk about what we’re cooking, what we’re sewing, what we’re crafting.

Helen: Yeah. All the horror movies we’re watching this season. I’m so excited for spooky movie season.

Caroline: I know. Me too, me too. I love that. But yes, you’ll get access to all of the bonus content every month if you join us over there. And it really means a lot if you’re able to support us, even if it’s just for a month or two. But of course, if that’s not in the cards for you right now, we totally get it.

Helen: Yeah, we just appreciate that you’re here and you’re listening. And if you want to support us for free, you can always rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. It really helps us out. It helps other sewists discover us, helps people click on the show and give it a listen. So we’d really love some reviews over there, if you can. And above all, just thanks to you all for listening and cheering us on.

Caroline: Yeah. Thank you. And cheers for Helen getting married and organizing an incredible wedding.

Helen: Cheers.

Helen: Thank you. I’m really excited to talk about it. And thank you for giving me this platform to talk about it. I feel like anyone who’s had a wedding remembers that feeling afterwards where you just wanna, like, talk about everything about it in excruciating detail. And for the first few days everyone’s really on board for that. And then it’s, like, diminishing over time. People are like, yeah, your wedding was really nice, but we don’t really wanna talk about it anymore.

Caroline: No, I’m not there yet. I feel like we haven’t really had a full debrief yet, and we’re gonna go through it in excruciating detail today.

Helen: Yes. Can’t wait.

Caroline: Exciting, wonderful detail.

Helen: Yeah, it, honestly, it was really special and it felt really personal and people kept telling us that they felt that personal touch. And I think a lot of that had to do with all of the handmade elements that we put into it. And not just us, but lots of other people as well. So we’re gonna talk about that. But I really wanted to start things off by talking a little bit about me and Sam and our relationship. Just a little bit of context about the wedding, and then we’ll get into the kind of DIY elements, some of which were sewn and some were cooked and painted and 3D printed and paper mached and all that stuff. And then we’re gonna talk all about the dress. So yeah, that’s kind of our roadmap for today.

Caroline: Yes. Okay. Let’s get into it. I just have to say, one of the most lovely things about the day is, or was, like, seeing how in love you and Sam are. Because we already knew that you guys loved each other, but it was just gushing out of you, obviously, on your wedding day and everybody around you talking about your relationship and how it was so meant to be and “they just knew” and, you know, we met you when your relationship was pretty established, but your love for each other is so obvious and clear and beautiful. So can you please tell us a little bit more about you and Sam?

Helen: With pleasure. Okay. Sam and I met 16 years ago, so I was 22 and he was 21. So we were very young. Even though, at the time, you know, when you’re 21, you feel quite mature, very ready for a long-term relationship.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But in hindsight, we were so young and so it’s so cute that we, we met so young and fell in love and just were like, yeah, this is it. Let’s be together forever. But yeah, we met on a porch one day, randomly, when I was going over to my friend’s house to play a board game. And he was there ’cause he had just moved into one of the spare bedrooms and we met on the porch ’cause we were, ahem, smoking cigarettes. I know, I know. I’m sorry, okay? I was young. I was young. And yeah, we just hit it off right away. It was like this instant connection, that kind of feeling like you already know the person, like you’ve been friends forever. We just had that common ground and instant connection. So that is how we met and we’ve pretty much spent every day together since then. We hung out literally the next day and the next day and the next day and just, like, kept hanging out and we were instantly at each other’s side. And I love that about us. We’re one of those annoying couples that likes to spend all their time together. And I know that’s not for everyone. I’m not saying that it is, but that’s just kind of been our vibe. And we work together and we work from home together. So we are together all the time. And we really do just love each other so much. We’re kind of obsessed with each other even after 16 years. So, yeah, it’s been really special.

And we did get engaged. I should know the year, but it was like nine or 10 years ago we got properly engaged. There was a proposal, it was very cute. Sam got down on one knee at one of my favorite places, Hornby Island, on Phipps Point, if anyone’s familiar with Hornby. At sunset, there was no one around, we had it to ourselves. It was so beautiful. And after that, it was not immediately like, okay, now let’s plan a wedding. It was more like the engagement was the commitment. I wanna spend my life with you. Yes. I wanna spend my life with you, too. And we weren’t like, you know…obviously we talked about it, like, should we have a wedding? We were like, uh, I don’t know, maybe later. Like, neither of us were that keen on spending the money and going through…like, it’s a lot of work and effort to plan a wedding and it’s a lot of pressure and it can be stressful. And I think we were both just like, I don’t know if that’s, like, the vibe that we’re looking for, you know? So we just never did. And I wasn’t sure if we ever were going to, ’cause I was perfectly happy just to have that commitment to each other and never necessarily have the big wedding day.

But more recently we were thinking about how nice it would be to get everyone together and how special it would be to have our parents there for that day and to, like, celebrate our love and life together. And we feel really settled in our lives now that we moved to the island and we’ve been here for six years now and we have lots of amazing friends. And we got a venue because my friend was like, if you ever do wanna get married, you know, you could have your wedding here. And that also kind of got us thinking like, oh, that would be really cute. Like a garden, yard wedding is exactly the kind of vibe that we would do. And so, yeah, we kind of started thinking about maybe doing it and then we decided, why not? Let’s go for it.

Caroline: When did you make that decision to have the wedding?

Helen: I think it was about last summer, like summer 2025, maybe earlier in the summer, was when, yeah, my friend was like, you could, you know, you could have it here if you ever did wanna have one. And then we started thinking about it and we said yes. We said yes to the wedding. Yeah.

Caroline: I remember when, like, soon after we met, we had had a conversation about whether or not you were gonna have a wedding and you guys had floated the idea of doing it, like, at a restaurant in Gastown. Do you remember that? You were like, maybe we’ll do it at, I think it was at L’abattoir or something?

Helen: Yeah. We were like, we’d like, if we do do it, we’ll have a little, a small one, you know, like 15 people in a special event room at a restaurant kind of thing.

Caroline: Yeah. And I feel like the wedding that you ended up having is so different from that.

Helen: I know.

Caroline: So I want you to tell our listeners, like, describe, like, what kind of wedding did you end up having? We already know it was at a farm.

Helen: Yeah, so my friend’s property is about two acres, so there’s lots of room on it. And she used to have a hobby farm, but she doesn’t have the animals anymore. So there’s lots of room and there’s, like, a big field that we could put a tent in. So we had an outdoor wedding and there was lots of beautiful flowers around, so it was kind of like a little garden party. And we rented a big tent and we put lights and bunting on it. So that was really fun and festive feeling, to have that big tent. Yeah, we had, I would say, a relatively casual wedding. I didn’t want it to be super formal. But the more we started planning it, the more I was like, well, I do kind of want the structure of a wedding with a ceremony and speeches and a first dance and a dinner. You know, I wanted those things, but I didn’t want them to feel really formal, I guess. I wanted them to feel a little bit more casual, but then I also wanted to wear the wedding dress, you know? So it’s kind of torn in two directions where it’s like, do we just have, like, a backyard barbecue where we’re like, come over and celebrate our love? Or do we have a wedding-wedding? And I kind of wanted something in between those things, but I think it ended up being more of a wedding-wedding than I maybe anticipated at the beginning of the planning.

Caroline: I think that’s really normal and relatable for a wedding, however you wanna look at it, to evolve as you’re planning it and dealing with your own expectations of the day, other people’s expectations of the day, kind of, you know, things take shape, uh, sometimes a different shape than you originally intended.

Helen: Yeah. Yeah. And it did get a little bit bigger, just guest-list-wise, too. Like, once you start thinking about who you’re gonna invite, that can also snowball. And so we ended up with 90 guests, which was more than we thought. We thought maybe we’d be around 60, but we decided to just go for it and we just invited everybody and that was really fun. And everybody came, too. I wasn’t expecting everyone to come, like, you know, traveling to come to the wedding, but everybody did, which was, like, just the nicest feeling that people were like, of course I’ll be there. Of course I’ll take the ferry, I’ll get on the plane. You know, like, that feels so good when your friends and family are like, no, I’m, obviously, I’m coming.

Caroline: Mm-hmm.

Helen: So sweet. So yeah, we ended up with 90 people, but there were 17 kids, which is a lot. And that was really fun to have at the outdoor wedding. The kids were living their best life. They were running around, they were having such a good time. That was so cute. I loved seeing all the kids just, like, having the best time.

Caroline: Yeah. The kids were so cute and they did seem like they were having a great time. And they all really enjoyed your little temporary tattoo tent.

Helen: Yes. The temporary tattoo tent was a real highlight.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. We had this little station where you could put on a temporary tattoo, as you may have surmised. And it was really cute ’cause throughout the night I kept running into people and being, like, confused by being like, you have a tattoo? I’m like, my aunt has a neck tattoo? Oh, no, no, no. That’s a fake tattoo. But everyone was getting them and it was so fun just seeing all the random places people were putting these tattoos. Some of the kids were putting them on their faces. Oh my gosh.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. On the forehead! There was one little girl with a tattoo on her forehead. I was like, oh man.

Helen: I should have seen that one coming. Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah. Well, we’ll get to all the little tent installations that you did throughout. But I wanna take it back to wedding planning and kind of some of the wedding DIY projects that you did. And you started your DIY wedding right from the jump with the invitations. They were so, so beautiful. So can you describe what they looked like for our listeners?

Helen: Yes. Okay. I have to go back even one step further because I made our save-the-date image that we emailed out to everybody. But I painted it and it was like a big sunflower that I did using watercolours. And then I wrote in the middle of the sunflower, “Save the Date, Helen and Sam” and the date of the wedding. And then we, like, attached that to the email that we sent out to everybody. ‘Cause I wanted to have this, like, garden vibe and we knew we were gonna grow these giant sunflowers, which we did. They’re like 14 feet tall. They’re crazy.

Caroline: Yeah, yeah. And they were kind of right next to the tent area, so everyone could enjoy them.

Helen: They were so fun. I couldn’t believe how big they got. Sunflowers are so fun to grow. The stalks are, like, huge.

Caroline: Oh, I know. They’re like bamboo sticks, basically. Yeah.

Helen: Amazing. So anyways, I had done that, and so when I did the invitation, I wanted to, like, tie it in and kind of have, like, a similar design element on the invitation. So I went with a sun that had a similar kind of shape to it. And I did block printing, ’cause that’s something that I’m really into right now, is carving and printing with like, you know, those Speedy Carve rubber blocks. So I carved a sun block and then I carved a separate heart block that had some flowers on it. And the heart block took a few tries ’cause I was trying to, like, figure out how I could have some kind of design element on the heart that looked like me and Sam. But then I just ended up doing flowers, but I did two flowers and then a flower in the middle. So it kind of looks like the two of us and then our officiant. This is all, like, in my head. I don’t think anyone noticed these details.

Caroline: Oh, that’s so cute. No, I think I need to go and look at it again.

Helen: Now you’ll be like, okay, I see it. The little flower in the middle is our friend Brett, the officiant.

Caroline: Oh, cute.

Helen: Anyway, so what I did was I did a gold ink for the sun and then I layered with a red ink for the heart on top for the invitations. And then on the inside we did, like, a little printout, like a little digital printed card that I glued inside that had all the information on it and, like, a little QR code and stuff for our wedding website. And then we still had space to write, like, a little handwritten message. And then we mailed those out. So that was a bigger project than I anticipated it being. And that’s something that’s, like, a recurring theme for the wedding…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Where I’m like, oh, how hard could it be to do X? And then I do it and I’m like, wow, that was a lot of work. And then I just immediately do it again. But it all paid off in the end, you know?

Caroline: Yeah. It really did. There were so many beautiful details on your wedding day and so much of it was handmade. But I loved the invitations and I still have mine and I’m, I really do wanna frame it and put it somewhere ’cause it’s such a beautiful piece of art. Did you keep one for yourself, as well?

Helen: Yes, I did. I kept the best one of the lot.

Caroline: Perfect.

Helen: I think I printed 50 in total, to have the few extras, and then, yeah, I, I picked the best one, I thought, and kept it for myself.

Caroline: Amazing.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Okay, so we’ve already just touched on the fact that this was at kind of, like, a two acre property, outside. Can you describe how you set up the yard and the ceremony and everything?

Helen: Yeah, sure. So we rented a 40 by 40 tent, so that was kind of the main element of the yard. And I wanted that so that we wouldn’t have to stress too much about rain, first of all. But it was a big investment. Like, obviously, it’s cheaper than renting a whole venue. But I was surprised by how much renting a giant tent costs.

Caroline: It’s huge, though. It was a big tent.

Helen: Yeah. And I was like, I didn’t quite, like…40 by 40. You’re like, okay, sure. But then when they came to set it up, I was like, oh my gosh, it’s huge. Like, it was humongous. It took them like five hours to set it up, like…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Four guys. I was like, okay, no wonder this tent costs so much to rent. This is wild. And they let us have it for, like, five days, too, which was great. They set it up really early and then they didn’t tear it down until a while after the wedding, so that was really nice. We had a little bit of time to, like, decorate and stuff. But yeah, that was great. And, and then we had some separate little tents for various things. We had a tent for our wedding favours and guest book signing. And then we had a tent for our temporary tattoos. Very important.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: And we had a tent for our drinks and a tent for our buffet. And the reason we had so many tents is, in part, because it was supposed to rain on the wedding day, and I was very stressed about that. As you may imagine. My vision of a garden wedding was always in the sun, obviously.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I was expecting beautiful sunny weather. And then, as we approached the wedding, it was just, like, saying it was gonna rain on the wedding day for so long, for like two weeks leading up. It was like, every day’s gonna be sunny, except this day. On your wedding it’s definitely gonna rain. And so I was panicking and, like, borrowing tents from everyone I knew, like camping tents, and I ordered a couple more tents, so we just ended up putting everything under a tent, which was really cute because it kind of made it feel like you were in like a, a movie set or like a farmer’s market or something.

Caroline: Yeah. It had such a farmer’s market vibe, and I thought that was so fitting for your wedding, too, because you love, like, farmer’s market, craft markets, like, outdoor markets, so it just felt like your own personal market. It was so cute.

Helen: Yeah, it was so cute. We still had lots of space, too. Like, the yard was so big that it didn’t feel, like, crowded or anything. We just had, like, all these little tents all over the place that all had different stuff happening underneath them, which was really fun for everybody.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. And then we ended up doing our ceremony outside of the tent in, like, another grassy area of the yard. And my dad handmade this beautiful arbor for us out of cedar. And he had made one for my sister when my sister got married about 10 years ago. And so when I was like, I’m planning the wedding, I’m like, Dad, I need the arbor. It’s time.

Caroline: Yeah, you’re like, I get one, right?

Helen: Yeah. And of course he was more than happy to make me one, too. And yeah, so that was gorgeous. That was kind of the backdrop for the ceremony. And I made some flower arrangements to put on it, too. And I had so much fun making these flower arrangements. And they’re one of my favourite things I made for the wedding. They’re just, like, plastic flowers from the dollar store mixed with dried straw flowers and statice that we had dried last year. And I just mixed them together and, like, arranged them on some cardboard, like L-shaped cardboard, to go in the corners of the arbor. And then just hot glued. I went to town with that hot glue and it was so fun. I burned my fingers so much. But they, yeah, it worked so well. They look so cute and, like, I still have them and they’re, ’cause it’s all, like, dried and plastic, it’s totally not gonna fall apart or die or anything. So, I don’t know. I feel like I gotta put them up in my house somewhere.

Caroline: Yeah. You should. Or, like, use them for decoration if you ever have, like, a party or something.

Helen: Yeah, it’s true. Just put, I could just put them around my door every spring or something.

Caroline: Yeah. What are you gonna do with the arbor? Is it at your house now?

Helen: Yes, it is, it is. My dad made it so that it could come apart, ’cause he had to bring it from Vancouver on top of the car. So we took it down and brought it home and it’s still apart in our garage ’cause we haven’t had a moment to put it up. But the plan is to put it in the garden. And then I’d like to use it to grow raspberries, ’cause my dad grows like a ton of raspberries. And raspberries don’t really climb. So I’d have to add some kind of, like, wiring or something to, like, help the raspberries stick in. But I think that they could be under it in some way. So that’s my vision right now.

Caroline: It’s really lovely. I like the raspberries as, like, a nod to your dad. Also, it’s so beautiful. Like, your dad is such an excellent craftsman.

Helen: Right. Tie it in.

Caroline: Like, his work is so perfectly polished and lovely and it turned out so nice. So I love that you’re keeping it at your house.

Helen: Absolutely. Imagine it. Well, actually, my friends who hosted the wedding, the, my friend’s husband Andy was, like, really gunning to keep that arbor.

Caroline: Oh yeah? Yeah. He was like…

Helen: I think he was joking, but he mentioned it so many times that I was like, is he joking? Like, I can’t give you this arbor, man. This is my wedding arbor my dad made me. But it is really beautiful. I think he just liked, liked it a lot ’cause it was so pretty. But yeah, the ceremony was really nice and I’m so glad we got to have it out in the open ’cause it was looking, as I said, like it was gonna pour rain. And so I was, I had a contingency plan where we were doing the ceremony under the tent, but it was gonna be, like, really tight and awkward ’cause all the tables are all set up for dinner and, like, it was just not ideal. So I’m really glad that we got to have the ceremony outside in the spot that I envisioned it in.

Caroline: Yeah. And it did rain a couple hours before, because when I arrived, there were people cleaning off all the chairs.

Helen: Toweling off the chairs. Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah, toweling off the chairs. But yeah, it really did not rain during your actual wedding.

Helen: No, as soon as it was time to, like, no, as soon as it was time to start it cleared and it was actually nice, ’cause it was cloudy, so it was cool. We weren’t super sweaty and hot. And then there was all this, like, dramatic thunder off in the distance throughout it.

Caroline: During the speeches!

Helen: Yeah, which was really cool. And it didn’t start raining again until, like, midnight, right when everyone was leaving. We were packing up. It started raining. So I was like, wow, that, really? Thank you, universe.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah, that’s great.

Caroline: Okay. So one of my favourite little details was the painted barn…

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: On the property. It wasn’t even really, like, featured. It was kind of off in the distance. But you did this with your friends. I want you to tell our listeners about this beautiful barn.

Helen: Okay, so it was the goat barn when my friend Melinda had her goats. And so it has nothing in it now, just kind of storage, and you couldn’t really see the inside of it. What you see is really only just, like, the exterior of it. It doesn’t necessarily look like a barn ’cause it’s not shaped like a barn. It looks more like a shed or, like, several people were asking me if it was like a concession stand.

Caroline: Yeah. Shea mentioned that it looked like a concession stand…

Helen: Yeah, I know.

Caroline: Some sort of little like booth, stand thing.

Helen: Yeah, I think because it had a window on the side that they boarded up with plywood. So it looked like when concession stands are closed.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: And they, like, closed the window, you know? And then we painted it this blue colour, which I also think is kind of evocative of a concession stand. But anyway, imagine a concession stand and it was all, like, worn down, just like old wood and there was a bunch of holes. So we, like, covered all the holes in all the windows with plywood and then we painted it blue. We went and got mistints from the paint store, which is something you can do if you go to, like, any kind of house paint store. You can ask for their mistint shelf. And they have all of these paint buckets that are, like, super discounted ’cause they’re just, like, colours that they mixed wrong, basically. So we got some mistints and we painted it this basic blue colour. And then we went over it and painted it and covered it in flowers and leaves. And there’s a reel about this on my Instagram if you wanna check it out, but it was so fun. We did it over like four nights, with me and a bunch of our friends from our craft night group. We get together every Tuesday. And we had so much fun painting this barn. It was definitely one of the most fun craft projects we’ve done.

Caroline: Yeah. And, okay, you designed it yourself. You designed the florals and the leaves and everything.

Helen: Yeah, I used a lot of just inspo from Pinterest, looking at other murals and, like, simple flower shapes and stuff. I didn’t go too crazy ’cause we wanted it to be achievable. And then when it came time to actually put it onto the barn, we just used sidewalk chalk to kind of mock it up where we were gonna paint. And then we painted in those spots. And yeah, it was pretty straightforward. We definitely had to fill in areas with flowers. Like, it didn’t translate perfectly from the mockup that I did onto the shed. But that was easy enough to just, like, oh, well there’s an empty space here. It was just, add another flower. Like, we weren’t trying to be too precious with it. We were just having fun, you know?

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. It was so beautiful. I loved it.

Helen: Thanks. It turned out great. It was fun to have it in the background of the wedding. I think some people went over and took pictures in front of it. We took some wedding photos in front of it, so I’m really excited to see those pictures.

Caroline: Yeah, no, it definitely added just to the, like, overall vibes of the location. Yeah. Okay. Well, speaking of flowers, what did you do for your wedding flowers, Helen?

Helen: Okay. So we grew all of the flowers for the wedding ourselves.

Caroline: Mind blowing. I love it.

Helen: Well, yeah. My, so my friend’s place has a lot of garden space and sometimes she grows vegetables, sometimes she doesn’t. She was just kind of like, oh, if you just wanna, like, throw some flowers in the ground here, like, I’m happy to water them and we’ll grow all the flowers for the wedding. And then my other friend Jess was like, I can start them all. ‘Cause she does, like, a big seed starting run every winter. And so she was like, I’m happy to start all of the flowers. So we did cosmos and zinnias and dahlias, primarily. And those all worked out really well. The dahlias, especially, like, I don’t know what’s in the soil at my friend’s place. Compost, I imagine. But they were so happy. They were just, like, loving life, so many blooms. And it was wild. And the zinnias, too, just absolutely gorgeous. We grew these, like, apricot-coloured zinnias that kind of look like little papery, like, tissue paper. I don’t know. There was something really delicate and crafty- kind-of-looking about them, like they almost looked dried even though they were fresh, which I really loved. And then, obviously, the cosmos. Cosmos are so pretty and delicate and fun. Yeah. And then we had a lot of, like, queen anne’s lace that was just randomly growing in the meadow. So we picked a bunch of that, too. So that added a nice, like, feathery touch. And we also went to another friend’s place and just, like, picked all of her dahlias. And then we went to, there’s this place in town called Lush Valley, and they do a lot of work getting food to people who need food that kind of, like, they have a food bank and they go and, like, they pick people’s orchards and then donate that food. And they do a lot of work throughout the valley, charity work. And one of my friends’ moms helps out with them. And she was like, you can go to the Lush Valley garden and pick all of their dahlias. So that was amazing. So we just ended up with so many flowers. Like, we were absolutely drowning in flowers, which is a great problem to have. We had way too many in the end, but then we got to leave a lot of them just blooming in the garden ’cause we didn’t need them all. So that was really nice. And then I already mentioned that we grew those giant sunflowers, which was so cool ’cause we just literally put the seeds in the ground and giant sunflowers popped up.

Caroline: Yeah. And those didn’t really end up in the arrangements. Those were just kinda for vibes.

Helen: No.

Caroline: They were, yeah, they were huge. They were so tall. I know. And you also had dried flowers. You had straw flowers and some other spiky things that I don’t know the name of.

Helen: We had thistles that I had, I, we spray painted some thistles at one point. ‘Cause I thought it’d be fun to have like a purple element in them. So I, I spray painted some thistles purple, dried thistles. Yeah, that was really fun. And then we had, yeah, Russian statice and just some other random dried things, which adds a nice element. I really like mixing dried and fresh flowers together. I think it looks really cool. And yeah, you really helped with the flower arranging on the day. You came early and you and my mom and my friend Jess did the flowers and they looked so beautiful. It was so fun. I was doing other things around you guys. It was fun listening to you guys do the flower arranging and, like, it was so involved and, like, we underestimated how long it was gonna take to do the flowers. Give yourself so much time to do the flowers.

Caroline: Oh my gosh, yes. Yeah.

Helen: We didn’t have enough time. And at one point you were like, maybe we should race. Let’s see who can make a flower arrangement the fastest. And my mom was like, I’m not doing that.

Caroline: Yeah. I was just trying to get the, get the energy up.

Helen: Get the pace going. Yeah, I appreciated it.

Caroline: There was a lot of overthinking happening with the flower arrangements.

Helen: I know. I was like, we don’t have time for this. And then I looked over and my, and like, my mom’s like taking flowers out of an arrangement, being like, I don’t know about this one. Like, no. Commit! Commit!

Caroline: Oh, it was funny. And we all had our own, like, distinct style, and your mom loved to be like, oh, I could tell that one’s Caroline’s. That one’s Jess’s.

Helen: Oh my gosh. It was, I wish I could have been doing it with you guys, but there’s so much to do on the day, it was like…

Caroline: Oh, gosh. You were zipping around doing all kinds of other stuff, but you were, you were in the vicinity, so it was fun to have you there, as well. But no, I had so much fun doing the flower arrangements, and there were so many beautiful flowers to pick from. I mean, we had way more than we needed, so we were able to just pick all of the, you know, the good ones, the, the most beautiful ones. And you had so many vases. You thrifted like 100 vases.

Helen: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Literally, I think there was 80.

Caroline: In all different colours and shapes. There’s so many beautiful ones. What are you gonna do with all these vases, Helen?

Helen: I’ve already called them. I got rid of all of the, like, super cheap ones that were already, like, chipping, like the colour’s chipping off and stuff. So I called all of those immediately and was like, just take these back to the thrift store. So I’m left with a bunch. I wanna keep some of them and then I really wanna do some kind of, like, craft project with a bunch of them. You can, like, epoxy glass vases together and make, like, glass vase sculptures.

Caroline: Wow.

Helen: So I’m, like, considering that right now. But I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not entirely sure and I’ve, I’ve given some away to friends and, yeah, we have a lot of vases. I’m still not entirely sure what I’m gonna do with them all.

Caroline: Yeah, no, that was quite the feat. I remember when you were like, I’m gonna thrift all the chairs for the wedding.

Helen: Yeah. That we didn’t. And, and we did end up picking up about 12 chairs before I was like, this is a terrible idea. Like, we’re gonna thrift 90 chairs? No. Like, these are the kind of ideas I have, and sometimes they’re not good ones.

Caroline: But you know what? You recognize that, and you just did the vases, which I think was the right call.

Helen: It definitely was. Yes. Yeah. I’m so relieved we didn’t end up going down that road.

Caroline: Oh my gosh.

Helen: But yeah, the flowers turned out beautifully. It was so sad to throw them away. When we cleaned up the next day I was, like, devastated. Everyone took one home, you know? It was just like, we were trying to give ’em away and everyone was like, no, I have lots. And there was still tons blooming in the garden. Like, you could pick a whole new bouquet. So yeah, it was like, okay, we just have to, we have to clean this up. We have to just, like, put them in the compost.

Caroline: Yeah. And dahlias don’t, like, last that long, either, so. I remember that, too, with my wedding. I went around and gave bouquets to all of my neighbours. It’s like, please take this.

Helen: This is so meaningful to me. And they’re like, okay, sure.

Caroline: No, they were so, so beautiful. Such a lovely touch to the tablescape, as well. And you had the arrangements all over different areas of the wedding, all the little vignettes that you did.

Helen: Yeah. We got to put flowers everywhere. And I wanted the coloured glass vases ’cause I just wanted, people kept asking me what the colour theme for the wedding was, and I was like, all, yes, all of them.

Caroline: It was, like, rainbow. It was, like, every colour. It was so you, too. It just, it was bright and fun and colourful. There was no one colour. It was great.

Helen: No, there wasn’t. I mean, I guess our napkins were, like, a sage green, which was a really hard choice. I wanted just to have, like, a bunch of random coloured napkins, too, but it was easier just to do one. I was like, okay, fine. I’ll let this one go. We can have rainbow everywhere else.

Caroline: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, so should we talk about the food?

Helen: Yes. Ah, the food, it was so good.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. It was so, so delicious and it should come as no surprise that you guys also, you did the food yourselves.

Helen: We catered our own wedding.

Caroline: You catered your own wedding.

Helen: Sam really wanted to. And I was on the fence about it just because I didn’t want him to be running a buffet at the wedding, you know? Like, I wanted him to be next to me and having the wedding moment and not having to worry about it. But he and our friend planned it all and made sure that that wasn’t the case, that wasn’t gonna happen. And lots of our friends helped out with the buffet, with running it and getting the food out and everything. So it all worked out in the end and he didn’t have to do anything on the day. And it turned out perfectly. So what he did is, it was a taco buffet, so we had taco shells and taco fillings and toppings and sides, like salads and slaws and stuff like that. So he made all of the taco fillings ahead of time. We had pork pibil and, oh, I wish, we should have had, like, a guest spot where he came on and told you about them.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s true. Like at the wedding, at one point he took the mic and he described the menu.

Helen: Yeah, I know, which was really fun. Yeah. And I printed out little menus for everyone’s station. Everyone’s station. Their spot, their seating. Yeah. So it was, like, tucked in with their place setting and so you could, like, read the menu and know what food you were gonna get. And, like, he had envisioned specific taco builds, I guess, like what goes on each taco if you wanna make it as designed. So that’s kind of how we did the menu, where it was like, here’s how you make this one. There’s two meat ones and two veggie ones. And we had it all laid out in the menu, which I thought was so fun because then I saw people taking their menu to the buffet and, like, making the tacos.

Caroline: And they were great. I did that and Sam’s suggested combinations were excellent. So, so yummy.

Helen: Yeah. So good. But yeah, there was a really yummy pork one. There was a really yummy chicken one. He’s gonna hate when he listens to this.

Caroline: Yeah. The pork one. The chicken one.

Helen: The chicken one. There was a yam taco and then there was refried beans.

Caroline: And, like, the peppers…

Helen: Oh, and the peppers and onions. There was kind of like a fajita-style one. Thank you. I was like, there was another vegetarian one. Yeah. And then we had, uh, red rice and beans and there was mac and cheese for the kids, and then there was just, like, a ton of toppings and there was slaw and salad.

Caroline: Every kind of topping you could possibly want on a taco: guacamole, salsa, every kind of hot sauce, queso fresco, cilantro, pickled onions.

Helen: Cotija cheese. Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah. Oh yeah. Cotija cheese. Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. Oh my gosh, it was so good. It was so fun seeing everyone eating. Everyone was so excited to eat, too. But, of course, at weddings you have to do that thing where you, like, send people up a little bit at a time so, like, the food doesn’t get overwhelmed. So we did some fun games for that. We had, like, dice at everyone’s spot and so we did some dice rolling games where you had to all, all roll the same number. We did some trivia questions. We did some movie quotes, which was really fun. Like, name that movie quote.

Caroline: Which was so funny. Everyone was so competitive.

Helen: Yeah, everyone was really into it. They wanted that food so bad. And also I think we just have a lot of gaming friends, ’cause we love games. So everyone was really into that element of it.

Caroline: Yeah. And Sam’s brother was MC-ing and he took the job very seriously and he did such a great job.

Helen: He did such a good job. He’s such a ham. He’s so funny and charismatic and so he’s the perfect person to have MC. And he was having so much fun with the games. Yeah, it was, it was really fun to watch. I was really enjoying, like, eating my taco. ‘Cause I went first, obviously.

Caroline: Of course.

Helen: I was just, like, eating and watching everybody play these games. Although I have to say, I was so, like, keyed up on the day and, like, not nervous, but just like when you’re overwhelmed and you can’t eat, like I could barely eat the food. And everyone kept telling me how delicious it was and I was like, okay, I’m gonna eat so much of this tomorrow.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Like, right now, I’m just like, eat one taco so you don’t, like, pass out. And I just couldn’t do it.

Caroline: Yeah. Honestly, I think that was the right call because I ate too much and then we went straight into dancing and then I felt really ill.

Helen: Yeah, I heard that from a few people. And I saw some wild taco plates, like, mounded, like mountains of food on this plate.

Caroline: Yeah. There was no shortage of food. It was so good.

Helen: We had so much left over. We just didn’t wanna not have enough, you know? Like, you, it’s really hard to know how much to prepare for that many people. We did run out of beans and mac and cheese, but I think that was after, like, everyone was getting seconds and stuff, so.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: That’s okay. But yeah, the beans were a real hit.

Caroline: Yeah. It was all so good. And a lot of this was prepared in advance and frozen. And then I did get a kick out of, the day of, like, the amount of crockpots that were in Melinda’s kitchen heating this food up. And I, I remember hearing, like, just in the peripheral, like, them checking in about it and being like, it’s still frozen. Still frozen. But like, somehow it all came together. Everything was hot and delicious, so it all worked out. But I’m sure that was a little bit stressful. There was a lot going on in that kitchen. I steered clear.

Helen: There was so much going on. And I had my blinders on, too, because I was like, I cannot think about this buffet today at all. I’m just gonna trust that they’re gonna make it happen. And obviously my friend was like, don’t worry about it, I’m gonna make it happen. And they did and it was all perfect in the end. But yeah, there was like, I don’t know, 20 slow cookers, like, plugged in all over her house, too. So you wouldn’t, like, blow a fuse. Just, like, taco meat heating up in the bedroom. Like…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: It was so funny. Yeah, it was great. And yeah, I can’t believe they pulled it off and, like, they had to walk all the food from the house to the buffet tent, too, down, like, stairs and, yeah, it was, it was a lot. It was a feat, for sure. It was amazing. Yeah. Would I recommend catering your own wedding? Um. The food was so good and everyone told us how delicious, like, best taco I’ve ever had. Like, people were loving it and that was really nice. And so I think it was worth it for that. And it was nice, too, like in my mom’s speech, she was talking about Sam always cooking for everybody and, like, showing his love through preparing food for everyone and taking care of everyone with his food. And then he got to stand up and be like, tonight I have prepared a feast for you all and, like, made food for 90 people. And uh, that was really amazing and, like, such a nice tie-in to our lives together. So I think it was worth it, but it was so much work and it was a lot of work for the people on the day of, doing it. So just be prepared.

Caroline: Do you think Sam would do it again? Like, have you debriefed about it?

Helen: I think he would, yeah, I think he’s happy that he did. But there’s something to be said for, like, outsourcing things sometimes, you know?

Caroline: Yeah, yeah.

Helen: I think he would do it again, but also, like, he would be happy to eat delicious food made by somebody else, too, you know? So maybe 50-50.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: If we ever do, like, an anniversary party, maybe we won’t cater that one.

Caroline: Yeah, it was just so fitting that Sam made the food for the wedding and it was so delicious and yeah. And your dessert, I don’t know if this is in the notes, but we have to touch on the dessert buffet, dessert potluck.

Helen: Yes. That was the best idea ever.

Caroline: Yeah, that was genius.

Helen: And if you’re having a wedding in the future, dessert potluck. Two words: dessert potluck.

Caroline: Dessert potluck. Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. And we only asked people to bring desserts who were local because we had a lot of people coming from out of town. So we didn’t ask any of those people to do it. We only asked our local friends, um, to do it. And we asked them, we asked about 10 to 12 people to bring a dessert that served 10 to 15 people. And to make some, like, I was like, please somebody make some gluten-free and somebody make some dairy-free stuff. And people really took that on. And so there was tons of gluten-free and dairy-free options, which was really great. And then there was some, like, glutenous and dairy options, too, which was great. But this just the, the sheer variety was so fun. And to be able to just go up to a dessert buffet and just pick whatever entices you was really nice. ‘Cause everybody likes different dessert, you know? Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah. No, I agree. It was so fun to see what everyone brought and it catered to all the dietary needs and I’m pretty sure there were way more than, like, 10 to 12 desserts on this table. Like, people must have brought multiple, you know, some of it was made by the people. I think some people bought delicious things and brought them. Like, it was such a great variety and so fun to see everyone enjoying all the desserts. They were so good.

Helen: They were so good. And yeah, it was so nice to have options. And I think people really enjoyed providing something, too, like being able to bring something to the event. So that was really nice. So yeah, if you’re planning a wedding, definitely try that. It was so fun.

Caroline: Yeah, it was great. I loved it. Such a good idea.

Helen: Yeah. Oh my gosh, Caroline, we have so much to talk about, still.

Caroline: I know. Okay. But we have to touch on everything ’cause everything was so incredible. So this is just gonna be a long episode. Sorry. Sorry, not sorry. Helen, tell us about your handmade wedding favours. ‘Cause this was, I keep saying, my favourite part. It was one of my favourite things. I loved everything, but the wedding favour table that you set up, it had just touches from each of you, which I loved. It was so Helen and Sam. So tell the listeners about it.

Helen: Okay. So I really wanted to have cute wedding favours and I wanted them to be personal and I wanted them to be, like, this is not the right thing, but like, high value. Like, I wanted them to be, like, something people would actually want, like something they’d really be excited about, you know? And so we wanted to have a variety of options, too, so people could pick something they were excited about or take all of them or whatever. And I was really inspired by you guys at your wedding. You had handmade mugs. You made everyone a handmade mug, which is so amazing. And I was like, this is the best wedding favour I’ve ever gotten. It’s so good. Like, to be able to go up to a mug table and just pick a mug, like, that was, like, a dream come true.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I was like, I want my wedding favour table to be as good as that, if I can. I don’t know if it was, honestly, ’cause handmade mugs is pretty good, but.

Caroline: No, it was so fun. It was so you guys.

Helen: Yeah, we had a variety of things. So Sam made his hot sauce, which is, if you’re a Portlander, you probably know Secret Aardvark. And they do sell it in lots of other stores, too. You can even get it in a grocery store here, but it’s a very popular hot sauce, and it’s like a, I think it’s a habanero pineapple mix. Anyway, Sam makes his own kind of take on this sauce, and he calls it Badger Mango. And it is a habanero mango hot sauce that also has carrots and onions and it’s more of a, like, Caribbean-style hot sauce. So he made a bunch of that and canned it and then he put, like, a little sticker on it. So he had a bunch of his hot sauce for people who like it spicy. So you could take one of those. And then he also 3D printed these cute little mushroom magnets that you can put on your fridge and they like look like they’re growing out of your fridge.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: So cute. He printed them in a ton of different colours, so people had the colour options for that and the kids could all take one of those. So that was really fun. And then I made more block prints for the wedding. I did, like, a full size, like, art print, like a 11 by 14 page with a print in the middle so that people could frame it if they wanted to. And I carved this cute little, like, seal print where it’s two seals playing in a kelp forest and they kind of look like they’re chasing each other. And I, I wrote on the little, like, favours sign, like, which one is Helen and which one is Sam?

Caroline: Aw.

Helen: And it says, like, Helen, I signed it like, “Helen and Sam 2026” on the bottom. So it’s, like, very tied in with the wedding. And I made those the week of the wedding. ‘Cause I really wanted to do it, but it was, like, one of the lower-priority things I had to do. But I was like, I really wanna make this happen. So, like, three days before the wedding I was, like, printing 50 art prints and, like, packing them into, like, cardboard sleeves. ‘Cause I didn’t want people who were traveling to, like, wreck the print, you know? So I, like, got the little cardboard and the little plastic sleeve and, like, properly sealed them so that they were more like what you buy at a craft fair.

Caroline: So professional. When we went to your place a couple days after the wedding and you showed us your, like, art room, and Shea afterwards was like, I didn’t know Helen printed every single one. ‘Cause you had this whole setup. He thought you made one and then, like…

Helen: Oh, got it printed? Yeah. Oh, that would’ve been good.

Caroline: But honestly, it, it’s so personal that you hand printed every single one and they’re so beautiful. I definitely brought one of those home and I can’t wait to put it up. It’s so beautiful. And you had this whole setup of, like, a drying rack with, like, all the different tiers so you could have them all drying and, like…really profesh, really profesh.

Helen: Yeah, I love my drying rack.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Thank you. I’m really enjoying it. That was my first time doing a print run and printing, like, a whole bunch of something other than, I guess, the invitations that I did. But like, a print run of, like, art prints with, and putting them on my drawing rack and, like, signing them and dating them on the bottom. It felt very professional. I was like, am I an artist?

Caroline: You are. Oh my gosh. You are.

Helen: I wanna do more. I’m really excited about it. And those ones turned out great and everybody took one, I think, ’cause there was only two left at the end of the night. And I had printed a few extra, but not that many extra, ’cause I didn’t have a lot of time. Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah, I loved them.

Helen: Thank you. I loved our favours, too. It was really nice to have so many nice things to give back to people. ‘Cause we were just so, like I said, grateful that people traveled and made the trip and took the time off work and all the things, you know, when you’re having a wedding, you have to just accept all of the love and support from everyone. And it can feel a bit overwhelming at times. You’re like, I don’t wanna put people out or make people go out of their way or make people travel or all that stuff. But like, they want to and they wanna show up for you. And I was really grateful. So I wanted to give back, so I’m glad we went for it with the favour table.

Caroline: Yeah. I loved it so much. And there were a few other, like, handmade decor elements in the day that I feel like we have to touch on. I love that you have this weekly craft night with your friends, and it sounds like a lot of the last year has been spent making crafts for your wedding, which is so fun. At the wedding, everyone kept telling me, like, you have to come to craft night! And I’m like, I think I have to come coordinate one of my future visits so that I can come to this famous craft night.

Helen: Yes, that would be amazing.

Caroline: But tell everyone about the last few decor elements that you made with your craft friends.

Helen: Okay, so my, maybe my favourite decor element we made was these giant jellyfish that we hung in the tent over the dance floor. And they’re so fun and cool. I’ll definitely take some pictures and videos so we can share more about them. ‘Cause I haven’t really shared anything about them yet, I don’t think. But basically, they are the size of, like, a large salad bowl for the head of the jellyfish, the dome.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: So I got, like, a bunch of plastic bowls at the dollar store and, like, plastic hanging pots and stuff like that. And then we covered that in tissue paper and cellophane. So it had this iridescent quality to it, and the tissue paper was all kind of, like, scrunched, and the cellophane was all scrunched. So it had this, like, very, you know, when you look at a jellyfish, you see it’s all, like, you see all the interior structure and, yeah, lots of cool patterning. So that looked really cool. And then we just kind of covered the exterior of the bowl in that, and then glued a bunch of ribbons to the inside of the bowl. Like, this is literally it.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: A bunch of ribbons and, like, some iridescent organza. I got, like, a bunch of fun craft supplies for this one. It was so fun to shop for just, like, all the different colours of iridescent everything, ribbon, organza, cellophane, tissue paper. And we just went to town and then we added, like, a little organza trim frill around the exterior of the bowl. So they all had, like, a little bit of a, like, floofy frill around the outside. And some people did their ribbons really long and some people did their ribbons shorter and some people different colours and so they all looked a little different, but they all looked like they were part of the jellyfish family. So, they looked so good and they were blowing in the breeze above the dance floor and …

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: They were so beautiful.

Caroline: They were hanging in the tent. Yeah, above all, you know, when you’re sitting at the table, you could look up and see these beautiful jellyfish just hanging from the ceiling and, yeah, they were so striking and so beautiful and, again, just added to these, like, kooky, handmade, like, whimsical vibes of your wedding. There was so much whimsy. I loved them.

Helen: Yeah, me too. I love them too. They really turned out and I, we weren’t sure where we were gonna hang them and I’m really glad that it ended up working out that we could hang them in the tent. ‘Cause they looked perfect up there. And prior to that, ’cause we made these, I think back in like February or March. It was pretty early. And they’ve been hanging in my friend’s living room ever since. So for like six months, almost, they were hanging in the middle of their living room and you had to, like, walk through them to get, like, through their house and part them like a curtain.

Caroline: So funny. Oh my gosh.

Helen: And I kept being like, we can move these. And they were like, no, we like them. You can leave them here.

Caroline: Oh, so funny.

Helen: Yeah. So that was a big element. And then, of course, I’ve mentioned on Patreon and on my Instagram about making the bunting. We made, uh, I think like 50 or 60 yards of bunting. I think it was about 250 triangles that we sewed. And that was also a craft night endeavour. We made all the triangles at craft night and then I just sat and sewed them all onto a piece of bias tape, which didn’t take as long as I thought it was going to. But it was like, you know, once you tie, like, put everything onto a string, then you’ve got this long string that you have to, like, not get all tangled up and messed up. And it was a little bit, it was a lot to wrangle. I just have this, like, giant pile of bunting. It’s still sitting on my work table now. ‘Cause we just took it down and it’s just sitting in a pile and I need to, like, put it away and press it and, like, flatten it out. They’re all like scrunched up now. But it was worth it, ’cause we went all the way around the exterior of the 40 foot tent and then all of the supplemental tents got bunting, too, ’cause we had more than enough. And we hung it with a little bit of a droop. So it was, like, very cartoony, almost. I loved how it looked. I thought it was so cute.

Caroline: Yeah. It really did add to that, like, market vibe. Yeah, and I have to just point out that you didn’t just, like, cut triangles and string them up. You sewed triangles so that there was fabric on both sides and they were finished beautifully. Like, you could have just taken some pinking shears to that fabric. But no, you sewed every single triangle, so kudos.

Helen: I know. I thought if I was gonna go for it and make that much bunting, I might as well make it good so that I can just, I’m gonna use this bunting for the rest of my life. You know, like every time I have a party, I’m putting up bunting.

Caroline: You gotta put up bunting. Yeah, a hundred percent. And it’s beautiful Fableism fabric that you ended up using the scraps for, for our We Sew Scraps episode.

Helen: I did. Yeah. I used every bit of that fat quarter bundle. Thank you, Fableism.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: It was so beautiful and it was the perfect earthy rainbow that I was going for for my wedding. So, yeah, they sent me that bundle for free and I was like, oh, this is perfect. ‘Cause now I can make my bunting for free. So huge thanks to them.

Caroline: Thanks, Fableism.

Helen: Yeah, you’re the best.

Caroline: Yeah, I loved the bunting and I also loved the papier mache mushrooms that you had on all the tables. Again, adding to that whimsical feeling.

Helen: Yeah, the whimsy was out the wazoo. Whimsy out the wazoo.

Caroline: Yeah. So yeah, tell us about the mushrooms.

Helen: We made those at craft night, too. We had three big ones, like, maybe about like a foot in diameter for the cap of the mushroom. And those were really fun. We made, like, a structure out of cardboard and, again, like, a plastic bowl, covered it in papier mache and then we painted it like a mushroom. And then Sam and I did a bunch of, like, greenery arranging around the bottom, ’cause he does modeling. And so he has a bunch of, like, flocking and little greenery elements. And we got some plastic green stuff from the dollar store and, like, made the base of the mushroom also really cute, like a forest-y base. So that was really fun. And those ones we just kind of had around at various tables. And we put lights underneath so they were lit up underneath with these tiny little lights shining down. So that was really cute. And then we also made tiny mushrooms for each of the tables, ’cause we were grouping people by colour. So each colour group had a matching coloured mushroom. Did you guys notice that?

Caroline: I did notice the colour. Yeah. ‘Cause it also coordinated with the dye, right?

Helen: And then everyone had a matching color dye to their coloured mushroom in their colour group.

Caroline: Yeah. Yes. I think we were green at my table.

Helen: Yeah. You guys were light green. Yeah. It was so fun. So we had a bunch of those tiny mushrooms and the, that was just a, like a fun little last minute craft that I thought would be cute because I had all these spice jars that Sam’s mom had given me, like little glass spice jars. And she was like, you could use these for a craft. And I was like, oh, they’d be the perfect base for a mushroom. So we paper mache’d the caps and just glued them onto the glass spice jars. And then we were like, oh, we should fill the jars with something. And so we filled them with coloured beads.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: So each mushroom had like a, if it had a green top, it was filled with green beads and if it had a pink top it was filled with pink beads. and they were really cute. And we had those all over the table. So that added to the whimsy, for sure.

Caroline: So fun.

Helen: We just used, like, flour papier mache. So I don’t know how long they’re gonna last. ‘Cause I know sometimes those can mold.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: We weren’t being precious about it. We were like, these are for the wedding. They’re not for, like, forever, you know?

Caroline: Yeah, yeah. I mean, really, what are you gonna do with all those mushrooms?

Helen: I know. They’re in my garage. What do I do with them? Great question.

Caroline: Yeah. Oh, I feel like they would be fun for, like, I don’t know, a birthday party. You should, like, put them out on Marketplace for free or something. Like, someone might be able to enjoy them before they start expiring.

Helen: And then they can rot in someone else’s garage. Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But yeah, those were the main elements that we made for the day. And we had little, um, place cards, as well, for everyone’s names. It was like a Jaws playing card, ’cause Jaws is Sam’s favourite movie. And I mean, it’s an amazing movie. And he loves sharks. And so we were like, oh, it’d be so cute to have a playing card be the place card. And then I was like, oh, I found these Jaws cards online. And then I basically, like, printed, in the same font as the Jaws font, everyone’s name and cut it out and glued it onto the card. So instead of saying Jaws on the poster, it said Caroline. And then it was like you were getting eaten by the shark.

Caroline: Yeah. I, I still have mine. I love it.

Helen: Yay. Okay. I found some of them around at the end of the night and I was like, people are not taking their Jaws cards home. I’m offended.

Caroline: No, I can see them right over here.

Helen: Oh my gosh. I really liked that element, too. That was really a fun one. We kind of tucked them into the napkin so you couldn’t see the shark until you, like, pulled out your name.

Caroline: Mm-hmm.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: It was really cute.

Helen: Oh, thank you. Okay. That’s all of the decor, I think. But it looked beautiful. It was so fun.

Caroline: It all just came together. I mean, yeah, separately, all of these things maybe feel a little bit random but, like, when you pulled them all together, it just gave the day such a beautiful, fun, whimsical, colourful feel that just felt so much like you guys. So yeah, that was really fun to recap. But this is not Love to Craft, Helen. This is Love to Sew. So we have to move on and talk about the dress, because you sewed your own wedding dress through all of this other DIY that you did for the wedding.

Helen: I sure did.

Caroline: So we have to talk about it. Let’s get into the sewing part of the episode.

Helen: Yes. Let’s, let’s. I really enjoyed sewing for the wedding. I enjoyed making my own wedding dress, and I’m really glad I did. So that’s your little recap of it. To start off, it turned out great. I loved it and it was fun.

Caroline: No, no. Oh, okay. Can we talk about, like, the design process for the dress, and also even just taking it back to, like, did you always know you were gonna make your wedding dress? Did you have any indecision there? Like, how did you decide that you were going to do this?

Helen: I did always know I was gonna make my own dress. I just didn’t know if I was gonna get married. So it was like, if I ever have a wedding, then I’ll make my own dress. But I wasn’t sure about the having the wedding part, if that makes sense. So once we decided to have the wedding, I was like, I’m making my own dress. I did not go dress shopping, in part because I knew I wasn’t gonna enjoy it that much. Like I, we talked at length about that when we did your wedding dress recap episode and how frustrating it is to try on dresses when you’re not small. And so I just didn’t. There’s nowhere in town, first of all, to do that here. So I’d have to travel to try on dresses. And I just wasn’t that interested in that whole thing. And I kind of had my vision for what I wanted for the dress and I knew I was gonna make it anyway, so I skipped that whole part. And I did not go dress shopping.

Caroline: Yeah, yeah.

Helen: And no regrets there. I mean, it would be fun. I would love to go dress shopping in a store that carried every dress in my size and I could try them all and that would be great. But I knew it wasn’t gonna be that, so I didn’t go.

Caroline: It’s not the reality. Yeah.

Helen: So I did decide to do my own dress and I decided to go with the white dress, the princess dress. I went pretty classic, big skirt type, bodice, lace, and white. And I did consider making a different coloured dress or doing something a little more out there. I thought about making a quilted dress. I thought about making, you know, like a bright yellow dress or something. I wanted to stand out and look different than all the other beautiful guests at the wedding. And I knew I wanted to wear a dress, but I wasn’t sure about the white thing to begin with. But after a while, looking at inspiration pictures, I was like, you know, if I’m gonna do it, if I’m gonna go for it and have the wedding, I just wanna look like the bride. I just wanna look like a bride in the white dress and just, like, have the moment. So I decided to go for it.

Caroline: Yeah, I think it was the right call.

Helen: Yeah. And I felt beautiful, so yeah, I feel really good about the decision.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay, so tell me how, like, fancy was your dress? How much work went into it?

Helen: A lot of work went into it, but I don’t personally feel like it was that fancy of a dress. And I think, when you’re a sewist trying to decide if you wanna make your own dress, that is something you have to sort of figure out at the beginning is, like, what are we doing here? Are we doing fitted corset, bodice, you know, multiple layers of fabric, structure? You know, like, there’s just, how involved are we talking here? Or are we just doing, like, let’s make a nice dress in white fabric and wear that? And I, I think I landed somewhere in the middle. It’s not super fancy. It doesn’t have the bodice boning and all that kind of stuff in the top or anything. But it is very fancy looking, fancy presenting, but maybe not fancy in the actual, like, construction of the dress is fairly simple. And then the lace obviously elevates it to that fancy look. But again, I didn’t use a lot of couture sewing techniques and I didn’t go above and beyond, kind of making it really well, I guess. I kinda just sewed it.

Caroline: Yeah. But you, you are a very precise sewer, sewist, and I think the fabric that you chose and the fit of the dress in the end really elevated and it made it feel like expensive and so custom. And maybe not couture, but it was fancy. It did feel, like, very special.

Helen: It did. And it felt special wearing it. And it was quite heavy by the time I finished it, which made it feel fancy. Like, when I was holding it in my arms, I was like, there’s a weight to this. And you put it on and you’re like, oh wow. It feels like I’m putting on something momentous, which I suppose it really is, ’cause it’s your wedding dress, so that makes sense. But yeah, I didn’t wanna embark on a project where I had to do a bunch of techniques I’d never done before or work with a fabric I wasn’t comfortable working with. I was struggling with the idea of making my own dress and kind of the pressure around It being, like, the best thing I’ve ever made. You know, like, like this is sort of the pinnacle of all of my sewing experience and all of my sewing projects, and like, it’s all been leading up to this moment and now I’m gonna make this dress and it has to be like the most awesome thing I’ve ever made. And like, that was weighing me down, you know? Like, I was like, it’s too much pressure. I am not actually a couture sewist. I don’t work with these kinds of fabrics very much. This isn’t actually my wheelhouse, you know? So to put a lot of pressure to make something absolutely incredible when you, like, you don’t actually necessarily have all the skills you need and, like, the expectation that people are gonna be, like, watching it and seeing what I made, like, there was a lot of feelings around that that I was struggling with and trying to figure out, like, am I going this direction ’cause I feel like I should? Or is it what I want to do? So I had to work through a lot of that when I was, like, in the process of it. But I did and that was all a part of my process and in the end I’m really happy with what I ended up with.

Caroline: Yeah. It is kind of wild that we put so much pressure on ourselves about what we’re gonna wear on our wedding day and what it’s gonna look like when it’s just one day.

Helen: It’s one day. And ideally, yeah, you don’t wanna be thinking about it, too. Like, you don’t necessarily wanna be so focused on how you look on your wedding day. Like, it is a big part of it. And I was struggling with that, too. Like, I have to look my most beautiful I’ve ever looked and I have to make the most awesome dress I’ve ever made. And like, I had to let a lot of those things go as I was working on it and it helped to let those things go because it’s just, that’s not the reality of the situation. It’s about your love and your relationship, and you’re gonna look beautiful no matter what because you’re gonna be absolutely glowing. And also, it doesn’t matter if you look the best you’ve ever looked on your wedding day.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: It’s just, that’s not important.

Caroline: Well, you did look amazing and you looked like yourself, and I think that’s exactly how you should have looked.

Helen: Yeah, that was my goal, for sure. Yeah, I wanted to be comfortable. And it helped me a little bit when I was working on it to think of the dress, in general, as more of a costume than, like, a fancy dress. Like, it was like getting dressed for, like, Halloween or something. Like, I don’t know why that really helped me, and that might not be helpful for everybody, but it is like you are dressing up in a way that you don’t normally dress up. And so thinking of it as a costume made me realize that I didn’t necessarily have to make it super fancy. I didn’t necessarily have to sew it super well in some cases, some areas, you know? It’s, like, one day, and you’re just dressing up for the day.

Caroline: Yeah, and costumes are, like, less precious, so I think that’s a really healthy way to look at it.

Helen: Yeah, exactly.

Caroline: So did you go into this kind of having a vision for the dress, or did you go with, like, an inspiration picture in your mind? Like, how did you decide what direction to go in the end?

Helen: I had a vision for how I’ve always kind of thought my wedding dress would be like if I ever got married…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Which is like a tight fitting spaghetti strap bodice and big skirt. That was kind of, like, the vision going in. And so I did start a Pinterest board and I pinned a bunch of versions of that. But I didn’t have, like, one dress that I was like, this is the one I’m trying to recreate. It was just more the general vibe a bit. So I had a pretty clear vision from the jump of what I wanted it to be like. And then it was just a matter of, like, finding the right fabric and then experimenting with the fit of the bodice and then deciding how long I wanted it to be. That was kind of a big part of the decision, as well, because it was an outdoor wedding. And ideally I would have, like, a full length dress all the way to the ground, but I also knew that I didn’t want that on the day. Like, I didn’t wanna be holding it up as I walked around this yard or worrying about getting it dirty. So I ended up going with a little bit of a shorter hem, like a, an ankle length, kind of similar to what you did for yours. Like, it’s just above the ground so that you don’t have to worry about it. And it was really great. I love not worrying about it.

Caroline: Yes. Okay. So, obviously, we’re gonna be posting tons of pictures in the show notes and on our social media. So listener, please go over there and see what the dress looks like. You gotta see it. But your initial vision is pretty much what you ended up doing.

Helen: Yeah. I ended up using our Lockhart sewing pattern as the base for the bodice. And I modified it a little bit ’cause it has kind of a straight across neckline. And so I modified it to have more of a scoop neckline. And I lowered the neckline a little bit ’cause I wanted to have a little bit more chest showing. And I took out one of the seams in the back ’cause I wanted to have the lace uninterrupted in the back. So I removed one of the seams, but I didn’t change it all that much. I just kind of took that bodice and I started muslining it and tweaking it. And it’s nice because it’s a pretty small bodice, so it was pretty quick to whip up muslins of it and, like, I could cut the neck line with scissors and experiment with different necklines with that. And for a while I was considering doing those little princessy drapey shoulder things that, like, come from the bodice and go around the shoulder and like they just kind of hang there like a little beautiful…

Caroline: Like a swoop.

Helen: A little swoopy thing. Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I had those pinned on for a little while and I was like, oh, this is kind of cute. But ultimately I decided they would just annoy me on the day.

Caroline: Yeah. Not, it, it makes it harder to dance, right?

Helen: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then for a while I was experimenting with a dropped waist, as well. ‘Cause I thought it’d be kind of cool to have the the tight-fitting bodice extend onto my lower torso and then have the skirt come up from there.

Caroline: Which looked amazing, too.

Helen: It looked really good. Yeah. I ended up doing a wearable muslin of that and I was torn, for sure, but I decided I would be more comfortable on the day with the, just the high-waisted skirt because then it hits right at the natural waist and underneath that it’s, like, I don’t know, it’s just comfy.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: So much volume. You can’t see anything.

Caroline: Yeah, okay, so tell me about the fabric that you used and where you sourced it from and all that.

Helen: I got my fabric on Etsy. Initially, I was just poking around looking for different laces. Ended up on Etsy, was like, oh, there’s so many different options on here. I found a reputable shop and was browsing through their stuff and I saw this fabric and it’s, like, an embroidered tulle, so it’s like a tulle base, and then there’s embroidery on top. So it kind of looks like a lace, but it’s not a lace, it’s an embroidered tulle, which I now understand are different things. And it’s on an apricot base, so it kind of has this, like, really warm tone to it. The lace or the embroidery itself is white, but then the base makes it really feel, like, almost orangey, like champagne or cream or something, when you layer it over white.

Caroline: And it wasn’t, like, a bright white, right? It was kind of like a off-white, ivory, or was it bright white? I can’t remember.

Helen: It’s pretty bright, honestly. Yeah, I think it’s just the apricot that really gives it that less bright tone.

Caroline: It sort of, like, softens it.

Helen: I look really terrible in bright white, so I knew I didn’t want that. I wanted something a little bit off or creamy, ivory, in that realm. You’d probably be able to tell better. Maybe it is an ivory embroidery. But when it arrived, when, after I ordered it, it was all folded up and it looked, like, so brown. Like, when the apricot tulle was, like, folded in on itself, it was, like, so dark. And I was like, oh no, this is not good. And then I unfurled it and put it on top of my white and I was like, oh, it’s perfect. So that worked out well. But yeah, I just, I randomly found them on Etsy and randomly bought, impulse purchased the lace from them. I did get a yard first just to, like, see if I liked it. And then I ordered the, like, I think six yards that I ended up getting. ‘Cause I wanted to have plenty for the, all the gathering and also just in case I made a mistake.

Caroline: Yeah. Nice.

Helen: Yeah. So sourcing the fabric was not too challenging. I kind of just went with my first idea, best idea.

Caroline: Yeah, I love that. And what did you use for your, like, underlay fabric? ‘Cause there were a lot of layers in this dress, right?

Helen: Yeah, I used cotton poplin and cotton voile, or voil, as I like to say. I, I ended up layering the cotton voile under the embroidered tulle to kind of hide the seam shadows. ‘Cause when I initially had just the embroidered tulle and the cotton poplin, and then the lining, I could still see a little bit of the seams through it. So I ended up adding a third layer. It’s kind of hard to describe in audio format, but anyway, the bodice ended up being four layers plus the interfacing. So I interfaced the lining and the underlining for the tulle. So there was a lot of interfacing, which is what I wanted to do because I didn’t wanna wear a bra. So that was kind of giving the bodice the structure that it needed to feel like it was holding me in and giving me support on the day, without having to add any boning and stuff. And I definitely could have, because it was collapsing into my sides a little bit, like I could have added structure. And some people were saying that when I was posting my progress videos and stuff, which is totally fine. I appreciate the feedback, but I was like, I just don’t want hard bits.

Caroline: Yeah, you don’t want hard boning digging into your side.

Helen: Yeah, I just wanted to be, like, easy, breezy, squishy on the day. So I went no boning.

Caroline: I think it ended up having enough structure. Like, it was structured. But like, as long as it was still comfortable for you, I think you had just enough structure in there. I’m curious, like, was it difficult to keep all of those layers looking flat and smooth? Because it did look so beautiful. Beautifully finished and, like, I really didn’t notice anything askew at all. So how did you manage so many different layers of fabric on your bodice?

Helen: Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, I underlined the tulle with the poplin and the voile, so it was, like, two layers underneath. And then I, basically I sewed that on each piece individually before I constructed it. I, like, underlined it.

Caroline: Did you hand sew it?

Helen: I just machined sewed it, which I was regretting because, after I machine sewed it, there was a lot of, like, puckering and it wasn’t looking, like, it wasn’t lying very flat. And I was like, this is the moment where I should have just taken my time and hand sewed it. In the end, it didn’t really impact the bodice fit because I managed to get all of that puckering out, like just kind of smoothing it out. But I feel like it was just more stressful than it needed to be in that moment. I should have just gone in with my hand sewing needle and just did running stitches around the outside. But it was one of those things where I was like, it would be so much quicker if I do it on the machine. Hahahaha.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: So yeah, it all worked out, but I would recommend using hand stitching for that, to avoid getting any puckering. And I’m glad it looked like there wasn’t any issues. I felt like there was a little bit of rippling right along the princess seam that went over the bust that I just, like, could not get rid of. Even, like, pressing and, like, clipping into that seam and, like, trying to like get it to smooth out. And I think maybe I should have added a little bit more room there for the boobs, and that might’ve helped with that issue. But anyway, that was the only spot on the bodice where I was like, oh, I just want this to not be wrinkly. But of course nobody notices that but you.

Caroline: Yeah. A sewist is their own worst critic.

Helen: Mm-hmm.

Caroline: I, I did not notice that. I think it was so beautifully finished. And I loved the placement of the embroidered tulle. You experimented with all different placement for the, kind of, motif and the way that you ended up placing it gave it sort of this, like, sweetheart, almost, outline.

Helen: Yeah, it had, like, a scoop neck, but then there was, like, a sweetheart design element ’cause of the placement of the tulle. And I used Instagram for that, too. Or I posted a video asking people which lace placement I should do, which was really fun. ‘Cause there were so many different elements on this lace. It was like selvage to selvage different, all the way down, like a border lace almost, or border embroidery. So It kind of had a direction and it seemed like it was flowing down from one selvage to the other. So I used, basically, from selvage to selvage, the whole design on the dress with, like, the top edge being the bodice and then the bottom edge being the hem. So it really worked out, like, the way that it ended up placing it. I was able to use all the design elements in the lace and it was super fun.

Caroline: And beautifully pattern matched.

Helen: Thank you. I had so much fun pattern matching the bodice and it all just worked out. Like, it felt like it was meant to be. ‘Cause I was cutting all my pieces and they were all lining up and it was just, like, so satisfying. And then I knew that I didn’t have to worry about the skirt as much, ’cause it was just a big gathered skirt. So I was putting a lot of my effort into sewing and fitting into the bodice and then I was like, I’ll just slap the skirt on at the end.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: which is basically what I did.

Caroline: Yeah. And what did you use for your lining in your skirt?

Helen: So I used, for the lining of the bodice, I also used the cotton voile. And then for the skirt lining, I underlined the tulle with the cotton voile and then I used this, like, random bolt of fabric that you gave me when I came to Blackbird. Do you remember that? We were, like, running around the warehouse looking for white fabric and you were like, you can have this bolt. And it was just, like, rayon or something. Like, it’s not even, like, a super high-quality fabric, but it was really nice and light and swishy. And so that’s what I ended up lining the skirt with. And it was great because it was really soft against my skin and it didn’t weigh very much. So it was kind of the perfect final layer for the inside of the skirt.

Caroline: Yeah. And all the fabrics you chose were quite breathable, so I imagine you were feeling pretty breezy.

Helen: I did. Yeah. And it was a tank top style, so I had pits out. So I was pretty breezy.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Pretty breezy on the day, but it was still quite heavy and there was a lot of layers on the bodice and I was still, and it was, you know, like, it’s Vancouver Island and it was raining that day, so it was like a hundred percent humidity. And like, I was like, I was definitely still sweating. Both Sam and I were. But more comfortable than we would’ve been if it had been really sunny. So I’m really grateful for that and I’m glad I went with the design I did. ‘Cause it did feel breezy and it was nice to just have, like, a big skirt to kind of stomp around in. I loved the feel of it flowing around me as I walked around the wedding. Yeah, I really enjoyed that.

Caroline: Yeah. It looked so good. And you would think that you save money on a dress when you make it yourself. So I wanna know how much your total spend was on this dress and do you think you saved money?

Helen: I mean, it really depends, right? If you’re buying a dress new from a dress shop, yes, I think I saved money. But if I were to buy, like, you know, a thrifted dress and have it altered, then I don’t know, maybe? I spent about $400 on the fabric, the lace and the underlining and, you know, and there was an invisible zipper, but that was pretty much it. And that does include some other lace I purchased from the same store that I didn’t end up using. So I have that in my stash now. Who knows what I’ll do with it. But I was like, you know, trying to, I was waffling between options, so I ended up buying some stuff I didn’t end up using. So if you were more careful, you could save a little bit. But yeah, it was definitely an expensive make, but you would expect that much from a wedding dress. So I feel pretty good about where I ended up budget-wise. And it’s definitely cheaper than it would’ve been to buy a new dress.

Caroline: And I mean, we are not factoring in your time, so…

Helen: No, of course not. If it was my time, it would have cost, like, $50,000.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. So how many muslins did you make? Like, how much time do you think this dress took you?

Helen: I think I took maybe, like, about six muslins of the bodice. And then I made a couple of wearable muslins, too. I made two, like, full wearable muslin dresses. I was not keeping track of my time, I’ll be honest. I should have been, for this moment, and I could have anticipated this, but I have no idea. Like, at least 40 hours, probably. All in, at least? I don’t know.

Caroline: Yeah. I was, I have to say, surprised by how long it took you to actually start making the final dress. Because when I…

Helen: Excuse me?

Caroline: No, but when you, because I…remember, you bugged me so much when I was making my dress of, like, when are you gonna start? When are you gonna start? And you know I’m a last minute gal. So when you said you were gonna make your dress, I was like, oh, Helen’s gonna finish her dress like six months in advance. Like, ’cause you’re usually very good at that. You’re very good at doing things in advance, on schedule. So when you hadn’t, like, started your actual dress in July, I was like, you gotta do it, girl.

Helen: I know. I was surprised by myself, too, that I kept leaving it. And people kept being like, how are you feeling about making your dress? I was like, I haven’t started yet, so don’t ask me about it. I did start early. Like in March, I was making muslins and I was planning it and I bought the fabric and, like, I had this vision and I think, after the initial few muslins I made, I was like, okay, I know what I’m gonna do. And that knowing what I was gonna do made it just, like, no big deal to wait, I guess.

Caroline: Yeah, you were like, I know I can get this done, so I don’t have to rush it.

Helen: I do think it would’ve been good to do it a little bit earlier. But it’s hard to sew something so important that far in advance, too, ’cause you wanna make sure that it’s gonna fit you on the day, as well. So I didn’t make my wearable muslins until June ‘cause I was feeling inspired to make summer dresses. So that timing worked out well. And then I didn’t actually start the dress until, like, July 11th. I looked through my phone and found my first video that I took of actually working on the dress. So my wedding was on August 22nd. So that’s not, like, a lot of time at all that I was cutting my actual dress out. Like, what if I had made a mistake or ended up hating it or something, you know?

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But I didn’t feel that worried. I wasn’t, like, freaking out that I was running out of time. I was just kind of like, once I started it, I was like, then I’ll sew it. And I felt like I could sew it in a few days of dedicated sewing time. It did take a bit longer than I thought it would, just, especially the skirt part. ‘Cause there was multiple layers and gathering. And then I decided to add pockets ’cause I wanted to have pockets, which I was so glad I had. It was so nice to have a place, like, I could put my whole phone in there and I had tissues and I had sunglasses, lip gloss. Like, I had all the things in the giant pockets and you couldn’t even tell ’cause the dress was so full. So that was really nice. I was able to carry all that stuff around with me. So yeah, the skirt took a little longer than I thought it was going to, so I probably should have started sooner. But I’m also happy that it worked out, you know? Like, I guess it all worked out, so I did the right thing.

Caroline: And you pretty much finished, like, a couple weeks before the wedding, right?

Helen: I did. Yeah. I wasn’t sewing the night before, which I got, throughout the process of doing this and sharing it online, lots of other people’s stories about making their own dress, and a lot of people working on their dress the night before the wedding.

Caroline: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I can’t imagine. Yeah. Even myself, as a very last minute person, I finished at least a couple weeks before my wedding, which is, it’s really nice to check that off the list, especially when you’re also sewing other things for the wedding,

Helen: Yeah. I know. It wasn’t the only thing that I made. But yeah, I was glad I finished ahead of time, ’cause I had so many other things to work on. So it was nice to have it done. But I do love how it turned out. I love how pretty it is. It made me feel like a princess. I love the shape of the bodice. Love the hem. I think the hem might be my favourite part. There was a scallop detail to the embroidered tulle that I kind of just cut around and then made it longer than the lining. So it was sticking down from the dress and you could see through it. And it just looked, like, really pretty and dainty. And I was really waffling on what to do there because I wasn’t sure if I just, like, take scissors to the edge of this tulle and cut around it, if that’s gonna look really cheap. Like, should I have done some more couture finish? But in the end, it looked absolutely gorgeous and it didn’t need to be that fancy to be beautiful, you know? So that really worked out.

Caroline: Yeah. No, the, the hem was really, really beautiful. How was it working with this tulle? Do you have any tips for anyone if they’re thinking about working with a fabric like this?

Helen: It was okay. It was very snaggy.

Caroline: Okay, like, if you had dry hands or if you had a hangnail or something?

Helen: Exactly. Or like, or like the sharp edge of my work table sometimes catches fabrics or like stuck on a pin or something. Like, tulle is just a bunch of holes, right? So there’s so many opportunities for it to get snagged. And I was really worried about accidentally brushing up against a corner and ripping a hole in it. Like, it just didn’t feel like it was super strong. I don’t know, it was really beautiful. I don’t know if it felt like it was the highest quality of fabric, but I don’t work with these kind of fabrics, so I feel like I’m not a good judge, too, you know? Like, it was absolutely gorgeous. It looked so good, but the feel of it, I was like, is this a high quality? It kind of felt like it could just rip, you know?

Caroline: Mm-hmm.

Helen: But I’m like, that, maybe that’s just tulle.

Caroline: Yeah. And I mean, you reinforced it so much with all those layers and underlining, so it doesn’t really matter. It’s just one day.

Helen: Yeah, exactly. It made it through. I definitely would say, don’t put a seam ripper anywhere near it, ’cause you will rip a hole in it. That happened to me.

Caroline: Oh no, did that happen to you?

Helen: I was trying to rip a seam on the bodice that I had messed up and I did what I usually do, which is just to, like, stick the seam ripper in the middle, like, kind of pull the seam apart and stick the seam ripper in the middle of it.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Which, in hindsight, is so stupid. I wasn’t thinking and it was late and, like, I tried to rip up the seam and of course it just ripped a hole right into the tulle. So I had to recut that piece which is fine. I had lots of fabric, so it was okay. But in the moment, I was, like, very upset about it. Obviously, I’m like, I just ripped a hole in this dress. So I think, like, I should have flipped it over to the backside and done, like, the individual stitch, pick out on the side of the seam, on the top of the poplin, which is more stable. But you just can’t put your seam ripper up against the tulle, ever. It just, well, you’ll rip it, for sure.

Caroline: Yeah. That makes sense.

Helen: Yeah. And then the other kind of PSA I have is that, when you gather tulle, it becomes a different colour. Like, I was talking about how, when I got the fabric, it was very dark when it was all bundled up together. Like, it looked almost brown in colour. And so the bodice is super flat and then I’m connecting it to a gathered skirt. And so, that moment where the two meet, there’s a colour shift, like, the gathered tulle, because it’s kind of all bunched up together and it has all these folds in it, it reads darker than the flat tulle, if that makes sense. So the bodice and the skirt look like slightly different colours. It didn’t affect me too much. Some people were warning me about that when I was working on the dress, and I noticed it, for sure, but I was like, I don’t think it’s that bad with this particular tulle. But it could be, depending. You can kind of see it in the pictures and videos if you’re, like, aware of it. You’re like, oh yeah, it is a slightly different colour. But also that can be kind of nice, you know? It, like, breaks it up a little. But something to be aware of, you know?

Caroline: No, that makes a lot of sense. That’s a good tip for someone working with a fabric like this. Okay. Anything else? I feel like we’ve covered a lot.

Helen: I know. so many things. Okay. I have a few more things.

Caroline: Tell me.

Helen: I made the straps by layering just, like, a piece of the non-embroidered portion of the tulle over top of the white fabric to make the strap, just so that it would, like, match the colour of the dress, but didn’t have any, like, lace on it. And I did my usual, sew lengthwise down the thing and flip the tube inside out.

Caroline: Oh my God. Was that impossible?

Helen: It was really hard to do. And, like, I did snag the tulle on one of them. I had to redo it. And then also, after I had flipped it inside out successfully, it was, like, because the tulle’s kind of slippery, the poplin was all, like, kind of bunchy inside the tulle. Like I couldn’t get it to lie perfectly flat inside the tulle casing, if that makes sense. Like it was all, like, kind of, there was some wrinkles and, like, I just, you know, it wasn’t perfect. Anyway, I decided I didn’t care and I just sewed them on the dress and I never thought about it again.

Caroline: You know what? It just goes to show.

Helen: Yeah, exactly. I was like, does this matter? No.

Caroline: Some things are really stressful in the moment and then it literally doesn’t matter.

Helen: It doesn’t matter. I was like, I’m gonna have my hair down. No one’s looking at these straps. It’s totally fine. So the straps are not perfect. And the other thing I wanted to say about it not being perfect is that I never fully finished the dress.

Caroline: What do you mean?

Helen: I finished it like two weeks early, as we said, and then I had this intention of sewing a waist stay into it. And I also never closed the waist of the dress. So like if you go in between the lining and the outer fabric, like, you can go all the way to the strap. Like, there’s no connection.

Caroline: Oh, you didn’t close it up. Okay.

Helen: I never closed it up. And I had the [01:23:00] intention of doing that. I was gonna hand sew it closed and I was gonna add a waist stay to take some pressure off the zipper, and I just had so much going on that I just, like, never did. And then a few days before the wedding I was like, okay, I, I probably should do this final step. I tried the dress on again and I was like, you know what? I don’t care anymore. It’s done. It’s done. I don’t need the waist stay. Like, it’s gonna last the day. It’ll be fine. It’s not so tight that I was, like, super worried about it. I was just kind of like, oh, it would be nice to add this nice, like, fancy thing and it would be cute. And I was like, oh, I should finish-finish the dress.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: And I never did. And it was totally fine.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. You know what? Good for you. You didn’t need to do that and you didn’t.

Helen: And I didn’t. And yeah, it was, it was, it all worked out in the end. It was completely fine. And it wasn’t that I didn’t care, at the end, it was just that I had come to the realization that it just, like, wasn’t the most important thing about the day. And it was already great. Like, the dress was great and I was gonna wear it and it was gonna be great. And I was super happy with that. So I was ready to move on.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Aw. So how did it feel to wear your handmade dress on your wedding day?

Helen: So good. It felt so good to put it on. Sam and I got ready together. We didn’t, like, hide our outfits from each other. ‘Cause, obviously, I made his shirt and he saw me making my dress. So it was impossible to have, like, a reveal moment. And we didn’t want to go with that. So we got ready together, which was really cute. And it just felt really good to put the dress on and we both looked so good in our outfits. And it was amazing. It felt really comfortable. I was super happy to be braless, really happy to have a tank top style dress, swishy skirt. As I mentioned, the short hem was really nice. Like, I didn’t think about getting the dress dirty at all as I was walking around, which I think was the right call. So yeah, it felt so good to wear it on the day and I was really proud of myself. Like, I really loved the dress and it made sense that I made my dress. And it was fun to show it off to all my friends and family. And everybody thought it looked great. So yeah.

Caroline: Yeah. You looked incredible.

Helen: Thanks.

Caroline: It was so fun to see you in a handmade dress. Obviously, you were always gonna make your dress, but it was just lovely that you made your dress, Sam made the food. It felt so fitting.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Okay. Do you have any advice that you would give to any listeners out there who are maybe wanting to make their own wedding dress?

Helen: I would say to go with your gut. Like, it’s really hard to start, I found. It was really hard to decide what to start with and just to, like, get in there and start messing around. So I think, like, go with your first gut instinct and give yourself a chance to play. Let yourself just jump in and try something and realize you don’t like it and fail fast. You know, all that kind of stuff. Like, just get in there and mess around and give yourself the chance and the permission to play around with ideas and, like, you will get there eventually. You just kind of have to, like, start.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: And then I would say don’t make any more of a big deal of it than you want to. I got really caught up in all these thoughts about how it had to be this special, amazing thing and it was really special, but it doesn’t have to be the best thing you ever made. It doesn’t have to be absolutely fricking incredible. You know, it can just be a beautiful dress. Like, make it what you want it to be and don’t, don’t feel like you have to make a bigger deal of it than you need to, you know?

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: And then I would also say plan to wear a dress that lets you focus on your partner, your loved ones, having the best time ever at your wedding, not a dress or an outfit that makes you think about the outfit all day, or like something restrictive or uncomfortable. It was so nice to be in something comfortable that I was not thinking about at all. I was just wearing the dress, but I wasn’t aware of wearing the dress, you know?

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I loved that.

Caroline: That’s really good advice.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Do you have, like, a big win that you wanna acknowledge in the wedding dress making process?

Helen: I think the matching up of the lace on the bodice is my favourite thing about the dress. And definitely the biggest win of that project. So that would be the one, for sure.

Caroline: Aw, it did look so good. Oh, okay. Listeners, you have to go and look at pictures of this dress. Maybe we’ll even have a video up.

Helen: I hope so. I’m still waiting on my photographer photos, but I’m gonna see if I can get them before this episode comes out so we can share those. But if not, I definitely have a few other pictures. And there’s a video on the Helen’s Closet Instagram of the dress. You can check that out. And there’s process pictures on the Helen’s Closet blog if you wanna see some of the behind-the-scenes of the making of the bodice and of the skirt. I have posted about both of that. Yeah, this was so fun. It was so fun to recap the wedding with you. Thank you.

Caroline: I know. It was so fun. It was so fun. I loved hearing more of the behind the scenes, even though I was privy to a lot of it along the way. It’s fun to, like, recap and just acknowledge all the work that you put into this. Should we, is there anything else that you wanna talk about, about the day of the wedding?

Helen: Oh my gosh. I mean, special moments for me: the flower children walking down the aisle before I walked down the aisle. They were so cute. And we’d done like a little rehearsal when we were on our family vacation this summer, where we were using just, like, dried leaves and they were practicing. ‘Cause a lot of them were like, what’s a flower person do? What do they..? They weren’t aware of the whole wedding procession and all that. And we weren’t having, like, a super formal one. So I was like, it’s just gonna be you walking down the aisle in front of me and then I’m gonna walk down after you. That was it. We didn’t have a wedding party or anything like that. And so we did a little rehearsal and they were so cute walking down the aisle and the dogs were…like, there was three dogs on the property, including Emma, and they were all over, like two of them were in the aisle when we were walking down the aisle, like, in the way.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: It was so funny. The kids had to, like, step around them.

Caroline: Yeah. Very friendly dogs. I feel like there were more than three dogs. There were like five dogs. No?

Helen: Oh, there was four. It’s true. ‘Cause Koola was there, too. Yeah, you’re right.

Caroline: Yeah. It was so cute.

Helen: They were so cute. Yeah, so that was really fun. And yeah, I walked, we had just, like, one song. I used the music from The Holiday for our aisle music, which I thought was hilarious. And so the kids walked down and then I walked down right after them. And I think, like, ’cause there was no break in the music, people didn’t know whether or not they should stand. You know, usually you stand for the bride.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But everyone was sitting watching the flower children. Then I just, like, went for it. So I was like, okay, my turn, I’m walking down the aisle. I’m like halfway down the aisle. People started standing up and I was like, “All rise for the bride!”

Caroline: Oh yeah. It was funny.

Helen: It was so funny.

Caroline: Sam’s brother probably should have said that, or Brett, but…

Helen: We didn’t do a rehearsal. That’s something I would definitely recommend. It just, like, we kept intending to and then we ran out of time and we were like, we just went for it. And . honestly, it was fine ‘cause I didn’t, again, the ceremony, I just wanted to be, like, about our vows and not about anything else, you know?

Caroline: Yeah. The vows were so good. And it was funny! Like, your ceremony was funny. There were, people were laughing. The kids were so cute. You guys were so beautiful and in love, and it was just, like, the most touching ceremony. We loved your vows. There wasn’t a dry eye.

Helen: Oh, everyone kept coming up to me and being like, you made me cry so hard. Like, how dare you.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah, no, people seemed to really love the, and they were beautiful vows and I was a little nervous about that part of it, like, just being at the center of attention and everyone watching you and saying all these very meaningful things out loud and crying and like all that stuff. I was feeling a little nervous about it. But then, once I got up there and I was in the moment with him, I was really in the moment and I was so glad that that was the case. ‘Cause I was worried I was gonna be, like, thinking about other things and not present in that moment. But everything just kind of fell away. And I read the vows and we did kind of make them funny. We both had jokes in our vows. And our vows were really similar, too, which is really cute. We had similar things to say about our relationship. Obviously, we’re both in it, so that makes sense.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: But it was just really sweet. It felt really special and I loved that moment. The ceremony was really nice. Yeah, so that was really great. And I think my other favourite moment was after we did our first dance. We kind of had it just, like, run right into the next song, which is the first song of our, like, dance playlist. And everyone got up and started dancing and the dance floor was just, like, packed. Like, it was so full and everyone was dancing. That was, like, another one of my favourite moments. It was just so fun that everyone came and joined us and we were all busting a move and we had a really great dance party for the whole evening…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: And that was so fun. And Sam and I changed into different outfits for the dance. After a few songs, we went and changed into our little matching floral outfits, which I shared on our…

Caroline: Yes, which you also made.

Helen: They’re so cute. Little matching…yeah. Uh, had a little dress and he had a little short and shirt set. And we were so relieved to change. Oh my gosh. We were so hot and tired of wearing our full-length garments. So it was really nice to change and just be able to dance and be comfortable and be cute.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. So that was great.

Caroline: And you made aprons.

Helen: Oh yeah, yeah. When Sam had that moment where he was, like, talking about the food, ’cause we stood up at the end of the speeches and I gave a little thank you speech, or I thanked everybody for coming and all that jazz, and thanked my craft night crew and stuff for helping and, and then Sam had his speech, which was about, like, what he prepared for dinner and the food that we were about to eat. And then at the end of that we were like, okay, let’s get ready to eat. And I, we took out our aprons that I had made for us. And they’re matching pink and red striped Sam Aprons. And we put them on in front of everyone. And it was cute because I could hear everyone go “Ohh!” Everyone thought it was so cute. And then we were wearing those for the duration of the dinner and dessert, which was nice, ’cause I did not wanna spill anything on my dress. So I felt very protected by my apron. It was very appropriate.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and what was your first dance song?

Helen: Oh, we did “Somewhere Beyond the Sea.” (singing) Somewhere beyond the sea, somewhere waiting for me.

Caroline: It was great.

Helen: Yeah. Another thing that we had picked out for like a decade, like, we were like, if we ever get married, if we ever have a wedding, that’s the first dance song. We’d already chosen.

Caroline: Aw.

Helen: So that was easy.

Caroline: Yeah. One, one of the decisions were taken care of. But you also made the playlist, which was so good. Your dance party playlist was impeccable.

Helen: Thank you.

Caroline: Every single song was an absolute banger.

Helen: Yes, yes. I had so much fun making it. And yeah, I used all the, like, transition capabilities that Spotify has to, like, blend the songs together. And, like, it’s really cool. You can, like, cut off like whole sections of songs and, like, because sometimes songs go on forever and when you’re having a dance you really don’t need that. So I was, like, cutting off whole chunks and, like, blending them together and finding perfect little transitions. It was so fun making the playlist. I had a great time.

Caroline: Yeah, yeah. You did such a good job with that.

Helen: Thanks. But yeah, I could go on and on and on, Caroline. It was so perfect. It really did feel like the perfect day and we’re just so happy. We’re so happy we did it. After waiting for so long, it’s like, was it worth the effort? Was it worth it? Uh, absolutely. A hundred percent. I’m so glad we finally decided to go for it and have the big party and it feels like it was at the right time in our lives and we had the wedding that really felt like us and I’m glad we waited and I’m really glad we did it.

Caroline: Oh, I’m so glad that you are happy. Congratulations. You pulled off the most beautiful event…

Helen: Thank you.

Caroline: And now you guys are married.

Helen: I know. We can do married stuff.

Caroline: Yeah. You can call Sam your husband.

Helen: I have been doing that and it is really fun. I’m enjoying it. I also am really enjoying seeing his ring on his finger.

Caroline: Aw.

Helen: ‘Cause I’m, you know, after 16 years you’re just so used to seeing people a certain way. And he has never been a jewelry person and now he has this ring on and so I keep noticing it and it makes me really happy.

Caroline: Aw, I love it. Okay, well, thank you for sharing with our listeners.

Helen: Oh my gosh, my pleasure. That was so fun. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Caroline: It was so fun. Well, that’s it for today’s episode of Love To Sew. You can find me, Caroline, at Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns, and Helen at Helen’s Closet Patterns and Cedar Quilt Co. And we’re recording in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: You can support Love to Sew and get access to bonus content by subscribing on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. You even get access to the back catalog of bonus episodes and that’s over a hundred hours of Love to Sew. Go to patreon.com/lovetosew or check out our podcast page on Apple Podcasts for more info.

Caroline: You can head to lovetosewpodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, leave us a message at 1-844-SEW-WHAT. That’s 1-844-739-9428. Or send us an email at hello@lovetosewpodcast.com.

Helen: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant and Jordan Moore of The Pod Cabin is our editor. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Caroline: Bye-bye.

Helen: Bye.

 

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