Wedding disasters come in many shapes and sizes. Less than an hour before my own ceremony, my father — a largely imperturbable man — offered to throw the best man out of the wedding. And all the best man had done was wait until the night before to try on his dress whites and discover that they no longer fit and then substitute a sweater like this one under his suit coat. The issue was resolved without bloodshed and now, nearly twenty years later, my mother can laugh about it. Sort of. Important safety tip: Never trust an engineer to dress himself appropriately.
That was, in the scheme of things, a small wedding disaster. Others loom large, silent, and deadly….like the iceberg in 1997’s Titanic. Silly and pretentious scripting aside (and what’s the big deal about DeCaprio?), the costumes in the film were beautiful. I’m sure that many brides have been inspired to choose these styles over the traditional high-tackiness that pervades so many bridal salons.
In a “Titanic Wedding Disaster,” the mother of the bride recounts her tale of woe that begins when
a. the groom’s mother offers to make the bridesmaids dresses,
b. all seven of them,
c. styled after a beaded dress in the movie,
d. but without a pattern
In other words, “Iceberg, dead ahead.”
To be fair to the seamstress, the quality of material used to make Kate Winslet’s dress was probably not the $10 a yard variety. Still….. Important safety tip number two: You get what you pay for. Quality costs.
The Very Merry Seamstress is an excellent resource for reproduction clothing of many eras. I’ve been reading her blog, The Stitch, since 2003. I was excited to read recently that Simplicity will be publishing her patterns in an upcoming catalog.
Rumen Nation 
wowww! that is a scary story. I passed it off to my sis. Her son is getting married in June and she is fretting over necklaces! LOL. this will put everything in perspective.
That story is absolutely harrowing!! My daughter’s wedding is one of my happiest memories–she chose the second dress she tried on. I had the bridesmaids dresses made and the so-called wonderful seamstress made a mess out of them. But the girls were good sports and we just let it go. (Chiffon tea-length skirts need a stitched waistband, not an eleastic tube waistband!! Those hemlines were all over the place. And the boat-necked silk dupioni blouses shouldn’t have revealed bra straps.) The funny thing about the story (if funny is the right word) is that it proves it IS possible to put together a wedding quickly. I learned the wedding racket is just that, and the industry has convinced brides they MUST have AT LEAST a year to plan a wedding. Phooey!
Jane Ann, you are soooooo right. Since when did the wedding become more important than the marriage? I had one Matron of Honor — I told her my colors and then suggested that she go pick out something she liked and might like to wear again someday. She was happy, I was happy, and on the day of the wedding she looked comfortable.