DIY Wedding Mishaps: My Husband Had Bug-Eyes During Our First Look | Tutorial Tuesdays

Should we? Shouldn’t we? The first look wedding moment has become quite the controversy. In our case, it was yet another DIY wedding mishap. My man had the bug-eyes! And oh, how I wish I had it in my wedding video!

I’m not a fan of the private first look for a few reasons:

• It almost always looks like a scripted moment for the benefit of the photos
• It puts pressure on the groom to react a certain way
• Your wedding is about more than just you and him

Seriously, I married my man because he’s all man. That’s my preference. If he had cried during a first look, it wouldn’t have been him. It wouldn’t have been real. He would have had some reaction, but a real, true reaction is what you have when no one is looking. And why? Because everyone is looking at the bride. I just wish I had someone there in the crowd with a smartphone. Someone recording video, who aimed it at my man, to capture the bug eyes. Here’s a little back story.

The Wedding Dress Alterations

Yes, I was crazy enough to make my own wedding dress when I didn’t know how to sew. That was bad enough, but I didn’t take into account the alterations. Knowing how to sew is one skill. Knowing how to create custom alterations is a completely higher level of skill. Once which I did not possess.

Luckily, a friend of mine was a part time seamstress for traveling Broadway productions that came through our city. We assumed it would be no big deal to do the alterations.

One of the final steps in creating a wedding gown is to attach the bodice to the skirt, tailor it, and then sew in the zipper. The custom tailoring is what separates an off-the-shelf gown from couture. My dress was to be couture.

We took careful measurements and began to adjust the bodice so that the neckline would like even, if my, ahem, boobage, was not. As we made alterations, little bits of fabric was removed. And then more little bits. And more. But the bodice fit perfectly and looked beautiful.

The skirt fit perfectly. It was a little heavy, but fit perfectly.

And then the moment of truth; attaching the bodice to the skirt.

We failed to take one important thing into account. The nineteen yards of tulle in the skirt. Have you ever held nineteen yards of tulle? One yard may be light. Maybe ten. Not nineteen. And not nineteen yards of tulle with eight yards of dupione silk on top, when you include the train.

The weight of the skirt pulled down the neckline. A lot. A whole lot.

I had a healthy cleavage, but had never ever shown it off. We had cut off the fabric to make the neckline even, and it was even. It was now a very even, very low cut wedding dress. And now that the fabric was gone, there was nothing we could do about it.

The photographer kept carefully placing my bouquet all day

The Bug-Eyes

The wedding day arrived. I carefully got into my beautiful handcrafted wedding gown. I donned my homemade veil and headpiece and put on my gloves. My bridesmaids and I headed over to the church in our vintage limo and then had the hilarious steam iron incident. After the priest finished giving me an earful about being late for my own wedding, it was time to walk down the aisle.

Everyone was looking at me, including my man. And jaws dropped.

My previously concealed cleavage was right there for everyone to see. Lots of it.

While everyone looked at me, no one looked at the reaction on my man’s face. But I know. I saw those bug eyes. It was a raw emotion in a real moment. No pressure build up. And boy do I regret not having that on video!