Our wedding attire
I got the dress secondhand and it cost $240. I found it one afternoon on Poshmark and pulled the trigger in a matter of minutes. It’s from BHLDN, Anthropologie’s bridal line, and originally had short sleeves but I had it altered. I thought it looked very Downton Abbey with the beading, fabric, and color, but felt like the sleeves made it look a little too informal; I mean, really it was meant to be a bridesmaid dress I think, and it’s actually a slightly sandy/seashell pink color, so I didn’t want to stray too far from your traditional white formal gown by having a T-shirt silhouette. The tailor also shortened the straps so that it hit at my natural waist, shortened the hem, and brought it in two sizes because I was sort of swimming in it. When I got it back, I also cleaned up some of the beading, which I think was falling apart a bit from it being secondhand. The overall effect of the alterations made the bodice resemble a ballet costume, which I thought was fitting given that the color is similar to that of ballet slippers.
For the shoes, I found this pair while browsing DSW. I was originally going to get a cream colored suede pair with a platform heel, and ended up finding those and wearing them for the rehearsal, but these jumped out to me because they were a perfect match with the dress and beading. As for the jewelry, I was originally going to wear some jewelry with sentimental value. But I decided it might be too busy, so instead found some simple (fake) rose gold/diamond things at Kohl’s. The were each something like $7.99, haha.
Chris’s suit was much harder to pin down compared to the dress. We scoured the Internet for a tweed suit in a warm tone, which we felt would go well with the autumnal timing, and we finally found one by Oliver Wicks, and placed the order in the spring. We decided on dark brown rental suits with waistcoats for our best men (our older brothers) and officiant (our close friend Sam). For the ties, we wanted to stick with fall colors, but this was also a bit of a puzzle when ordering online; none of the fall colors were in stores when we looked in person over the summer. We landed on a “dusty rose” for Sam and pumpkin orange for the best men, all with matching pocket squares. For Chris, we decided on a burnt orange and a floral pocket square. I learned to fold the pocket squares myself and pinned them all together. Chris added a tie clip and pocket watch too! And although the suit was custom made, he did have to get it tailored as well.
My sister-in-law and I also chose a velvet dress with a “spice” color, since she accompanied Juliette down the aisle. I made a lot of collages during the clothing selection so that I could imagine how it would all go together!
Vyshyvanky
Again, another inspiration from my cousin Emily’s wedding! The night of her rehearsal, she and her mom and brother wore vyshyvanky, or traditional embroidered shirts/dresses. She also did a photoshoot in an ankle-length vyshyvanka shortly before our grandfather passed away (he and my grandmother were both first generation Americans descended from Ukrainian parents), and featured it in her engagement photos. There aren’t many times when one has the excuse to order a beautiful vyshyvanka, and the wedding is how I justified ordering one for myself. I ended up ordering two actually; due to the conflict in Ukraine, I wasn’t sure the first would arrive on time, so I ordered a backup that was secondhand. Both ended up arriving within the last few weeks. Interestingly the secondhand one fit my much better, and it featured embroidered roses (my middle name, and my grandmother’s name) but I landed on the first because it was whiter in color, had more of an autumnal embroidery palette, and I was able to pin the slack (it was super baggy in the chest and hips) and wrap the belt so that it fit better. I also found a number of coral namysto, a traditional necklace, and had fun layering those. In fact, the first vendor even included a namysto with the dress (note, the longer strands with varied bead shapes). All of my mom’s family got on board with their own vyshyvanky, and it was so fun to see everyone together in one group with their ensembles!
As mentioned in another post, I found two kid-sized vyshyvanky for my niece and nephew, too—both made in Ukraine. Juliette was our flower girl, and hers was a dark red linen dress with a tulle lining and white embroidery, while Teddy’s was more traditional, with red and black embroidery on white linen. They are seriously the cutest little quarter-Ukrainian kiddos I’ve ever seen.
We decided not to get one for Chris because he wasn’t yet married into the Ukie family, and instead just landed on a color that complimented everything. We did find a really neat cardigan that seemed to have patterning that was adjacent to Ukrainian styles, but unfortunately it was all sold out at the time.
That’s all I can think to recap for now, since we don’t have photos of food and such yet. I can’t believe that a year and a half of planning are finally done and now we can just sit back and relax. All well worth the work, of course! We couldn’t have pulled it off without the help of everyone around us.
