{The Return of Lace}

Dear Bride-to-Be:

Whether you are wearing a lace gown or just have a bit of lace-trimmed lingerie for your wedding day, lace has a special legacy for brides. So I thought you would enjoy this article I wrote, recently published in the winter issue of Season magazine.
....with love from Cornelia

The Return of Lace

Its early Venetian name, Punta in Aria—“stitches in air”—said it all: ethereal and mysterious. Lace has charmed and bewitched both men and women for centuries, worn as high-status fashion accessories at a time when you were what you wore! When lace became de rigueur for aristocratic brides, it was worn for its prestige (only the rich could afford it) as much as for its beauty (lace always captivated!)

There are stories from centuries past of brides who wore yards and yards of precious handmade needle and bobbin laces—worth a king’s ransom—but modern wedding history starts with Queen Victoria. Big white wedding gowns have been around since she broke with the silvery custom and chose “plain white” for her wedding in 1840. To make a statement—after all she was already queen of an empire—she called on England’s beloved yet faltering lace industry to create deep borders of handmade Honiton lace to trim her dress and silk tulle veil. Of course her wedding was highly publicized so the lace legacy was re-ignited and became associated with brides through the 1950s, highlighted by Grace Kelly’s silk taffeta gown with a fitted antique Brussels lace bodice and high collar. (What 50s-era bride didn’t want to look like a princess?)

Even when lace was out of fashion, it was typical for American women making a voyage “to the continent” to bring back a rose point lace veil from Belgium or Valenciennes lace yardage from France with dreams of a wedding in mind. Through the social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s, lace as well as traditional wedding ceremonies took a back seat until Princess Diana’s royal nuptials turned weddings back into stylish events and romantic, lace-trimmed gowns became the favorite of 1980s brides. (The lace appliquéd on Diana’s corseted bodice once belonged to Queen Mary, Prince Charles’ great-grandmother.)

In the 1980s and 90s, my bridal art-to-wear shop in Atlanta followed this practice of incorporating vintage laces into new gowns—“elegant recycling” as one of my designers called it. When creating Lady Mary’s wedding dress, Downton Abbey’s costume designer used this technique by repurposing an antique lace veil she found; it became the centerpiece in a delicate crystal-trimmed, tabard-style silk chiffon confection inspired by royal brides of the early 1920s.

Of course the most memorable lace revival was Kate Middleton! Her sweeping designer wedding gown with its sheer long sleeves and lace trimmed bodice and skirt—laces handmade by artisans at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace—set the fashion runways abuzz. Other royal brides followed suit with sumptuous dresses of the finest machine-made laces: Sweden’s Princess Madeleine married this year wearing a Valentino pleated silk organza gown with an open lace bodice; Princess Stephanie and Princess Claire of Luxembourg royalty both recently wore dreamy Elie Saab couture gowns with crystal- and pearl-encrusted Chantilly lace like something out of the most shimmering fairytale … and something only lace’s mystical filigree nature could inspire. □

[This is a reprint of my article, "The Return of Lace," featured in the winter 2013-2014 issue of Season magazine. To read it in the magazine's layout online, scroll to page 46.]

{Truly Divine}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
As you are choosing flowers for your wedding, remember that the sense of smell is considered “the most ancient and magical sense, acting as a sort of sensual medium between heaven and earth,” according to author Christopher Bamford. “A scent or perfume was thought to express the inner essence or spiritual nature of a thing,” he added. Therefore using fragrant flowers for your wedding is like sharing something truly divine!

Use your wedding planning time to express your inner essence. When you feel yourself getting stressed or when your “to do” list keeps getting longer, pause…take a quiet moment for yourself and do this little exercise:

• Close your eyes and take several slow, deep breaths ... putting your attention within, gently and slowly breathe in and out until you find your center.
• Once feeling more centered, now imagine roots from the bottoms of your feet sinking deep into the Earth, grounding you.
• With this sense of feeling more centered and grounded, imagine your heart opening ... and opening even wider with each easy, deep breath.

Now in every gesture and expression you offer to others, give the most generous and grateful version of you—that’s your inner essence! Follow the lead of those fragrant flowers: Don't be stingy with your essence...spritz everyone you meet today with something divine! A heartfelt bit of you....

Love. Listen. Let go...
...with love from Cornelia

[Photography: Daniel Sheenan]

{You Don't Have To Be Someone Else}

 

Dear Bride-to-Be:
"Women are having more fun with fashion in general...and they're bringing that spirit to their weddings," writes a Martha Stewart Weddings blog post called Bridesmaid Dress 101. I love that women are playing with choices and infusing their creativity, passion and good taste into their wedding celebration. "You don't have to become someone else (read more traditional than you are) for that one day," advises designer Peter Som.

And I really like how the designer shares with brides about selecting dresses for their attendants, "Seven Tips for Dressing Your Wedding Party." Each tip is about fashion and looking more beautiful, yet it's wrapped in a bit of wise counsel inspiring a beautifully intuitive life:

• Don't Go Changing
• Please Yourself
• Turn the Lights On (or Off)
• Accessorize Wisely
• Be Sensitive to the Season
• Remember, Prints Have Their Limits
• Consult Mother Nature

I found in these ideas a reminder that everything in life can be a message for your spirit...if you just look beyond the surface and see into the heart of the matter. Now that's really beautiful!

Love. Listen. Let go.
....with love from Cornelia



[Photographs: Martha Stewart Weddings]

{Your Wedding Bouquet, Forever}

 

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Flowers are "the poet's darling" as William Wordsworth shared ... and simply a must for weddings, yes? Whether it's a bunch of hand-picked wildflowers from a meadow or a finely-crafted formal bouquet -- flowers and brides and weddings make a divine combination!

And now your wedding flowers can be "forever." My artist friend, Pat Fiorello, will paint a glorious version of your bouquet ... then you will have a memorable piece of art forever! As Pat explains: "No matter if your style is soft and romantic or bold and dramatic, an original painting of your wedding bouquet will keep the memories of your special day available to you after the real flowers are gone."

Like love, as another poet writes, a flower "yearns to be carried away." Hmmmm ... in our bustling, busy world, aren't we blessed to have inspired poets and artists remind us how to cherish love and the beauty of flowers deep in our hearts!

Love. Listen. Let go.
....with love from Cornelia

 

Click here to read all about Pat and her work in watercolor and oils.

{A Handkerchief for Your Wedding} Part Three: "Soft Sighs & Deep Breaths"

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Handkerchiefs and weddings—along with the likes of languid moments, love and courtship, soft sighs, and “taking one’s breath away”—have a long poetic history together. And if you were lucky enough to have a close relation skilled with a needle (and many people did up until the middle of last century), then you’d have your own special handmade wedding handkerchief to sigh over. Perhaps made from near translucent Belgium linen or fine cotton from Portugal with a lush border of rose point bobbin lace for her and for him, a spacious, white lawn handkerchief with hand-rolled edges and embroidered with his initials.
 
Beautifully fetching handkerchiefs may evoke a more leisurely era as well as their costumed weddings; however, there’s a romantic melodrama that spins around weddings of any era. Weddings of the past and present are like a microcosmic slice of real life magnified and when planning a wedding (no matter how small or quickly assembled—even if it’s “Let’s hurry over to the courthouse!”), emotions swirl and time seems to speed up and slow down all at the same time. In our hurry-up world, whatever the occasion, maybe we need to stop and sigh every now and then. Oh, not for any melancholia—but just to enjoy the beautiful, take-your-breath-away blessing that life is.

When I had my bridal shop years ago, to help my customers ease the pace, relax into their bodies, and enjoy their rite-of-passage ahead, I would tell stories taken from wedding folklore, adding my own twists with a bit of goddess legend and mystical mythology woven in. I didn’t wave a hanky for dramatic effect, but I did take slow, unhurried breaths—with exhales not unlike a sigh—and soon my listeners were breathing deeper as well; they became more relaxed, even more sympathetic to mother or daughter or partner or whomever appeared as the source of their anxiety. Sometimes we miss life’s magic if we don’t slow down (letting go of the drama) and take a deep, long, easy breath.

So keep a pretty handkerchief handy—even if just as a reminder to take a few soft, languid moments to look within and refresh, relax and regroup.

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

[Handkerchief images: Karen Augusta]