Saturday, January 22, 2011

Vegan wedding dresses

Well... I failed at posting again the same week as my last post. 10 days later isn't too terrible, though, right? I thought today I'd share a few of my favorite handmade, vegan wedding dress finds.

I bought my dress from a neat little shop called Olivia Luca. The coolest thing about the website/shop is that you design your own dress. In the design studio, you choose the neckline, skirt shape and length, fabric, color, and detail (for example, a sash around the waist) for your dress. For my wedding dress (no pics until after the wedding, of course!), I chose to use the organic cotton for a vegan and eco-friendly option.

There are a few other cute dresses I found by other small, handmade business. My favorite is probably Sarah Seven. She builds her dresses off of vintage bustiers, how cool is that!? Most of her dresses are silk (which, if you're fine with that, have at it!), but she has a few that are made with tulle or netting. Like this lovely elope dress:

Photobucket

Ouma and Holly Stalder also make cute dresses. Ouma is for the ballerina, tutu-loving, girlie-girl in us all. Holly's dresses are again mostly silk, but she works with a lot of tulle, and I'm sure she'd be willing to line with something else if asked. Holly also makes adorable vintage lace shrugs. I was afraid they were a bit fancy for the look I'm trying to achieve, but my mom convinced me I needed one. So I ordered one, and I am NOT regretting that decision. She worked with me to make a shrug with details I love in a hand-dyed color to match my wedding theme. My shrug is AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL and probably my favorite part of my wedding attire at this point.


*Just as a note, here's why I don't wear silk: I'm definitely not a fan of bugs, but I absolutely cannot support boiling alive THOUSANDS of silkworms for ONE dress. Especially for a wedding. That should be a time of happiness... not genocide! But that's just my opinion, and you certainly don't have to agree!


EDIT:
I found another pretty awesome dress! See here. It's not technically a "wedding dress" but the designer has made it as a wedding dress for several customers. I just adore the mix of an old-fashioned structure with modern, box-y ruffles. An interesting note on the designer, Liza Rietz: she also tours with a rock band. A life of rock and fashion, what a lucky lady!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Happy New Year!

I totally suck at being a blogger, BUT!!! it is now 2011, and 2011 will be a great year. One of my New Years resolutions is to blog more frequently. I think a lot of my problem is that with the upcoming wedding, I just have TOO MUCH to blog about, and I'm just not sure where to start. Well! I solemnly vow to blog tomorrow...ish. Ok, how about sometime this week (...that's reassuring).


While I'm on the topic of New Years resolutions, here are my other ones:
- Reduce the amount of processed foods I eat (aka, cook from scratch a lot more and avoid that darn microwave)
- Practice yoga 4-6x a week. I think I'll up this to 5-6x in February. Gotta look perfect for my wedding!
- Keep the apartment cleaner. This one is a complete failure so far... Lazy, lazy me.


I also had some other personal health goals for the past few months with which I'm having various levels of success:

- No more caffeine! I'm probably doing the best on this one. I do have a cup of green tea about every other day or less, and I still often have decaf coffee. So, I'm getting a little bit of caffeine, but I've cut back SUBSTANTIALLY. I highly recommend giving up caffeine. I can tell a huge difference in my daily... umm... sleepiness? I sleep less overall (which is a good thing because I often sleep 10+ hours), and I feel much more awake throughout the day.

- Don't have sugar or agave nectar. They're just not natural. The sweetness is too concentrated. I've resorted to brown rice syrup and maple syrup (YUM) for my sweeteners, though I really rarely have sweets at all. If I make myself a cup of (decaf) coffee, I'll add about a teaspoon of maple syrup. It's still not the best sweetener for you, but I love that maple flavor. Plus, it has at least a little nutritional value (it contains a decent percentage of calcium, iron, and a few others). If you do decide to try some maple syrup go for Grade B. Grade B is boiled at a lower temperature, and therefore retains more of its nutritional value.

- Reduce soy intake. I'm terrible at this one. My huge weakness is still soy lattes (and, of course, Starbucks' soymilk is sweetened with what I can only assume is sugar *sigh*). I don't know what it is about lattes... they're just happiness in a cup to me. I can't find any definitive sources on soy, but it has enough supposed good and bad health effects that I've personally concluded it's probably fine to have in moderation. This is, of course, assuming it's non-GMO (aka not genetically modified).


Alrighty then, I'll be back later this week! Hmm which topic to choose then... (Oh, and I apologize for the lack of pretty pictures)