Stephanie & Roman’s Ukrainian Wedding

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

All of the pho­tos tak­en on the wed­ding day by Kar­la Korn Pho­tog­ra­phy.

www.karlakorn.com

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Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Stephanie showed up with her wed­ding dress still in pieces and none of her embroi­dery fin­ished — or even start­ed. Need­less to say we were both more than just a lit­tle bit stressed with her wed­ding day just two weeks away. We had spent over twelve months plan­ning her dress. We had gone over every­thing: the design, fit, fab­ric, embroi­dery, col­or, and coor­di­nat­ing acces­sories. What hap­pened? Why wasn’t it done? The answer is sim­ple. She is Ukrainian.

I have learned over the years from watch­ing my mom, aunts, and oth­er Ukrain­ian women that Ukrain­ian women ALWAYS put every­one else first. (I’m not toot­ing my own horn here. I am only half Ukrain­ian, and can only hope to be as self­less as these women some day.) There­fore I wasn’t sur­prised to learn that Stephanie had spent the last 6 months grow­ing and can­ning veg­eta­bles as wed­ding favors, set­tling into a new house, shop­ping over­seas for Ukrain­ian blous­es for her wed­ding par­ty, and even help­ing anoth­er friend pre­pare for her wed­ding. There­fore it seemed only nat­ur­al she would have embroi­dered her fiancé’s shirt before even begin­ning to sew her own pieces!

So after about a year of plan­ning, we had less than 24 hours to: (1) final­ize a new wed­ding dress design & sew it, (2) fin­ish embroi­der­ing and sewing the groom’s shirt, and (3) fin­ish the acces­sories includ­ing the groom’s Ukrain­ian. But we worked through the night and luck­i­ly fin­ished the dress and shirt before Stephanie left town.

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
All the pat­terns that were made dur­ing the process

Then about a week before her wed­ding, I cor­rect­ed and fin­ished the rest of her acces­so­ry pieces before express ship­ping it all out to her. (And thanks to my mom she also had a Ukrain­ian embroi­dered garter. Thanks mom!)

The wed­ding dress design changed a lot through the plan­ning & design­ing process. I think we orig­i­nal­ly tried to do some­thing that wasn’t quite pos­si­ble or even as flat­ter­ing as one would like, and as a result we went through many mock-ups and designs.

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

One thing we knew for cer­tain, Stephanie’s dress would be knee-length and full. She is a Ukrain­ian dancer and want­ed a dress so she could spin in! (Unfor­tu­nate­ly I was unable to see her wed­ding dance, but it looked amaz­ing and FUN in the pho­tos!) The full­ness and pat­tern of the skirt changed through­out the process. We tried a few dif­fer­ent cuts: cir­cle, gath­ered square cut, and semi circular/full skirt cut. After decid­ing upon a silk and wool fab­ric, we made a black silk and wool sam­ple skirt. How­ev­er the full “cir­cle” design seemed too much like a “poo­dle” skirt, so we chose to go with a skirt design that was not as quite as full as “cir­cle” skirt.

I think the fin­ish prod­uct was per­fect! It took a lot of effort, but in the mean­time I made a life long friend!! (And her efforts were well worth it! Her canned goods were delicious!!!)

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
Groom’s shirt linen was from Ukraine

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, br
Stephanie did all the Ukrain­ian Embroi­dery & Merezka

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian wedding favors

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
Stephanie’s PERFECT embroi­dery! If I showed you a pho­to of the frontside and then a pho­to of the back­side, it would be dif­fi­cult to know which side was the front!

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
I had no choice but to sew the pieces togeth­er before the embroi­dery was fin­ished. Stephanie fin­ished the rest of the shirt embroi­dery just days/hours before the wed­ding.
She did a fan­tas­tic job!!!
Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
Inside the groom’s shirt
Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
I made the Ukrain­ian shirt with a tra­di­tion­al Ukrain­ian shirt pattern.

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

 Inside Out

ukrainian wedding cake topper

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
The one and only FINAL dress fitting.
Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
Silk Slip made for dancing/spinning

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
I absolute­ly love this photo!
Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride
Ukrain­ian embroi­dered wed­ding garter

Ukrainian, wedding, dress, embroidery, floral, silk, wool, sewing, fabric, lace, merezka, gold, white, ivory, charmeuse, ukraine, full, skirt, blouse, shirt, bridal, bride

I LOVE SILK AND WOOL FABRIC!!!

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Here is a col­lage of just a few of the ideas/photos from the design process:

MOCK UPS STEPHANIE

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Ukrainian embroidery

It took a lot of effort, but in the meantime I made a life long friend!!”

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