Weddings! Calling from the vintage, and going to the Chapel of Love.

Prerequisite: It might be obligatory for you to be listening to Chapel of Love by The Dixie Cups while reading this newsletter. Also, if your name is Jean-baptiste, you’re absolutely not allowed to read any further.

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I’ve never been one to dream about what my future wedding would look like, as I always imagined that when I found *the one* we would run away to Europe together to elope. Just the two of us and our love (and our love for the patina of Europe). The biggest plot twist of my life is that now I live in Europe. How the heck did that happen?!

When we got engaged in January, I was pretty clueless about the many details and steps involved with wedding planning. And I knew that the language, cultural, and religious components of marrying in France were going to add extra layers of overwhelm for me. At the beginning of planning, I found myself Googling ridiculous things like “how to be a bride in France.” Why were there two legally-required celebrations in France? Does that mean that I am planning two weddings? Will I be murdered by Les Français if I don’t wear white or a veil? Oh la laaa la laaaaa! I think the best article I found during this search was Vogue’s “How to Get Married like a French Woman.” It didn’t calm me down, but it did feature an image of Brigitte Bardot in one of my newly-favorite movies (read more about that below). This made me feel like I can do this whole thing on my/our own terms. I wouldn’t describe myself as traditional, so I prefer to not follow too many rules anyway.

I’ve been letting my mind and creativity run wild with dress shopping and it has undoubtedly reactivated my childhood love for fashion. I’m 100% not sure yet if the three 1970s vintage dresses and the one 1950s dress I purchased will work, but I am trusting the process. And yes, at the present moment I have FOUR vintage wedding dresses because I’m a true lunatic!! I have some decisions to make and two dresses to sell. I couldn’t pass up the treasures I found—they were a steal!

Here are some parts of wedding couture history that I adore. These inspiration photos oddly mimic elements of the different dresses I have. Plus, I’ve included some contemporary options that follow some of the vintage counterparts’ design rules. BEAU-TI-FUL, all of them.

The Brigitte Bardot

I recently watched Two Weeks in September, a 1967 French-British drama showing Brigitte Bardot and Laurent Terzieff running off together in gorgeous outfits, showing picturesque city and countryside sceneries, and sharing some over-the-top smooches. Bardot plays a French model who is off in London for a photoshoot. While there, she’s busy questioning her sturdy love back home. She’s modeling a wedding ensemble when she finally allows herself to succumb to Terzieff’s character. She jumps in his vintage red Fiat and before you know it, they’re in Scotland. They spend the night in a pile of hay—with Bardot still in the wedding dress—and then extend their séjour until Bardot is cranky (and somehow not resembling a hay-tangled, barn-ridden sheep). After 10 days of 4x4 camping in Scotland this year (albeit I wasn’t wearing silk chiffon), I looked more much more rough than she did. The movie is a grand adventure, and her wedding ensemble is dreamlike.

Here are some other decades and trends that I noticed (aka fell in love with) while searching for inspiration and dresses:

1930s silky goodness

Clockwise from top left: Chanel, 1930s; Madeleine Vionnet, 1935; unidentified 1930s silk bias cut gown

Fitted column gowns and ballgowns of the Fifties

Clockwise from top left: Bob Bugnand gown from 1957; Jacques Heim ballgown; Audrey Hepburn’s gown in the film Sabrina; Dior velvet gown as photographed by Richard Avedon; Carven pleated organza and cutwork ball gown, mid 1950s

Dramatic 1960s headpiece veil

Clockwise from top left: 1965 Dior wedding ensemble; Sophia Loren in Dior in Paris, 1968; Nina Ricca wedding ensemble, 1963; Ana Karina’s wedding to Jean-Luc Godard with the most perfect rose hairpiece, 1961; Dior again!

And one more of Margaux Hemingway’s wedding to her new husband(s?) in Paris, 1975:

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Below are some contemporary dresses that I absolutely love, which also happen to have some visual cues to the vintage ones above.

Keep in mind that I didn’t choose these ones because I was purely seeking something old. Plus, they are either: far out of my price range, too short for my tall body, and/or maybe a little too on-the-wild-side for me to bravely wear.

Molly Goddard’s Everly Dress - I adore shirring and the dress I obsessed over for many months had material similar to this. It was a million dollars over my price range, so I had to let the daydreams crash and burn. But, the texture will live on forever in my thoughts!