LDS Weddings and Modest Wedding Dresses

By Melissa Lambert

When I was planning my wedding, I couldn’t figure out why my mother was so obsessed with all the tiny details. After the reception, though, I understood: It’s the details that make a wedding reception memorable. One small detail that can make a big difference in helping your guests enjoy and remember your reception is the wedding keepsake.

If you have a little bit of extra money in your budget, giving a small keepsake to your guests is a perfect way to thank them for their presence and friendship. It’s a way they can take their memories of your reception home with them.

Looking in wedding magazines is a good way to get ideas for keepsakes you could use. But keepsakes can get expensive, so be creative! Search for ideas in unexpected places, like trading company catalogs, gardening catalogs, and school supply stores. Maybe something will catch your attention and give you an idea of something that you could give to each of your guests.

Here are a few creative ideas that will catch your guests’ attention and help them remember your wedding reception:

1) Candy. Traditionally, people have given Jordan almonds and chocolates as wedding keepsakes. Candy stores and catalogs often have great ideas for how to give chocolate. I’ve seen tiny boxes that contain truffles, and small cellophane bags filled with mints. Candy is always a popular treat to send home with your guests!

2) Seeds. For our wedding, we gave our guests shakers filled with wildflower seeds and attached to each one a label (in our wedding colors) with our names, wedding date, and quotes about marriage and gardens. All our guests had to do was shake the seeds out in the garden and wait for the wildflowers to bloom! You could create a less expensive version of this keepsake with packets of seeds.

3) Goldfish. I have a friend who bought a goldfish for each family that attended their reception, and placed them in tiny clear goldfish bowls. The goldfish bowls made lovely place settings. You could enhance the effects by adding tiny artificial rocks in your wedding colors.

4) Bubbles. Bottles of bubbles are very inexpensive in trading company catalogs, but with a personalized label they make a fun gift. You could give them to all your guests, or to the children in your wedding party. They also create a light-hearted effect if you tell the children to blow bubbles throughout the reception.

5) Mix CDs. Create a CD full of songs that have special meaning to you and your new spouse. Add a label with a photograph of the two of you, and your guests will be able to gain more insight into your relationship as they enjoy the music you selected.

There are many other things you could give as well. For example, we thought about giving tiny bamboo plants or printing one of my favorite poems on plantable paper. If you try to make it personal and meaningful, your guests will certainly be happy to receive it!

Find low cost and unusual wedding favors at Oriental Trading Company and My Wedding Favors.com.

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“My friend bought a dress for $3000, and there was no way a savvy spendy like myself could dish out that much dough for a dress you wear once. After trying on about 600 dresses, I found what elements I liked from which dresses. I compiled the parts I liked and came up with a sketch of my own. Luckily, I have an aunt who used to make wedding dresses as a career. She offered a lot of help and advice (and gave me some leftover satin!) and I was able to make my own wedding dress. For dress, veil, shoes, and accessories, I spent under $120! Everyone knows someone who has some sewing know-how. My best advice is don’t be afraid to ask! You don’t have to sit down and do it yourself. Seek out those who can help you create your own unique dress.” -Leah Higginbotham

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“I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot on my wedding dress and that I wanted to make it myself. I picked a pattern that I liked but because it wasn’t completely modest, I made the alterations myself by adding to the pattern and making the changes I needed. I also put a train on it that was detachable. The greatest thing is that the dress itself cost under $50 with the fabric and everything. The making of it was a chore but I was able to make my dream come true of making my own dress!” -Jenne Alderks, Stockton, California

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Amy Radvansky from Lugoff, South Carolina was recently married in the Salt Lake City Temple.

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“I’m from Argentina and that’s where we got married. There aren’t any “modest clothing” stores like here; if you happen to find a modest dress, go for it. Or just (like me) have a seamstress make it for you. In my case I designed it. Checking on American modest wedding gown websites helped me find details that would make my dress unique. I totally love it! I didn’t want it to be the typically plain Mormon dress (they are pretty, but they lack of details that make them original). Some brides-to-be want a plain long sleeved dress to be able to wear it in the sealing room, but Temples provide dresses for the ceremony so you can have your modest outstanding wedding gown for the pictures and the reception!

My dress has a transparent “overskirt” that closes on my left, where the corset makes a little tip. The corset is completely separate from the rest of the dress and it has diagonal embroidery with beads (that I made myself). The embroidery ends in the tip of the corset on the left, where the over skirt closes. And the sleeves are just half sleeves with the detail of that transparent fabric in them (sorry, I owe you the names of the fabrics; I have no clue). I felt like a princess, and hey! there’s nothing wrong with that… why not feel like a princess on the day of our wedding? We made it to the Temple, we deserve to look and feel beautiful!

A little advice: Don’t wear super high heels, least of all if they’re brand new. You’ll be tired and the heel is not worn out, so you might be subject to slipping and falling… haha!” -Paula

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See YOURSELF here!

Send us your modest wedding picture with or without your new Hubby. Email it to jen “at” jenmagazine.com and include your name, city, state, and whatever else you want to say.

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By Carly Warburton

So you’ve found the perfect man, the perfect dress and the perfect location. But, have you thought about the perfect bridal makeup? If you decide to do your makeup yourself, there are a few tips to follow that will help the best day of your life be even better!

1. Flawless Skin

A proper skin care regimen is vital to healthy, glowing skin for the big day. Not only will cleansing, exfoliating and moisturizing properly help you to look radiant on your wedding day, it will also create the perfect canvas for a smooth makeup application. Begin your regimen and follow diligently 8-12 weeks before your wedding day.

Do not have any intense skin treatments such as chemical peels or photo-facials 8 weeks prior to your wedding. This will give skin enough time to heal and to be in tip-top shape for your special day. If you decide to have a facial, get one 4 weeks prior to your wedding. Facials deeply cleanse the skin and sometimes bring out impurities. Finally, be sure to wear a sunscreen with a SPF (Sun Protection Factor) of 15 or higher to protect the skin from sun damage. A sunburn and/or peeling skin can definitely add more stress to an already stressful day.

2. Prime Time

Now that you have flawless skin, you are ready to begin your makeup. Start with a fresh, clean palette by making sure your face is completely clean and moisturized. Then apply a foundation primer that is silicone-based for a long-lasting, true finish. A primer also helps colors to stay put, giving you one less worry on your big day.

3. Choose Matte

Foundation is the most important part of the entire makeup application. A warm-toned, creamy-matte foundation will look soft, clean and natural in front of the camera and in front of your guests. The color of your foundation should match the skin exactly with no line from the jaw to the neck. Invest in a highly-pigmented foundation of good quality. Go to a department store makeup counter and have an associate match your foundation. Take a mirror outside to make sure it matches in natural light. Wear it for a day and see how it stands up.

Avoid mineral foundations, foundations with sunscreen or foundations with a high percentage of Titanium Dioxide. These products will reflect back at a flash from a camera making your skin look washed-out or as if you are wearing a mask in your wedding photos. Apply a concealer only where there are areas of darkness (such as under the eye) and blemishes. Blend, then set with a powder for long wear.

4. Powder Power

Following foundation, a soft application of powder will help eliminate shine – important to reduce reflecting back to the camera. Apply powder with a professional powder brush, not a puff or sponge as this applies way too much powder and can look unnatural. If you only have shine on the nose and forehead, only apply powder to those areas and leave the cheeks with that soft matte finish.

5. Blush is a Must

Bright daylight and the reflecting light from the camera will wash out any color making blush an essential element. Blush adds life to your complexion giving it that fresh appearance. Choose a color that will compliment your skin tone. For example, look at the inner part of your lip and match the color as closely as possible for a “just been pinched” look. Apply just to the apples of the cheek with a big fluffy brush and blend outward towards the temple. Powdered blush photographs best and has great staying power.

6. Defining Moment

The eyes are the focus of any conversation and more particularly, wedding photos. Create a natural, softly-lined eye by using a brown or dark brown powder and an angle brush. Gently press powder with brush into the lash line to create a thick, luscious lash line. A pencil may also be used, just be sure to smudge with your finger or a q-tip. Avoid harsh colors and thickly lined eyes. A little pro secret- apply white eyeliner to the inner rim of the eye to really open the eye and make it pop!

7. Neutral Ground

Avoid bright and trendy colors because they scream out in photos and are generally unflattering. Stay away from colors that are too dark as they appear harsh. Neutral colors are a great choice. Think brown, tan, and taupe. Plums and pinks can also be flattering as long as they are applied very softly. Never use frosted or glittery eye shadow because they are far too reflective for the camera. You may apply a little shimmer in strategic places like the inner corner of the eye.

8. Cry Baby

Waterproof mascara is a bride’s best friend! Begin by curling the eyelashes. Start at the root and carefully clamp down on the lashes as you gradually move up towards the end of the lashes. Apply two coats of mascara and comb through to avoid any clumps.

False eyelashes are perfectly acceptable for the occasion. You may want to practice applying them and wearing them months before your wedding! Individual lashes or bundles of lashes look more natural than full lash lines.

9. Brow Basics

If eyes are windows to the soul, than what does that make eyebrows… curtains? Eyebrows are the most expressive feature on the face. A properly defined brow corrects and frames the face beautifully. Because eyebrows seem to disappear in photographs, fill in and define them with a matte shadow a shade lighter than the darkest part of the hair. You don’t want brows to be overpowering; using a shadow creates a more natural look than an eyebrow pencil. If you decide to have your brows shaped by a professional, do it no later than 1 week before your wedding. Do not wax or tweeze right before your wedding.

10. Lip Lock

Your wedding day can be full of surprises, but one thing you can be sure about is that there will be a lot of kissing! You’ll need lip color that will last! Apply a lip liner similar to the color of your lips and fill in lips completely. Smudge up liner to avoid any harsh lines. Choose a lip color that is matte and in the same tonal family as your blush. Apply one layer of lipstick, blot with a tissue, and then apply another layer. You may add a hint of gloss to the center of your lower lip for that special effect.

Remember, the most important thing is that you feel good about yourself and the way you look. Makeup should enhance your beauty, not hide it. Choose a look that is timeless and classic.Relax- it’s your special day!

Carly Warburton is a Licensed Master Esthetician and Professional Makeup Artist. She resides in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and 2-year old son.

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Above is a picture of me and my husband on our wedding day.

Weddings can be really stressful and expensive. I don’t recommend spending a lot of money on your wedding. I think a short engagement and a wedding on the more simple side is the way to go. Overspending on a wedding or getting in debt for your wedding is a bad way to start a good marriage. Most fights between husband and wife are over money, so maybe by getting us to be worldly about our wedding, Satan is getting his foot in the door right from the start.

Wait, don’t get me wrong, I’m into looking good and having a reception to remember. People still talk about how awesome our reception was. But you don’t have to spend lots of money to do it. My guy and I spent under $500 on our wedding and my parents paid for the rest of it, about $1,200 more. That’s a good amount of money, but not much compared to the average amount people spend on weddings. Most of the money spent on our wedding was spent on catering and live music.

Using the resources you have on hand and being creative can really pay off. Here’s how we saved money:

Short Engagement: First off, when we got engaged, we set the wedding date only 6 weeks away. We wanted to have a short engagement anyway (you know us “Mormons”), but my fiance gave another reason for the short engagement saying “6 weeks is enough time to plan a wedding, but not enough time to get all crazy and extravagant with it”. We’re both very eccentric and creative people, so we have the tendency to get all crazy and extravagant if we’re allowed to. We knew that limiting our time would help us keep our ideas under control.

Inexpensive Wedding Dress: I’m into fashion and style, which should be no surprise… that’s why I started *Jen* Magazine. Right after I got engaged I of course started looking for a wedding dress. I looked online a little bit, but then I went to some wedding dress places in my city to shop around. I lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and there aren’t any wedding gown places in that area that cater to LDS standards. Out of several places I looked, I only found probably four wedding dresses that would work with LDS modesty standards and garments. Out of those, half of them were long-sleeved gowns, and I was getting married in the middle of August. August in Tennessee is very hot and humid, so those long sleeved gowns were not an option.

So I have, like, two wedding dresses to choose from and I don’t like either of them. One of them was very pretty, but totally not me. It was a big poofy dress that looked very southern belle-ish, like a cotillion dress or something. It also had a big price tag, even though it was on sale. I might have afforded it if it was something I really wanted, but it was too much to pay for a dress I didn’t like.

I decided to look online for a modest LDS Temple standards wedding dress. I found a few retailers and some dresses that might work but I found that the prices were too high for me. The dresses I really liked were too much for me to afford, and the dresses that were lower priced were too much to pay for a dress I didn’t really like. I didn’t think to look on e-bay.

There was a lady at church who used to be one of my Young Women leaders and she ran a bridal show. When she heard I was engaged she had me over to her house to look at and borrow a bunch of her bridal magazines. She showed me pictures of different couture dresses and knowing that I have my own unique style she said she thought I could and should sew my own dress.

I had taken a sewing class my freshmen year of high school and sewn a few things since then but I wasn’t a seamstress by any means. I had a very basic $100 sewing machine that had been a gift from a friend of the family after he saw me going over to use the neighbor’s sewing machine to make something for a personal progress project.

I decided that making my wedding dress might be my best option. It would be inexpensive and the dress would be one-of-a-kind. It would also be a fun project and good experience. It was July, and though I was in college, school was out for the summer. I was spending my time working for my Mom’s business and taking care of my little brothers and sister. The schedule working for my Mom was really flexible and she would understand if I needed some time off. I went to the fabric store and looked at patterns. I didn’t choose any of the wedding dress patterns. I either didn’t like them or they looked way too complicated for me, especially with the limited time I had. I wanted a dress that was slim and simple but different, not big and ornate. I ended up picking out 4 formal dress patterns. I liked the top of one, the bottom of another, the train of another, and the sleeves of another. I used the different parts of all four patterns and even altered those to make my dress.

In all I spent about $110 and a lot of time (worked on it almost every day for a month) to make my dress. It turned out pretty good, and gave me a sense of accomplishment that made the wedding day even more special.

Reception Site: When we began planning our wedding reception we wanted to have it outdoors. The last place we wanted to have it was in the church cultural hall, where everyone seems to hold their reception. The cultural hall is a multipurpose area of the church. It’s uses include being a basketball court and being a seating area for performances that take place on the stage curtained off on one side of the hall. It’s not the pretty place you dream of when you think of the perfect reception. We planned to have our reception on a big grassy hill behind the church. We began shopping for tent/canopy things to give some shade for our outdoor reception. As the days passed by and the weather grew hotter and hotter, we realized we might not want to have the reception outside. It would be way too hot! We wanted to have dancing, and it would be too sweaty if we had it outside. We didn’t want to pay for a reception site, so after weighing all of our available options we grudgingly decided that the church cultural hall was our best choice. But we were determined NOT to have a boring or ugly reception. We would transform the cultural hall into a wedding wonderland.

DIY: We had been to receptions in the cultural hall before and they always looked so empty. It’s not that there weren’t a lot of guests, but the hall is sooo big that the guests were too spread out. This spreading out discouraged mingling, so you would have everyone separated into little groups of people who knew each other. The spreading out also discouraged dancing because people are more likely to dance if they’re in a crowd. We wanted our friends and family to get to know each other and we wanted to encourage people to dance because we love dancing. So we decided to create a smaller area within the hall for the reception. Our idea was to somehow drape fabric from the ceiling to make a curtain or partition around the reception area. The hall lights would be down and the smaller reception area would be lit from the inside, so that you wouldn’t notice the rest of the hall.

We bought many bolts of a cheap white fabric from Walmart, and dyed it with RIT dye to match our wedding colors. Then we got together and took a day to make the fabric into curtains by cutting it to the right lengths and sewing one of the edges over so we could put a pole or rope through it to hang it. After a lot of trial and error, we came up with a way to hang the fabric from ropes strung across the ceiling creating fabric walls.

Borrowing Stuff: We purchased a few things, but we borrowed most of the decorations for the reception. From the friend who ran the bridal show we borrowed a bunch of white Christmas lights and big stand-up flower decorations that she had used to decorate the bridal show one year. She also let me cut a bunch of hydrangeas from a big beautiful bush in her yard… and those were the only wedding flowers I used! A friend from Chris’s ward owned a landscaping business and was able to let us borrow a bunch of big trees that were due to be planted in a new subdivision a few days after our reception. The trees had their roots and dirt tied up in burlap and they could stand up. Lugging the trees into the cultural hall was a chore for those who helped us. But it made the reception look really cool!
-Jen

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