When Rory McHugh came to us, she had just lost her mother. Continuing to plan her wedding was difficult, but she wanted to do something special in remembrance of her mom.

Rory couldn't wear her mother's dress because of the size, but having it, or parts of it, remade into a new dress was a viable option. Rory's tastes were simple, so she chose a silk taffeta for the major part of her gown, and asked us to remove some of the lace trim from her mom's dress and sew it onto the new one. We took lace from the sleeves and train of the original dress and appliqued it onto the underbust circling it around to the center back. The lace and silk taffeta colors [a deep ivory] were a perfect match. Rory also liked a dress she saw in our studio that had a cascade of ruffles from the back neckline down to the hem. We incorporated that feature into her design as well. It all went together beautifully; but the most dramatic part of Rory's wedding attire was her mom's beautiful heirloom lace-edged veil that flowed from a cap-style headpiece down to the train. The lace of the veil formed a halo around the entire dress.

Rory brought her dad to her last fitting. We don't get a lot of dads in our studio, but this one was happy when he saw how wonderful his daughter looked.

Rory married David Brandon on October 15 at the Dixboro United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor. Their reception was held at Plymouth Manor.