Becoming The Bride

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If you’re wondering whether I’m designing my own wedding dress, the answer is… heck yes, girl.

Unfortunately, the answer to which one is significantly more complicated.

Somewhere along the way, one dress became two. Two became… well… enough that my team has politely stopped asking how many we’re making. Which, frankly, feels like growth for all of us.

For the most part, people are correct in their assumption that designing for yourself is a whole lot of fun. But it is also, I am learning, a bit of a personality exercise.

When I really think about it, this is the rare occasion where I am designing solo.

That probably sounds strange coming from someone who spends her days sketching by herself, but the truth is every dress I’ve ever loved has always been a kind of collaboration.

I bring the silhouette, the construction, the storytelling. The bride brings herself. Her personality. Her history. The way she lights up talking about her grandmother’s veil or the city where she got engaged. The things she doesn’t even realize she’s telling me become the details I can’t stop thinking about.

I need the girl.

I’ve never taken that for granted.

In many ways, the bride has always been my greatest source of inspiration. She’s also the reason I’m still here.

After everything I’ve been through over the past few years, it was brides—this incredible community of women—who never stopped believing in me. They reminded me why I fell in love with designing in the first place, and they quite literally helped lead me back to it. I don’t know if I’ll ever find the right words to thank them for that, but I’ll spend the rest of my career trying.

Which brings me to the slightly ironic part.

Now I have to be the girl.