The Story Behind My Dress

My Wedding Dress

I never planned to wear a fully white dress for my wedding. I am an artist who stains every piece of clothing I own with acrylic paint. I thought it only fitting that I try to use acrylic paints on the materials that made up my wedding dress.

Photo cred: Enna Photos

The Search

I walked into each store telling the attendant I’d be painting whichever dress I chose to buy. I also knew we would be hiking in the dress, so I warned them of that as well.

After trying on a few dresses at a few stores, to put it short and sweet (see blog post about the search for more about that), I realized I wanted an A-line style dress with modern patterns, likely not floral lace.

I found “the one” at The Loft Greenwood, just south of Indianapolis. They called it their showstopper piece.

A Stella York style 7336 design

It had glitter lines adhered in an art deco style pattern with white beading. The base color was more of a champagne than a white, and the design called it moscato. There were pockets!!

The Process

Dress in hand, I brought it to one of the alterations locations the store had suggested. She hemmed it, added a corset back, added a wrist bustle, adjusted the sleeves to be on the shoulder instead of over the shoulder, and removed a couple layers of crinoline for me.

I used photos of me trying on the dress to create digital mock ups of my plan for color.

a low resolution photo of an edited image of Ariel; with purple to red hair and a purple ombre from the bottom of a Stella York dress. Style 7336 is a light tan color, called moscato with white bead and sparkly art deco style pattern covering the dress, with a small portion of the sparkle lines turned red with editing.

Ariel with long blue hair taking a selfie with a phone, wearing a Stella York Style 7336 (a light tan color, called moscato with white bead and sparkly lines in an art deco style pattern covering the dress), holding the dress out to the side and using her foot to expand the fabric and show the designs

edited photo of Ariel with long purple to red ombre hair taking a selfie with a phone, wearing a Stella York Style 7336 (a light tan color, called moscato with white bead and sparkly lines in an art deco style pattern covering the dress), holding the dress out to the side and using her foot to expand the fabric and show the designs. a navy to purple ombre under drawn on lines in red, orange, yellow, and pink

edited photo of a Stella York Style 7336 (a light tan color, called moscato with white bead and sparkly lines in an art deco style pattern covering the dress). Navy to purple ombre under drawn on lines in red, orange, yellow, and pink edited over top of the dress designs

Ariel with long blue hair, wearing a Stella York Style 7336 (a light tan color, called moscato with white bead and sparkly lines in an art deco style pattern covering the dress), with scrap squares of the dress that are dyed and painted, pinned to skirt of the gown

Ariel kneeling in a bathtub, spraying an under layer of the dress with a navy blue paint. The dress is hanging on the wall with the other layers tucked away as to only ombre the layer she is working on. Only the very bottom of the layer has some blue starting to build up.

Ariel kneeling in a bathtub, spraying an under layer of the dress with a navy blue paint. The dress is hanging on the wall with the other layers tucked away as to only ombre the layer she is working on. The bottom of the layer has blue starting to get darker, further up, ombreing into the moscato base as it goes up

Ariel standing in a bathtub, spraying an under layer of the dress with a purple paint. The dress is hanging on the wall with the other layers tucked away as to only ombre the layer she is working on. The bottom of the layer has blue starting to get darker, about 1/3 of the way up ombreing into purple then the moscato base color as it goes up.

Layers of the dress split apart with the underlayers hanging over the tub and the tulle layers bunched, being sprayed with a spray bottle filled with watered down navy blue paint.

The front of Stella York Style 7336 (a light tan color, called moscato dress with a sweetheart neckline and white beaded and sparkly lines in an art deco style pattern covering the dress) hanging from a teal wall. The underlayers are painted a navy to purple ombre up to the moscato about halfway up the dress, making the white beading and glitter lines stand out.

Ariel standing, showing off the front of Stella York Style 7336 (a light tan color, called moscato dress with a sweetheart neckline and white beaded and sparkly lines in an art deco style pattern covering the dress) by wearing it in her bathroom. The underlayers are painted a navy to purple ombre up to the moscato about halfway up the dress, making the white beading and glitter lines stand out.

Ariel standing, showing off the back of Stella York Style 7336 (a light tan color, called moscato dress with a gold ribbon laced corset back and white beaded and sparkly lines in an art deco style pattern covering the dress) by wearing it in her bathroom. The underlayers are painted a navy to purple ombre up to the moscato about halfway up the dress, making the white beading and glitter lines stand out.

A screenshot of one of Art_Micetro's process TikToks showing text saying "this is my tester" over top of a cut piece of fabric from the top most layer of the Stella York 7336. The glitter lines are painted using different ombres of red to orange to yellow to pink, red to orange to yellow, red to orange to pink. This was to help me decide how to paint the outer most layer.

Ariel sitting on the floor, supporting the top most layer with one hand while using a brush to paint the adhered glitter lines by hand with acrylic paint as the dress hangs from the ceiling to splay out the train.

Ariel sitting on the floor, supporting the top most layer with one hand while using a brush to paint the adhered glitter lines by hand with acrylic paint as the dress hangs from the ceiling to splay out the underlayers as I needed.

The finished splayed out train of the Stella York 7336, showing off the navy to purple ombre leading to the top of the gown, covered in the glitter and beaded detail layer that is painted from the base to the middle of the dress in a red to orange to yellow to pink back to the original silver glitter around the waist.

A detail shot of the glitter and beaded detail layer that is painted from the base to the middle of the dress in a red to orange to yellow to pink back to the original silver glitter around the waist.

The front of the finished painted Stella York 7336 with the top layers lifted, showing off the navy to purple ombre on the underlayers.

A detail shot of the glitter and beaded detail layer that is painted from the base to the middle of the dress in a red to orange to yellow to pink back to the original silver glitter in indoor lighting.

A detail shot of the glitter and beaded detail layer that is painted from the base to the middle of the dress in a red to orange to yellow to pink back to the original silver glitter in indoor lighting.

The front of the finished hanging, splayed out Stella York 7336, showing off the navy to purple ombre leading to the top of the gown, covered in the glitter and beaded detail layer that is painted from the base to the middle of the dress in a red to orange to yellow to pink back to the original silver glitter around the waist. The dress is hanging from an ornate golden mirror, windows on both sides. Small tan boots sitting on the floor at the base of the dress.

The front of the finished hanging, splayed out Stella York 7336, showing off the navy to purple ombre leading to the top of the gown, covered in the glitter and beaded detail layer that is painted from the base to the middle of the dress in a red to orange to yellow to pink back to the original silver glitter around the waist. The dress is hanging from a tree, outside, showing the bushes, trees, and tall grass in the background.

The front of the finished hanging, splayed out Stella York 7336, showing off the navy to purple ombre leading to the top of the gown, covered in the glitter and beaded detail layer that is painted from the base to the middle of the dress in a red to orange to yellow to pink back to the original silver glitter around the waist. The dress is hanging from a tree, outside, showing the bushes, trees, and tall grass in the background.

A detail shot of the glitter and beaded detail layer that is painted from the base to the middle of the dress in a red to orange to yellow to pink back to the original silver glitter in outdoor lighting.

Mock-ups in hand, I had to dive into painting the moment I brought the dress home from the 3rd alteration appointment.

I recorded the entire process and posted it to YouTube as both a timelapse and short videos of the entire process (available to watch on all of my socials).

I tested a couple different application methods for the base layers before spraying on a watered down acrylic paint. I tested on wet and dry fabric. I did this on scrap pieces from hemming beforehand.

For the outer most layer, I added acrylic paint to pre-glued glitter lines with a brush.

Pre-Wedding Reveal

Our amazing photographer agreed to get together with me to document trying on the dress for the first time since I had finished painting it. I hadn’t allowed myself to try it on and look at myself yet!

Keep an eye out for my incoming blog post about that whole day with Enna!

Photo: Enna Photos