12 Handmade Wedding Pieces That Show Old-School Family Hobbies Mean More Than Any Price Tag

Some wedding pieces get photographed and forgotten. These ones didn’t. A knitted blanket started the day the engagement was announced. An embroidered veil that survived forty years and two weddings. A crocheted garter made by hands that were 84 and aching and decided anyway. These 12 families chose handicraft over retail — knitting, crochet, embroidery, yarn, the whole slow patient hobby of making something by hand — and ended up with the thing nobody else’s wedding had.

We got married yesterday at Hags Head, Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. I made the skirt too.

I spent so much time worrying it would be too hot but ended up I was still a bit chilly with the wind! Anyway, I’d only ever knit a scarf and 3 socks when I decided to just go for it and knit this sweater and I am so proud of how it turned out!

Some fancy lacework for my wedding shawl.

Knit with secondhand J&P Coats crochet cord on size 0 needles, it was certainly a labor of love, which required some frantic last minute knitting and chart abbreviation, came off the needles at 3am, and still managed to help me feel like a fairy princess (even if the end of the process made me feel a bit like a crazy person)

My mom embroidered my wedding shoes! She used appliqué and surrounded the designs on the toes with small crystals. I’m so honored to be the owner of a family heirloom.

• So pretty! Your mom is very talented! © Cool-Firefighter2254 / Reddit

An 84-Year-Old Grandmother Knitted a Secret Wedding Gift.

• My husband’s grandmother knitted my something blue. She was 84, hands not what they’d been, and she decided anyway. A small knitted garter — blue, intricate, the kind of delicate knitting that sits somewhere between handicraft and stubbornness. He handed it over the morning of the wedding, slightly awkward the way men are with small delicate things. I put it on alone in the bathroom. Looked at it. Went and got married. Three weeks later he came home looking strange. Said “I need to tell you something about Gran’s garter.” I assumed it had been found somewhere at the venue.
  She’d started knitting it the day he told her he was going to propose. Eight months before he actually proposed. One year of yarn and knitting needles — her hobby, her quiet evening work alongside her embroidery and crochet — for a woman she hadn’t met yet. She’d decided before he did. His mother had known the whole time and said nothing because nobody wanted him nervous on the day. I sat with that for a while. The specific kindness of an 84-year-old with aching hands who looked at her grandson and made up her mind quietly and got to work. No loneliness in that decision — just certainty, expressed the only way she knew how. She passed four months later. The garter is in my jewelry box. Blue, slightly worn, the knitting as careful as the day she made it. She started saying I was in before I’d arrived. I think about that every time I open the box.

Me wearing the wedding dress I made, on my wedding day!

I’ve spent the better part of a year embroidering lace motifs for my wedding dress, about 800 hours and 165,000 beads and sequins so far. I am just so happy with how it’s turning out that I had to share!

My wedding wrap!

Over the past year I’ve been crocheting all my wedding flowers, here are the roses I’ve made!

She Was Given Two Identical Wedding Dresses — But Chose the First.

• My mother offered to sew my wedding dress. I said yes immediately, the way you say yes before you understand what you’ve agreed to. Sewing is her hobby, her handicraft, her thing — knitting, embroidery, crochet, whatever needs doing. I’d seen what she could make. I wasn’t worried. Four months in she called and said she needed to show me something. I drove over assuming a fitting issue. She opened the box and took out not one dress but two. Same pattern, same fabric, same yarn trim on the hem. Identical. I said what is this. She said “the second one is better. I made the first one to make every mistake on. You’re wearing the second one.”
  She’d made two wedding dresses. Eight months, two complete dresses, so the one I wore would be perfect. She hadn’t mentioned this plan at any point. Just executed it with the specific quiet kindness of someone who solves problems alone and presents solutions. I looked at both for a long time. Then I said “I want to wear the first one.” She said absolutely not. I said “Mom. I want the dress you made while you were learning to make my dress.” She argued for twenty minutes. I won. I wore the first dress. Every mistake in it is invisible to everyone except her. She spent the entire ceremony looking at the seams. My daughter is eight. My mother has opinions about what happens next that she’s keeping to herself for now. She won’t keep them to herself much longer. I know her.

I finished my wedding dress!

I’m so excited to finally show you my finished dress! In all it took about 160 hours over 6 months to complete. There were definitely times when I didn’t think I was gonna finish it, but I’m so glad I kept going! Thank you for all your encouragement!

The Wedding Veil That Took 26 Months to Embroider.

I made a wedding dress with the same pattern as my mother’s wedding dress!

This dress took me forever! After seeing my mom’s wedding dress from the 70s I fell in love with it, but it didn’t fit! My grandma made my mom’s dress (and all the bridesmaids dresses!) from this Mccall’s 4381 pattern. She unfortunately didn’t have the original pattern.

I have not been sewing very long and many mistakes were made. My mom’s dress was made from polyester double-knit which is terrible for breathability, but has a nice thickness to it. I went too far in the other direction and used viscose, which is light but had no structure whatsoever and required all the bolts of it Joann had left. The new version is double layered because the fabric was so thin!

I adore this dress and it means so much to me to recreate my mom’s wedding dress! She and my grandma also love it!

• I love how drapey yours turned out with the fabric choice! It’s like yours has a fairytale vibe to it while your mom’s has a little bit more of a western influence. So beautiful! © imnotnotcrying / Reddit

Nobody forgets the handmade thing. Not the bought dress, not the catered dinner, not the flowers — the knitted garter from the grandmother with aching hands, the embroidered veil that came out of a box from 1983, the crocheted ring cushion that ended up slightly uneven on one side. These 12 wedding pieces prove that a family’s handicraft hobby carries more than yarn and embroidery and crochet and knitting. It carries the kindness of someone who chose the hardest way to say: I wanted this to be yours.

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