The Winning Patterns

Ryan and Me at City Hall

Getting married at City Hall in NYC has its benefits:• It only costs $25.
• You don't have to make an appointment, so there's next to no planning ahead required.
•It's interesting to see the other couples also queued up to get hitched and try to guess why they're getting married at City Hall.
• Easy access to Brooklyn Bridge for post-ceremony photo shoot.
• It's right off the A train, so it's a quick commute most places on the west side.
• Carrie Bradshaw did it. So that makes it fashionable, right?

 The only drawback in marrying my husband at City Hall back in June 2007 was the lost opportunity to design and sew my own wedding gown. A number of talented bloggers I follow are in the process of planning their gowns, and though I have never regretted not having a wedding (for so many reasons: the cost, the time required, the fact that I'd have to pull off some crazy Comedy of Errors whereby I would hold two weddings concurrently — one for my mom to attend and one for my dad, so that they never have to actually see each other) I mourn just a little the chance to dabble in couture.

OK, here we actually are at City Hall — both in Banana Republic

Kathleen at Grosgrain will no doubt make herself a lovely wedding gown. Her aesthetic is tasteful and lovely. I can't wait to see it. Suzannah at Adventures in Dressmaking regularly posts progress on her gorgeous gown. And my friend Andreae, who had her third kid and no longer write in her blog With the Crickets, draped and sewed her own dress.

I will, however, get to make a few bridal numbers this year. A flower girl dress for my daughter, who will be 3. Here's the pattern the bride (my husband's cousin's fiance) choose from my short list (picture it in ivory with a green sash):

Vogue 7819

And a junior bridesmaid dress for a 10 or 11-year-old (in black satin with a green sash)

McCall's 4763

While I don't get to make any design decisions in sewing dresses for another woman's wedding, I will no doubt expand my sewing repertoire.  And the satisfaction that will come from making two little girls feel special and lovely will no doubt eclipse any and all needle pricks I will sustain in hemming a dress on a toddler.