Three months ago, I had the most unexpected phone call smack dab in the middle of the morning. A woman from California named Connie O'Connor contacted us about having a custom garter created for her daughter that included not only something extremely personal, but also something that had powerful heirloom integrity. After brainstorming ideas (and a little bit of searching through closets and old boxes on Connie's part), we decided to create a custom garter for her daughter using Connie's original 1994 garter that she had used on her wedding day!
(I wish I could call this a "vintage" garter, but alas--- is 1994 far enough in the past to qualify as "vintage"? I'll let you make the call on that one.)
After shipping the darling little lace garter to us, I immediately set to work transforming it into a La Gartier creation. Interested to see the final product? Click
HERE to watch the short reel we made on instagram that highlight the before and after!! Or, keep scrolling below to catch a few of my all-time favorite images of the final product!
Ok. So I know what you are thinking. This doesn't look even remotely like an old-school 1994 garter. But just bear with me here -- For Hannah's "base" garter, we choose the Glass Slipper due to all of it's sparkling Disney symbolism. (Connie enthusiastically told me about her daughter's affinity for Disney during our first phone call, so choosing the Glass Slipper as her daughter keepsake was a no brainer.) Then, to bring in a heavy dose of heirloom-integrity, we created the back band using the lace from Connie's 1994 garter. Are you ready for this?????
Do you see the lace here along the back band? All of this lace was taken from Connie's original, well-loved 1994 garter. My favorite part? All of the tiny pearls that you see dotted along the lace were also taken from Connie's garter! Talk about a beautiful embellishment motif!
Last, but not least, we incorporated the tiny flowers from the center of Connie's garter as the center statement piece on Hannah's toss garter. Fun fact: the velvet used within Hannah's toss is 100% vintage..which honestly may not sound that impressive to you but let me tell ya: they don't make velvet ribbon these days like they made it in the sixties and seventies. Like, seriously, it's an entirely different animal now. (And when I say "animal", I mean quality.)
Last, but not least, we decided to include a third garter for Hannah at the last minute. Why might you ask? Because Connie and myself suddenly realized that there was NO WAY Hannah was going to want to toss her darling vintage velvet garter with the authentic statement flower at the center. I mean-- who would want to toss something so heirloom amazing?!! So, at the last minute, we picked out the Ariel Opal garter for Hannah's real toss garter...although I have a feeling she might not want to toss this one either.
Dear Hannah and Connie: I consider myself extremely fortunate to have met you both. I honestly feel that we were meant to meet, and I am beyond thrilled to be able to call you one of our only Mother-Daughter-Duo Custom Clients of 2022. To be able to be a small part of such a special day....filled with so much love and so much planning...is truly touching. I hope to do more work for you and your family in the coming years. Mean it.
