The dress: Trista Smith
Dresses tried on before finding The One: "Zero. As soon as I saw Trista's designs, I trusted she would make the perfect thing for me! I just told her I wanted something backless and long-sleeved. Plus, I didn't want to waste much time choosing a dress."
The story: "My husband and I did something we've always wanted to do independently — elope. Our intention was to have a cruelty-free, waste-free, and stress-free wedding, so we went into the redwoods forest in Northern California and said our vows in front of our parents. I was barefoot, and my husband wore vegan Dr. Martens. The whole thing was so ethereal, dreamy, and totally natural. After the ceremony was over, we went out to Point Cabrillo Lighthouse in Mendocino, where I switched my flower crown for a vintage birdcage veil, and we took another round of gorgeous pictures."
Something old, something new...: "In line with our waste-free theme, I chose a dress designer who makes all her dresses from reclaimed materials. My entire dress was created from an old tablecloth from the 1920s! So I definitely count it as something old. In fact, just about everything other than my handmade flower crown was something old. My wedding shoes had been sitting in my closet for nearly seven years, and my faux pearl earrings were from my mom."
Where the dress is now: "It's in a box underneath my bed. I'm not sure what I want to do with it now, but I'm thinking about sending it back to Trista to have her make a Summer dress out of it."
