When Tiff told me that her Crossfit coach, Jenny, wanted me to make her wedding dress, my obvious reply was “Why?” I had never made a wedding dress, and at that point, I had only ever designed a few non-wedding dresses. I was sure that Tiff was just being nice. When it was confirmed that a woman I had never met, did in fact trust me enough to design her wedding dress, I was equal parts flattered and terrified. I didn’t know Jenny, but I knew I didn’t want to eff up her wedding with a crappy dress.

We met, and she was awesome. (She’s still awesome, but this is a story: past tense) She was full of energy, kind, funny, and somehow managed to balance running the shop at Crossfit without sounding like a cult leader. In our first meeting, she was laid back, a joy to be around, and generally excited to get married. We went over a few styles and concepts, set up a Pinterest page and shared ideas for a few weeks. She decided on a relaxed, beachy vibe, something flowy with lace, but without going full flower-child.

Let’s go back a little bit. I don’t know anything about lace. Well, I do now, but at the time of this design, I was googling the hell out of all my materials, and honestly didn’t know how different kinds of lace would work with designs. There are a million kinds of lace, some of it horrible, some of it gorgeous. She wanted a dress that hit just below the knee, and talked about dying it after, so she could wear it as a cocktail dress. We settled on a fairly simple design, with a few pretty details, and I am really happy with how it turned out. More importantly, so is she.

At the tailor, nit-picking details.

Beautiful, happy Jenny on her wedding day.

And they lived happily ever after.

All photos by Tiffany Tsang. Please request permission for use.