A vintage fashion loving bride chooses decades-old dresses for her wedding weekend
Vintage fashion has had a resurgence in the last decade, but Mary Catherine Joiner Rogillio has always loved the sustainable, unique styles of the past, starting with her 1960s senior prom dress sourced from local vintage store Time Warp.
Fast forward a few years to the quaint town of Monaghan, Ireland, where Mary Catherine was on vacation with her mother, Mary Frances Barilleaux. There, Mary Catherine’s vintage dress dreams came true when she found an empire waist gown from 1969. “I know I wanted something different for my wedding dress, and I love Audrey Hepburn and her movies,” she says. “When I saw it, I immediately said, ‘That looks just like the dress she wore in War and Peace.'”
Mary Catherine is a longtime fan of the shop where she found her dress, Dirty Fabulous Vintage. The sisters who own the shop mainly source pieces from historical collections, including collections from museums, costumes from movie sets and more. And after following along with the sisters and the store online for years, Mary Catherine’s trip offered the perfect opportunity to finally visit in person.
“I was always skeptical of the wedding dress saying, ‘when you know, you know,’ but it’s very real,” she says. “We had to rework the dress some, but I was incredibly lucky to find Emily Camtu Couture, who did an amazing job with the alterations.”
In addition to necessary adjustments, Emily, who works out of a small shop in Walker, also added sentimental details from Mary Catherine’s cousin, Jill Bourque’s, wedding train from 1999.With the train being incredibly long and wide, Emily had plenty to work with. Mary Catherine says that she was able to cut the train in half to create a smaller detachable train with one half, and take the appliqué from the other half and apply it to the lace around the neck and at the bottom of the dress so that everything would blend seamlessly.
“I was the flower girl in her wedding, and I had her daughter in my wedding, so it was a special, full circle moment,” Mary Catherine says. “All she knew was that we were using it for scraps, and when she saw the finished dress on the wedding day, she couldn’t believe it.”
Mary Catherine’s other wedding weekend looks also find their origin in other decades. The week before her wedding, she sourced an early 2000s slip dress for the rehearsal dinner. And to get ready the morning of the big day, she found a 1970s silk slip dress and matching robe on eBay. For Mary Catherine, the pieces are more than just outfits. Each item pays homage to the past and adds even more stories and sentimentality to a wedding day.
“I had so much fun sourcing all the pieces worn on my wedding weekend,” Mary Catherine says. “I hope brides will incorporate more vintage items into their weddings because it brings it all back together.”
