Garments : Kebaya Akad Nikah

The Goal : Grace

For brides, it's all about the dress. We all want to look and feel like the princess-du-jour on our special day, even for non-typical brides like me. I always preferred simple and classic looks compared to overtly ornamental ones like a lot of the wedding Kebayas people wear nowadays, which I guess is why this image seems like the perfect inspiration :

Grace Kelly - the epitome of elegance. Pic taken from Wikipedia.

I knew I would be wearing a kebaya which is the Indonesian national dress, paired with a traditional kain or fabric as the bottom. Indonesia is rich with traditional fabrics from many regions, and it is customary to wear your wedding kebaya with a traditional fabric from your original Indonesian tribe. I am of mixed descendants, half Javanese and half Minang (Western Sumatra) and both these cultures have very different traditional dress styles. For the wedding vow, we chose to use Javanese tradition which tends to be more subdued & solemn.

Of all the kebaya makers, I fell in love with one particular model I saw on the runway. It turns out my mom fell in love with the same kebaya. So we found out who the designer was and paid a visit to her workshop.

L : Yasra's kebaya on the runway. R : the exact same kebaya on me.

The designer's name is Yasra, located at Jl. Danau Tondano in Bendungan Hilir/Pejompongan area. I can tell our sense of aesthetics are a good match, since most of the kebayas I fell in love with turned out to be her designs. The ready made designs in her boutiques are all to die for. To. Die. For. There was only one small problem - the price tag. If I only had to make one kebaya, I would undoubtedly entrust my wedding kebaya to her. Unfortunately, I had to make 3 : one for the engagement, one for the wedding vow, and one for the wedding reception. So, bye bye Tante Yasra.

Out of the blue, my mom bought some cord lace intended for my wedding kebaya. It would not be my first choice, since I was more into delicate patterns and fabrics such as chantilly/french lace, but I gave in since I thought buying another fabric would have been such a waste.

The fabric mom bought. It's got potential.

I plan to turn the above fabric into this kutubaru kebaya

In line with the wedding vow's simple & sacred nature, I wanted a similar feel for my kebaya. Since the style I chose was pretty basic (for traditional kebaya) and only minimal beadwork was required, I decided on one of the tailors where we usually make our regular kebayas.

The Glitch

You know what people say about going with your gut on wedding vendors? DO IT!

On my 1st fitting, the kebaya's bustier fitted beautifully, but the kebaya itself hadn't been constructed. On the 2nd fitting, however, I should have known that something was wrong. My kebaya was assymetrical : one end of the neckline was slightly higher than the other one. The patterns on the right and left sleeves didn't match. In short, it looked tacky and poorly made.

I asked the tailor to repair the kebaya, and 2 months before the wedding he came back. There were no changes on the kebaya, it was still as messy and poorly made as it was before. *insert any rampaging bridezilla scene you have in mind*

No other dressmakers/tailors/designers were willing to take on this Herculean task on making a wedding kebaya less than 2 months before the big day. Especially since we were on a very tight budget. I tried to look at the kebayas available for rental, but most of them were too extravagant for my taste, and were still way over my budget.

The Great Miracle

My cousin introduced me to her friend, who was starting a design career. He designed my cousin's kebaya for another cousin's wedding and it was gorgeous, so I started stalking his instagram. We met up over coffee, talked about our sense of aesthetics, and we clicked.
So with my half mutilated kebaya on one hand and my hopes in the other, I bluntly said to him :

I need 2 kebayas in 1,5 months, and my maximum budget for both kebayas is this much. Do you think it's doable?

He just smiled and nodded. I didn't dare dream too much, but the end result was very pretty, even prettier than I dared hope.

I love the wing shaped back details

A little back story : it turned out that I could have had Tante Yasra make my wedding kebaya, if only I had been a little more persistent in my negotiations. A friend of mine had her wedding kebaya made by Tante Yasra, she stated her budget beforehand and Tante Yasra adjusted the amount of beadwork to that budget. The result was just as amazing! It was still slightly out of my budget, though.