Our family has attended weddings the last two Saturdays and our girls are playing at one next weekend also.  Yesterday and last Saturday we were at weddings of girls we have know since they were ten years old.  We have been friends with their families for most of our years in Ottawa. Both brides especially wanted the girls to play violin, which they did beautifully. There has been some overlap in repertoire for the three weddings but also some new pieces to learn and arrange for each one. One of the perks of playing during the ceremonies, they found, was the close proximity to the wedding party; unfortunately they were not able to juggle cameras and violins. I will post pictures of other aspects of the weddings but why not start with my violinists?

As the girls almost always have to perform in black they were keen to have new “not black” dresses for the weddings.  The guest lists were totally different so wearing the same dress to each wedding was not a problem. Finding the dresses in the first place was more difficult. I was willing to make the dresses if necessary but we decided to shop first. L17 and I went out one evening and within an hour had found a dress which would only need minor alterations.  A15 and I went out numerous times including a visit to the fabric store and kept returning empty handed.  Finally with less than two days to go we found a pretty dress which was long but close to the style she wanted(most she had tried were way too short!) After taking a good look at it I assured her I could transform it into the style she was after but had been unable to find.  Here are the before and after shots:

L17’s dress as we purchased it:

and after I created straps and altered the sash:

A15’s dress as we purchased it:

After I made a few changes: