The night before I left for Jamaica, I had the sudden brain wave that at a couples resort there was probably going to be more than a few good opportunities for bride pictures. I raided my gown cupboard and found a dress I'd purchased cheaply, a so-called “destination” wedding dress. I tried it on, it fit. I tossed it in my suitcase with a veil.

Ah, is there anything more ghetto than saying “I Have To” rather than “I Do”. As I mentioned before, Evil Scientist and I were suspected of having a shotgun wedding. Nine months pregnant has been long enough, thank you very much. I'd hate to think of what a ten year-long pregnancy would feel like.

Anyway, this is the beginning of my wedding dress project. I started with the obvious choice of my own wedding dress. There's a catch, though. As it stands now, I am nine months and two days pregnant. I didn't have to undo the zipper at the back of the dress to put it on, I just slipped it over my head.

I hate weddings. I avoid them at all cost. I hate the whole industry. I never watch any of the stupid shows dedicated to the subject. Even driving by wedding shops makes me queasy and irritable.

Okay, I hear you asking, “aren't you married? Didn't you have a wedding?” Yeah, sure did, and here's some of the history leading up to that event.

At long last, some photos of me in my costume. It’s always immensely disappointing to realize that wearing a movie costume does not transform me into the beauty that Kate Winslet is. These were taken on a recent trip to Victoria by Evil Scientist in and around the Empress Hotel.

There are a number of accessories I don’t have. Rose wears white gloves with embroidered red flowers on them. Given the time of day she wears them, I assume they likely only extend a few inches beyond her wrist. At some point, I plan to find a pair of cloth gloves and do the embroidery myself.

Another quirk of Edwardian fashion was so-called “orientalism”. With British Imperialism came many touches of traditional costumes from the colonies. Faster ships meant that more and more exotic fabrics, etc. were able to reach their market. Rose’s shawl is an excellent example of this. It is opaque, white and embellished with gold embroidery giving it a very sari-like appearance. Again with the details, it has a long fringe on either end.

The jewelry for Rose’s suit is quite simple. An excellent source for Titanic replica jewelry is Karen’s Romance. You can check out her store at www.karensromance.com as well as on eBay. I have several pieces of her collection and I not only wear them with my costumes but with my normal wardrobe also. Notably, this is the last scene in the movie that we see Rose wearing her impressive engagement ring. My replica is very nice costume jewelry but I’m still holding out for a real one.

The suit also has a number of accessories. In her hair Rose wears an art-deco butterfly comb. Rose’s maid would have been responsible for setting her hair. Hair styles would often be changed to match outfits and times of the day. In the scenes that feature the suit, Rose’s hair is actually down which speaks of how young she still is. Once married, it is doubtful that she would be seen with her hair down in public. What we refer to as up-dos would have been a daily occurrence for women of all stations. Keep in mind, even Rose would not have washed her hair every day allowing a build-up of natural oils to make styling easier. If she didn’t have naturally curly hair, she would have slept in rag curlers. I would guess that women simply had healthy, stronger hair back in the day. They didn’t cut, dye, spray and generally torture their hair the way we do. Granted, I’m sort of a fan of showering every day.

Rose’s wardrobe for the movie was based on the up-to-the-minute fashion whims of 1912. Rose’s European tour would have, in part, been to collect her trousseau from the most “now” Parisian fashion houses. Deborah Scott’s designs for Rose’s costumes were based on various collections of the period. The style of the day was an empire waist (because the damn thing has to appear in fashion every few decades). Skirts were less full and cut closer to the body and a woman of Rose’s age would have been corseting to give a more straight-line silhouette rather than the more curvy style of the Victorian era.

When I discovered a seamstress that specialized in making movie costumes, particularly Titanic costumes, I was beside myself. It took me a week to decide where to start with my collection because I realized that I eventually wanted the whole of Rose’s wardrobe.