Thanks for the comments, they will be helpful. Research results: I found the following resources helpful as I have been planning my approach, mainly for bustling and hemming: 1. Singer "Sewing for Special Occasions" which has photos and excellent guides for the bustling. 2. The "Sew News" website library had a great description of bustling a wedding gown at this page: http://www.sewnews.com/library/sewnews/qa/aaqa0300a.htm 3. Another website which explains bustles including the Austrian, French [inverted] and over bustle. I learned a lot at the following: http://www.rencentral.com/oct_nov_fo11/bustles.shtml 4. A slim book from the library with no photos and only a few sketches, but titled: "How to Alter a Bridal Gown" by Susan Ormond. This book has a chapter on hems. The important point she makes is to follow the manufacturer's method of construction when you reconstruct. 5. Google search. It brought me back to the forum which I had not used for sewing. Good Laugh for all of you who work with brides: Use a search engine on the words bustle or bustling a wedding gown. You will locate the U-Tube video of bridesmaids searching for ribbons to underbustle the bride. Finally, the bride lays face down, with petticoats exposed while bridesmaids consider the mystery of all those ribbons! Bustle comments: The comment about a 2-point take-up--I understood as take the center back up in two parts, then do side bustles. There's no place to put a button part-way up the back, so a simple 3-point seems to look fine with pins. I will use the suggestion to fasten a small button on the wrong side of the fabric to support the fabric and weight. I may try a 5-point to see if it looks better. My daughter did not like the looks of the underbustle. I thought the Austrian could maybe be used to get the heavy satin pulled up [done like a balloon shade with loops sew to the inside seam allowance and ribbons pulled through to gather up the skirt, or scrunch it up]. Then the beautiful organza could be pulled up on top in the overbustle and attached to the waist area to emphasize the delicacy of the fabric and show off the beading and silver threads of sewn flowers. I did notice how I need to take the front hem around just a bit to the back for this bustle to work, so thanks for the comment about pinning the bustle, then mark the hem. Sleeves. These are totally decorative, the bodice and the nifty inside waist piece hold the dress perfectly in place. I will use the suggestion of shortening the caps at the junction with the gown. It seems the organza will allow me to fold it a bit and I could tack the edge a bit to keep the crescent shape coming to a point and not have to rip stitches in the organza. For the $20 most shops offered on this, they certainly weren't ripping many stitches! I found nothing on this small alteration in any resource I checked, so this forum was great! Research is done . . . I am nearly ready. I mailed the check for the cake today and finished a 4th revision of the seating chart for our sit-down dinner. The bride has calculated the meals and other charges at the reception site and we had to spend more! They have a minimum, so we added some appetizers for those arriving at the reception site early. The bride has her program ready to get printed and has finalized the flower order. The bridesmaids are wearing tea-length dresses and need no alterations! The bride chose these to avoid the usual $100 hem charge on simple dresses. Time to dig in! I am not scheduled for any meetings for two weeks. I am a local elected official. I have no one home expecting a meal today. The Elna was taken from her cabinet and is on the seldom used dining table. Thanks for that tip about a big table! I have a black lab to avoid and she dislikes her feet on wood floors. If I have time, I'll give a progress report.

I heard on tv somewhere that her dress was silk cotton lace - that sounds soft and lovely to me. I can't get enough of the pictures of the entire wedding party and guests LOL, not sure why it has such a fascination to me. I also remember being entranced with Diana at her wedding and afterwards when her babies were born, I just never got tired of seeing them. I also fondly remember following Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Eisenhower when they were married, and I even took a day off from work to watch Tara and Phillip get married on All My Children (that was pre-vcr recording days)! I'm sure when I put my mind to it I'll remember some more weddings that fascinated me. Oh right, Jenna Bush Hager just popped into my head. And Katie Couric's second wedding looked lovely! I guess I could keep going!

My dtr married an Englishman last summer. Many members of his family came to the US for the wedding. All the women, including his mum, nan (grand mother), and younger sister all wore coat dress combos with matching shoes, clutches, and fascinators. I wore a hat which made them very happy, but it was no comparison to theirs. And my shoes did not match my outfit!

@Kswl, your post about button covers is not showing up. However, I was able to read it in my email notification. I hope you didn’t delete it because I thought it was brilliant. I totally fell down a button-cover rabbit hole on Etsy. There are a ton of OTT gaudy ones, but there are also some very subdued mother-of-pearl ones. If the buttons on the dress turn out to be ugly, button covers may be the answer. In my poking around, I found some button covers that I may buy for the groom to wear as cufflinks to the rehearsal dinner. They can be laser engraved with the name or initials of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding. I'm going to have to think about it to make sure it comes off as fun and doesn't fall over into gaudy or gauche.