These brides crocheted their own wedding dresses

Looking for something a little different for your wedding dress? Forget about silk, chiffon and lace — some brides are embracing crochet for their big day, and the look is really something special.

Take Joan Aoko, for instance. She wed in October 2019 dressed in her own crocheted work of art. “Yes! I crocheted my own wedding dress,” Aoko, 28, said, according to Kenya’s Daily Nation. “I was promoting my brand and wanted to show the world that matrimonial dresses don’t have to be the traditional type.”

Aoko spent two months creating her dress, revealing that she “wanted something luxurious.” She got it, as you can see from the photos she’s shared of her gown on Instagram.

Since then, Aoko has crocheted beautiful wedding dresses for other brides under her brand, Byaoko, which has nearly 18,000 followers on Instagram. Check out this one she did for a woman named Vera in 2020 that features a short train.

As you can probably tell from her tight Aoko has been practicing her trade for a long time.

“I learned how to crochet at the age of nine,” she told the Daily Nation. “My first item was a set porch. My mother made amazing vitambaas and this really inspired me to try and learn the craft.”

Another bride who crocheted her own wedding dress was 22-year-old Abbey Ramirez-Bodley from Kansas, who tied the knot in 2015. Ramirez-Bodley figured that making her dress would make it a lot more meaningful to her. It also gave her a way to spend some quality time with her aunt, who taught her the craft when she was a little girl.

She shared the finished product on Twitter and you can see how beautiful it looked for yourself.

“This is always a piece I’ll have with her,” she told Huffington Post. “When I look at it, I’ll remember the wonderful wedding I had and also the eight months I got to spend with my aunt making it.”

Another perk was the savings. The dress cost her $70, plus an additional $100 for a green dress she wore underneath — much cheaper than the average bridal gown, which hovered around $1,600 in 2019.

Ramirez-Bodley and her aunt did the whole thing without a pattern, which makes it even more impressive!