The great reveal - beaded lace wedding dress!

I know I've been quiet for a little bit, but I've been squirreled away in my workroom completing this dress, and then I took a well deserved week's holiday! I'm back going full-steam ahead on various other projects now, but not before I share a few pictures of the finished dress with you (it's ok, the wedding was on Saturday, I'm not spoiling any surprises!)

This was a full-length wedding dress custom designed and made for this bride. Fully structured, it's made from a satin underlay covered with beautiful beaded lace. All the lace edging and the button detailing was applied by hand.

From the front...

 

 The back...

And close ups of some of the edging / the train...

The bride was delighted with it (phew!) and I have to agree, it's a lovely dress and the style she chose suited her to a T!

Struggling to find ties for the Groom's party?

I wanted to share these to show couples planning their wedding that if the place you're getting your suits from doesn't have the right colour ties you don't have to stress about it - get in touch and providing I can get hold of a fabric in the colour you're after I can make them up for you! The commission pictured below is a case in point - the bridesmaids dresses were a slightly unusual colour but the couple got in touch and I was able to find them an almost perfect match for the ties.

Problem solved, and five custom made ties for the Groom's party...

Photos from a happy customer

Following on from my previous post, I'm delighted to be able to share a few photos with you of a beautiful bride and her lovely bridesmaids on her wedding day.

Congratulations to Juliet and Alan, I hope you have a long and happy marriage. And thankyou to Juliet for choosing me to make your dresses and cloak, I think it was a fab combination and I'm so glad you were pleased with them!

It started with an idea of wearing a cloak...

Pictures today of a commission that I finished shortly before my week off - a commission that started with the bride to be looking for a cloak to wear on her wedding day and ended up with me being asked to make not just the cloak but matching bridesmaids dresses and her dress as well!

First, her dress: a simple full-length strapless dress with an off the shoulder band that also went round her arms.

And her cloak: beautiful burgundy duchess satin, lined with ivory satin and with a silver clasp to hold it closed.

And the bridesmaids: the same lovely colour satin in styles appropriate to their ages (and sadly the older girl's dress fitted on none of my mannequins so you only get a picture of it on the hanger).

I have seen photos of the wedding day and they all looked absolutely gorgeous, I'm waiting for permission to share them with you all though, so you'll have to keep your fingers crossed for now!

A family of waistcoats

Not a long post today, or one with a lot of photos, but I just wanted to show you a picture of one of my finished commissions this week - a family of waistcoats for cousins of varying ages to wear for a wedding. 

These came about after chatting to the bride when she brought her dress in for alteration, as she was struggling to find anything that went across the three ages in a colour that she wanted them to wear. Fortunately she was able to find the perfect colour at Fletcher's (the back is a two-tone material with a blue 'flash' that matches the front) and I was able to do the rest for her...

 

And another happy bride...

The previous post made me realise that I'd completely forgotten to share a photo of from another of my brides. A slightly different project this time - this was the lovely lady I made this dress and these accessories for last year...

Doesn't she look amazing? They had a beautiful day, with fantastic weather (sunny but not too hot, we were slightly worried about that when we had a heatwave the day before the wedding).

I wished them congratulations, happiness and a long life together at the time but I guess it doesn't hurt to do so again!

And now on the person it was made for...

Yesterday I received a lovely email from the lady the cloak in the previous post was made for enclosing a photo of her and her new husband on their wedding day. It's so nice to get to see my garments being worn by the people they were made for, and she very kindly said that I can share this photo online too, so here you go...

Apparently the cloak was a big success, keeping her warm as intended while also looking flattering and stylish and drawing compliments from her guests. And I have to say, based on this photo I can see why!

Congratulations to the bride and groom, I wish them all the happiness and a long life together.

First wedding cloak of the year...

Yes I know it's April, but January to March doesn't really seem to be a popular time for weddings. I made this cloak a little while ago, but I always wait until after the day to share pictures of anything the bride's wearing even if she hasn't explicitly asked for secrecy.

So, here we go... this was a lovely idea for a cloak, full-length ivory cotton velvet with a round hood, silver clasp and arm slits so that she could hold a bouquet / champagne glass and still be warm!

The full-length picture doesn't really do it justice, since it's on a mannequin which is just a torso. It draped properly and without distortion on a body with arms, but that didn't work for photography. I've added renovating my full body mannequin to my list of things to do!

Catching up - some pictures of my dresses on real people (not on my mannequin for once!)

I realised today that I didn't share with you some of the photos I received from a customer of two of my custom made bridesmaids dresses being worn on 'The Big Day', so this a blog post to rectify that immediately!

You may not remember the dresses appearing on my blog when they were made, but they were bridesmaids dresses 'with a difference' in that they featured the same material but were designed to match each girls style and personality. The original blog posts are here and here.

And the pictures from on the day...

There's not much I can say really, other than that I think they looked beautiful (beautiful models and a glorious day must take some credit too!) and looking back at these pictures is making me happy and proud of my past work!
 

New for 2014 - dry cleaning service

Before I show you some of the beautiful things I finished towards the end of last year (I know, I'm very behind on sharing everything with you! I will get there eventually I hope) I thought I would let you know of a new service for 2014 - dry cleaning! Through these guys...

That's right, I've recently become an agent for Johnsons the Cleaners, which means that I can offer my customers all the cleaning services they do with the added convenience of dropping it off when you're making a trip to me anyway.

Services include:
- Dry cleaning
- Wedding dress steaming (before the big day)
- Wedding dress cleaning (after the big day)
- Wedding dress boxing (for storage, beautifully boxed in a moth/bug proofed box)

Obviously if you want to arrange for something to be done while it's with me for alteration then I can sort that for you, but equally I'm happy to accept items for dry cleaning alone, just get in touch for a quote if you're interested!