Esther's Lake District Wedding

Esther and Joe had decided to get married in the Lake District. Esther was so lucky to have her family living there, and her parents with a farm, big enough to have all the wedding guests there.
Esther wanted a relaxed wedding day, with lots of fun with friends and family, she wanted it to be outdoors and spend time in the area around, Joe is a very good Fell runner and they both really enjoy the outdoors.

The wedding preperations were great, Esthers Folks stay in the area and had asked all their friends in the area to supply summer flowers from their gardens for the decorations. Everything was keept with a rustic country feel with event he cakestand being a bit of sliced tree trunk! LOVE IT!
Eshers dress had to fit the relaxed day, i thought she loooked so so pretty, She went for an Empire line cut dress, with ivory lace with champagne cording on the lace. The dress was a slinky silk satin with a silk chiffon overlay, and internal lace up. and buttons and loops. The sash was made of the slinky silk satin. Esther has been so lovely to work with and here is what she wrote to me after and said: "My dress was perfect"

The photographs are from Dave Muirhead @muirheadphotography he must have had such fun going off in the woods, mud and filds to capture the best shots, and it really shows. The photographs are great, and i am so pleased to be able to show them.

Asymmetric dress for Kiwi Wedding

To have our dresses travelling to far away destinations is always a great excitement for us. Phillippa contacted us to tell us about her wedding she would be having in New Zealand. We knew we had to make her a dress, which would travel well.
Phillippa decided for a pure white 1 shoulder strap dress. It has an internal lace up and covered buttons at the centre back, it looks quite light, but its actually got a fairly "firm" shell to the dress, where we could fix all the folds on to. We had a challenge, as the top layer of fabric is quite fine, and we kept dealing with the issue of transparency. On top of that.. working the fine folds with the grain of the fabric, going in all different directions was a real challenge for us. We really are happy with the final result, and we are hoping to get to do it all again soon... now we know so much more... I think we will be doing lots of similar styles to this in the spring with "woven" detail.
Phillippa achieved a real contemporary feel to her wedding. I love the black and the grey colours for the men, against her dress.

Red satin, black guipore lace embellishment and white orchids

I really liked Shelly’s ideas for her wedding dress, when we met the very first time. After discussing her ideas and the look she wanted to achieve,  I then had to come up with different fabric and lace solutions to achieve the desired look.  Shelly had a lot of inspiration from vintage styles, and she wanted a lot of drama. Her wedding venue was to be Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and for her bouquet she wanted reds and black and white orchids.

Shelley settled for a “slinky” silk satin as the main dress material, then she had a detachable train in the silk satin chiffon, cut as a big fan this was attached to the low back of her dress, to detach for the dancing. The embellishment was made from black guipure with beading and sequins. The dress was fully lined in soft, antistatic bremsilk lining.  The dress had godset inserts in the skirt to make it full on the hemline.

While working on this dress I saw the film “Water for Elephants”  I absolutely loved the costumes and the whole feel of the film the and felt Shelley’s ideas were similar to these grand costumes.

Michael Becman is a very skilled make up artist. He has done my own make up a few times, and each time it has been amazing, I was so pleased when Shelley decided to use him for the make-up on the day.  Michael’s work totally finished the look with a vintage glamour look to Shelley’s make up.  His email address is: michaelabecman@hotmail.com he can give you more information about the service he provides.

Claire Cox took the photographs, and  has kindly let us use them to show you.. You must have had such fun going round in Botanics to take photographs in all the different lovely little secret places of the garden.

Coo's Cathedral, bunting and fresh summer colours!

We work a lot with Rachel Scott Couture in fact, we are very proud to say that we are the business she recommends to do alterations on her dresses. We love all her dresses, and are happy in the assurance that they all leave perfectly fitted.

Kate had bought a lovely Sassi Halford dress from Rachel. Then she came to us to enquire about having bridesmaid’s dresses made, before long she had booked us, not only for her 3 bridesmaid’s dresses but also for her mother’s outfit for the big day.

Kate chose a douppion silk with a smooth finish, the colour is called Pea, and it was stunning against the white washed walls in the Coo's Cathedral. Kate was planning a rustic country feel to her wedding and lots and lots of greenery from birch trees as the decoration, a lot of thought was put into it and it showed. The bridesmaid’s dresses were soft dresses without boning; they were fully lined and had a bow to tie at the back.

The colour was stunning against the decor of the venue, and it also went very well with her mum’s choice of colour, Purple. Her mum had a simple shift dress in wool crepe with silk douppion piping, and then she had a shawl collar jacket to go over it.

Here are a couple of stunning photographs provided by Firstlight Weddings where you can see more on their blog.

Pink, Purple, Pansy

Pinks and Purples have been very popular colours this summer for Mother of the bride outfits. Here are a couple of gorgeous mums we have helped to get organised.

As well as designing and making the outfit, we can advice on accessories to complete the whole look.

Julia is one of our very dear clients, we have made a lot of garments for her. We thought we got it exactly right for her son’s wedding. We made her a douppion jacket and dress in Pansy coloured douppion silk and Alex Muir made her a lovely hat. You can see more pictures from this wedding on this blog:

http://blog.firstlightweddings.co.uk/2011/06/louisa-rupert-holy-trinity-church.html

The mother of the bride at this wedding chose a pure wool crepe dress with silk tie neckline and a woolcrepe jacket to wear over the dress.

Photo: Elemental Photography

The Mother of Groom for this same wedding chose a black Douppion silk dress and Jacket with Cerise pink details on the dress, and belt on dress.

The wedding was amazing and was documented here on Elemental Photography and on this UK weddingblog Rock MyWedding

Fuchsia pink dress and jacket in douppion silk with Pin-tuck details on collar and cuffs.
Hat from Alex Muir, Pittenweem

Turquoise.... bringer of good fortune!

When my good friend Jo's then boyfriend proposed to her... I was so happy for her... and even more excitement, when she asked me to make her dress.  Jo was certain, she wanted a colour, she went for turquoise, as John John always loved her in that colour. I had a formal appointment with Jo: it was really difficult as we usually just giggle and make no sense at all. But I needed to know all about what she wanted from her dress. I love making coloured wedding dresses, but I think they must be very distinctive, and must have something exclusive about them, so that you know this lady is the bride.

Jo had a couple of things she told me: how she liked her body, and the types of clothes he always said she looked nice in.

Jo had a trip to London planned, and she arranged an appointment with this very brilliant fabric shop in London I use a lot, called Joel & Son Fabrics. She came back with some lovely samples, from which i made a design brief.

Jo's dress was then made in calico, so we could see the neckline etc. and then we made it in the silk fabric.

Jo went for a pure silk georgette, and a silk satin for the straps, sashes and belt. The georgette had tiny pintuck detail on the front, and a little keyhole, to create detail on the bust area.

I think Jo looked lovely.  She achieve a contemprary bride look. She got a stunning head dress from Rene Walrus and to top it all off Ditte from Firstlight Weddings took the photographs.

We love the result... what do you think?

Textures and very lush silks

I was delighted when Francesca contacted me regarding her Wedding Dress, she already had the venue, the gorgeous George Hotel and her florist Planet Flowers (who we love!!) And she already knew the silhouette she wanted. Francesca had decided for a ballerina length dress with a nipped in waist. and straps. We thought it would be nice to work with different textures in some quite exclusive fabrics to create a very simple, stylish and elegant look that would suit both Francesca and feel of the venue.
We ended up with this result, and i think it works brilliantly. Francesca had a douppion silk skirt with silk organza overlay. The skirt had netting under which had the edges bound in the same silk as the skirt was made of. the bodice was fully boned and lined Douppion silk, with a beaded Ivory lace overlay. The waist was accentuated by a bias cut crepe back satin belt and the same silk was used for ruched bias cut straps.
Francesca had chosen Jonathon Fowler as her photographer. We love the look he has given to her day. Beautiful!!.. i bet you had a few tooting horns on Queens Street.