The Windy Wedding

These are my friends Justin and Juliette who were married earlier this year at Tamarama. Actually the weather that day was bizarre, it was suffocatingly hot all day until about half an hour before the wedding and then the most aggressive southerlies blew in. Plan A to get married on the headland was aborted and Plan B took place, which was getting married in the marquee in the garden, overlooking the bay, so still nice. The rain kicked in though and everything got a little wet, but not everyone's spirits so that was important!

I read a passage from Captain Corelli's Mandalin which I think no one could hear (which was actually a relief for me!!) and someone sang a traditional Vietnamese song, a nod to Juliette's heritage.

Her dress was designed to be a modern take on the Cheongsam. The groom gave me instructions for what he thought the dress should be (ie: sexy and tight fitting!) which is not usual of course, but I have known him since I was 15 so that allows him special rights! Although not so special that actually paid any attention to what he said! Juliette is very feminine and quite elegant so even though the dress is still sexy it's soft and has my usual movement thing going on. I think it looked perfect on her and of course he and everyone else loved it.

Which was another relief as Justin is my harshest critic and most of my friends are designers of some kind or another so that's always scary!

The cheongsam part of the bodice is silk tulle and hand dyed French lace in a murderous red

A vintage 1920's parasol

The back was low and you can see how the lace goes

The marquee was really pretty, especially at night

Here comes the windy part!

The dress does look rather fun though

I love all that swirling around

The dress was in gold and latte silk chiffon

Really when it's all said and done, who cares what the weather was like?

You can still be fabulous

x

A few more Real Brides

I'm not even going to make a comment about the time it has taken me to write another blog. Some blogs that I read, the people writing them update them everyday, which is what makes us read them all the time. That and the content I suppose. I'm not that organised.... or intimately involved with my computer. Or whatever.

Anyway, below are some variations on a theme. One of our best selling dresses is called 'Madeleine' and we can easily modify it with colour or lace to make it quite different for each bride. The skirt under layer is silk satin. On top there is a layer of silk chiffon which has godet panels cut into the hem to give it a fullness which can depend on the amount of godets used. Some of them have so many godets that some brides can bring their hands together above their heads and the fabric will follow easily. It's very fun and feminine.

This is Aurelie. A lovely French girl. Her dress was in Ivory silk satin and chiffon and the bodice was embellished with a French corded lace that we dyed black.

Aurelie was quite particular about her dress. She really wanted a contrasting detail and as she had such strong ideas about how it all should be, she was a great muse.

The lace was subtly embellished with jet crystals

The straps were in an Italian silk tulle

The back was quite low and the top of

each godet was also embellished with jet crystals

The skirt was full but still quite sleek

This is Eneida, a gorgeous Brazilian girl. She was such a pleasure to work with, a very warm and sincere person.

The dress was in champagne silks

The bodice and high waist was detailed in a

heavily embellished French lace also in Champagne

The skirt was soft and fluid

That's her son, who was very excited about the whole thing

This is my bride Louisa, who eloped with her husband to New Zealand to get married. Just the two of them. They arrived in a helicopter.

There was obviously a bit of a breeze that day!

It's still fun though

She also had a French lace down the centre front of the dress.

The lace was Ivory in colour with a metallic silver thread

This is Leona, who had the greatest curly hair ever! Although I'm sure she thinks it's a pain.

Her dress was actually the colour platinum even though it looks white here.

She had a soft cotton French lace on the bodice

and high waist which was in Ivory.

Her dad was very sweet, look how emotional he is....

And that is the end of variations on a theme x