A little sparkle

I love crystal decanters. I love all their different shapes, their heaviness and the way they sparkle in the light. It's a fairly new love and so far we have only one in our (soon to be) collection, which I bought for Tim. Seeing as I'm breast feeding, I'm yet to even sample pouring a glass of whisky from it, but I admire it every evening and it makes me feel kind of flash and glamourous as I sit there, night after night, babe on breast.

I do wish I'd thought to make these decanter lights, but seeing as I didn't I'll admit to not being above nicking the idea and trying it out myself sometime or other. Put it on the list of things to make.

This one looks like a lady and thus kicked off some reference inspiration for a wedding dress for a client. The brief was "princess, cocktail, feminine and a little glamourous"

The dress was silk satin underneath many layers of nylon and silk tulle. The French lace on the bodice and waist area was embellished with crystal beads and dipped in tea to give it a soft vintage feel. The front as you can see was shorter than the back, sitting where the ankle is thinnest. The back sat a little like a peacock! A white peacock!

Pics: Decanter Lights by Lee Broom; Christian Dior 50's Cinderella Fantasy; Christian Dior; Sylvie Guillam; 'Lucky Spot' by Stella McCartney. Photo by Idene; Chandelier by Moonlight_Sunlight_Light; Vintage jewels by Karla's Cottage

Real Bride Celine

Firstly I have to say that the previous post is not meant to be on this blog. It relates to my search for a country house and it's presence on this blog is testament to my uselessness as a blogger and reader of fine print!!

Oh well!

This post relates to one of my lovely brides Celine, who got married recently. She was a tall, gorgeous and slender woman with a very cute smile. One of the rare girls who can wear a slinky dress well. You have to be tall and have no thighs! Not to mention confident!

She got married at Wylie's Baths which is a great place. I must remember to go there, I haven't been for years.

See, a cute smile. Dad looks proud.

I like veils like this: simple and waspy

The breezy fishtail. Her dress was in heavy silk satin

The front and back necklines were trimmed in a double layer of fine French lace.

The husband looks happy

Looks a bit like a fashion shoot.

Cool pics I think

x

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

Raquel by the water

One of my oldest and closest friends is moving to France tomorrow. For two years or thereabouts. Somewhere near Bergerac in the Dordogne region, a little hamlet called Lolme. There are only three houses there. They are going to do up an old house and see what happens. I wish I was going too. Well, I am going in September to visit but it would be nice to have an adventure like that. I think France is my spiritual home but Tim doesn't think it is his...... oh well

Anyway, below is my lovely bride Raquel. She got married earlier this year in Manly but it looks a little like St Tropez or somewhere! A bit of Euro up the road, or across the water as it may be.

Her dress is in latte coloured sand washed silk with a fine beaded tulle skirt over the top. Raquel is an artist I think, or maybe she's at art school. She had very specific ideas about her dress and the feeling she wanted. Well, they all do really! She found her own lace and the tulle for the skirt which was actually taken off an existing dress.

She then beaded extra beads and crystals on the bodice once she had taken the dress. Normally we do all that, a bride generally doesn't buy their own lace etc, although from time to time someone does. But Raquel really wanted to do as much as she could herself. So we gave in.

Anyway, she looks lovely and very womanly, volupturous. Which she was!

See? That's a bit Euorpean isn't it?

These types of beaches are not European though

The dress looks lovely here, nice colours

Matching colours

They look glamorous and very relaxed. She's quite beautiful really. Great hair. I always like to imagine some people as being from some other time and she has a 60's beach glamour thing going on. A little bohemian

xn

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

I have started a great book. I think our book club has waned a little. Some of us broke off and read Twilight and some of us didn't like the next book (The Gathering) and some didn't even bother to read it (me) after no one said anything good about it. And on the night we were supposed to discuss the virtues of it, we were all too busy. So it seems to have lost momentum. However I think I have found the book to revive it. I loved it from the first page.

It's set in Turkey in the 70's and is about a man who falls in love with someone he shouldn't and he starts a collection of objects to remind him of his love. That's all I really know so far and of course I'm sure it's about much more than that. It's translated from Turkish and is beautifully written and great fodder for daydreaming!

Anyway, back to brides (instead of having affairs), below are some girls from the recent and not so recent past. I forget that I have some pics of girls buried in emails and the like. I feel a bit guilty as I can't remember some of their names. A couple are from a year or more ago so maybe that's forgivable seeing as there have been so many girls since then.

Common themes, if there are any - natural white, unfussy design, breezy and ....fun to wear? Something like that...

Fiona in silk satin georgette

She had great legs

Some nice chiffon action from the back

A simple but effective back detail

Nellie on the beach in Silk Jersey

A Roman Holiday

Julie in Chantilly lace

Daria with a splash of colour

Not bad for 7 months pregnant

xn