Emerald Green Floral Wedding Dress

As a wedding florist heading up her own company, Jay Archer Floral Design, Jay had seen enough brides dresses to figure that she wanted something a little different for her own wedding day. The main requests were emerald green, bold lace, velvet and silk flowers. Also on Jays wish list was to have an ostrich feather shrug in burgundy to contrast with the emerald of the dress, the perfect choice, which we lined in velvet (to give Jay her velvet fix)
The shape and structure of the dress evolved quite naturally, with an emerald green slip underneath, and a slim-fitting lace and chiffon over dress with cropped sleeves, a boat neck with a delicate scalloped lace edging and a subtly fluted skirt with a train that was cut into long panels which were placed and pinned and stitched into place after being sculpted around Jays body, and then further embroidered so that the lace would appear seamless and simply sculpted.
The bold cotton Guipure lace was hand-dyed to match the emerald green of the under slip, and scattered all over with Swarovski crystalsand glass beads in all shades of green.

As if having a deep green wedding dress isn’t bold enough, being a florist, Jay just had to have flowers adorning her dress, so I set about making swirling rose corsages, and petal flowers and silk ribbon Sweetpeas and a range of red, pink, coral and burgundy tones. We found a piece of vintage lace which had a deep green and metallic gold leave design, and so I cut out the leafy vines and used them to give direction on the shoulders and on the hips, embroidering the corsages and flowers and buds organically and asymmetrically cascading over each shoulder, and just a few falling from the hips. I used red crystals to hide among the flowers to add a little extra tone and depth, and of course hidden sparkle.

Above all, Jay wanted her wedding and her dress to be reflective of herself and of her relationship, from the colour of the dress, being a memory of an outfit worn when the couple first met, and the eyelash lace at the neckline being a reference to a little joke between them. I was so lucky to receive this commission, I just love brides who are out of the ordinary but also truly genuine in their choices.

Jay also wears a simple gold hair vine with oak leaves and green Swarovski crystals made by Abbie at Cherished Vintage.
Jay’s makeup look was created by the ever talented and lovely Ana Ospina.

The amazing photographs were captured by the fabulous Tarah Coonan.