Intricately detailed pink floral wedding gown for London Bride, with a light-up party dress too.
Wilden Bride Andrea shares her story of engagement, and the making of her wedding gown, with a cute light up party dress too.
Even though I’ve left Andreas words as she wrote them, please know that at no moment was she ever a bridezilla.
The Engagement
Max took me on a trip to the Isle of Wight where we walked up to the top of a large hill with stunning views of the island. It was so sunny and we had a picnic. Whilst tucking into my monster munch he said ‘there’s something I’ve got to ask you’, he was down on one knee and proposed. I was so surprised, also sweaty and not in my best clothes from walking up the hill.
The ring was gorgeous - he designed it all himself as he knew I loved flowers, it’s a diamond with little sapphire petals around it - very me and it was all very romantic and thoughtful.
Imagining the Wedding
I had so many wedding ideas and eventually decided that a summer wedding in the Isle of Wight would be fun and a bit different, sending all our friends across the water on a ferry. We picked May as it’s always lush and green even if the weather is wet. We had a crumbling ruin of an old building called Appuldercombe House that hosts weddings and we put the marquee up there. I loved that we did a lot ourselves - max and I covered the marquee in ivy and my friend did all the flowers including a beautiful flower arch inside the ruined building.
Flowers were very important to me actually and as my friend Jenn Pinder is a florist I got lucky! It was definitely a bit of a theme - flowers on all the place cards and wedding programme and invitation.
Designing the Dress
I had absolutely no idea what kind of dress I wanted. Although I’d started to think that one that wasn’t totally white would be nice. I went to about 5 different wedding shops and the dresses were all fine. One I even considered and it looked nice but I just didn’t feel they were very me and I came to the conclusion I wanted more input into the design. I discovered Charlotte through Instagram and immediately knew she was the designer for me! Her beautiful dresses were so original and stunning - lots of unique non white ones, lots of detail in the design, pretty silk flowers - I literally wanted every one of her dresses merged into one!
Charlotte helped me realise that I couldn’t have all of her dresses merged into one and gently guided me towards a dress that was absolutely perfect for me. I’d decided I wanted a bit of a floral theme on the dress too so Charlotte made beautiful peach silk flowers (complete with the sweetest little pearl stamens) along the top of the dress and then individually sewed on all these little pink petals at the hem. She convinced me to go with an off the shoulder dress and I’m so pleased that she did! I’m delighted when I see the pictures back.
Turning into a bit of a bridezilla I then asked Charlotte m if she could make me a dancing dress. I decided that it would be fun to have a light up one and had bought light up sunglasses and flower crowns for all the guests. Charlotte was absolutely amazing and worked with fibre optic fabric to create a gorgeous little dancing dress that my bridesmaids turned on during the first dance - everyone was amazed. So Charlotte is really a dress designer/electrician!
Charlotte’s dresses were so unique and special, I’m praying my daughters want to wear them when they get married. She also designed a pink Berry head piece with gold leaves for me. What was so clever about the main dress is that it has this ethereal floating effect where the hem sort of billows around your feet when you walk - I think this is the silk that she used - it’s incredible and I haven’t seen it on other designers dresses. Charlotte created a veil for me too - also long and floaty. My friend did my hair and make up and it was very simple.
Mary-Anne Wedding Photography took the photos and really captured the day perfectly.