French Floral Embroidered Chiffon Wedding Dress
Bride Anais describes the elements of her wedding, and the dress designing and making process for her French floral embroidered dress.
All images by wedding photographer Ivory and Grace.
The Proposal
Alex (my now husband) surprised me with a trip to the Maldives on our 3 year anniversary in November 2019. On the evening of our anniversary, we went for a walk along the beach of the resort we were staying at. He knelt down on one knee and proposed to me under the midnight stars. It was the most perfect and romantic evening and I will cherish these memories forever.
The Engagement Ring
Alex designed my engagement ring with a jeweler from London, using diamonds which his mum had gifted.
It is a three-stone white gold ring with a diamond encrusted band. There are intricate details designed into the ring - such as two white gold leaves - and people always mention how beautiful and special the design is. I had never mentioned what type of ring I liked and I was so surprised that he got it so right.
The Wedding Venue
After hesitating between France and England to celebrate our wedding, we unexpectedly came across the stunning Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. After one visit, we knew straight away that it was the perfect venue for us, as we both love history and nature. We wanted a romantic venue with a "soul" that had lived through the centuries. We booked it two months before Covid-19 hit, and as we postponed our original date by a few months, it actually gave us more time to think about all the details such as flowers and decoration.
Our theme was a "romantic, poetic and ethereal castle wedding". We wanted to celebrate the natural beauty of this thousand year old castle by using mostly candle lights and warm neutral toned flowers and greenery.
Decorating the Venue
I am very passionate by interior design and decoration; so I was very excited at the idea of bringing our vision to life for our wedding. Lighting and flowers were the key elements of the decor for us. We used dozens of glass and amber coloured tealights, old brass lanterns as well as floral urns and real trees to fill the space (an idea of Alex).
Designing a Bespoke Wedding Dress
I always knew the type of dress I wanted: a long-sleeved, V-neck and open back slim wedding dress, with floral embroidery. I went to visit a few wedding dress shops and realised that it was going to be difficult to find what I was looking for. I decided to look online for wedding dress designers in London and came across Charlotte's website. After seeing the initial sketch Charlotte has drawn, it was clear she understood exactly what I had in mind and her talent was evident. My inspiration for the floral embroidery came from my mum's garden in the French Alps where I grew up. As I was not going to get married in France, I wanted to wear a "piece of home" on my wedding day. I selected dozens of pictures of flowers that I sent to Charlotte and she then sketched them meticulously.
The most important element of my dress was the floral embroidery. As it covered most of the upper layer of the dress, it was important that the final result looked cohesive and Charlotte made sure of it. She even embroidered a little bee (a meaningful symbol for Alex and I), as well as two “A”’s on the left inner sleeve of my dress. I loved all the attention to details Charlotte brought to the dress, but also her thought process. She literally created a "vertical garden" on my dress, with multiple details that make the dress so unique and beautiful.
The final result absolutely blew me away. Charlotte did create my dream dress. I received so many compliments about the dress on the day, from the guests and our suppliers too, saying how stunning and unique the design was.
I would say that I choose a dress that was very "me". I wanted to feel my best on the day, and to wear a custom-made wedding dress made me feel beautiful and confident. The shape of the dress was perfect, close to my body but with enough space to be able to dance and move comfortably. I was really excited to be able to finally wear the dress in front of Alex, my family and friends. Now I am just waiting for our wedding anniversary to be able to wear it again!
