Wedding Dress Trends 2016: The Gospel According to Vogue.

Dear Reader,

This week Vogue Magazine published their guide to bridal trends for 2016 – based on the latest couture collections. 

Wedding dresses by Monique Lhuillier, Oscar de la Renta, Marchesa

I'm not sure my clients would agree with all of them – and I'm not giving away my own predictions yet! As always, I'll make mine at the end of this year, based on what my brides are loving and asking for. But it's fun to see these from Vogue, and to give you my take on them…

Wedding Dress Trend 1 – Sweet Nothings
The first trend Vogue noted is for barely there dresses, almost lingerie. This is a very couture look – much easier to carry off on a catwalk than in an English church or a garden reception. Super pretty, though. And very reminiscent of all those slinky 1930s and sultry 1940s dresses…

1930s inspired Butterfly wedding dress from my Heavenly Collection

Original 1940s lace wedding dress from my West London vintage studio.

Wedding Dress Trend 2 – Sparkles
Always in fashion, and rightly so. A generous sprinkling of sparkle appeared on the catwalks for next year, particularly from Badgley Mischka, Carolina Herrera and Marchesa. A little sparkle has always been one of the delights of vintage wedding dresses, of course. With many of the dresses in my Heavenly Collection, you can choose to add just a little bling… or a lot!

My 1940s style wedding dress, Bette, with its sparkly trim.

Pretty bling: Florence, 1940s style dress from my Heavenly Collection.

Wedding Dress Trend 3 – Knee Length
Shorter dresses made a welcome appearance on the bridal catwalks. But to see this trend at its best, simply look to the 1950s for the most fabulous tea–length wedding dresses…

'Blanche', 1950s style wedding dress, from my Heavenly Collection

Original 1950s 'cupcake' wedding dress from my West London vintage studio.

Wedding Dress Trend 4 – Bare Shoulders
Always popular with so many brides. Yet vintage dresses often take a subtler approach. Think of pretty keyhole openings, lace shoulders or tiny petal sleeves. Every bit as sexy, but a lot more subtle.

Angel, 1930s inspired lace wedding dress: vintage is more subtly sexy.

Original 1950s wedding dress from my West London vintage studio.

1970s off–the–shoulder wedding dress, from my West London vintage studio.

Wedding Dress Trend 5 – Separate Overskirts
A full-length transparent overskirt, cut to reveal a shorter one underneath...? Oh so fashiony! Very modern, a little bit mad, and quite fun – but not exactly a classic look. What do you think?

Wedding Dress with Overskirt, by the usually classic designer Vera Wang!

Wedding Dress Trend 6 – Cream
Ahhhh, beautiful. Now here's one I really can enthuse about – drawing as it does from the softness and romance of vintage wedding fashion. White is lovely too, of course. But cream, blush and ivory are so much more flattering to all skin tones. Often my clients come to me expecting to choose a white wedding dress, but once tried they fall in love with these lovely muted tones. That's why I offer my Heavenly Collection dresses in a range of pretty and flattering shades.

Full length lace wedding dress in cream by Oscar de la Renta

Butterfly, from my Heavenly Collection in a soft ivory.

Florence: a lace wedding dress with toning underslip (Heavenly Collection)

Well done, Vogue – fun predictions and a good showing for vintage styles. What did you think of them? Later this year, you can see how my own predictions match up!
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

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The perfect veil for 1950s wedding dresses.

Dear Reader,
Today I'd like to show you the second in my new range of heavenly vintage veils, together with some of the inspiration behind it...

This beautiful mid-length veil is made of a fine and delicate tulle, and embellished with pretty embroidered edging and detailing. It looks wonderful with all 1950s wedding dresses…

Though deceptively simple and pretty, it's constructed with two tiers. So it can be worn over the face, to make a dramatic entrance – and swept back for that fabulously romantic You-may-now-kiss-the-bride moment.

Here's some of the glamorous 1950s inspiration behind this classic style…

Brigitte Bardot, 1956

Princess Grace of Monaco, 1955

Bride Magazine 1958

1950s Vogue bridal shoot

Brides Magazine, 1955

Elizabeth Taylor and Nicky Hilton, 1950

The mid-length vintage-style veil – fit for a Princess!

Held in place with a simple comb, the veil can be made to any length to make it perfect for your own choice of vintage wedding dress. And the detailing can be adapted to complement your dress too, with a choice of pearls or crystals scattered throughout.

This beautiful veil is priced from £95 to £175 depending on your choice of length and detail. Do contact me to make an appointment to come and see me soon!
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

If you like this post, please try
My New Range of Vintage Style Veils – the Birdcage Veil

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Real Bride Sophie shines in a 1950s-style wedding dress, 'CHANTILLY'

Dear Reader,

Remember I promised to share more pictures of Heavenly bride Sophie, and her wedding to Jeremy...?

For her city wedding in Ealing, Sophie looked fabulous in 'Chantilly' - a 1950s inspired lace wedding dress from my Heavenly Collection. She teamed the dress so prettily with silver Jimmy Choo 'Luna' peep toe pumps, a sweet veil and gorgeous bright Spring flowers.

Husband-to-be Jeremy looked dashing too, in a blue Reiss suit, Thomas Pink dress shirt and Alexander McQueen tie and cufflinks...

And their whole happy day was filled with wonderful personal details, from the 'Molly Bakes' cake-pops to the London Bus tour!

"Many of our guests travelled to London for our wedding from all over the world, so we hired a routemaster to take them on a tour of London before arriving at our reception at The Amadeus in Maida Vale."

 

Thanks so much to Sophie for sharing for her super-stylish day with us (and for her kind words!) If you've enjoyed this post, check out the nice feature in Brides Magazine, here.

"I just wanted to share some pics from Saturday - I felt wonderful in my dress and received so many compliments, so thank you for all your help and support in making my dream dress!"

See you all later this week, for another inspiring Real Vintage Bride!

Love

Helena 

Heavenly Vintage Brides

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100 Things I Love This Week Part 2- Decorating and Rehearsing

 

26. Tall Ladders- Essential to any good wedding. Also, pretty treacherous, since one of the valiant members of ladder team two was actually shocked by lights! Still, I am positive that the key to our wedding's success was those ladders.

 

27. Liam as a helper- Shell and Micah brought the baby with them, which provided lots of extra cuteness (and he is such a good baby). My Nana was all over watching him, and you could tell she was genuinely having a good time. 

 

28. The photo wall- Natalie and my Dad were all over it, and it really looked great. Here is Natalie trying to figure out how to cover up the wire with ribbon. It is very nice to have an artist as a cousin on days like that one! 

 

29. Big Rock Tissue Mountain- Jenny was fluffing all day, and before these bad boys went up, you couldn't even see her. Those are her feet at the bottom. Jenny's feet alone make this picture amazing. 

 

30. Anchor Village's lattices- Ok, I am lying. Those things are fugly, but they do cover up uglier things and we did get to use them in a pretty cute way. If you are having your reception at Anchor Village, bring white paint with you! And probably power tools, because those things are falling apart.

31. The giant bug living on the junk that the last group left on the lattices. So Gross. It's when you are pulling off your 3rd or 4th grasshopper you start really doubting your decision- but it all turned out, so now their memory is endearing.

 

32. Sweet Basil Pizza- Sweet Basil took over the old Pizza Hut in Marian, and that is where my Mom went to get food for everyone on Friday. The pizza was all so amazing. If you are taking the drive between Eastern PA and Franklin, I would highly recommend this place. Hit the spot.She got a ton of pizza and we pretty much finished it.

 

33. That Jim McGee showed up as we were cleaning up and getting ready to go. Now that is some good timing. He did move one table and pretend to put up one flower, so that is some quality groomsmenning.

 

34. This picture of the Boy and Carlo as kids. Specifically, that they are wearing sweatsuit outfits and putting hands on each others thighs. Mrs. Alfeo swears that she was sick that day, so she takes no responsibility for it.

 

35.  The Dance floor ceiling! My Dad figured out how to put it up, and it really did look amazing and beautiful. As each puff and lantern went up, I just got more excited about how it looked.

 

36. The Congradulations sign- Courtesy of my Sister-in-laws. We are an odd group, but this cracks me up!

  

37. Having my brother with me- You can't do anything this big without your sibling. Mine is the best! He had about 48 hours in Franklin to be there for all of our wedding stuff (he had to leave LA while training for a new job and moving into a new apartment) and I couldn't have appreciated it more. Plus, I thought his rehearsal outfit was pretty sharp.

 

38. This bridesmaid/groomsmen combo. We had a lot of short girls and tall guys, but this is my favorite/ most dramatic combination!

 

39. The rehearsal bouquet from my Aunt Ann- She couldn't come in the end, but she got me a small bouquet for the rehearsal as a surprise, which was just so sweet. It was a nice way to feel like she was with me and thinking of me because I was definitely thinking of her and wishing she could be there with us! I missed her so much, but she was so sweet and thoughtful toward me, even from a distance. Also, the bouquet was really pretty. 

 

40. Ok, I wasn't thinking ahead so I didn't take a good picture of the food, but AmaZing Food Catering did an awesome job, and I was especially obsessed with the tortellini which were green and had cheese and were freaking amazing. Shame on me for saying we should just do pizza, because I will be thinking of that tortellini for the rest of my life. Maybe I just loved the carbs after lunch, but I was really excited about the food (and I wasn't the only one who came back for seconds!).

 

41. This Picture- These two are my family and my home and it made me so happy to see them hanging out and being together! Love them so much! Also, my brother is another sucker for babies, so that was cute too!

 

42. Black light bowling- Nothing says the solemnity of marital commitment like Pam's whole body glowing under the lights while we all bowled.  If you are trying to think of a good pre-wedding activity, I would recommend bowling, though I think I might tell the bride and groom to not commit to actually bowling.

 

43.  Seeing old friends who I haven't seen for a while- Even better, seeing them bowl and interact with other people from the past. One of the most fun parts of wedding festivities.

 

44. The church dress/ bowling shoe combo- this look is going to blow up. They looked even more amazing glowing in the black light.

 

45.  This picture- just another good one. I love their dance together!

46.  That Zach broke a bowling ball- That's power. He actually put a huge dent in the ball. He seemed pretty proud of it too!

 

47. The Old Timey phones in D'Casa B& B- we tried them all. They were pretty amazing. The whole B& B has new ownership and they redid the kitchen. It turned out to be a great home base through wedding festivities, and we liked playing with all the old stuff in there! The hour after bowling we ran around a bunch and I think got out some energy playing and exploring the space. It was so fun!

48. D'Casa B and B's kitchen- It looks like a kitchen in a magazine. I am not sure I have ever been in such a fancypants kitchen before in my life. We were really impressed by it!

 

49.  Late night conversations with these people- such a fun night!

 

50. Waking up to my Dad playing the "It's your wedding day" polka on his tuba- the perfect way to get up. 

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