Dear Reader

Do you already know Love My Dress? It's a wonderful wedding blog, full of ideas and inspiration by brilliant blogger Annabel. Well, today it's all looking rather new and different... Check out their pretty new design here.

And it reminded me about a post I wrote for Annabel a little while ago, all about accessorising vintage wedding dresses. Just scroll down to see it below. (Some of these beautiful dresses may no longer be available, but do call me to check!) Or visit LoveMyDress to see the original post and admire the lovely redesign at the same time!

HOW TO ACCESSORISE YOUR VINTAGE WEDDING DRESS…

BY ANNABEL

AFTERNOON LADIES :) I'D LIKE TO FEATURE AN

ADVICE PIECE FROM ONE OF MY FAVOURITE
VINTAGE BRIDAL WEAR SPECIALISTS, HELENA
BUTLER OF HEAVENLY VINTAGE BRIDES.

Helena has kitted out many a Love My Dress bride in one of her gorgeous original vintage wedding dresses, so knows a thing or two about how to team vintage dresses with different bridal accessories…

♥ ♥ ♥

I often get asked by my lovely brides for my advice regarding accessorising

their vintage wedding dress. With this in mind I have some images to share –

all the dresses are vintage and are from my own stock at Heavenly Vintage

Brides, but the accessories are a mix of old {original vintage} and new.

Shoes…

with a short wedding dress like the first few photographed here, there is

great scope for fabulous statement shoes, which don't have to be ivory or

white. Lots of my Brides wear coloured shoes, red or pink in various shades

being the most popular. Several of my lovely brides have chosen the Melissa

shoe, by Vivienne Westwood {below right in various shades}, and in the

photo below {left}, the model is wearing Lady Dragon by Vivienne

Westwood in red.

The sweet little 50s tiered lace dress the model above is wearing is

unfortunately sold, but I will be making some copies of it in the Spring in

fabulous French lace – keep an eye on my site for news of my own little

collection of vintage inspired wedding dresses.

The shoes that my model Patience is wearing below are very modern

but go well with the dresses, they are in a great nude pink colour which

make her legs look super-long.

The lovely knee length dress here is 1960s Tulip style and has a very

elegant, couture look and feel. It is approx a size 10 to small 12 and

priced at £900, and is currently available to try on at the Heavenly

Vintage Brides studio.

When my clients ask me for shoe ideas, I often suggest a Spanish

designer called Chie Mihara, her designs manage to look both vintage

and contemporary at the same time. Take a look at Chie's website –

her price start from around £240.

Another shoe designer I often suggest to my clients is Rachel Simpson

whose dainty little shoes have a very vintage feel. I particularly like the

Ginger style, in gold or silver as seen here. This designer has also just

collaborated on a new range of shoes for dance-wear specialist Freed of

London.

A more cost effective alternative is to have a look at Next wedding

shoes. The prices start from £30 and the shoes are really very pretty,

and fantastic value.

Vintage Bling…

I do love a bit of bling, so I often add a vintage brooch to a dress,

the 1940s brooch Patience is wearing goes well as it's the same age

as the dress and adds a bit of subtle sparkle, and the diamante pattern

is quite lacy.

A great place to buy affordable vintage jewellery is the Hammersmith

Town Hall Vintage Fair, run by Paola of P & A Antique Fairs, I get lots

of great accessories, and petticoats there.

The little white flower and heart hat is by Cherished Vintage and the

cocktail ring is from Top Shop and is just added for fun…

In one shot we have the ultimate accessory - the 'handbag-sized' dog….!

In this case JJ, who behaved very well considering she is only a few

months old!

This dress by the way, is in beautiful cotton lace original vintage number,

that was worn by a bride in Richmond back in the 1940s. I love the fact

that I know her name and the year it was worn. The Bride stored it so

carefully with a little mother of pearl Bible and a coin dated 1940. It is

in fantastic condition so it was obviously a treasured possession.

The dress is approximately size 8/10 and priced at £900.

The next dress is a 1950s tulle prom style dress. I have used a dainty

little vintage diamante necklace which belonged to my model Cordelia's

grandmother. I think it's lovely to try and use a family piece of jewellery

- it doesn't need to be a valuable piece, just go through 'Granny's'

jewellery box!

The headdress the model is wearing is made from vintage gold leaves

and delicate diamante jewellery – a design by Cherished Vintage. The

dress is priced at £850 and is size 8.

Headpieces…

The headwear is of course very important an accessory, particularly for

my photoshoots. I have used a range of styles made by Abby and Debbie

at the wonderful Cherished Vintage. They use original vintage jewellery

to make lovely unique headpieces and bands, and to my delight - great

little hats, which are a recent addition to their range. All the headpieces

I used on my shoot were made by Cherished Vintage.

The dress here is a 1960s very classic style with a beaded neckline, and

tulip skirt. The headdress made from vintage pearl jewellery was perfect

with it – I needed something very simple in shape, to reflect the simplicity

of the dress and the beaded neckline, and It had just the right kind of

beading and just the right 'weight' to it – again, from Cherished Vintage.

I though the style demanded a simple Audrey Hepburn style hairdo, but

I made it a bit loose, to keep it modern. The dress size is approximately

a size 8.

Hairstyles are of course very important and I feel that they should echo

the period of the dress but with a modern feel. Hair styles of the past

were very fixed and lacquered and these days, girls don't want anything

quite as stiff.

Here, I again used a cute little hat from Cherished Vintage, and false

eyelashes, which are great for capturing that vintage feel.

The dress, again modelled by Cordelia is silk organza from the 1950s

with French Lace appliques, priced at £1200, it has a long sweeping

train and a beautiful sash and fits approx a size 8. The little hats are

hand-made on new bases using vintage flowers and textiles, and will

be a feature of Cherished's ready to wear collection, or can be made

bespoke to order.

The dress shown below is again from the 1950s and is beautifully

constructed with many panels forming the skirt. It almost has a corset-like

effect to draw attention to a neat waist. It is approximately a size 8 or

small size 10, and priced at £1100.

The final dress is a cute sparkly tulle and lace 1950s prom dress with

pearls and sequins following the pattern of the lace around the neckline.

I have used a great headpiece which has a sparkly vintage brooch at its

centre, as of course the sparkles on the dress demand a bit more sparkle

in the hair! The dress is a size 8 and priced at £1000.

All these dresses are available at Heavenly Vintage Brides, and I love

to meet Love My Dress brides, so please feel free to contact me to book

in for an appointment sometime to try some on!

My prices range from £350/400 to around £1250 for an original

vintage wedding dress. Unfortunately I don't have space to stock many

accessories, but I do have some nice original vintage wedding veils,

and some great cocktail veils – designed by Helena Talbot of HT

Headwear, that compliment my dresses in the most wonderful way.

Helena can also create headpiece designs to match your specific ideas.

I hope you've enjoyed this post. Do check out Annabel's blog,
LoveMyDress. And please do visit me later this week when I'll be
featuring some fabulous 1930s wedding dresses!

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

Dear Reader,
Often, my brides have no clear idea what they're looking for. They love the romance of vintage wedding dresses, or the glamour. Sometimes its the timeless quality of vintage that appeals. Beyond that, they have no picture of which decade or style is right for them.

That's absolutely fine – showing the many options that vintage offers is always enjoyable. But there's a special pleasure that comes when I meet a bride who has a clear sense of her own style, and knows exactly what she's looking for.

Lovely Terry was just such a bride – a very elegant lady with clear style ideas. Terry came to me knowing exactly how she wanted to look for her Brighton wedding: simple, elegant... and gorgeous.

So we adapted the 1940s–inspired Bette dress, from my Heavenly Collection. It's already a very elegant shape, and we made it just as Terry imagined by raising the skirt a little to show off her lovely jewelled Harriet Wilde shoes. We slimmed the A-line silhouette too, for a very slender line...

The silver beaded trim used for the belt and neckline was a one–off, a vintage find that perfectly suited the dress.

The same attention to detail went into the choice of dresses for bridesmaids Carli, Sian and Rhian – a different Alfred Sung design to suit each bridesmaid but all in Terry's favourite Bluebell colour.