Ruth in Edwardian lace wedding dress – an enchanting vintage bride for 2016.

Dear Reader,
The Happiest of New Years to you! 
I'd like to start our 2016 with an enchanting vintage bride in the prettiest Edwardian wedding dress. Meet Ruth!

Ruth and Conor were married in late Summer at St Mary's Parish Church, Kilmood, County Down in Northern Ireland. Befitting this wonderful couple, their whole day has a beautiful handmade and simple vibe that perfectly suited the innocent charm of Ruth's beautiful Edwardian cotton lace wedding dress.

To complement her vintage wedding dress, Ruth wore a charming floral crown together with an elegant fingertip–length veil in silk tulle (the veil was handcrafted by the bride's talented mother!) The overall effect is simple and stunning.

The lovely, personal feel of their day continued inside the Church. Conor comes from a musical family, so Ruth walked down the aisle to a live performance by two family members of Simon and Garfunkel's The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy).

Their reception was held at Field of Dreams in Bangor, County Down. It's a stunning rural location – with a Scandinavian-style wooden lodge decked out in beautiful garlands, as well as marquee, meadow, lake and even a standing stone circle!

Inside a traditional canvas marquee – handsomely decked out with wooden tables, hay bales and floral garlands – a good friend played mixologist for the night, creating fresh juices and cocktails including Rhubarb Margaritas and Apple, Elderflower and Gin Rickeys. So good!

Groom Conor is a Fine Bench Joiner and Cabinet Maker and made the stunning maple and birch wood tables himself! (He's since sold half of them to a bar–restaurant in the French Alps, but the couple are determined to keep one as a memento of their fab day.) 

A wonderful, casual meal was followed by many hours of dancing to great music, courtesy of a band of friends and family. The first dance was to Twist and Shout by the Beatles and Ruth reports that after that she didn't stop dancing until the very end of the evening!

What a beautiful day! I'll leave the last word to our fabulous bride Ruth...

"Thank you again for helping me find the perfect vintage wedding dress. It was amazing – just wonderful! So comfortable, flowed beautifully when I walked and danced (and I did a lot of dancing!!) and it felt like it was made just for me. I received so many compliments. My dress really was such a big part of what made the day so special."

Thanks for visiting my vintage wedding blog, dear reader. I hope you'll pop back again. If you'd like to see more of Conor and Ruth's magical day, click here. And meanwhile, I wish you a magical 2016.
Love 
Helena 
Heavenly Vintage Brides

If you like this post, check out…
Sophie in pretty 1950s lace wedding dress – and sneakers!
And try more Real Vintage Brides on my website, here.

Groom's suit by ASOS
Bridesmaids' dresses by In One Clothing
Flowers by Floral Creations
Photographs with thanks to Honey & the Moon Photography

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What vintage are you...?

Dear Reader,

So I may have nailed my colours to the mast by saying how much I love 1930s dresses. But that's just me... Now how about you? Are you a Downton Abbey darling, a lover of 1950s prom-pretty fashions, or a stylish swinging 1960s girl?

Each style of vintage wedding dresses has so much to offer! Here's a little reminder of some recent posts explaining each era, with lots of beautiful dresses to enjoy. Take a look by clicking on the titles, and see if you have your own favourite decade...

A Guide to Edwardian (1910s and 1920s) wedding dresses

A Guide to 1930s wedding dresses - the golden age of glamour

A Guide to 1940s wedding dresses - Hollywood sophistication

A Guide to 1950s wedding dresses - Flirty fifties!

A Guide to 1960s wedding dresses - Swinging Style

Ahhhh, so many delicious styles to choose from. Think I shall have changed my mind again by tomorrow...!

See you again soon (and don't forget to contact me if you'd like to see my collection in person)

Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

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Another wonderful Edwardian vintage wedding dress, on real bride Francesca

Dear Reader

After talking about Edwardian vintage wedding dresses last week, I wanted to show you these pictures of beautiful Francesca, who recently married in Italy. 

Francesca's lovely outfit is very similar to an Edwardian dress I just saw in the V&A exhibition. But, actually Francesca's is an original Edwardian lace blouse teamed with a contemporary bridal skirt I sourced for her. They were a perfect match...

For more gorgeous Edwardian wedding dresses, do check out my Original Vintage dresses for sale here. Thanks for dropping by!

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

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Edwardian vintage wedding dresses - a guide.

Dear Reader

The Edwardian period was just ten years from 1901 to 1910. But it is still popular today: just look at the international success of Downton Abbey. (The period after the death of Edward until the First World War is often included, too.)

Original Edwardian vintage wedding dress (with 1930s satin slip), £1250

Fashionable Edwardian brides aspired to the 'S' shape, which was created by whalebone corsetry. The corset design (called The Health Corset) although restrictive, was at least not as damaging to their health as corsets of the Victorian era. The waist circumference was gradually reduced by tighter lacing, until they reached their smallest size which - shockingly - could be as small as 16 inches.

I look for dresses with a reasonable waist size (not 16ins!) then I have a few clever techniques for increasing the size further. For example, adding lace from the same era. This can bring the waist to about 26 or 27ins - which of course is still very small fitting and not for everyone, but hopefully doesn’t require a corset!

Original Edwardian vintage wedding dress (with 1930s satin slip), £1250

And there are other features which may need modification: first, the front of the bodice is often loose-fitting, or 'pigeon chested’. Secondly, Edwardian wedding dresses often have high necks usually supported by tiny ‘bones'. These can be removed or adapted to give a softer neck shape.

I am not at all against changing vintage dress to make them work in a modern context,  as long as it's done sympathetically and the dress looks better for it! 

I am also a fan of Edwardian style headdresses. The fashion was for delicate circlets made from wax flowers, see my post here. I've definitely seen a trend amongst my clients for fresh flowers instead of diamante - which I think is a lovely change. I will always love a well made side-tiara but it’s nice that girls are rediscovering real flowers. And circlets are definitely a trend right now.

Original Edwardian vintage wedding dress (with 1930s satin slip), £1350

I'd also like to show you a Heavenly Vintage Bride from a few years ago. Her name is Millie, and she wore a beautiful late-Edwardian dress for her Beatrix Potter themed wedding. 

Millie’s dress is wonderful fine lace called ‘Tambour’ lace, which is embroidered cotton net. This was usually worked by hand using a frame and hook.

There's lots more lovely images from Millie's wedding on the LoveMyDress wedding blog (a great blog, if you haven't seen it before.) Check out Millie's feature, here.

I'm a huge fan of this style of lace - or any cotton lace, actually! And it’s so good for vintage collectors and wearers as it stays strong for many years. 

Many veils were also made of Tambour lace such as those shown here. I am in the process of having some lovely veils made to complement my dresses, using a special sewing machine which replicates this style of lace.

As soon as my new veils are perfect, I'll let you know: you'll see them here first! I've included some pictures of two wonderful original Edwardian dresses which are both available now. If, like me, you love the dresses from this period, then do check out these vintage Edwardian dresses here. 

Hope you've enjoyed this post - and see you soon!

Love 
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

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Vintage Wedding Dresses at the V&A

Dear Reader

I was delighted to be invited to a preview of the V&A's vintage wedding dresses exhibition at the weekend. It's a great day out with eighty spectacular dresses and some lovely stories about the brides.

Kate Moss in fabulous vintage-inspired dress, and designer John Galliano

The show starts with some amazing examples of 18th and 19th Century wedding dresses, including many Victorian dresses - all works of tremendous skill and opulence. 

1885 wedding dress by Gladman & Womack

Satin court dress, 1775-80

I enjoyed seeing these older dresses from the V&A's own collection. But I did feel there were a few too many, compared to the 20th Century dresses. While these earlier dresses are interesting, they're not so relevant for a modern bride considering a vintage dress - being neither wearable or flattering!

Dress of Cara Leland Huttleston Rogers, 1890. However did she breathe!

The show then romps through the 20th Century at a very fast pace. It begins with 1920s dresses and has a few examples which are much softer and prettier. I particularly liked one lovely example, which reminded me of a very similar Edwardian lace blouse I sold last year.

Norman Hartnell wedding dress for Margaret Wigham, 1933
Its 3.6m train famously stopped traffic on the day!

I was disappointed to see only two 1930s satin dresses, and no 1930s lace gowns which are famously wonderful. And I could only see a few 1940s and 1950s wedding dresses. Since this is considered a golden period for wedding dress design, I felt the show didn't really do justice to it. Most of the gowns in the show are British and I imagine few girls could afford a wonderful dress at that time, but there must have been some society weddings with beautiful dresses?

Charles James dress for Barbara Beaton, 1934
Barbara was the sister of Cecil Beaton

Dress and hat by Geoffrey Beene, 1970s

Upstairs, the show features late-20th Century dresses, including some very well-known contemporary dresses, Some fabulous, some less so!

Gwen Stefani's dress by John Galliano, 2002

Gwen Stefani's wedding to Gavin Rossdale, 2002

Dress by Gareth Pugh for Katie Shillingford, 2011
Veil by Stephen Jones

Bruce Oldfield wedding dress for model Lisa Butcher, 1992

Lisa Butcher marries chef Marco Pierre White, 1992

But I was most pleased to see Kate Moss’s vintage-inspired wedding dress close up as it is far more lovely than the newspapers photos could show. It's worth going just to see how the gold sequins have been applied to the train!

Dress by John Galliano for Kate Moss' wedding to Jamie Hince, 2011

Hand-embroidered sequins and pearls for Kate Moss's fabulous dress

Each dress in the show has its own story, illustrated with newspaper articles etc. I can see that's very important from the V&A's historical point of view, so I'm sure it would influence the curator's choices. But I would have liked to see some dresses chosen purely for their design qualities - their sheer beauty and ability to flatter - rather than for their provenance.

'Bird of Paradise' wedding dress by Vivienne Westwood for Dita Von Teese
Grosgrain, velvet and mink tricorn hat by Stephen Jones, 2005

After the wedding dresses, I dropped in to see the Italian Fashion exhibition - which I loved. One thing I noticed was the great number of talented women designers from the 1940s and 1950s producing wonderfully glamorous dresses. But they seemed to disappear towards the latter end of the century - when the boys took over again after the War!

Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 runs at the V&A until 15th March 2015. The Glamour of Italian Fashion runs until 27th July 2014. Do go to both exhibitions. There are some things of real beauty to be seen in each.

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

Photographs c. Victoria & Albert Museum

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