And The Bride Wore Her Mother’s Wedding Dress…

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Well, my best laid plans went right out the window when I had to return from nursery this morning with my little baby girl as she is covered in a rash!  She has a viral thing going on and is teething also. Poor little poppet!  Anyway, I’ve a little bit of extra time to focus on preparing some pretty gorgeous blog posts now as Grandma has come to the rescue, so let’s start with this lovely Bride and her original vintage wedding dress.

Laura married her Husband Paolo on 1 February this year at Stratford Old Town Hall in Newham, London and to see her big day in style, Laura opted to wear her Mum’s original 1979 wedding dress – how fabulous is that?

“My mum bought the original dress for her wedding in 1979 from a designer bridal store on Bold Street in Liverpool.  Originally the dress was full-length with a long train and layers of under-skirting.  It was adapted by Julie Denbraber at Cheshire Brides.   Julie suggested the drape effect for the bottom, as she felt a straight cut would look too modern in comparison to the top-half.  It was a great call!

I always loved the photographs of my mum’s dress, especially the top part.  I am very petite and I worried that the current trend for ‘fairy princess’ dresses would look ridiculous on me. I also really wanted to be able to move around quickly.

My favourite outfits are always high-neck (I live in polo-necks) but I also wear a lot of short skirts and I adore shoes, so it made sense to keep the top-half of the dress intact but chop off the bottom.

 Love My Dress Wedding Blog  Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Barrie Downey

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“My hair combs {click to enlarge} are from ‘Finesse’ available at House of Fraser for £35 each.  Again, I had some amazing help from vendors.  I found one comb at House of Fraser in London, but after trying several other stores could not find another one.  With just 4 days until the wedding the Finesse Headquarters tracked down combs available at Sutton Coldfields House of Fraser and a wonderful lady there called Kay Fraser helped me pay over the phone and sent the item to me…”

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“The bouquets and buttonholes were custom-made by Etsy vendor mdk898 who did a brilliant job of getting all the items made and shipped in less than 2 weeks for a great price.

We used felt flowers because we really wanted daisies due to a reading that the ushers gave.  We asked them to perform our favourite scene from the movie Harold & Maude in which the pair compare themselves to daisies and sunflowers.  Because it was mid-February, neither flower was readily available so we had daisies incorporated into the bouquet and button hole, and we had a ring-bearing cushion made in the shape of a sunflower.  Both were then used by the ushers in their reading at the correct moment!”

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“My shoes are the Benjamin Adams ‘Sissy’ shoe.  I bought mine from Crystal Bride Accessories who were brilliant to deal with but sadly no longer stock the shoe.  It is a very expensive shoe due to the Swarovski crystals (approx £500) and many suppliers were not happy to order in for me to ‘try on’ and I didn’t want to commit to buying without trying them on. 

Crystal Bride were available on the phone and via email, and did a great job of sourcing and helping me try on the pair that I eventually wore…”

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“We first met when we were 15 on a children’s holiday camp called ‘PGL’.  Paolo’s mum wrote to PGL to tell them about us getting married and they sent a whole heap of goodies (badges, mugs, teddy bears) so Paolo’s mum spread these all over the pub along with a poster of me and Paolo that said ‘PGL’ on it – it was a nice way to honour how we began and how far we have come since then…”

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“We wanted the feel to be “town hall & pub”.  We knew that many other people wouldn’t be happy with a small wedding, and we had to go for some traditions that initially we didn’t want, but each time we had to make a decision we asked if our choice ‘felt like a town hall & pub wedding’.  If it did, it stayed; if not, there were more extensive talks!”

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Congratulaions Laura and Paulo! What an honest, personal day – so good to see a couple being true to themselves and having the unfussy, totally full of fun day they wanted 🙂

Thanks to Barrie Downie for these lovely photographs too…

“Our photographer was Barrie Downie, and he was marvellous. Entirely professional and produced the most incredible shots given that (a) the building is not a pretty building, (b) the outside was surrounded by roadworks and (b) it was February so it was freezing and there was very little light..!”

Anyone else planning to have their Mother’s wedding dress adapted for their wedding day?

Much love,

Annabel xXx

 

Love My Dress Style Guide

Photographer – Barrie Downie
Venue – Stratford Old Town Hall in Newham, London
Brides dress – The Bride’s Mother’s original wedding gown
Brides shoes – Benjamin Adams ‘Sissy’ shoe
Brides hair accessories – Finesse’ available at House of Fraser
Bridesmaids – Own dresses
Groom – Hugo Boss, made to order
Felt Flowers – Etsy vendor mdk898
Hair & Makeup – Pims & Pinups

 

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

13 thoughts on “And The Bride Wore Her Mother’s Wedding Dress…

  1. Great dress. would be lovely to see some pictures of her mum wearing it on her wedding day!

  2. Thanks so much for lovely comments guys 🙂 I adore this Bride’s style – she stuck to her own vision and she looked FABulous for it :))
    Much love all,
    Annabel

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