Belle & Bunty ~ Effortlessly Elegant Bridal Wear

I make no secret of the fact I had a few fairly major dress wobbles in the run up to my wedding day. I bought my frock almost 18 months prior to our January nuptials and I fell in and out of love with it countless times.

Nothing quite rocked the foundations of my dress decision like the work of Love My Dress sponsor Belle & Bunty. The London based womenswear label, designed by
Alice Shreeve & Hannah Coniam~Thompson, launched in 2003 as part
of London Fashion Week.

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – All Images courtesy of Belle & Bunty

The Belle & Bunty Bridal range launched at the end of 2010 after
Alice & Hannah designed their own wedding dresses together. Realising there was a vast gap in the market, the duo set about creating a collection of simple elegant dresses with a fashion edge and slight vintage
feel.

The Belle & The Bunty, worn by Alice and Hannah respectively, are
both in the range, alongside best selling styles from the ready-to-wear
collection like The Willow, as well as brand new designs.

Although deep down I suppose I'm glad I didn't abandon my original wedding dress in favour of something else, I still daydream about finding an excuse to wear a Belle & Bunty gown some day… 

 

'Our boutique is in London where we have our Bridal Collection,
as well as our Ready-to-Wear pieces, and a carefully selected range of accessories
and jewellery by small British designers.'

'The boutique is very much like
walking into Belle & Bunty world and is not at all like a traditional
Bridal shop. It has a relaxed feel, we only ever see one bride at a time, and
from inside you can see through to our design studio to get a
glimpse of new designs on tailor's dummies, as well as any new print and fabric ideas we are
working on.

Brides have a full one to one consultation with us in the relaxed
environment of our boutique whilst enjoying tea and cake. They can try on as
many dresses as they like, experiment with our handmade head dresses and veils – all
whilst in the comfort of our cosy boutique. And we promise not to make you wear
white gloves to touch the dresses!!'

Where are your designs stocked? 

'As well as our own boutique
in London you can also find our Bridal Collection at some of the best UK bridal boutiques including Miss Bush Bridal Wear, Blackburn Bridal Couture, Frou Frou Bridal, and Sharon Hoey
in Ireland. We are currently talking to more stockists to represent our Bridal
range but you can see our full list of stockists on our website.'

How did you both become designers? 

'We met at The London
College of Fashion where we realised we had complimentary styles and so
discussed creating our own label together. After graduating and gaining
experience working with other brands such as Paul Smith, Tracey Boyd and Pepe
Jeans we started working on Belle & Bunty. We are both trained designers
with over 10 years experience, can cut patterns ourselves and know about fabrics
so put our expertise together with our personal tastes and knowledge of trends
and best styles to create our ranges.'

What do you love
about your work? 

'It's great to work for yourselves and love what you do. Seeing the
faces of your customers light up when they try on your designs and knowing you've helped them feel really special is lovely, particularly when they have had terrible experiences with other bridal boutiques and
have practically given up hope of finding their perfect dress.'

What inspires you
when it comes to your work? 

'We are both magpies and regularly collect images, trims, fabrics
and other bits and pieces from our day to day lives. Anything and everything
can be inspiring! It could be a film, photo, song or seeing someone wearing
something interesting in the street.'

How would you describe your signature style? What is a Belle &
Bunty bride like? 

'Our style is feminine, flirty and wearable and we specialise in
unique use of colour and work a lot with prints that we also design. We try to
design dresses that emphasise and flatter a women's figure while making them feel
a million dollars, using gorgeous colours and special cuts.'

'The soft and fluid styles
appeal to brides who do not want a traditional, structured style wedding dress,
but are looking for something more individual, flattering and elegant. Our dresses
have a vintage feel but with a modern timeless look that suit a variety of
shapes, sizes and ages. We make our dresses from the finest pure silk making
them extremely comfortable to wear.'

'We also make coloured wedding dresses for brides who do not want a
white/ cream wedding dress! All bridal styles are available in a variety of
colours such as Claret Red or Vibrant Royal Blue. This can also be a great
option for bridesmaids.'

The bride and groom below featured on Love My Dress here…

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Pawel Bebenca

The bride and groom – and their dog show (yes!) featured on Love My Dress here…

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Chris Barber

Can you provide a
price guide? 

'Our bridal styles start at £1200 and go up to £1800. All dresses
are made in London and made~to~order for each bride so there are extra options
for each dress.'

The bride and groom below featured on Love My Dress here…

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Black Box Photography

So, if you're still searching for 'the one', be sure to take a peek into the world of Belle & Bunty. Annabel and I adore their designs and hope you will to.

You can find out more about Belle & Bunty through their website, facebook page, and on twitter.  And you can see all other Belle & Bunty related features on Love My Dress here.

Franky

* This is a
sponsored feature – all Love My Dress sponsors receive an
introductory feature like this. If you are interested in becoming a
sponsor, please email [email protected] and request a media pack.