Love My Dress Wedding Blog: MiaMia

* Alan Hannah is delighted to offer any bride buying an Alan Hannah or MiaMia dress who takes this Love My Dress article to the retailer, a complementary piece of Alan Hannah jewellery and a personalised illustration of their chosen dress.

We would also like to offer all Love My Dress readers a 20% discount from our
wedding accessories website until the end of January 2013.
Just quote 'LMDDDED12' at checkout *

I'm so so proud of Love My Dress. Now in it's fourth year of existence, there is always more I want to do, ways I want to make things even better to enhance the reader experience, but thanks to Franky and my amazing team of regular contributors, I really feel we've developed an inspirational, informative, helpful and all-round beautiful wedding blog over the past twelve months.

I've always loved featuring the work of designers, from the one-man artisan creating exquisite beading in their back bedroom-come studio, to the more established international designer - one thing you will always find in common is that the bridal wear designers we focus on each create exquisite, timeless, glamorous designs - they aren't afraid to update the timeless silhouettes of the past into something more modern, contemporary and appealing to today's bride, but ultimately, they completely understand body shape and what makes women go beautiful.

They 'get' that wow factor when it comes to wedding dresses.

I'm absolutely thrilled this morning to introduce you to our new sponsor, Alan Hannah.

Alan Hannah is a husband and wife partnership, Alan and Marguerite Hannah. I started the label in 1989, designing and making bridal headpieces. Marguerite joined me after I persuaded her to design some bridesmaids and wedding gowns for the Alan Hannah label.

Marguerite had trained as a couturier in Cyprus where she created evening-wear and bridal gowns as commissions. The gowns quickly became very successful and over the years Marguerite has created a very well respected and eclectic styling and in the process has won designer of the year on 5 occasions. All our Alan Hannah gowns are designed by Marguerite and made in our own workrooms. Some of the ladies who work for us have been with us for 20 years and we also have a really inspiring young team who work really well with the more experienced seamstresses.

We have a workroom and showroom in North London where all the dresses are created and where we can see our retailers.

We supply around 40 specialist bridal boutiques throughout the UK - we like to work with retailers who are passionate about individual and hand crafted fashion and understand that our brides are looking for something which is not mass produced and can be customised and made to measure.

We also work with a family of bridal boutiques in Japan which has been a very successful and enjoyable partnership for us over the past 15 years. The owner visited us for the first time in our very small studio to buy for her very small shop. She has now developed a beautiful selection of 20 stores throughout Japan but still loves to visit us and develop special styles with us which are designed to suit the Japanese figure.

Japanese people really hold British design and technical heritage in high regard. Marguerite creates all her own patterns for her designs and has really perfected the requirements of the Japanese figure over the years. Our Japanese brides love our hand painted techniques and aren’t afraid to use colour and drama. We work together with a really talented artist in Madrid who hand paints every dress individually.

Working with Japan has really given us a different perspective and stretched the creative boundaries of what we do.

Alan Hannah Mia Mia Collection, wedding gowns designed and handmade in England

I was keen to know how the Alan Hannah label was born, and Marguerite told me; 'The collections have evolved over time. Bridal Fashion moves less dramatically than main fashion but I am always struggling to push forward the barriers. Retailers often like to stick with ideas which they are familiar with and often we use our advertising campaigns to push forward into new territory. If we don't take chances and always move forward the job would be futile and unfulfilling. We would never be in this business if it meant sticking to a formula.'

'I have always admired classic designs of Madeleine Vionnet as the original genius of bias cut dresses. Dior is so influential in bridal styling that it hardly needs stating, as well as contemporary designers like Alexander McQueen who was so imaginative and natural in his use of fabrics and creative cut. Oscar de la Renta's old school execution and styling is almost flawless at times and each collection seems better than the last. Being a technician as well as a designer I cant help being obsessed by the cut and finish of a garment and I just can't be happy with something which is not informed by a real technical expertise.

For atmosphere, I really love the new Dolce and Gabbana campaign shot in Sicily. Being of Mediterranean island origin, the aura it creates really makes me feel nostalgic and warm. Very theatrical but with a heartfelt fondness for our village forebears. I always return to my village home in Cyprus each year and find that the warmth and sun make me feel so inspired to design that I end up sitting on the terrace sketching for most of the time.

I have just returned from a short break in Vienna where I was immersed in my obsession with the work of Gustav Klimt. Klimt’s dramatic use of colour really inspires me.'

'The Alan Hannah bride is confident, independent and style conscious. She is very aware of quality and individuality and doesn't want something generic and mass produced. Some of our brides love our very classic look, for instance our Ellie and Chryso gowns but others prefer our more vintage influenced styles like Lottie and Veronique (watch out later in the week for these dresses gracing the Love My Dress blog pages).

Our MiaMia label (picutred in this blog post today) also gives me the chance to design a more bohemian and perhaps younger look, dresses like Briar and Mulberry for instance.'

Continue reading "MiaMia by Alan Hannah + Beautiful Wedding Accessory Treats For Readers..." »

"I’m not sure where my ideas came from. I studied design at Goldsmiths University and knew I wanted to create our wedding myself. I love Tim Walker, Shona Heath, Sofia Coppola, Vogue, Etsy and Pinterest. think the image in my mind was a Midsummer Nights Dream in spring, so fresher and newer. Enchanting and English...."

Good morning all :) I thought I'd leave the wonderful 1930s inspired Deco Debutante post up a little while longer as it wasn't posted until quite late yesterday. Time now though for another lovely real wedding on Love My Dress.

Mr and Mrs Thomson tied the knot on 24th March at St Mary Magdelene Church in Tanworth in Arden. I love the charming, English style of this wedding and think the brides dress choice couldn't have been more perfect...

"My dress was a silk organza dress by Miamia. It was the first dress I tried on in the first shop I visited! I wanted a dress that was floaty and full. I wasn’t sure about anything sparkly or detailed as Mr Thomson was wearing a kilt in his family tartan and I wanted spring flowers to be a big part.

I loved how the dress moved, like the dress in the dance in the King and I. And how the light came through the fabric. I think I wanted to look like a flower fairy deep down!"

"We met at a train station, we both missed the same train and he asked me for a drink in the hotel over the road whilst we waited for the next one. We caught the next train together and just before we went our separate ways he asked me to see him again. After a long distance relationship whist I finished Uni we moved in together in Tanworth-in-Arden – the village we married in. He proposed on the same spot that we met on boxing day in the snow.

"The grooms party all wore kilts in Thomson tartan. It’s the nicest tartan I know - a lovely antiquey blue...."

"I went for spring flowers because I knew I could pick them and they are so beautiful and bright. It’s always a delight when spring flowers emerge after a long winter. And now they will always remind me of my wedding. My mum and I planted bulbs in September and crossed our fingers. Other flowers came from the Birmingham Flower market the Thursday morning before. Which is brilliant fun, but a trial run is definitely worth it.

We bought narcissi, pale pink tulips, gorgeous dusky purple roses, tiny daffodils, wax flowers - I had a plan in mind but you get carried away! We supplemented these with neighbours cherry blossom and greenery from my Grandma's garden...."

"The venue has lovely high vaulted ceilings so to balance the space the table centres needed to be tall OR the ceiling space softened. I wanted the room to have an enchanting feel about it so I made 30 or so huge paper pom poms and suspended them from the rafters using invisible nylon thread. I think it looked really romantic and had a big impact for not a lot of money...."

"We didn’t give favours, I couldn’t decided what everyone would like. I did do customised place settings for all of the 8 children that were at the wedding with bubble pots, organic juice and wax crayons.

Having your own child at the wedding is very magical but also quite tricky! We had to make it as child friendly as possible because we knew that a happy toddler has a happy Mama! We had a dressing up basket that went down a treat! And a pop up circus tent. It’s not too difficult to make the toys fit with the day so that the room doesn’t look like a nursery. The dressing up clothes created theatre there were fairies, owls, rabbits and princes running around! And the bubbles looked great too. We did have to be very careful with candles and kept the cake out of reach! I supplied plastic plates and cutlery to the caterer from Ikea which helped her portion the children’s meals.

You also don’t have to have lots of big plastic high chairs there are seats that clip to regular chairs and all sorts of boosters. Some mums were even happy to bring them. I put baby wipes in the toilets and a changing mat. Our photographer, Rebecca Lindon was also great with our daughter and other children, catching innocent moments and getting attention..."

"My Bridesmaids all wore classic silk Ghost dresses in midnight blue, pale sea green and emerald. The flower girls dresses were a bargain from Bows and Arrows at Boots of all places..."

"Our cake was two double height round fruit cakes iced in ivory icing with sugar daisies around the edges and pale blue velvet ribbon to match the tartan. It sat on a ceramic daisy cake stand and on top were little peg people that I painted to look like Rich and I and also our daughter.

My Mum and I made the fruit cakes, and my dad fed them rum for a couple of weeks. One of my bridesmaids Mother made all of the beautiful daisies and iced and decorated it...."