A 1960’s Inspired Sensation ~ And The Dress That Almost Never Was…

Morning all! 🙂 Firstly, sorry that I'm a little later than usual with today's post. Whilst I'm feeling better now, I wasn't too well these past few days. I think the Christmas bugs are doing the rounds already! 

I'm going to start the day with a real wedding feature that needs little introduction from me.  In fact, I'm going to hand right on over to Bride Victoria to tell her story – and it's rather a special story this time, when it comes to the dress 🙂

Victoria married her partner of 14 years, Anthony, on 9 October this year in the most fabulous 1960's short, lacey wedding dress, by House of Mooshki…

"Love My Dress knows all about the history of my wedding dress, and helped make it happen!

I knew from the outset that I wanted a 1960s style dress. I wear a lot of 1960s vintage and repro 1960s on a day-to-day basis and I had a very clear idea in my mind about what I wanted to wear on my wedding day. The problem was that I couldn't find it anywhere! And we didn't have much time either – we planned the entire wedding in four months. We'd already been together 14 years – why wait any longer? Also Ant's dad is severely unwell and we were worried that he wouldn't be able to be there if we left it too long.

I started out looking at vintage wedding dresses – over the course of a few weeks I must have tried on every '60s style wedding frock in London. I visited the lovely Elizabeth Avey, the glamorous Fur Coat No Knickers and many other less-well-known vintage shops – I looked at and tried on many really gorgeous dresses, but nothing felt right. I almost commissioned Lisa Redman to make her signature pearl-trimmed coat-dress for me, but reality kicked in. I couldn't afford it…."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Photographs Of Your Wedding

"On 17 August, with under two months to go until the wedding. I emailed Annabel at Love My Dress in desperation. I'd been reading the blog since Ant proposed to me and had already found it an invaluable source of inspiration, ideas and information. I'd finally realised that I needed to get a dressmaker to make my dress for me but had no idea where to find someone who could make what I wanted in such a short space of time.  I was hoping that Annabel could help. And she certainly did! She sent out an SOS on Twitter – and by the end of the following day I'd commissioned House of Mooshki to make my dress for me.

Designer Olivia drew up a design based on a photograph I sent. It was perfect. I got a sewing-savvy friend around that night to take about 20 intimate measurements and after email discussions with owner Vikki McCarthy about fabric and lace etc on 23 August it was sent off to the manufacturer. Three weeks later, a bag of nerves, I drove to Olivia's house in Romford to pick it up. I almost cried. It was exactly what I'd dreamed about. It had been finished to a very high standard and fitted perfectly.

I felt like a 1960s pop star the moment I put it on."

Victoria's Hair and make-up Artist was Justina Sullivan…

"The lovely Justina Sullivan from Beautiful Brides did an absolutely amazing job of taming my mop of unruly curls and completely got what I wanted both in terms of hair and make-up…"

"I opted for some very simple flower bead pins because I wanted my hair to speak for itself. They were hand-made to order from HTM Tiaras…"

"I've been enthralled by the style and music of the 60s for as long as I can remember. There was absolutely no question in either of our minds of doing it any other way. Even though Anthony had no idea exactly what I was wearing, but he had no doubt that it would be 1960s…"

"My shoes were a real stroke of luck. I'd been looking fruitlessly for square-toed ivory or white shoes that didn't look *too* weddingy. I didn't want sparkly bits or feathers or anything too 'pretty'. I wanted my shoes to add a bit of rock'n'roll to my outfit. I'd been to all the department stores, to boutiques and to chains and I'd looked at hundreds of shoes online, And then I saw them – 5 minutes from our house! We were out on Stoke Newington Church St one evening with our daughter Edie and popped into Mudfoot and Scruff to look at shoes for her.

And there they were on the bargain shelf at the back of the shop. I couldn't let on to Ant that I'd seen anything special obviously but I knew as soon as I saw them that they were the ones. It was a few days before I managed to get back to the shop and I was convinced that they would have sold them or that they wouldn't have them in my size. But they did. And best of all they cost just ¬£39! I couldn't believe my luck. They're by Ugly Duckling…."

"Anthony and I have lived together in Stoke Newington for 14 years so it felt absolutely right to get married here. The Town Hall – built in the 1930s – has recently been refurbished to reflect its art deco past and was the perfect venue. It's also 5 minutes walk from our house.

Victoria walked down the aisle to 'Be my Baby' by The Ronettes'…

"It was absolutely spot on and set the scene perfectly for the rest of the day…"

Anthony wore a suit by Adam of London, who specialise in classic 1960s style suits.  He also wore a pair of vintage 1960s cufflinks from Steptoes Antiques…. 

"My bouquet is the Ivory Bridal Bouquet from the Real Flower Company – I wanted something simple and classic. The most amazing thing about the bouquet was how dizzingly beautiful it smelled. We decided not to have any formal flower arrangements for the tables at the reception. We wanted a more natural, rustic feel so we opted instead for little potted purple and yellow pansies. They came from the venue owner's garden…"

The wedding party moved on to the Londesborough Gastropub for the reception…

"We wanted somewhere informal but with great food and wine for the reception. The Londesborough is a lovely Victorian gastropub. It's really light which is unusual for a Victorian London pub. The owners completely understood what we wanted.

The space, food and atmosphere was perfect.  We planned the menu with the head chef at The Londesbrough. It's a gastropub so the food was excellent, fresh and seasonal and was all cooked to order on the premises."

"Neither Anthony nor myself like wedding cake so we decided to go for little cupcakes instead. They were baked for us by Treacle on Colombia Rd in London…."

"My Father is an artist by profession and it was a great honour to have him design our invitations. We told him that we'd like them to have either a 1960s feel or an art deco feel to reflect Stoke Newington Town Hall's art deco style. There was also a great revival in the popularity of the art deco style in the 1960s. He came up with the design while staring at the art deco lampshade in our bedroom.

He'd come up to visit from Wales and was finding it difficult to sleep in our room due to the traffic. He suddenly noticed while half-asleep that the pattern on the lampshade resembled a V and an A‚Ķ. when we got up the next morning he'd already sketched out the design…"

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"It *is* possible to organise your perfect wedding in under 4 months. Close your eyes and imagine how you'd like everything to look and feel. Then make a list of the things that are crucial to make that happen.

I also highly recommend providing little party bags for the children among your guests. We bought some little bags and filled them with simple things like bubble mixture, crayons, paper and stickers. They helped keep the kids happy and the parents were really grateful."

Wow! Thank you SO much Victoria for sharing your fabulous wedding story with Love My Dress.  I am so honoured that I was able to help out with your wedding dress dilemma, and that House of Mooshki came to the rescue for you  – you looked AMAZING on your special day! Huge congratulations to you and Anthony 🙂

Big thanks also to London Wedding Photography team, 'Photographs of Your Wedding', a duo who have their own special style of documentary wedding photography…

"Mia and Alex of 'Photographs Of Your Wedding' were absolutely brilliant. From the first meeting we had with them I felt that they completely understood what we wanted. On the day itself they were really lovely and put everyone at their ease. We're very very happy with the results."

I hope you enjoyed looking through these wonderful photographs as much as I did :)  Visit the House of Mooshki website to learn more about this fabulous design team.  You can also view this feature here, which include's Victoria's original dress sketch.

Much love,

Annabel xXx

♥