Proud Moments - Larry and Daniels West Point Wedding

Photography by Jill Knight 

This all started with a little glitter bow tie that I made as a bespoke order for a Mr Larry Choate III. He explained via email that the wedding was very important as they would be the first male West Point graduates to marry at the United States Military Academy.

I didn't really consider how HUGE this was. Equal marriage will at last be an everyday occurrence here in 2014.
I naively really did think everything was equal already until I read into this on Stonewall and have to say I'm quite ashamed of my ignorance and the British government for taking so long on this. The thought of other human beings having to abide by different laws to me (an average whitish person married to a tall grey haired person) because of the skin between their legs is utterly ridiculous.
Thankfully Larry has documented the challenges Daniel and himself faced in the U.S military very eloquently on his blog here.

Photography by Jill Knight

I was mostly excited that this bow tie was to match Larry's Jimmy Choo Sloane shoes!

I designed and made the bow tie with the matching coarse glitter they use at Jimmy Choo and lined the bow tie in silk with another silk bow underneath to keep the bow plump. The bow was then centered with the hand woven silk and placed it on a narrow silk band. Larry teamed the tie with a beautifully cut black tuxedo (which took some finding) and a classic white shirt. Perfection.

Larry sent me an email last night reading .... " Alexandra, I wanted to take a second to let you know that your bow tie is getting quite a bit of attention. The New York Times selected a photo of it from their story that covered our wedding this past weekend. I have received countless compliments about it and wanted to share the link with you so you could share it if you wanted. Your work is so great and I wanted you to get the credit for what you made for me."

A very big sparkling congratulations to Larry and Daniel, I am so proud to be just a tiny little part of this addition to equality!

Read and see beautiful photographs on the New York Times Blog Here. 
Read a great article by Nina Ippolito on Policy Mic here. 

Beautiful Blue Bride

 PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINSE 2 

www.linse2.at

 PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINSE 2 

www.linse2.at

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINSE 2 

www.linse2.at

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINSE 2 

www.linse2.at

I love receiving wedding photos especially when they include a beautiful bride wearing one of my dresses! 

This little blue silk dress trimmed in silver sequins with a full deep hemmed tulle skirt looks absolutely stunning on bride Georgie in Melbourne. Congratulations to the happy couple! x

For more info on having this dress made to order please click here. 

Bespoke Bride Kelly by Anna Vickery

Here is another of Anna's spectacular bespoke wedding dresses, this time for beautiful bride Kelly who was married in the first weekend in September. 

Anna met Kelly through teaching dressmaking workshops at Millie Moon in Frome and to cut a long story short came to the rescue when Kelly was let down on her first wedding dress order. 

This worked out wonderfully as Kelly was now able to have the exact dress of her dreams, a stunning 1950's inspired couture gown. 

The design included a fine French corded lace bodice with elbow length sleeves that fitted over the smooth sweetheart bodice trimmed with covered buttons down the back.  A sharp pleated silk belt cinched the waist and the dress finished in a glorious full circle skirt made of handwoven silk. 

In Kelly's words " Thank you very much for making my beautiful wedding dress. Michael and all the guests really loved it. I was so pleated with the outcome. 

                                    With many thanks and love from Kelly "

For more info on this dress and other bespoke gowns please contact Anna Vickery at anna@alexandra-king.com 

 Suppliers:

Photography: Gareth Hannam 
Shoes: Rachel Simpson
Hair and make-up: Townhouse Retreat
Accessories: Vintage pearls and Kelly made her own hair bow from scraps of the dress fabric.
Flowers: Bramble and Wild
Transport:VW Split Screen Hire
Bunting: Millie Moon Haberdashery and Sewing School
Marquee Hire: Archers Marquees

Lindsey and Rich's Amazing DIY Wedding

Lindsey came to me last year looking for her dream wedding dress, I'll share more details on the wedding dress later. I have to say Lindsey has been one of my all time most enthusiastic and engaging brides to work with, always with a smile and wanting to get into everything at the studio. Mainly the rhinestones! 

So after a few months of making, gatherings of the bridal party at the studio, a lot of cake and tea, we had a collection of five fabulous maids in pinks and blues, a divine purple mother of the bride dress, a hen party and honeymoon dress and finally the wedding dress. 

Lindsey made a huge amount of gorgeous things for her wedding which you will be able to see in the photos. The crockery is Lindsey's signature piece, then Rich and Lindsey together made the bunting complete with sequins and Lindsey even made here own beaded belt. I was amazed that after only a few basic tips from me, these incredible beaded belts turned up for the next fitting looking absolutely stunning and far better than mine! 

It looks like the days was a wonderful success and not only a big THANK YOU to Lindsey for working with me on her outfits but CONGRATULATIONS to such a brilliantly inspiring pair of people. x

Here are the contributors of the day. 

Photographer - Adam Scull Photography http://adamscullphotographyblog.com/2013/06/23/wedding-st-helens-kings-hotel-chipping-campden/

Hair - Adria Williams, my usual hairdresser from Hush Hairdressing in Bristol (she fulfilled our 'messy 50's brief beautifully!)

Car - Karma Kars Cotswold http://www.karmakarscotswold.co.uk/

Flowers - Rose & Grace http://www.weddingflowers-cotswolds.co.uk/

Venue - St Helen's Church, Clifford Chambers & King's Hotel, Chipping Campden http://www.kingscampden.co.uk/

Lindsey wore blue glitter shoes from Carvela and Rich's blue suit was from Reiss. We made the spotty silk tie and pocket square.

 Lindsey then changed to silver glitter Anna shoes by Kurt Geiger (one of the most perfect shoe designs, wish they still sold this style!)

                                                               Inside the beautiful Karma Car!

Lindsey and Rich made the bunting together, this is most definitely the best bunting I've seem with a mix of bright prints and hand sewn sequin letters.

The hand covered buttons on the dress each had a rhinestone to match the belt Lindsey made to match.

Leandra modeling the second phase of her bridesmaids dress, her full skirt was removable.

Lindsey as the bride sppears to have served her guests with a pinny on! Also loving Beth's massive heart earrings that match the pink of her bridesmaids dress.

Rhiannon's Dotty Wedding Dress in Australia

A backlog of brides appear to be filling my photo files at the moment, it's time to share these beauties.

Rhiannon emailed all the way from Australia to negotiate her wedding dress in polka dot tulle's that would fit her fifties prom dress vision. It was a bespoke dress commission I instantly bit onto (tulle will always be my first love) and teamed with Rhiannon's choice silver glitter bow belt to match the shoes, the design executed beautifully.  Simple, sweet and on a girl with pin-up good looks is perfection.

You can read and see more about Rhiannon's and Bens Australian wedding on Krista Martin's Photography site here. 

Photography by Krista Martin

Customer Photos - Alex in Orange

Anna has been working away on some stunning wedding dresses this Summer and this is the first of her brides this year. I love the floaty chiffon in this warm burnt orange.

Over to Anna ..................

Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of designing and making another wedding dress for a friend. People always ask is it more stressful and is there more pressure than working with someone you don’t know, and the answer is, without doubt, yes! But it is also totally rewarding to be there on their special day, be privy to all the secrets in the run up and see your cumulative work together recorded in their photos. (The compliments you - hopefully - receive on the day aren’t a bad boost either!)
I went to secondary school and college with Alex and who would have thought on all those nights out and trips away, by that I mean Newquay age 17, club nights and festivals in the late 90‘s, that one day we would be working on the design for her wedding dress together. Alex joked with me a couple of years ago that when her and Pete got married she would like me to make her dress, so that was that…..

From the start I knew Alex did not want a ‘white’ wedding dress, I remember saying to Alexandra I thought she would go for red, so I wasn’t far off when she fell in love with a vibrant shade of handwoven silk dupion called ‘Firefly.’ We worked on the design and decided to combine this with a slightly darker shade of silk crinkle chiffon to create a long flowing skirt AND THEN all I had to do was keep quiet about the colour for about 6 months!!

Alex and Pete’s wedding was full of surprises - the bridesmaids wore green dresses and Pete and his best men green waistcoats as his surname is Green, I also worked green beads into Alex’s corsages on her dress and hair piece as she was becoming a Green. There was enough fabric left from Alex’s dress for me to make a little orange flower girl dress for Alex’s niece Astrid and Alex’s Mum (one of the few other people that knew about the orange dress) organised their surprise wedding transport, a green and orange camper (swoon) from www.vwsplitscreenhire.co.uk.
The wedding was held at Wells town hall, the atmosphere was great on a sunny Saturday with market in full swing outside and lots of people about. The reception at Batcombe barn, which is a little remote to be polite but very lovely and rustic (thankfully it was dry) had a Thai theme as they have spent a lot of time in Thailand together. When we arrived our old music teacher played sax and we ate yummy spicy barbequed canapés and later the wedding food, for all 200 people, was pad thai, sticky rice and thai green curry. Everyone ate, drank and was merry, and then probably drank some more as most people were camping the night, and later on Alex took to the stage and sang with her band. It was such a fun day, with brilliant details and homemade touches, just right for Alex and Pete.

Here’s what Alex wrote in a lovely thank you:
‘I can’t thank you enough for such a perfect dress, it was exactly how I imagined and the dress of my dreams! It definitely needs some dry cleaning! Then maybe at some point I will call on you to take it up so I can wear it again but i’m not ready to change it yet, still enjoying looking at it.’


Photography by www.jenniehillphotography.com

Any Brides For Cricket?

These fabulous photos arrived in my in box yesterday along with such a lovely message from our Bride Abby who was married just a few weeks ago.

From the moment I first saw Abby at a wedding fair in Bristol I knew I wanted to make her dress. Tall, beautiful beyond words, great style and a gorgeous manner.

Abby wanted to be comfortable all day and loved the late fifties / sixties style of dresses. The heavy corded lace layered over a textured silk under dress with a full skirt gave the right level of prettiness without being too delicate against her lustrous locks and patent heels.
Styled with vintage finds, her veil was 1960s,  shoes in a pale mint green and a candy pink Cadillac as transport.

Here's an extract from the lovely email ...

"The dress felt amazing to wear, I played cricket in it, it was incredibly comfy and I danced until midnight. I had lots of comments on it all day .................. and best of all it really captured the mood of the wedding! 

The whole experience of meeting you, coming down to the studio and seeing the dress from sketches to the final dress was really inspiring!"

I love that Abby played what looks to be a proper game of cricket in her dress, just how it should be!

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIAN JAMES 

Caroline and Angus - The Photos!

I love this photo of all the maids helping Caroline into her underskirts, it's exactly how it should be!

Caroline's birdcage veil made from the fabric of her dress as something new, the veiling from my own wedding veil as something borrowed and a vintage 1950's brooch as something old and blue.

All three bridesmaids dresses together. We made Libby the youngest of the bridesmaids dress too with turquoise edging. 

The very first glitter bags were commissioned by Caroline to match her shoes for herself and the bridesmaids.

If someone said this was Audrey Hepburn I would totally believe them, but this is our bride with definite old Hollywood star elegance. 

Caroline's Mum and ladies from the church made these beautiful matching Liberty print flower holders. These details make such an impact all together. 

All of the dresses had a bow at the back, Caroline's dress had a huge matching bow, the bridesmaids had detachable bows and Libby the youngest has a pink glitter bow for the back of her dress.

I made the veil after a few tries at getting the bow shape just right so that it kept the elegant style of the dress without it becoming distracting. A long flat single pleat bow was a success. 

The Kurt Geiger 'Anna' shoes will always be my favourite style and shape for a long time, they have the heel height and shape, pointed toe and overall design of any shoe. I wish they would bring them back! 

Flower petal Confetti makes the best photos and I love that all the guests wore bright colours. Helen (Caroline's Mum) looked fabulous in her rich blue purple and violet outfit.

Carrot, Guinness and Elderflower cup cakes with sugar sweet peas.

Bright fabric flowers made at the Hen Party workshop taught by Anna. 

At last I can share the amazing photos from Caroline and Angus's wedding shot by the fabulous Assassynation.
There were hundreds of wow factor photos to choose from and I have whittled it down to this handful of my favourites. It looks like it was an incredible day, full of colour and when you listen to the soundtrack it gets even cooler.
Caroline really was a perfect bride in a very non 'perfect bride' way. A joy to work with such a smiley lady and I will very much miss the twirling round the studio and all the excitedness. And yes she is the spitting image of Audrey Hepburn in looks and demeanour which was like Funny Face in real life :)

Thank you to Carloline and her super lovely maids Clare, Ellen and Libby and to Helen for finding me in the first place.

Congratulations to Caroline and Angus wishing them a Very Happy First Christmas as a wedded pair! xxx

Credits

Costume

Wedding Dress: Alexandra King 

Bridesmaids Dresses: Alexandra King

Veil: Alexandra King

Flower Girl Dress: Made by flower girls Grandmother

Shoes: 'Anna' by Kurt Geiger

Angus's Suit: The Kooples and Shoes by Converse

Photography: Sassy Lafford Assassynation

Flowers: Hans Haverkamp and the ladies of St Margarets Church 

Invitation, Menu, Table Plan, Order of Service Graphic Design: All by Angus 

Venue

Church: St Margaret Of Antioch, Alterton Gloucestershire

Reception Venue: Deer Park Hall 

Catering

Cupcakes: Caroline Hammill 

Meal: Belle House

The Music: 

Entrance: La Valse D'Amelie by Yann Tiersen

Exiting The Church: All I want Is You by Barry Louis Pulizar

Reception Introduction: Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

First Dance: Otis by Jay Z and Kayne West 

Entertainment: The Roving Crows

More Pictures and Details on Love My Dress Here 

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COPYRIGHT (c) 2012 ASSASSYNATION.