Let’s get straight to business and talk about my wedding dress, which I LOVED. I could harp on about this glitzy bad boy forever.
The Dress
In my mind, I was super sure that I’d go for a boho bridal look. I was imagining spaghetti straps, low back, slits up the side and an easy, breezy feel! But when I tried on Grecian or strapless dresses I looked dumpy. I hated what they did to my figure and didn’t feel comfortable at all. I’m pretty sure they say most brides go in with expectations of what they want and end up falling in love with the opposite. Which is exactly what happened to me.
I’m going to leave out the horror stories of one particular local bridal shop and several London department stores and instead focus on Windsor and Eton Brides, who were all kinds of amazing and nailed it.
The shop itself was beautiful with racks of gorgeous dresses, all organised by price range. Each bride has her own floor with ample space to get ready, a heavy curtain to hide my modesty and a gorgeous chaise lounge for guests.
We were served by Eva, who I will never forget. We told her our price range, she pointed to a rack and we each pulled a couple of dresses to start with. I tried on two which weren’t right and then the third was a dress my mum had pulled and once I’d got it on, despite it being nothing like I thought I wanted, I didn’t want to take it off.
If you know your wedding dress designers I fell for the Jade by Maggie Sottero. If not, just take in the bead embroidered lace covering the bodice and Swarovski crystal neckline.
I felt all tingly as soon as I slipped it on. Even though the fact that it was so fitted was very out of my comfort zone. It was also fairly heavy and I had worried about sweating and turning into a puddle under the sun.
I’ll be honest, it was the back that sold me on this one with the stunning double keyhole back with all the sparkle. I mean come on! It’s killer. And soon made me forget about my worries.
I obviously immediately burst in tears, as did my mum, as did Eva. It was the one.
The Shoes
And now for the shoes. I think we’ll remember that I originally had my sights set on Manolos. In this instance practicality won (sort of) and I went for these gorgeous gold Lana 120 Jimmy Choos. I bagged them in the sale which made them even better. And yep, I had my toenails painted metallic turquoise.
The Headpiece
Not content that I looked glitzy enough I ended up going for a beautifully intricate Hermione headpiece from Ivory & Co. and a short veil, again trimmed with more sparkles. Both of these made me feel like the bride I didn’t know I wanted to be.
I kept my jewellery simple – as to not overwhelm the bling I already had going on – wearing my beloved star necklace my mum got me for my 30th and a pair of star earrings gifted by my mum in the build up. Stars have a special meaning to our family and it felt like I had my grandparents there with me in spirit.
Luckily, we had mixed weather with a generous breeze (hello hurricane José) so I didn’t sweat to death in the end! Wahoo! However the train picked up ALL the sand and ultimately transformed into a sandbag by the end of the night. Hence the dress change into this ASOS midi backless number.
Now this dress had the spaghetti straps, very low back, slits and thin material I originally thought I wanted. I could cut loose and throw my best moves. Or whatever move that is I’m attempting in the photo above.
I felt more confident, sexy and beautiful than I ever have and I’ll never forget that.
Photos taken by Paul Mockford and you can see even more on his blog.