I was so honoured to be asked by Georgina to collaborate on her wedding dress. I have known Georgina since she first came and did work experience at my boutique when she was at school which led on to Georgina doing her apprenticeship with me and then working together for many years. We worked on many of our brides gowns together and Georgina’s attention to detail and love of the embroidery and embellishments always shone through!
Georgina’s dress was created using a beautiful jacquard silk from my stock that she had always loved and combined it with a stunning satin that I discovered when visiting Trade 80 Silks in London. It is the first time I have worked with that satin, but it will definitely not be the last! It has such a beautiful drape and flow which you can see in the pictures!
The end result is simply stunning which is a tribute to Georgina’s vision. and skills. I am so proud to be her friend and it was glorious to be a part of her wedding preparations and also, to be a small part of her day!
So in a little twist, Georgina has written a blog about working together once again, this time on her own wedding dress and seeing the process from that perspective.
“I am absolutely thrilled with my dress made by My little Wedding Shop! It was the easiest decision we made for the Wedding, as I had the honour of working for Jenny many moons ago and we have remained firm friends ever since. Having worked for Jenny in the past, I thought I knew what the process of creating a bespoke wedding dress was like. However it’s a slightly different story when you’re the bride. I guess it is a slightly daunting prospect transferring a design from your head into an actual dress. However, it doesn’t feel daunting with Jenny’s help. It just feels as though you’re creating something that fits you perfectly and I knew that from witnessing myself all the excited brides picking up their dresses in the past.
I strongly believe, and I am sure that previous brides would too, that every bride needs a Jenny!
We booked an initial appointment to chat through ideas and go through samples of materials together. I knew the basic shape that I was after and having devoured Pinterest, I showed Jenny a few ideas and within minutes she sketched it out for me to see.
I had known for some time that embroidery needed to be the focus of the design and I asked if Jenny would be able to help make the dress for me so I could embroider onto it. Thankfully she said yes. At that point I didn’t know what the embroidery would look like but that is the wonderful thing about having a bespoke dress, you can make aesthetic decisions as the dress is made. As long as you have a basic silhouette in mind, the rest can follow!
The design evolved throughout each fitting and every time I would ask if we could slightly tweak something, Jenny was more than happy to help. The words ‘this is what the process is for’ always put me at ease. It was through this process that we found the lace that I thought would work with the design perfectly and became the key part to the embroidery design. We did make some amendments to the skirt design and I am so glad we did as the dress felt really light and easy to move in on the day.
I had been working on the embroidery separately to the dress so that I could then sew the pieces onto the dress when it was almost done. I hand cut the lace and pieced it so it trailed down from the bodice onto the skirt and Jenny provided me some extra fabric from the dress so I could make matching flowers so it was 3D. This all matched perfectly with the swallows that I had made a few months before to sew on. The handcut lace also worked perfectly for the veil, that I had already beaded the words' just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her' onto (can you tell Notting Hill is our favourite film?).
I am so so grateful to Jenny for creating my dress. I not only felt beautiful on our wedding day but I felt like the dress was a true reflection of me. It was completely unique. I look at the pictures now and I can pull out each decision that Jenny and I made together, from the choice of fabric, to the slightly shorter train so I could easily dance in it (Jenny can attest to this as she was rocking on the dancefloor too).
I also have another massive thank you to Jenny, and her wonderful husband Wez, who very kindly agreed to play us down the aisle and throughout the ceremony. Not only a master seamstress but a brilliant double bass player, I know, some people have an unfair share of talent!” - Georgina
Wedding photography beautifully captured by Lucy Rebecca Photography
