Blue halter neck wedding dress

blue halter neck wedding dress

Angie wanted a blue halter neck wedding dress for her special day. As a mature bride I encouraged her to have whatever she wanted and I love that is had the confidence to live our her fantasy wedding dress dreams. Choosing a colour instead of white can be more flattering to the mature figure and skin but there is no need for it to be ‘mature’ in any other way.

I designed this bespoke blue halter neck wedding dress using layers of hand dyed cotton muslin in pinks and blues. This complimented the mixed pastel colours in the beautiful lace that Angie choose. She also chose a silver embroidered tulle with tiny stars and diamante stones. I used the blue floral lace as the top layer for the bodice and cut it away at hip level in an organic, asymmetric line. I tore the edges of the fabrics that I layered up for her ballet length skirt to give a ‘grandmother attic’ or fantasy Elven vibe.

blue halter neck wedding dress with gloves
pink ribbon lace up back wedding dress

The back was Angie’s wedding dress was created with a lace-up ‘corset back’. I used silver eyelets and pink organza ribbon to compliment the colours of her dress. Shot taffeta in pale blue and gold was used to made the modesty panel that goes behind the lacing. The made the waterfall bustle piece in the same three-tone shot taffeta that we sourced from Michael’s bridal fabrics, one of my favourite suppliers.

Accessories for a blue wedding

Gloves

I also made long blue satin ‘glove-sleeves’ for angie. This provided her with some coverage for the church and also some confidence. I do find many of my mature brides have a difficult relationship with their arms and I am always happy to find ways to make sleeves or gloves that match your dress perfectly.

bespoke glove sleeves with frills

I used silver elastic to create a stretch opening on Angie’s sleeve-gloves. This meant they could be pulled on and off without having to undo or re-lace them each time. The top of the gloves was finished with more torn layers of muslin and the a point extended over her hand with an elastic loop to finish.

Bird cage veil

I designed and made a silver birdcage veil to match Angie’s bespoke blue halter neck wedding dress. I sewed the veil to a hair comb which made it easy for her hair dresser to slip it into Angie’s hair on her wedding day. The birdcage veil was trimmed with blue lace flowers and hand twisted silver wire stems each tipped with a Swarovski crystal. I also added a beaded fringe all along the end of the veil and dotted more crystals over the netting.

Shoes

Angie found very simple silver ballet slippers to wear for her wedding day and so I suggested we add some embellishment. I cut more lace flowers, with beading attached and arranged it on Angie’s shoes so it matched with her whole outfit perfectly.

Making Angie’s blue halter neck wedding dress

bespoke wedding dress toile

Angie’s first fitting was in the very base layers of her wedding dress. Just the pale blue duchess satin with only one panel having lace.

custom wedding dress fitting

At the next fitting I had progressed the creation quite a lot. You can now see lace extending further down her dress, and some of the layers in the skirt. I had also by then made the taffeta waterfall bustle piece and adding the eyelets to the back fastening.

Even though Angie wanted her shoulders exposed with the halter neck design she also wanted options to cover her arms and shoulders for different parts of her wedding day. I design the long sleeve-gloves and also made her a simple shawl in the hand dyed muslin fabrics or pink and pale blue.

Above and below: some pictures of the finished blue halter neck wedding dress on the stand. You can see all the layers of lace, tulle and muslin that were carefully curated, hand dyed and torn to create the floaty layered skirt.

If you would like to see more examples of wonderful mature brides you can see my dedicated blog post. Or another fairytale type blue wedding dress here.

Or get in touch to talk to me about having a dress designed and made for your own wedding.

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Felicity Westmacott

I write about all aspects of weddings, dressmaking, fashion history, and the human relation to clothing. I welcome comments and debate.

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I thought it would be fun to see the differences between various bridal petticoats and hoop skirts. Meet the Aurora wedding dress, she's one of my favourites, especially because of the excellent dramatic vibes she gives. So she felt like the perfect dress to experiment with.

The Aurora dress already has some layers of netting built into the dress, so she's already got a bit of volume from the get go. But I wanted to see what difference adding more underlayers would have.

The first addition was a single hoop skirt. Hoop skirts come in all sorts of variations - the single hoop is pretty much what it sounds like. There's a single hoop at the bottom of the skirt, translating into more width at the bottom of the dress.

Then I took off the hoop skirt, and put on a 5-layer petticoat. This thing is a monster! But adds so much more airy, fluffy volume.

The second hoop skirt I tried was a bell hoop skirt. This one has hoops built in all the way up the skirt, creating more of a...you guessed it...bell shape.

And then finally, for the ultimate princess vibes, I tried both the 5-layer petticoat and the bell hoop skirt together. It's giving fairy tale bride, for sure. Perfect for twirling in whilst you dance with your prince, princess or princep.

When ordering a dress from me, talking about what kind of silhouette you want is really useful. And I've got loads of seamstress secrets to achieve pretty much anything you can imagine!

#weddingdress #dipdyeweddingdress #seamstress #pinkweddingdress #princessweddingdress #balloonsleeves
"I cannot begin to put into words how thankful I am that I found you to make my wedding dress of my dreams. The dress was perfect in every way and the colours looked glorious in the Cornish sunshine. Everyone fell in love with the dress and I even got likened to the Porthleven mermaid! It even stood up to rambling down cliffs. You truly are a genius and I can never thank you enough."⁠

Nicola wanted an elegant and figure-hugging mermaid wedding dress made in pale ivory lace. To add colour to her look, she chose a vibrant yellow, orange, red and purple dip dye skirt. 

If you want to see how the dress looked on the day of Nicola's wedding, have a look at my previous post. I love how the colours of the dress really stand out against the dramatic setting of the Cornish coast.⁠
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If you're also looking for a completely unique wedding dress, then you've come to the right place. Starting with your ideas and working together during the entire process, I'll design and make your dream wedding dress. Drop me and DM and let's have a chat!
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~⁠
Photography - Thomas Frost - @t.frost.photography⁠
Venue - Beacon Crag B&B, Porthleven - @beaconcragweddingvenue⁠
Flowers - Fullers Flowers - @fullersflowers⁠
Hair & Makeup - Amy Needham @amyellenhairandmakeup
Part 2!

In Part 1 I spent all day prepping my bridal window display. There was a looot of dismantling and tidying involved before I could even begin to start thinking about which wedding dresses I wanted to include in my Pride themed window. Now that's all done, let's just enjoy all this glorious colour!

Which outfit is your favourite? I would love to see a bride wearing both the skirt and veil in one, fabulous, rainbow look.

And, of course, happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

#pride #bridalboutique #surreybride #sussexbride #altbride #alternativebride #colourfulbride #bespokeweddingdress #weddingdress
I love making wedding dresses, but a highlight of my month is always coming up with a new window display.

For this month, obviously I had to do something for Pride. You probably know by now, but Pride is important to me for lots of reasons. I feel it especially important as an individual, as well as a business, to show my support and my pride openly, so that others know that my shop is a safe space for all.

With that theme in mind for this bridal boutique window display, I chose my Nile Queen wedding dress, complete with golden corset, and this gorgeous gold leaf, dip dye train. For the other three looks, I chose the bases to be relatively simple, so that the pops of colour from the rainbow overskirts and veil could really shine through. 

If you want to see how the window turned out, have a look at for Part 2!
emailme@felicitywestmacott.co.ukTEL 07762 543230TOUCHGet in
from design to completionbespoke wedding dressesFelicity Westmacott
Dorking, RH4 1RT241 High Street• Visit the Studio •
Dorking, RH4 1RT241 High Street• Visit the Studio •
emailme@felicitywestmacott.co.ukTEL 07762 543230TOUCHGet in