Classic beaded lace bespoke wedding dress

bride arriving at ceremony fit and flare skirt

I made Sarah-Louise’s classic beaded lace bespoke wedding dress in ruched silk georgette with a gentle fishtail flare. The lace over-bodice had scalloped edging and a button back.

Official photographs by Sebastian Lomas

The classic beaded lace bespoke wedding dress was made in two parts. I made a strapless underdress in ivory silk Georgette (a type of matt finish chiffon) and a removable beaded lace over-bodice. The main dress had a firm, boned bodice with a sweetheart neckline and concealed zip back fastening. Te underlayers made of duchess satin. Over the top I used silk georgette, ruched on the bodice and cascading into the flare of the skirt.

The lace over bodice had a higher neckline than the main dress. I added a wide scalloped edging, also used on the short, t-shirt type sleeves. The bottom edge of the lace finished just below Sarah-Louise’s natural waistline. And I used another, narrower but matching, scalloped lace edging to finish it. It fastened at the centre back with feature buttons and loops.

scalloped edge lace beaded bolero over bodice
church wedding train with hook up wrist loop

The thistle brooch Sarah-Louise wore had family significance, such a lovely special touch!

strapless sweetherat wedding dress ivory silk georgette
traditional custom made wedding dress fishtail skirt
 bride arriving chiffon wedding dress
short sleeve wedding dress with beaded lace and train
classic bespoke wedding dress train
traditional wedding dress made to measure

I always provide a wrist loop to make carrying the train outside easy, and pretty too!

 

Original design sketch by Felicity Westmacott simple wedding dress

Original Design Sketch

thank you letter testimonial

Thank you letter

Sarah-Louise wrote: Thank you so much for designing and making me such a beautiful dress that will be shared with generations to come. I am so pleased with the final outcome. I felt like such a beautiful bride and I would have been lost without such an eye catching dress. Thank you so much for all your time and effort spent. Words cannot express how much it means to me.
Lots of love from Sarah-Louise.

cutting the cake fine ruching on bodice and hip
dress hanging in window simple
dressing the bride lace over bodice
carefree bride ivory silk wedding dress

Bride with her dressmaker

I was lucky enough to be invited to this wedding. Here I am with my then 10 month old baby girl, Rosalind. I made the dress I am wearing too, in bright printed cotton with fuchsia pink chiffon overlay. It’s made as a breast feeding dress with the front sections unclipping from the straps to reveal a modest inner bodice with feeding access.

dancing swirling skirt chiffon ruched wedding dress


One lovely things about the georgette we used as Sarah-Louise’s main fabric was it’s lightness and flow. So the dress looked as lovely in motion or still.

Making Sarah-Louise’s classic beaded lace bespoke wedding dress

toile practice run fitting picture

Pictures from the ‘toile’ fitting or practice run of the classic beaded lace bespoke wedding dress

ruching the georgette fabric on the stand

Creating the ruching for the front panels, lots and lots of pins on the stand!

fitting picture in partly made dress ivory silk chiffon

fitting pictures in the partly made dress

beaded lace over bodice and train back fitting picture
waterhouse22 finished dress in final fitting custom

Final fitting pictures of the bespoke wedding dress

hidden something blue strapless wedding dress

A hidden something blue on the wrist loop of the train.

To see another modern classic wedding dress you could head over to my portfolio entires for Gerry’s silk dupion wedding dress. And Charlie’s classic silk crepe and lace wedding dress

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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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Here are just some of my creations from the past year! I feel so lucky to get to make such interesting and varied garments as my job 🥰 colourful wedding dresses, unique mother of the bride ensembles, as well as alterations to make a dress feel more like home.

If you used my services (as a bride specifically) between Oct 1st 2024 up until now, I have a little favour to ask...
I've been nominated for the 2026 Wedding Industry Awards, in the "Independent Dressmaker/Designer" category and the people in the time period above are the only ones who are eligible to vote for me. 

So, if you have a spare few minutes, and you enjoyed both working with me and the outcome, then you can vote for me via the link in my bio. There are different voting links depending on whether you were a bespoke or dipdye booking, or an alteration booking. 

Industry recognition is one thing, but recognition from the people I work with is even better 💜
(and if you've already voted for me, thank you!! It means the world!)
It's giving bridal Sun Goddess 🌞 Just look at that colour!

One of my favourite bespoke wedding dresses to date. I made this opulent bronze gold look for an equally gorgeous bride who wanted something a little different for her wedding day. 

My favourite features have got to be the statement bow on the shoulder and the cartridge pleats around the waist. This style of pleating helped add volume to this unbelievable iridescent dupion silk. Cartridge pleating was popular in the first Elizabethan era and always gives a touch of the historical to any garment on which it's included.

I also included a bustle hook (you can see what the dress looks like up in the last clip), which totally transforms the dress and makes it much easier to move in when it's time to dance!

This is bride was a dream client - elegant and adventurous, with a touch of the dramatic 😉 drop me a DM if you've got wedding dress dreams that you're dying to bring to life!

#weddingdress #ukbride #bespokeweddingdress #bridetobe
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.⁠
⁠
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!
⁠
~⁠
Photography - Thomas Frost - @t.frost.photography⁠
Venue - Beacon Crag B&B, Porthleven - @beaconcragweddingvenue⁠
Flowers - Fullers Flowers - @fullersflowers⁠
Hair & Makeup - Amy Needham @amyellenhairandmakeup
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