Bespoke wedding dress Guildford

beaded ivory wedding dress for mature bride

I made this bespoke wedding dress Guildford for beautiful Nicola. I made a simple and elegant dress in pale gold and buttermilk coloured soft silk satin and ivory beaded lace. The dress has a fitted and softly boned bodice in layered silk and lace with the pretty scalloped edging used to soften the line of the waist. I finished the bodice with v-neckline and integral inch wide straps with a clean edge.

I created the skirt as a soft bias-cut fishtail, hanging in soft folds at the front hem and spreading into a small train at the back. It is pleated into the waist with a half star of ruching emanating from the centre. The back has a godet panel of lace to echo the bodice, the the scalloped edging used on the hem and fading out around to the sides. The dress closes with a concealed zip at centre back and is fully lined.

I also made Nicola’s bridesmaids’ dresses, more pictures can be seen here.

bride and her daughter bespoke dresses

Nicola with her daughter in the dresses I made for both of them.

bespoke wedding dress draped skirt and boned bodice
concealed zip back wedding dress with lace train

For sale

This dress was brought back to me after the wedding as Nicola hopes it might find a new home and another happy wedding to attend. You can visit my Etsy shop to see more details of the pre-loved dress for sale, or contact me directly and visit my studio to try it on.

freeman9 mature bride ceremony aisle chapel train
just married bespoke wedding dress
silk satin pale gold and ivory beaded lace bridal gown
hidden something blue wrist loop for train

Using the wrist loop to keep the train off the grass, practical and pretty!

 wedding dress vneck with straps and straight skirt
freeman4
mature bride with her son lace godet train
champagne bride pale gold satin vneck bodice

Making Nicola’s bespoke wedding dress Guildford

original design sketch bias cut wedding dress

Original design sketch for Nicola’s dress

 fitting picture finished dress dressmaker

Pictures from Nicola’s final fitting of the bespoke wedding dress Guildford

bridal detail of draped wedding skirt silk crepe satin

Detail of the beaded lace scalloped edging and the pleated skirt into the waist.

beaded ivory lace with scalloped edge godet insert train

Above and below: showing the train spread out and hooked up for dancing

bustle up for train fitting picture
fitting picture something blue tradition train wrist loop
beaded ivory lace bodice and ruched skirt wedding dress

I love making dresses for mature brides. So to see more examples of dresses for brides over 40 see this blog post.

Lace wedding dresses are another speciality of mine. I show lots of examples in this dedicated blog post about lace wedding dress styles.

If you are looking to find a venue near Guildford, the famous West Horsely Place (Button house) is a good place to start.

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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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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.⁠
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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
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