Plus size reception dress with stars for Melissa

bride in ivory plus size reception dress with her sister

Melissa had already found her wedding dress so came to me to have a reception dress made for later in the day. I designed her a plus size reception dress with stars on the tulle skirt

Melissa wanted a reception dress she could dance in and have fun. I designed a v-neck bodice with narrow straps. Curvy brides need a little support so I added light boning, just enough to make a difference but keep the relaxed vibe and not be stiff or restrictive. I sourced light ivory duchess satin for the bodice and swishy soft tulle for the layers of skirt. Melissa found the beautiful gold star tulle that was used for the top layer of the full circle skirt. I inserted a simple concealed zip for the back closure.

celestial wedding dress for plus size bride on staircase

Kind words from Melissa

Picking a wedding dress was something I had always dreaded. I found the day dress of my dreams and then was full of dread again at how i would enjoy the party. You solved that for me and made me feel the most glamorous I have ever felt in my life. I got changed after dinner with all my maids which was so much fun and then we did a “reveal” with Jim, it was amazing! I thought everyone would roll their eyes at me being a diva with two dresses but everyone was so lovely and I literally swished everywhere in my dress. You were a huge part of the best day of my life and I am eternally grateful xxxxxx

Love My Dress Blog Feature

Online wedding blogs are a really great way to find inspiration for your wedding day. I feel very proud when a wedding I have worked for gets featured. A little bit after the her wedding day Melissa sent me this message

Well I decided to be brave and message them because I felt so amazing last weekend and I want all plus size girls to know they can feel the same and so just told them my story and they had a look at my insta and then said they would love to feature me when the official pics come through.. so obviously I can then credit all of you! If I had to pick between dresses then obviously I will choose Felicity’s (albeit I loved my pink dress) but the Stars is a true representation of local talent and craftsmanship and girl power. WOOOOP! This wedding keeps on giving xxxxx

Head over to the blog to see Melissa and James wedding feature over on ‘Love My Dress

bride and bridesmaids in star tulle plus size wedding dress
Melissa with her bridesmaids, so gorgeous!
plus size bride selfie in bridal suite
Quick ‘just ready’ selfie
wedding dress with stars original design sketch by felicity westmacott
The Original design sketch for Melissa’s

Melissa’s gorgeous wedding day

Designing well for a curvy bride is important to me, everyone deserves to feel their best on their wedding day. Having a bespoke wedding dress made means anyone can feel sure their dress will fit perfectly and be everything they dreamed of. Laura of devinebride.co.uk helped Melissa plan and style her wedding and when Melissa said she wanted a different dress for the reception Laura put us in touch right away. It’s really lovely being recommended by previous clients and by wedding industry colleagues.

Melissa’s wedding was planned with impeccable taste and so much fun! Melissa had cinema themed table centres, balloons on the venue’s columns and a doughnut tower wedding cake. The blush pink wedding dress she wore for the first part of the day was a customised off the rack dress from Cambridge Bridal Studio.

Samuel George captured the essence of Melissa and Jame’s incredible day in this highlights video

A plus size bride dances in her reception dress

bride dances in wedding dress with stars

Making the plus size reception dress for a curvy bride

Fitting pictures from the making process. I always make a custom pattern for each client. Melissa came to my studio for a series of fittings including a ‘toile’ or practice run in cheap fabrics.

If you are looking for a reception dress, plus size or any size do get in touch to discuss your design ideas.

Official photography by www.samuelgeorge.org/

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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.⁠
⁠
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
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
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