Ailsa commissioned a dress in blue silk satin designed to flatter her petite figure.

Official photographs by?www.oxford-photography.co.uk

The dress has a fitted and boned bodice with gentle sweetheart neckline and integral straps. Ruching over the bust?is balanced above asymmetric draping on the bodice. The skirt hangs straight down from the hip line, flat in front?with soft pleats at each side. The dress fastens at centre back with flat lacing in loops above a flared godet train.

Ailsa wrote: I was absolutely delighted with my beautiful dress! ?I really appreciated the time you took to?explain the different options and the effort you went to in order to make sure it looked perfect, including an?extremely useful set of instructions for my bridesmaid on how to make the dress look its best on the day.?Your patience, enthusiasm and skill made the whole process a pleasure!

and later: Thank you once again for producing such a beautiful dress, and the time you took to make it look exactly right (including the veil!)

Ailsa’s mum wrote: Thank you so much for all the work you put into getting the dress just right for Ailsa and the helpful?advice with accessories etc. She looked lovely on the day and felt very comfortable and happy with the dress.?The dress fittings became a firm part of the wedding preparations and thank you for your welcome when we visited.?Ian was especially pleased that he could join us for the final fitting.?With best wishes, Christine

Ailsa’s veil was made to order, a simple two tier style in pale ivory tulle.

Ailsa’s sister was a lovely bridesmaid and we made a long blue silk hair ribbon so she would tone-in with Ailsa’s colour scheme

Ailsa using her wrist hook-up to hold her train off the floor while walking

Ailsa had matching silk ribbons made to tie up her lovely shoes. I loved her shoes so much I got myself a pair too!

Making Ailsa’s Dress

Pictures from the ‘toile fitting’ or practice run in cheap fabrics, and below at her first fitting with the real dress, here just the under layers, boned ready for the silk satin to be ruched on top.

Ruching in progress on the stand

Pictures of the finished dress at her final fitting: Detail of the wrist loop provided so Ailsa could pick up her train from the floor when walking. Usually I sew?on a ‘something blue’ here but as Ailsa’s whole dress was her something blue I chose three pretty pastel coloured?ribbon roses instead, to match the floral pattern on her shoes.

The train bustled up and spread right out. As The train was so long, and Ailsa so petite the bustle up did not get the train right off the floor, as I would usually aim for, but it did make it much smaller and manageable for later in the day.

Detail of the back fastening with flat lacing through loops above a modesty panel