Dearest Gentle Reader, It has come to this author’s attention that a passionate affair took place at The Historic Dockyard Chatham, that would make even the most confident of rakes blush. Rest assured, a few were in attendance to what was a wonderful day, full of vibrancy, talent and exquisite work. Here are a few...
I made the Phoenix dipdye wedding dress for a photoshoot. I designed a frosty sheer silver lace dress and a rose gold flowergirl dress as well for the same shoot. You can see more pictures from the entire shoot here. The autumn colour wedding dress was a pet project I’d been keen to try for...
For this styled wedding shoot, the aim was to create an atmosphere that was dark, dramatic and regal. We used royal purple, lavender, deep burgundy and vibrant cerise as our colour palette, with plenty of gilded gold highlights. And no white! This was the inspiration for my dark fairytale feather wedding dress. My design was...
Gorgeous Ellie was married in Vegas on Halloween and her dress was a wonderful mixture of fifties shape, modern styling and subtle Halloween detail.
Stunning Cadbury purple 1950’s bridesmaid’s dresses with with black sashes and pretty butterfly detail. The dresses are all simple boned bodices with a ‘ballet pinch’ detail just below the sweetheart neckline. A halterneck is flattering and provided peace of mind to the wearer. The full circle skirts lie over netting skirts in bright contrast colours...
Creating a purple silk wedding coat and a burlesque wedding dress for this fabulous shoot showcases everything I love most about my job. From time to time I collaborate with other wedding professionals on styled wedding photoshoots. This one took place in August 2016 in London with the theme ‘City Burlesque’. Our locations including the...
I made this purple butterfly embroidered wedding dress for Karen. It is a simple modern wedding dress in ivory silk dupion with contrast purple silk detail. I hand embroidered butterflies in silk thread and lace applique complete the picture. Karen also had a bridesmaids dresses made bespoke, see here for more pictures. Karen’s dress has...
Alice commissioned three fairytale bespoke flower girl dresses, Surrey. Official Wedding pictures by www.laurencephotography.com I designed the dresses each with a simple bodice in silver silk satin and layered skirts in grey and white chiffon over gathered tulle. The skirt layers were cut and graduated in petals with tiny purple and white organza butterflies sewn...
The dress needed to have a vintage, showgirl feel and be really sexy but still realistic as a bridal dress, not many people actually get married in a leotard and feathers! The wiggle skirt with a boned bodice hit all these marks showing off our lovely model, Vanessa?s curves and cinching her waist. I added a teal net petticoat that would show when the high/low hem moved and delicate gold lace detail with Swarovski crystals for showgirl glamour!
Posts from Felicity Westmacott
Just replace fashion house with bespoke bridal boutique, and you get the idea.
(I also hate being filmed like this, but my social media elf, Elle, told me it was a good idea 😅)
These were all labours of love, with a lot of climbing up precariously placed ladders and sweeping up glitter and leaves. But so fun to do!
Which one is your favourite bridal shop window display?
1. Red for Valentine`s day
2. Purple and gold fantasy
3. Rainbows for Pride
4. Black and white for Halloween
5. Sparkles for winter
Now to start planning for 2026...
I managed to complete my window display dress just in time!
This is the 2nd time I`ve made a wedding dress specifically for my window, and I`m not going to go so far as to say it will be a yearly tradition (that`s too much pressure!) but I do enjoy it!
For this one, I wanted to use up bits and pieces I`ve had hanging around for far too long. As a creative person, I think hoarding comes with the territory, so I`ve had boxes of scrap fabric gathering in boxes. And this dress used so much of them up, which was very satisfying.
For this look I made a boned bodice and covered it in white feathers. Then I added layers and layers of tulle, sequins and lace for the skirt, creating this beautiful asymmetric waterfall effect.
A dress fit for an ice queen ❄️
The past five years have been exciting, scary, busy, joyful, difficult, creative! And I`m grateful for every single day.
From 2020 to now, I opened my bridal shop, I won a Muddy Stilettoes award and a Wedding Industry award. I made a lot of dresses, used up a lot of cans of spray paint and danced around my shop more often that you`d think 💃🏻
What springs to your mind when you think of the past five years?
Shop opening footage - @kasias_irisvisuals
TWIA footage - @mattrockprophoto
Having crunched the numbers, I`m sharing with you the top 5 wedding dresses that really resonated with you all last year.
In no particular order:
1. Even though Rebecca lives in Germany, she sought me out specifically due to seeing my particular approach to colour. She wanted a wedding dress fit for an ethereal princess, complete with this stunning hand-dyed pastel rainbow gradient 🦄✨️
2. I love cultural fusion, so getting to work on this styled shoot was such a pleasure. I loooved stretching my creative muscles to find the perfect blend of traditional Indian and British elements for this dress.
3. Nicky`s inspiration for her wedding dress was the lyrics of Touch by Soft Cell, which is such a fun starting point for a design!
4. The inspo for this photoshoot dress was ancient Egyptian and Greek fashion, but with the kind of interpretation that you might see in Game of Thrones or a fantasy film. I wanted to give a sense of majesty and opulence, without it being too clean and modern and the gold leaf was the perfect solution.
5. Kathy is a local textile artist who was having a launch party for her latest collection, and wanted something extra special for the occasion. Making this dress was such a wonderful collaboration. Kathy created a new design to be printed onto fabric, and brought me a vintage pattern she wanted to use.
What a year full of colour and creativity! Which look is your favourite?
Photography
Pastel Rainbow - @pesto_fotografie
Fusion Shoot - @puli.wedding
Nicky - @hazeldupreezphotography
Nile Queen - @jamieedwardphotography
It`s always nice to look back on the year and see the things I`ve achieved. So today I`m going through the top alterations I did in 2025, according to how many of you engaged with them.
So, in no particular order:
1. Jennifer`s custom dip dye wedding dress is such a delicious explosion of colour, so of course it was going to rank highly! It`s good to see that the Phoenix colourway is still going strong 🔥
2. After Catherine came to me to get her wedding dress altered, she told me one of her bridesmaids was doing up the back of the dress and said "wait, I thought when you bought it, you said the dress was open back? Did you get a new dress?"
You lot absolutely loved this alteration! It is by far my most popular post of the year, and it was so lovely to connect with so many new people who appreciated my work on this.
3. Katie wanted a chic, modern bridal veil. Her wedding dress already had delicate 3D flowers on the bodice, so we echoed this design element in the veil. I hand embellished almost 400 satin flowers!
4. With alterations, usually it`s about making the dress the right fit for the bride. But sometimes, when I`m very lucky, I get to play. I embellished Karen`s beautiful off-shoulder wedding dress with hundreds of little embroidered flowers. This one is a personal favourite of the year.
5. Finally I did a full re-style of Eleanor`s wedding dress. It had originally been a long, heavy Elizabethan-inspired affair, but for her wedding anniversary she wanted something lighter, more easy to move in and more versatile. My most controversial alteration this year - some of you had very strong feelings about the change, but Eleanor was happy, so I am too.
Next I`ll be going through the top 5 bespoke wedding dresses I made this year. Follow along to find out if your favourite made it 👀
Photography:
1 - @emacrompzweddings
3 - @visualstoriesco
4 - @sbyrnephoto
