Theatrical waterfall skirt wedding dress for Richelle

windswept wedding dress bride custom waterfall skirt

Richelle wanted a theatrical dress with interchangeable separates for her two part wedding in Scotland. I designed her a pink and silver waterfall skirt wedding dress in organza, silk and lace. Richelle found me by recommendation from a previous bride, the nicest way to know you’ve done a good job!

Official photography by linaandtom

A theatrical wedding dress for a dramatic bride

Richelle had an epic, three part wedding. So when I met her I knew I needed to design a dress for three venues, each with very different vibes. The ceremony took place in Edinburgh castle with a traditional religious service with a reception afterwards at The Museum of Scotland. And a few weeks later Richelle and her new husband held another party for London friends in a theatre space.

scottish wedding groom in kilt

windswept wedding dress bride custom waterfall skirt

Each layer of Richelle’s waterfall skirt was made from a whole circle or oval of blush organza. I used more than 30 metres of horsehair braid to trim the hem edges making them flute and fall gracefully.

big skirt wedding dress alley way pale pink

bride with dinosaurs scottish groom edinburgh museum

silhouette wedding portrait space and galaxy wedding

Original design for Wedding Dress Separates

I designed Richelle’s waterfall skirt wedding dress as a four piece mix and match set of separates. The dramatic long skirt with train was made with 9 organza waterfalls each edged with horsehair braid (sometimes called crin, as in crinoline) to give them definition and stiffness. Her boned bodice had a sweetheart neckline with the silver lace over layer crossing over to subtle ruching to one side. the lace extended above the main bodice into an off the shoulder neckline with real buttons and loops to close at the back, concealing a zip beneath.

design sketch by Felicity Westmacott waterfall wedding dress

I offered Richelle three ideas for her sleeves/cover-up. The first was a simple bolero and the middle one is a waterfall cape, longer at the back than the front. But Richelle loved the idea on the right with flowing waterfall sleeves that buttons closed at the front. The sleeves hint at a medieval style but look totally modern and romantic in the blush coloured organza with horsehair braid edging. It fastened at her throat with a sweet pink Swarovski pearl for a button.

wedding cape cover up bolero designs by Felicity Westmacott

summer wedding bolero sleeves bridal separates

The last element of Richelle’s ensemble was a simple 1950’s style skirt in blush with silver net petticoat. This was perfect to wear at her party in London so she could dance the night away!

Blush pink organza and silver lace

Richelle wanted a subtle blush pink colour so we found coordinating organza and silk dupion, complimented by the beaded silver lace for her bodice.

silver metallic lace beaded sequins detail

wedding bolero shrug cover up pink

Detail of the bodice fastening with concealed zip with real buttons and loops.

button and loop fastening wedding dress

Making Richelle’s waterfall skirt wedding dress

Richelle’s dress was made over a series of fittings at my studio. It was great getting to know her during the process and comparing our love of theatre. Above are pictures from the first fitting of her ‘toile’, a practice run in cheap fabrics. I had prepped a single waterfall piece to pin on and give Richelle an idea of the size her final skirt would be. Find out more about the bespoke making process here.

sewing a button and loop fastening

Sewing on the buttons to Richelle’s bodice

lace up inside panel bespoke wedding dress

Richelle’s bodice was fully boned and had a hidden corset layer where pulling the laces would cinch in her waist and provide support to her bust.

museum of scotland wedding venue dramatic bride

Can you spot the bride and groom in the beautiful museum of Scotland?

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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
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