Wedding dresses for Black and dark skin brides

just married bride and groom illusion guipure lace bodice

I have had the privilege of working with many brides who come from black heritage or have darker skin tones. When wearing western wedding dress styles, a fashion first evolved to suit white skin women, different choices can be made to ensure the dresses flatter darker skin tones. Often this includes ensuring any sheer or skin-tone matching elements are created to match the bride’s actual skin. I hand dye tulle for illusion neckline dresses, usually with two or three samples so a bride can decide which is the best and most invisible choice.

Being sensitive to and interested in different cultures comes naturally to me. I love learning about wedding customs and traditions that are new to me. I really enjoy designing dresses for brides who are planning a wedding from their own background, or a fusion blended celebration.

destination wedding confetti shot illusion back wedding dress for dark skin

Creating a bespoke wedding dress for Ayesha included hand dyeing her tulle for the illusion back and plunge front necklines. I really enjoy this aspect of making wedding dresses for black or dark skin brides.

Official photography by DSVisuals

angela 7 alternative wedding dress portrait neckline collar and dress

Angela wanted a subtle oyster pink dress and jacket for her white-tie wedding day. The opulent duchess satin and delicate chantilly lace combined to give a sophisticated and pretty look. You can see more pictures of Angela’s wedding ensemble here.

Photography bywww.christellephoto.com

Cultural Fusion Wedding

Custom bespoke make to measure uk london surrey sussex Asian Fusion Wedding Trousers top
low back wedding top dress south east asian gold latkan ties

Iram’s London wedding was planned a cultural fusion vibe. She wanted to wear a modern wedding ensemble in Western white colours, but with a big nod to her Indian background. My ‘Evie’ set was the perfect match, created custom for her with the latkan and belt details chosen to match her colour scheme. You can see more designs for cultural fusion weddings on this page.

You can see this set for sale in my Etsy shop, or contact me directly to discuss your custom order.

Photography – Rohit Gautam

tossing the bouquet black wedding traditional

I made Vanessa’s wedding dress with a very full silk dupion skirt pleated to her waist. Corded lace was used for the illuion bodice with tulle dyed to match her skintone as the support.

Safiya ordered a bespoke bias cut wedding dress in white silk satin. Cutting a dress ‘on the bias’ create a beautiful drape and close fit. Metallic embroidery was created for the dress by ‘Hand and Lock

Official Wedding pictures by Indigo Images

custom wedding dress alteration restyle new skirt

Hannah brought me a wedding dress she had found elsewhere to have the skirt section remade with more flaboyance. I created a stunning waterfall skirt in cascades of organza with lace applique to blend it into the main dress above. You can click here to find out more about booking wedding dress alterations with me.

Wedding with another Religious element.

bride and groom civil marriage ceremony Surrey

Reeta’s wedding dress was made in buttermilk coloured silk satin and ivory lace to compliment her beautiful mid skintone. Official photographs by www.photofactorysite.com

This bride wanted a dress made in African lace. I cut and sewed her beautiful lace fabric using the scalloped edges to trim the hem and full train. We also used more lace to create her hijab for the Muslim part of her wedding ceremony. It is always such an honour to make wedding dresses for black brides, especially when I am given such exquisite materials to work with.

Photoshoot wedding dresses for black brides

This photoshoot in London featured the beautiful Vanessa as our model. I designed a cadbury purple silk dress coat and an ivory short wedding dress.

Photography: Jessica Jill Partridge,

beautiful black bride groom london RSA house wedding dress cleopatra queen regal elegant

I designed an asymmetric wedding dress with a gold corset to wear over the top for a photoshoot in London’s  RSA House. The stunning  Dom and Yana were our models.

Photographer – Jamie Edward

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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