Bridal Style

Today if I were to have my wedding again, it would most certainly be the dress of choice. Which makes me wonder, does age change the way we visualise our bridal style.

I was 25 when I got married, and my dress was certainly different from the strapless gowns going around at that time. As I designed it myself it obviously had a twist, but it wasn’t miles off the trend. The overall look was understated princess. Yet if I were to do it all again (maybe renewing my vows!!) I would certainly be going for the vintage look.

I LOVE all things from yesteryears and always have. To my husband’s dismay I love wandering around castles, old buildings, churches, graveyards, you name it. So when I designed my 2011 collection of vintage inspired wedding hair accessories and jewellery, I was pleased to hook up with the wonderful Audrey Russell who understood my love for vintage and sentimental things. It seemed that typically the younger bride still goes for the princess style dress, so I wanted to express through the shoot that ANY AGE can rock the vintage trend.

Creating a vintage style

With fresh faced models Brogan and Kati, we headed for the stunning St Andrews in the Square – equipped with props that I had at hand as well as borrowed from industry colleagues. The look was completed with an array of stunning dresses by  Justin Alexander supplied by Wedding Wise and the fantastic hairdresser Catherine Hastie and Make – up Artist Lynn Meenagh who completed the dream look.

When planning a wedding it seems natural to delve into what your mother and grandmother did for their big day. Looking at treasured photo’s and investigating heirloom jewellery really does get most girls caught up in the nostalgia of things bridal.
Cameo brooches, lace veils and pearls in abundance really are the essence of a vintage inspired wedding. Heirloom bouquets are also starting to be a big trend. This concept came about through recycling, cutting costs and raiding the jewellery box to find a handful of treasured brooches.

Converting these brooches into everlasting bouquets that any vintage bride would love to carry, has become a way of remembering a loved one and having them involved in the wedding ceremony. But fear not if you don’t have a stash of old brooches, you can have a new brooch bouquet created that will become tomorrow’s heirlooms.

Guest Blogger Louise Graham is the Director of bespoke accessories company, Wedding and Baby

Photographs copyright of Wedding and Baby.

“It is worth an estimated £5.5 Billion per year and is unique in the fact that in no other major industry, is there no leading multinational brand” (Evolution Wedding Services).

For the bride, the first thought is always the wedding dress. Whether the choice is a vintage design, perhaps a sweetheart neckline, an a-line dress or a princess. The next step is to compliment the amazing dress with equally gorgeous jewellery and accessories.

Chez Bec – Bridal Jewellery & Wedding Hair Accessories

Chez Bec, launched in 2006 has one of the largest collections of wedding jewellery and bridal jewellery online and offers a stunning range and bespoke design service at www.chezbec.com.  Winners of the Award for Best Bridal Accessories at the Wedding Ideas Awards 2010 the company offers an exquisite, yet affordable array of bridal jewellery, tiaras and wedding hair accessories.

History of Chez Bec

Chez Bec was created by Rebecca Doyle after a career changing thought whilst on holiday in Antigua. Rebecca, previously a “highly stressed lawyer working in the city”, decided to follow her dream.

“Ever since I was a little girl, I had cultivated a love of jewellery and had shadowed my mother, an antique jewellery dealer, at shows and fairs for years. I used to love visiting the flea markets with my mum and I used to spend my pocket money there. I sold my first piece of jewellery at the age of 7, in my mother’s antique shop”.

Rebecca knew that she wanted to set up her own jewellery business and it was obvious to her than with current trends for online retailing that an online business was the way forward. As a high flying lawyer working “ridiculous hours”, Rebecca became a “queen of internet browsing and online purchasing”. She set up an office at her home, where the business is still run from and “Chez Bec” was created (an abbreviated translation of Rebecca’s House in French).

Chez Bec, Award Winning Bridal Jewellery

Chez Bec started life as a contemporary jewellery boutique selling affordable pieces of jewellery sourced from around the world. Once Rebecca started planning her own wedding back in 2006, she became “totally obsessed with weddings and slowly began to source wedding jewellery”. Soon her wedding collection outsold everything else, so she started cutting back on the other ranges and employed two jewellery makers to start making up her own designs. Rebecca stopped buying in jewellery and focused on designing her own collections and by May 2008 Chez Bec became exclusive designers of bridal jewellery.

www.chezbec.com

The Collections from Chez Bec

The beautiful Chez Bec range of jewellery features an abundance of freshwater pearls, Swarovski pearls and Swarovski crystals and each and every piece of Chez Bec’s jewellery is beautifully designed and handmade in the UK. From stunning vintage-inspired tiaras and divine drop earrings to wonderfully delicate brooches and corsage-style bracelets, Chez Bec will not disappoint those brides searching for something special to wear on their Wedding day. All purchases are gorgeously gift wrapped as standard in luxury branded gift boxes complete with lashings and lashings of the softest white tissue paper, and a hand written gift card. Many of the pieces are also perfect for bridesmaids’ gifts and one less thing for busy brides to worry about.

Chez Bec, Award-winning Bridal Jewellery & Wedding Hair Accessories

Lady M Presents’ favourite piece has to be the Bardot Headband at £82. It’s bang-on-trend for this year’s vintage style and it is simply stunning.  No wonder it is popular with the brides browsing the collection.

Bardot Headband, by Chez Bec

Vintage is still the wedding trend for 2010. Whether you’re opting for 1920s, 1940s or 1960s vintage style, glamour and sparkle will always add a modern edge to the vintage theme.

Think gorgeous rhinestone brooches, headbands with plenty of side-detail, big chandelier earrings and plenty of sparkle! Traditional tiaras are out and headbands with ornate crystal side-detailing are in, as are hair combs and hair pins with lots of sparkle.

Chez Bec attend the British Bridal Exhibition in Harrogate twice a year and scour all the wedding magazines for the latest trends in the Wedding industry.

Style guides on the Chez Bec website

The website features its very own style guide for the difficult task of choosing your wedding jewellery. Chez Bec knows that as the Bride you want to to look stunning on your big day and their guide to various styles of jewellery can give you some top tips on selecting your final pieces and complete your look. Chez Bec intend to keep their Style Guide updated with “seasonal tips and trends as well as solutions to common Bridal Jewellery dilemmas so remember to check back often”.

Chez Bec, Bridal Collection

ChezBec – regarded as one of the UK’s leading providers of Wedding Jewellery

ChezBec is now regarded as one of the UK’s leading providers of Wedding Jewellery, having been nominated as one of the 3 Finalists for Bridal Jewellery in the Wedding Awards 2008 and 2009 and was shortlisted as one of 5 Bridal Jewellery Finalists in the UK Jewellery Awards 2008.

Rebecca is currently working on some fabulous new collections for 2011 and can’t wait to show them off.

For all your bridal jewellery needs head straight to www.chezbec.com.

Fascinators are very much in vogue, LadyM Presents has previously featured fascinator designer 2adorn and there has been great interest in this area of the fashion industry of late. Following on from the popular vintage trend that was seen on this seasons catwalks, the fantastic design company Dolly Daydream emulates the vintage style in a collection of exciting headpieces and accessories.

Dolly Daydream

Jessica Read is the designer behind the Dolly Daydream brand, discovered during a trip to Greenwich market, London. Jessica’s main inspirations come from the stunning pieces of jewellery that she has found at markets and vintage shops, also “I get pieces donated to me by family and friends, knowing their old jewellery is going to a good home and being recycled!”.  Jessica’s hunger to be creative led to the company being formed. With a background in Interior Design, Jessica craved to be hands-on with a project and create beautiful things. Still balancing working three days a week as an interiors designer, Jessica’s working day “usually starts with a large Latte to get my brain in gear.  I then just surround myself with the hundreds of pieces of jewellery and thousands of feathers I have collected and the fun begins!”.

The Collection

Fascinators can be a colourful, bold fashion statement, or they can be smaller, more subtle shimmering pieces. Dolly Daydream handcrafts each piece using iridescent feathers, dazzling ribbons, headbands, shining elastics and vintage buttons. Many of the pieces in the collection are available using different coloured headbands. Some of the pieces use stunning brooches found in vintage shops and team pearl beads with contrasting feathers to create really eye-catching pieces.

Isla Hairclip & Vara Headband, by Dolly Daydream

Dolly Daydream also have a bridalwear section of the collection. Each bridal piece is totally unique and will never be repeated. They are made using vintage jewellery and beads, all sourced from vintage markets in London.

Alia & Grace Bridalwear, by Dolly Daydream

Inspiration

Jessica seeks inspiration for her designs from many different places.  She explains, “It may be from the feathers I’m using – some of the detail and colourings in feather are incredible.  It can also come from a single earring or pendant that I come across and I can visualise exactly what I want to team it with and how the final piece will look once complete”.  Of course another huge source of inspiration for Dolly Daydream are fashion and current trends. At the same time the collection is also heavily inspired by 1940′s fashion and style which Jessica finds ‘just stunning and so elegant’.

Yasmin Feather and Lily Brooch Fascinators, by Dolly Daydream

Creation

Jessica explained that the creative process around the collection can sometimes be a challenging one. “As with all creative subjects, you have productive days and not-so-productive days.  Some days i can sit down and everything runs smoothly and fits perfectly.  On the other hand, the next day i could sit and play around with different arrangements for hours”. A headband can take anything from an hour to a whole day to complete. Jessica explains that on a bad day, “I just walk away from the ‘production’ process and go for a walk or research new ideas and come back to it with fresh eyes.”

Conclusion

Dolly Daydream’s goals for 2010 are to “expand my trade at markets all over the country and increase online sales through my website www.dollydaydreamdesign.com and of course, to continue to develop new collections of hairband and headdresses and also a range of hats.” Jessica added “I would love one day to be recognised as a ‘brand’ and supply to ‘fashion forward’ stores such as Topshop, Urban Outfitters and ASOS.”

Dolly Daydream creates completely unique fascinators that will make heads turn. Complete your outfit with a beautiful and exquisite fascinator, suitable for any occasion.