Saturday the 5th of May was a wonderful day for me and my family, we were so privelidged to attend the wedding of one of our models, Lisa.  The day was amazing and Lisa looked so beautiful, it made me feel like a proud mum to see her marrying the love of her life.

Lisa asked me last year to make her wedding dress and we brought her creation to life in the request of modern and yet traditional elements, Lisa selected the lace work for her own dress and we hand sewed her cathedral veil with matching lace to give her a truly catholic look and I am so pleased that she loved her completed gown, take a sneaky peek at how happy Lisa and her new husband look....

Easter photo shoot

We had a very successful photo shoot over the easter weekend, so lots of lovely new retro and modern wedding dresses will start to be showcased on the new website that will launch in May.

I even had my own mug shot taken, of course the lovely Adele worked her magic with my make up (that I generally dont wear) and I actually looked half decent:

Word of warning...

When it comes to buying your wedding dress online there are lots of fake and counterfeit websites popping up, offering £1200 wedding dress for a fraction of the price and using the modelled images from the original designers websites. 

Most of the time you will get a cheap lookalike with poor quality materials that barely resemble the goods. But in an attempt to Stop these sites breaking UK law and breaching copyright (and you are acting illegally if purchasing from them) all of the big bridal companies are getting together to stop these items passing through europe customs, over 100 wedding dresses per day are now being stopped at customs (not UK customs either) and being burnt as they breach copyright law.....so a word of warning to brides considering this option, yes it may look to good to be true, and often it is, if you do get anything for your money it will not be original, and thats even if your parcel makes it through customs at all.

I mention this after a panic bride called me today with 3 weeks to go and her wedding dress is one of those that has just been confiscated....So the mission is to get her into a new dress asap.

I am not stating this as scare tactics, but dealing with these scinarios on an all too regular basis (as do most bridal shops), we have seen the quality, panic and stress that "risking it" causes.

Check your newspapers and you will start to see feed stories coming into print that re-confirm that the big companies have had enough of the fakes !!

The unseen petticoats

So many ladies look for the perfect wedding dress, the dress that will make them look and feel amazing on their wedding day, but how many don't take into account the biggest part of their outfit, the key component that goes unseen but works the hardest for you on your wedding day.

The hooped petticoat goes unseen but is the "must have" item if you are wearing a full princess or A line or even mermaid wedding dress.  To achieve those catalogue images they are the must have item, petticoats give freedom of movement for the bride giving her the ability to glide and not fight with her dream dress and they keep the shape of your gown so all your wedding guests can appreciate the detail on your gown.

If you need help or guidance on the type of petticoat you will need to complete your bridal outfit then don't be afraid to get in touch.

Organising a photo shoot

The time has come again, with 15 new bridal styles completed and ready to add to the collection I am already keen to showcase the new styles, they are getting good feedback in the sample room and the price points are spot on for affordability and in no way budget busting.

However trying to sort a venue out for this time of year leaves us with a dilemma, outside location shoot (brrr at the thought) we've done that before in November or trying to co-ordinate a whole host of people for a weekday, never an easy task.  The venue we love to use is getting busier in the run up to christmas too, so the photo shoot may have to be in the studio.

It just has to be purple.

As 2012 fast approaches we find that many brides and bridesmaids have set their colour schemes and started to put their dresses into production, the hottest colour for 2012 is undoubtedly Cadbury purple for bridesmaid dresses.


So to ensure that brides are given the maximum choice we have some beautiful cadbury purple bridesmaid dresses in our stock collection with sizes ranging from Age 2-Size 30

Stock purple dresses from the www.Priddi.co.uk site

Made to order cadbury purple bridesmaid dresses from our www.Giovannacouture.co.uk collection

With purple being such a vibrant colour its a chance to add an injection of colour and fun into your bridal party.  Think about co-ordinating the groom and his attending's with purple button holes to compliment the maids.

Purple is a universal colour too that works well with other vibrant colours in the same colour range, such as hot pink, emerald and orange, or you can tone it down with green foliage or work with the purple colour spectrum to take you from pale lilacs to warm lavender into dark purple, but dont be afraid to explore colour options, speak to your florist who will be able to advise you of the flowers in season at the time of your wedding.

For the autumn winter seasons, then we have just added a beautiful dark purple taffeta to our made to order collection, with a beautiful black weave through the fabric it is iridescent and stunningly beautiful:

The new dark purple taffeta now available for bridesmaids and wedding dresses in our Giovanna Couture collection.

If you are looking for a conventional twist with your wedding dress, then the new dark purple taffeta is a great  choice to have your whole wedding dress made in.

All in all don't be afraid to explore other options away from the conventional, if your heart desires purple then go for it !

Oh the van looks fab

This week saw one of my excited clappy hands moments in full practise.  I took it upon myself to get our van sign written and well to say I was pleased with it was an understatemet.....Look....

I get so easily pleased when a plan comes together, although some cheeky woman walked past the van the other day and commented "yeah but I bet they don't have the one in the picture available"....well actually "we DO",  little did this woman know is that, I designed the dress, I organised the model and I worked with the photographer on the shoot at a casino in Nottingham city centre to achieve such a fab picutre !!

Tut tut, fancy thinking we are as boring as all of the of the other bridal shops out there who just wait for the pictures to be given to them and who all mass sell the same dresses because they have no input into their own collections.