NEWS// 2014 PLANS & REAL BRIDE

We've been pretty quiet over here at Madeleine Bride for a while & this is because I am planning my own wedding whilst designing and new collection and creating a new website - all very exciting! 

The new collection & website will be launching later in 2014 and in the meantime I will be posting my wedding finds - my favourite suppliers, designers and creative wedding people that I have encountered whilst planning my own slightly alternative wedding!

Here is one of our Brides from 2013 in a bespoke Etoile made with French corded lace, Swarovski crystals & tiny fresh water pearls. The headpiece was attached to a headband covered in lace to blend in with the Bride's hair colour. I also made a headpiece for the Mother of the Bride to match her dress.

"I just thought I would say thank you again for our beautiful veils, they were perfect and exactly what we hoped for!"

Photo by Tim Simpson Photography

We are still creating designs for brides including bespoke pieces so please feel free to contact us on 01747 82644 or email info@madeleinebride.com if you are looking for something specific. While our new website is being created you can see all our pieces on our Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/madeleinebride

INSPIRATION// TWO LOVERS IN LOVER

I just had to share this beautiful photo by my friend and creative collaborator Lydia Stamps Photography - two lovers in lover....

See more of Lydia's beautiful work here: www.lydiastampsphotography.com 

NEWS// GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL & LOVE MY DRESS FEATURE

Last weekend I headed to Somerset for an amazing few days at Glastonbury Festival - beautiful sunshine, amazing performances and incredibly talented people coming together to build the most inspirational film-set style scenery I have ever seen. I am always so inspired when I go to Glastonbury; I meet the most amazing people from the sculptor who makes giant metal unicorns to the jewellery makers, stone carvers and blacksmiths who display their traditional crafts in the Green Field. 

The best parts of Glastonbury for me are the other worlds created by huge teams of creative people in the South East corner. These include 'The Common' - a whole field of Aztec/Latin American inspired sets including a cave with a waterfall that you walk behind to get into a hidden club, and 'Shangri-La' - a post-post-apocalyptic world where you can choose between Heaven & Hell, and to get into Heaven you must persuade the angels you have been good enough to be allowed in. The great thing about Glastonbury is you can totally immerse yourself in these worlds for four whole days and be totally inspired. Now I am back in the studio I have lots of creative ideas in my head for future projects so watch this space.

I didn't have time to post this last week as I had to dash off quickly to Glastonbury but it was recently featured on the vintage inspired Love My Dress bridal blog. A couple of months ago I collaborated with A Most Curious Wedding Fair creator Becky (amongst others) for an eclectic shoot at a beautiful new wedding venue in Norfolk called The Keeper & the Dell. The gorgeous shoot by photographer Joanna Millington had a lovely relaxed, bohemian feel and they used my new Stella headpiece shown here on the right. If you would like to see more of the photos then take a look at the Love My Dress blog post by clicking here.

NEWS// MADELEINE BRIDE IN YOU & YOUR WEDDING!

June is always a busy month for me, particularly the end of the month as Royal Ascot gets into full swing. For those of you who may not know, alongside Madeleine Bride I also run a sister company, Madeleine Millinery where I design and create high end, beautifully hand crafted hats & headpieces for special occasions like weddings and the races. Royal Ascot has kept me incredibly busy this month (and last!) as alongside making bespoke designs I also hire all of my samples. You can see the Madeleine Millinery collections on my website here: www.madeleinemillinery.com.

In my last post I featured my first independent feature in top bridal magazine Conde Nast Brides, one of my 2013 goals ticked off the list. Rather excitingly this is not the only goal I have achieved this month - I have also been featured not once but twice in the beautiful styled shoots in the current issue of You & Your Wedding, another top UK wedding magazine. Although being in magazines is not the be all and end all and receiving photos of my real brides is definitely the best, there is something very satisfying about seeing my designs in glossy bridal magazines, particularly when they are styled this beautifully.

The two featured pieces are the Jennifer bow - Striped silk organza bow embellished with Swarovski crystal - and the Estelle headband - White embroidered stars embellished with Swarovski crystal.

NEWS// MADELEINE BRIDE FEATURED IN CONDE NASTE BRIDES!

At the beginning of 2013 I sat down and wrote a list of goals that I wanted to achieve for Madeleine Bride by the end of this year. I am still working on some of them but am pleased to say that this month I have achieved two!

This month my 'Dusty' veil is featured in Conde Nast Brides - one of the top bridal magazines in the country (from the same publishers as Vogue). I've had some of my designs featured in the Brides styled shoots before but not through my own company so was absolutely thrilled to pick up the July/August copy and see one of my new designs in this gorgeous styled shoot.

As I was flicking through this new issue of Brides I was also super pleased to see two amazing people that I have had the pleasure of meeting in a feature about men working in the wedding industry. 

The first is Chris Murphy from Tuck-Box who creates the most amazing hand painted cakes. I featured Chris in my blog about A Most Curious Wedding Fair here - as well as making awesome cakes he is also really nice! You can see his work here: http://www.tuck-box.com/

The second is Chris Bracey from God's Own Junkyard, who is possibly the coolest man ever. A few months ago I visited his incredible neon studio in Walthamstow and I'm working on a design for a neon piece with him at the moment. His workshop is an Aladdin's cave of amazing retro and modern neon signs with a huge outdoor neon junkyard full of old signs and statues of the Virgin Mary. He even made a giant neon lightning strike for the current David Bowie exhibition at the Victoria & Albert museum in London. Not only does he hire signs for weddings he can also work with you to commission something completely bespoke to you (if you have the budget!). Take a look at some of his work here: http://godsownjunkyard.co.uk/

At the beginning of the post I mentioned that this month I achieved two of my 2013 goals - keep an eye out for my next blog post to find out what the second goal is!

EVENTS// WHITE GALLERY, LONDON AND... I'M GETTING MARRIED!

I have been back from my amazing holiday in the Lake District for a while now and not only am I well rested, I am also... engaged! My boyfriend proposed on top of a mountain overlooking a beautiful lake, so I now get to see what it is like on the other side of wedding planning - we've already found our venue and I will be blogging about our plans in future posts!

Straight after coming back from the Lake District I headed to London for appointments with new and existing brides and also to visit luxury bridal trade exhibition, White Gallery. I have been in discussions with the organisers of White Gallery with the possibility of exhibiting there in the future, so they invited me along to see what it is like and I brought along my friend & collaborator Lydia Stamps. Showcasing some of the best luxury UK and international bridalwear designers, White Gallery is attended by the world's most exclusive retailers and media and is the place to see the brand new collections and designs that will be reaching the shops next year.

I didn't take any photos but made a note of the companies that I really loved, and who may be on my own list of wedding suppliers in the future! Here is a small selection of some of the amazing design companies we saw at White Gallery.

Charlotte Casadejus

Beautiful, elegant with a hint of vintage nostalgia, I've already picked out a possible Charlotte Casadejus dress for my own wedding. I first came across Charlotte's work at the Zoe Lem Wedding Fair when one of her beautiful dress designs was worn during the fashion show. I was in the front row with Lydia Stamps and we both thought it would be a fantastic dress for a styled shoot in the future. All of Charlotte's designs are made in England and the ladies on the stand at White Gallery were incredibly friendly & helpeful. Charlotte Casadejus dresses are stocked in the UK exclusively at Luella's Boudoir in Wimbledon.

You can see the full range of designs on her website here: charlottecasadejus.com

Little Bevan

Beautifully elegant and totally traditional, I fell in love with these luxury flower girl dresses made from silk dupion & organza from London based Little Bevan. I personally don't usually go for the "traditional" wedding look but these dresses are just beautiful. I am having my four nieces as flower girls and they would look so pretty dressed in these. Little Bevan also make gorgeous page boy outfits - perfect for my little nephew. The owner & designer Sarah Colfer has previously worked for Amanda Wakeley and is super nice to boot.

Take a look at her collections here: http://www.littlebevan.co.uk/

Delphine Manivet

What can I say about Delphine Manivet? Bohemian, elegant and totally divine, I absolutely love the satin dress shown above on the left. Having studied fashion in Paris, Delphine worked for Rochas before creating her own brand of absolutely beautiful, whimsical and romantic wedding dresses made for modern brides.

"The search for my own wedding dress made me want to share with other women my vision of the modern bride, that of a woman who doesn’t necessarily get married at 20, who doesn’t want to look like a meringue, but who wants the dress she imagined in her little girl’s dreams…"

See her collections here: http://www.delphinemanivet.com/

Eaton Nott

I first came across Eaton Nott when I spotted one of their amazing head dresses in a beautiful Conde Naste Brides styled shoot. Created by Jess Eaton, a conceptual artist who works over several areas of design including costume design and make up, the Roadkill Couture range is a controversial but incredibly elegant and dramatic range of accessories created out of the pelts, feathers and bones of animals that have been killed and eaten as food, accidentally killed on our roads or that have died of natural causes. If you are looking for a real statement on your wedding day these are the people to go to but they are not for the feint-hearted bride!

See the Eaton Nott collections here: http://www.eatonnott.co.uk/

Jesus Peiro

I have admired Jesus Peiro for a long time - an iconic Spanish bridal wear designer who balances femininity and romanticism with elegant sophistication. Peiro's understated designs combine classic wedding style with sleek modernity - perfect if you are looking for something classic and timeless for your wedding day.

Take a look at the Jesus Peiro collections and find UK stockists here: http://www.jesuspeiro.com/

REAL BRIDES// BESPOKE LACE HEADPIECE

Look what just dropped into my inbox - gorgeous photos of one of my brides, Kirsty, who got married in Scotland in April this year. She wore a beautiful lace dress and pearl embellished ballet shoes. I designed a headpiece especially for her made from hand-cut french corded lace embellished with tiny freshwater pearls and Swarovski diamante to fit with her elegant & simple veil. The best part of my job is to hear from my happy brides.

'Would just like to say a massive thank you for creating my perfect bridal hairpiece! It looked amazing!!'