Pretty ballerina style, lace and chiffon dress

I know, I know!! - every dress becomes a favourite to me - and I think I realised today that's because every dress genuinely becomes a dress uniquely and truly becomes a reflection of a bride and her personality. I love design and aesthetics, but a wedding dress can only become magical when it

Madeline's was a favourite from the very first sketch. She has so many ideas for bohomian, but they always kept a really soft, feminine and delicate elegance. (So many adjectives, but there were just so many gorgeous ideas!!)
The main feature of the dress is the lace and chiffon striped, or layered, skirt. It was quite a mathematical feat, I can tell you!! (But that's good for my brain, so it's Ok! Haha!)
Madeline wanted for the skirt to be skimming and flowing, but also to have a soft fullness meant she could pick up the hem, and it would flare out, almost like a butterfly wing. So I made a circular style skirt which would achieve this. Instead of making it in the conventional way, because of the alternating lace and chiffon design, I had to cut in strips, in different widths according to how we thought the proportion best worked. Each was a slightly different depth to give the best sense of perspective. The strips had to be cut to the length of the circumference would have been at the bottom of each strip had I have cut the skirt  in the conventional circular way, and then the top edge gathered evenly into the bottom of the next layer up.. (Am I making sense, am I being boring!?). Well I rather enjoyed the mathematic and logical challenge anyway!
The lace was a really lucky find. Madeline favoured lace designs that has scallops running through the entire design, and patterns that repeated in lines - to follow the design of the stripes of lace.
I think I must have found the only one in existence and available to me! It had different sections of design, so even though each piece was cut from one fabric, each layer looks different and unique. As an addition to the layers, we cut pinky/peach and flowers from other laces, as well as stamped and laser cut daisies and speckled them on the lace layers and the hem.
The hem was finished with scalloped lace, embroidered only along the train of the skirt, keeping the front hem a little cleaner.

The lace overlay on the bodice was slightly different - a Chantilly lace, still in a repeated scalloped style design, but finer and more delicate. After much deliberation we chose a soft seashell pink silk as the layer underneath the lace bodice. It looked magical with Madeline's complexion!The waist band was embroidered with chain of lace daisies, and lines of pearls and crystals. The bodice though was extended and fitted below the waistband to the top hip where the scalloped edge met the chiffon skirt.
The neckline was cut in an elegant ballet style, with a low scoop back, and delicate shoulder straps and also lined with pearls and crystals.

Madeline's veil is made from soft silk tulle and decorated with a shower of moonshine swarovski crystals.

I hope that you love Madeline's dress as much as I do!!

Photographs by Alexandria Hall

Hair and Makeup by Jo from LoveHair and Co.