Real Bride: A Bespoke Ivory, Silk & Lace Wedding Dress

“No other dress compared to putting something on that was made for me.”

Emily lives in Chelsea and had always known that Phillipa Lepley would be the first wedding dress designer she’d visit when she got engaged.  She explains: “I had been quite apprehensive about wedding dress shopping but visiting Phillipa Lepley was such a calm, beautiful experience, I felt at ease straight away.”

“After trying on a huge range of wedding dresses, I quickly narrowed it down to what I wanted but it was the finer details of the material and sleeves, position of the lace that the Phillipa Lepley Team were really helpful with.”

Emily describes the Phillipa Lepley boutique as being like a home from home as she returned for her fittings, bringing her Mum and Sister along to experience it with her.

“The team were amazing, I’m very indecisive but Laura and Lisa were amazing at calming me down and always at the end of the phone, listening to me.”

Emily’s couture Venice Crepe Buttercup wedding dress was created for her over meticulous Toile and Silk Fittings to ensure all elements of the design perfectly complimented her delicate and petite frame.

The soft, fluid ivory silk crepe dress was draped over the very lightest amount of petticoats to give a slim silhouette with lots of undulation and movement as Emily walked. The shaping at the waist of the Phillipa Lepley corset built within was gentle, just subtly enhancing Emily’s slender silhouette and perfectly balancing with the silk crepe skirt and lace straps.

Emily tells us that she “found it very easy to move and dance in the dress, the corset felt like an extension of me I wasn’t aware of it at all.”

The sheer V straps of Emily’s wedding dress were created using the most beautiful French corded ‘Buttercup’ lace. Seamlessly appliquéd with a scalloped edge, the lace of the straps trickled down organically on to the sweetheart neckline bodice of the dress. This technique requires the finest skill and most delicate of hands to complete – each motif of lace is carefully hand-stitched to the dress, before the excess is precisely trimmed away to reveal the organic shapes of the lace beneath blending into the main bodice of the dress.

Emily chose a single tier, long silk tulle veil to wear with her Phillipa Lepley wedding dress, light and sheer so as not to cover the V back neck and perfect line of lace and silk covered buttons positioned at the back of the dress.

“I felt amazing on my wedding day,” she says. “No other dress compared to putting something on that was made for me. I felt my best on the morning. I wouldn’t have changed anything about it. It was exactly as I had hoped.”

Photography by www.guyhearn.com

Phillipa Lepley is recognised globally as a leading British wedding dress and eveningwear designer, renowned for bespoke couture dresses of the utmost luxury. Her wedding dress shop in London, Chelsea, has over 50 dresses, all of which have been made in England from start to finish at her atelier.