Rachel Lamb Bridal Design

Happy Christmas everyone... Wishing you peace and good wishes for 2011 x

Did you dream of your wedding dress when you were small? Some do, some don't. Today I'm going to show you someone who did. Perhaps you read the title and thought instantly of some sort of extremely fluffy 'princess' style fairytale look, well you're a tiny bit off the mark, for although she's very beautiful, this bride's dress is what I consider to be quite a modern and simple look, based on a modern fairy story. I'll leave the story until the end to see if you recognise it. Meet Zoe - here she is prior to the ceremony. Here's a close up of the back of her dress. Guessed the story yet? We made a few changes to the fabrication and details within the dress, but essentially its very close to the original imagery. All pictures of Zoe (apart from the last two) are taken by her photographer John Harris . A huge thanks to John for sending me these images and allowing me to use them. If you're looking for a wedding photographer, do have a lo...

This is the dress that I was beading in my last post. I've named it Amica. All my dresses are named because its easier to identify them (and in my opinion, more fun than numbers). Some are easy to name and at other times I find myself consulting baby names books, but that's another post... Originally this was going to be a dress with cap sleeves, but as I was making the calico toile (see below), I couldn't decide. This is a type of fishtail dress and is available to order as is, or with variations. Here's a close up of the beading I showed you last week: Amica is made from ivory Thai silk, which is nice and smooth and has more of a matt look than many other silks. I wanted this dress to look elegant and simple. Eventually I compromised with the sleeves and made this sample dress with detachable sleeves so it can be ordered with or without and you can actually see how that might look. I think it would also look good as a strapless dress too.   With and wi...

I'm in mid dress construction at present, so thought I'd take the opportunity for a break by showing you some beading. I love beading. It's something to do with the repetitive nature of it and that it can take a long time to do. The feeling that 'this is what I shall be doing' for the next few days is quite comforting; probably something to do with the fact that I can sit still and don't need to pack up to start something else, which is often how my day runs when I'm working on other parts of gowns. While I bead I like to listen to story tapes. While beading this dress I listened to The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett, The Laying On Of Hands by Alan Bennett, By The Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie and several Just William stories - I am loving the impression of Violet Elizabeth as read by Martin Jarvis! This beading is placed around the waist of the dress and when finished, the beaded section is about 10cm wide. The completed look ...

Here are some fab pics to show you of one of my brides from this summer - Felicity, and her husband Julian. They got married locally on one of the hottest days and you can almost smell the hot sun and dry grass when you look at the pictures... Here they are leaving the ceremony. Felicity's dress and shrug was made of ivory silk taffeta... ...with a sweetheart neckline. Here's Felicity's bridesmaid Jane assisting. The dress was fitted to the hips and then gently flared out to the hem. The bodice part of the dress was gently 'ruched' across the back and front. Taffeta works very well for ruching - its got that crunchy texture but lies very flat if pleated or ruched. Here's a close up of the shrug. I also made Felicity's flower-girl's outfit (see above), and instead of carrying flowers, we decided to make her a lavender heart (with a matching flower attached) to carry, you can see the heart on the pink paper next to her wand! We thought this wo...

At last I have got around to selling my remaining shoe stock on ebay ! Wonderful, nay, excellent quality shoes, all in their original packaging and completely unworn. They are drastically reduced because a) They are no longer current designs, b) I want my spare room back. Here's a taster of what's for sale For those of you not in the market for wedding shoes - just shoes, all the shoes I will put on ebay can be dyed to a colour of your choice, so are great for posh dos, evening wear and so on. Please do have a look :-)

Just added another portfolio page - Portfolio 2, over on the right. Weirdly there appears to be a random green addition to some of my lists - this is Blogger playing up, but I quite like it.

Just a quickie. As I was about to draw the curtains this evening, I was side-tracked by this amazing sky: What a perfect sky for the 1st day of winter and halloween. Que Michael Jackson's Thriller-style laughter....

A few posts back I showed you some pics of Jo - one of my summer brides and her dress as it was being made. I want to quickly revisit Jo and show you some more of her pictures, purely because they make me smile - she looks so relaxed and happy *sigh* :o) Before I forget, all the following pictures are courtesy of Kerpixel . Here she is walking towards the ceremony with her Dad... These next set of pictures are what I call the 'swishing series'! All systems ready... Preparing for take-off... We have lift off! Circling... And rest... A close up of the back detail  The happy couple! I will visit this wedding one more time with some cute bridesmaid shots, but I'll save those for another day.