Rachel Lamb Bridal Design

image by alanmillerphotography.com Every once in a while I am asked to make something a bit different, and back in the springtime, Sherie set me a brief for a vibrant coloured dress (with pockets) that could be worn again for other events, and this is the result. I love this dress! Sherie wore her own cuff-links with the dress, and it has a bright green lining inside the skirt, which sadly I don't have any pictures of, but you'll have to take my word for it! The first and last images by photographer Alan Miller , and the ones in between are my work in progress shots. I hope you like it. image by alanmillerphotography.com

This is springtime bride Julie (and her husband), who, as the title suggests, wore a sage green silk dress with a vintage-y looking nude/oyster coloured lace overlay. When Julie first came to see me, she wasn't looking for anything traditionally bridal in colour, and was originally thinking of  a richer blue or green colour, with comfort being a priority for her. We looked at a few green and blue laces but none hit the spot, so I suggested that she go on an exploration of some of the fabric shops in London to see if anything caught her eye. (I often send people off with a list of potential shops if I have nothing in the studio that matches their ideas.) It did, and Julie came back with a small piece of the lace she'd found to show me, but as I recall, there wasn't much of it left on the roll in the shop. We discussed and revised the design again and I advised her to buy the remaining piece of lace and said that I would draft the dress pattern to fit in with t...

Good afternoon, how are you? I am very busy these days, which is wonderful! Thank you to all my brides for your bookings this year! xx Here is another of my new (ish) Collection wedding dresses. I say new-ish because I'm not sure I've had this one photographed before and it hasn't had much exposure, so it still feels new to me. It's named Rosa, for obvious reasons. I'm lucky because I get quite a lot of variety in the dresses I'm asked to make, especially a variety of colours. However, ivory remains the most popular colour within the dresses I design. Anyway, I decided to combine the two and design a dress with a colourful print combined with a dark ivory silk. The printed bust section is a cotton print. My thinking behind it is that you could combine any printed fabric with a more traditional bridal colour, as in this dress, to come up with something that is unique to you. The other option would be to replace the printed section with a tonal l...

Here's another of my new dresses, Clementine. Named for obvious reasons perhaps? Obvious to me, because these days I need the names of the dresses to instantly remind me of the actual dress! I really wanted to make an orangey wedding dress, but when it came down to it the colours were too orange, so I toned it down a bit and went for a softer, salmon-like colour instead. This type of dress could also be made in ivory or white, or any colour really - it's the lace colour that determines the main colour-way because it's likely that a lace will have a narrower colour choice than the main silk of the dress. (I think it would look good as a white dress with black lace too.) I hitched up the silk on this skirt because I like the texture it gives, but it can also be made as a smooth skirt and train if you prefer. I hope you like it. :-)

It's been ages, I know. I just want to let you all know that even though I don't post on here much I'm still beavering away making fabulous wedding dresses for lovely clients, and designing and making new ones for my collection too! This year has been amazing! Bookings have gone up far more than I ever expected and as a result, something had to give, and that was social networking. I realise it's not the done thing these days, but I can't often find the time to post things, and I'm not the best at remembering to photograph what I'm making, because again, there's not enough time or space to do so. I was discussing this with one of my new clients the other day, and she was very encouraging, she said "All people want to find out is that you're a nice person and that they like your work and how you come across." That was kind, and as a person who 'worries', it was a calming thing to hear. So, as a result of this upturn, I ...

I'm not posting much as you can see. Too much going on at the moment - blossom blooming, garden demolition, designing and sewing. I've finished the dress I was talking about in my previous posts. Its turned out similar, yet different, from my original sketch, as is often the case. I've named it 'Sylvie' and it will go into my Collection once it's been priced up. It is made of silk chiffon and silk satin backed crepe, so it's lovely, flowing and soft. The ivory trims are Guipure lace in ivory. It's a wee bit Abigail's Party but I like that! This dress can be made in many, many colours, as well as all ivory, if you like. Guipure lace is big news at the moment for wedding dresses. Most of the gown bookings I've taken so far for this year that include lace will use Guipure lace.  The other big news is that work on my studio has started! I can't wait for it to be finished, naturally. It hasn't been...

What has happened to February?? (See last paragraph below.) Here are some lovely images of one of my brides, Emily, who got married in the New Year. I think she looks great! So happy, and her dress fits her so well! :-) Emily's photos were taken by Ben Bull . Emily is wearing Gaia dress which is a design from my collection. It's the last one I shall make in this particular lace as sadly it's no longer easily available. However, plans are afoot for a new version of this dress using a different lace. I've been working on the dress from the sketch in my last post (see above). It's almost complete now. As usually happens, I've changed some of the features a bit as the work progresses. I'm in love with the colour - very cool-sky-ish. What do you think? I'm into designing some dresses that aren't ivory at the moment. I was listening to All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West while working on this dress, so perhaps the story...

  What could be more exciting than to organise your wedding under the guise of a garden party? That's what Allyson did with the help of her friend Paula (seen above in blue). Not wanting the day to be formal in any way, none of the guests knew Allyson and Clive were getting married until she appeared in her dress and was walked down the aisle by her sons to the accompaniment of a gospel choir! Well the day was perfect, the weather was splendid and everything went well. Allyson's knee-length dress was a peach silk overlaid with ivory pearl-beaded lace and she looked stunning! When Allyson first came to see me she thought she might have a longer length dress, but after sleeping on it for a while, the decision to go shorter, and be more 'her', was made. Allyson sent me a very special thank you card telling me all about the day, and I wanted to share the following kind words of hers: 'Rachel, I can't tell you how blessed I was to meet...

I have been meaning to show this image for a few weeks now, but school holidays were in the way. Now they're over, here it is! This is Sophie whose dress I made last year and who I have shown pictures of before. However, she recently had the gown re-photographed and sent me this and I think it's splendid! I hope you do too. The gown is a two-piece, a detachable cape/train with a strapless dress lace dress underneath. I'm very excited about these images, it's always lovely to receive pictures of my work. I have used the top image in some of my new adverts.

This is Rachel wearing her fabulous floaty silk chiffon wedding dress. Rachel had specific ideas about the exact colour of her dress, which she didn't want to be standard ivory. After deliberating over many shades we chose a kind of pinky-goldy-champagne (can't be more specific!) type of colour that worked very well with the off white crochet-lace trims. Out of necessity, the chiffon on the dress bodice is all hand pleated and hand-sewn.  Rachel was very sure she didn't want a twinkly dress or any bling of any sort, the dress was a simple design where the chiffon was used both to provide texture and wafty floatiness. But we decided to add some pearls and tiny silver glass beads to the trims as well, which gives a tiny gleam to the ensemble. As Rachel is tall she can carry off this hipster style of dress well. She looks stunning!