Rachel Lamb Bridal Design

The way I work often involves lots of hand sewing, and this bespoke wedding dress was no exception. I listened to the whole of The Private Patient by P.D. James while working on attaching the lace motifs to this dress this week - that's a reasonably long story. It was quite satisfying because both the sewing and the story finished within minutes of each other! It looks lovely and is virtually finished for the final fitting next week. I'll be able to show and tell more at a later date. :-)

Some lovely peonies delivered yesterday from a recent happy bride. So unexpected, and they smell divine! I'll post some pictures of the dress as soon as I can. :-)

Purple in the garden and in the work studio this week. I've just finished the purple dress and will be able to show more images after the wedding. Really enjoying the sunshine and flowers, and the buzz of bees at last. I'm particularly pleased that the Aquilegias - Black Barlow (middle pic) have flowered well this year. I love dark purple blooms. :-)

This past week I've been working on a fabulous purple silk wedding dress . I can't show any more detail yet as this is pre-wedding, but I wanted to give an impression of the 'purple-ness' in my work room at the moment. As I took the above pictures the grey sky actually lightened temporarily. I try not to let the weather get me down, but hey...some sun, or at least some warmer temperatures would be good. I said goodbye to two lovely brides and their lovely dresses the other week. I will show you some sketches of the designs shortly, and some photos of the actual day soon.

Easing back into regular work again. Just finishing two wedding dresses for separate weddings on the same day later on this month. I'll post some pictures as they become available and after the events. Among other wedding dresses, today I started work on two more gowns for later summer weddings this year, so have those to show you as they progress. I'm also very aware that there are many weddings from the latter end of last year that I've not got around to posting about yet. Everything in good time!

  Here's lovely Poppy wearing her wedding dress. Poppy really is a country girl at heart - wellies, dogs, mud (she won't mind me telling you that) and an easy and comfortable life. She wanted a dress that reflected that, and that she would feel easy and comfortable wearing. So soft, feminine, no boning and a small train that can easily be hitched up later on. Poppy's dress is a gentle A-line shape with a scoop neck and loose sleeves. It's made from a heavy silk crepe with a soft lace overlay and soft satin hand-tied sash. I added some small pearls around the neckline and on the sleeves to give a small and gentle gleam. No fuss.

This is Sophie, who wanted an old fashioned type of glamour on her wedding day. Late news item: the photos of Sophie's wedding were taken by Tapas Maiti and you can find more info about him and his service at www.tapasmaiti.com Isn't the picture above lovely? I think the tones of the stone and tiles complement her beautifully. Sophie had specific ideas about what she wanted - a dress that could be worn again, and a kind of detachable train, both of which should be in colours rather than the usual ivory. Marrying in the Cathedral, she wanted to make an impression and fill the space, yet not be encumbered with the train later on in the day. We looked at various images of glamorous women from the 1950s and Sophie even took a picture of a china ornament that she owned, to get the feel of the slightly 'bouffed' train look that was required. Sophie's dress is a dusty pink silk overlaid with an ivory and gold beaded lace. The challenge was findin...