HELLO! I’M MARRIED NOW!! HOORAY! I’m still slowly coming
back down to earth after what was truly the best few weeks of my life. I’ve got
so much to talk about and share but I
wanted to start with my wedding dress because it’s definitely garnered the most
interest out of any of my wedding details and it’s completely amazing and I
can’t stop talking about it! So without further ado…
Isn’t it just perfect?! Here’s the story:
The weekend after I got engaged I was perusing my local
RSPCA op shop and found a beautiful, if slightly dusty and moth eaten, vintage
wedding dress. It was love at first sight and I bought it for $50. Given my
propensity for shopping and wearing second hand, the idea of spending a 3rd of my wedding budget on a dress never appealed to me. I LOVED the idea of wearing
something vintage and giving it my own spin, plus I was totally overwhelmed at
the thought of shopping for a wedding dress in the tradition manner, so picking
something up at an op shop suited me perfectly.
The vintage 1950’s dress was beautiful, but it was slightly
too small and the full length lace sleeved bodice just wasn’t my style. So I
went to see Erin and Kate at Ilka to talk to them about re-designing it. They
were SO AMAZING. I cannot rave enough about how wonderful Ilka are. The took my
grotty op shop dress with no judgement, listened to my vague ideas of what I
thought I wanted (Valentino/Elie Saab on an op shop budget) and turned it into
my dream wedding dress.
Ilka created a whole new bodice for the dress, re-sized and
re-lined it so it fit like a dream and left the original skirt intact. I wanted
to add some colourful details to it and after going through a few
different ideas with Erin and Kate, I eventually sourced the embroidered lace
myself from China and Erin painstakingly cut it up and hand sewed it on to the
dress. The end result was magnificent.
So my wedding dress is a combination of everything I love
and value about sustainable fashion. It is vintage, op shopped and re-designed
by a local designer in Perth. It was the perfect representation of what is
important to me. Plus it’s god dam gorgeous!
I wore it with my aunt’s incredibly dramatic veil from when
she was married in the 70s, some statement Christie Nicolaides earrings and
flat gold sandals from Loeffler Randall (which were SO comfortable, I danced
the night away and didn’t get a single blister).
I didn’t know what vibe I wanted for my wedding, but my
beautiful dress really did set the tone for the whole day. It was a show
stopper, but also relaxed and down to Earth. A true representation of Luke
and I. I would 100% recommend other bride-to-be’s think outside the box when it
comes to choosing their wedding dress, shopping second hand and supporting local
designers shouldn’t be niche, it should be your first choice! It was
certainly mine!
Dress: vintage from RSPCA op shop, re-designed by Ilka
Shoes: Loeffler Randall
Earrings: Christie Nicolaides
