The Dress

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

Veil: vintage, gift from my Aunt

Photos are all by With U photography (they are fabulous!)