Silk and tulle flower girl dress by Anita Massarella…
When I first started looking for a flower girl dress for my beautiful 3 year old Niece Ayla, a bespoke couture silk dress was the furthest thing from my mind. However, after a whirlwind visit to Anita Massarella bridal boutique, my eyes fell upon a fairytale flower girl dress hiding amongst the rows and rows of ivory lace, silk and tulle and I instantly fell in love with it. You see, my Niece is rather special so it seemed only fair that she have a dress as pretty as mine. Did I mention there was a matching wand?
If you haven’t been to Anita Massarella’s bridal boutique in Leeds, I urge you to go. A special dress for the races, a beautiful bridal gown or a pair of tailored silk trousers, there are bespoke creations for every occasion. Anita has made many a dress for my Mum in the past and so it was our first port of call for her Mother of the Bride outfit. It was during one of my Mum’s fittings that we discovered my dream flower girl dress. Anita creates dreamy dresses and is on hand to help you to bring your fairytale design to life. In the end we decided on layer upon layer of tulle for the skirt to mirror my own dress with the palest pink satin top. An embroidered sash fastened at the back in a bow to match the tulle bow straps. The wand was a playful finishing touch which we had a lot of fun with during fittings as Ayla turned us all into frogs with a swish and a point.
Two fittings later (a few tantrums) and a last minute color theme change and we had the perfect dress for Princess Ayla. Finding the perfect outfits for our bridal party was one of my favorite parts of the wedding planning stages. Having a couture dress made is one of the most amazing processes to be a part of whether you are 3, 33 or 63 and both my Mum and I loved having our dresses made as well as watching Ayla’s come to life. Of course, it’s not always convenient or cost effective to have everything made from scratch.
I knew instantly what I wanted for my flower girl but decisions for other members of our bridal party were not so easy. We hired suits for our Ushers in the end that came with all of the essential accessories like cufflinks and cravats and we considered buying the Groom a different style of suit from Charles Tyrwhitt before deciding to keep his suit the same as the Ushers just with a different coloured tie. Whether you decide on bespoke couture outfits or you prefer to buy or rent online from a specialist wedding shop, the choice is yours. However, it is easy to get carried away, especially with accessories. It is easy to forget to budget for accessories beforehand and these small details can quickly add up.
For flower girl hair, I started off thinking about delicate flower crowns or a couple of sparkly hair pins like these ones from Rosie Willet. I wanted something like my own bridal tiara but on a teeny tiny scale. Something dainty. In the end we decided to keep it simple and let the dress steal the show (which wasn’t hard at all). When it came to Ayla’s outfit, we went for a beautiful dress and kept accessories to a minimum. Doesn’t she look adorable? You can see the cute bracelet I gave her as a gift in my previous post here.
Are you getting married in 2016? Tweet me @remsluxuryblog for any wedding prep advice!