1950s AND 1960s vintage wedding dresses for Alexandra's San Francisco ceremony

Dear Reader

On my vintage wedding blog today, I'd like to share some lovely pictures I received this week from real bride Alexandra. 

Alexandra and Adam married in San Francisco City Hall in January. For the civil ceremony, Alexandra wore this super-cool 1960s 'daisy' mini dress. You might remember it from a blogpost on 1960s wedding dresses last year? Well, it looked like it was made for Alexandra - she has a wonderful figure and the dress is absolutely perfect on her. 

The following evening they held a more traditional ceremony with family and friends at the Hillsborough Racquet Club near Burlingame California. For this, Alexandra wore another stunning original dress: this time a strapless 1950s wedding dress in delightful chantilly lace with a little tiered ‘bustle' at the back. (For similar 1950s-style wedding dresses in frothy chantilly lace, see my vintage-inspired Heavenly Collection on the blog or on my website.)

They planned their wedding across thousands of miles - only arriving in the same time zone four days before the ceremony! Alexandra jetted in from the UK, and Adam flew from Asia - where his blue tux was specially made. (And see how perfectly the colour matches the satin bow on Alexandra's dress.) Cleverly, they'd already enjoyed a 'pre-wedding honeymoon' in Cambodia, so weren't too worried about the jet lag!

After a few inevitable pre-wedding hitches, the day itself was perfect. In Alexandra's words,

I can't say my example is one to follow: I almost wasn't let on my flight from London because of an airline goof up. They were snooty about hanging my dresses in the plane (yeesh). And we had a mini-drama when the groom temporarily misplaced his ID as we were picking up our wedding license!

But we were incredibly lucky to have 70 F weather and sun for both days, not bad for January! And in the end it was all fabulous: we all had a good time, surrounded by loved ones who were up for a good party. 

So I guess for those finding themselves a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing, I'd say relax and don't sweat the small stuff. Your life together is already going to be an adventure so your 'coming out party', so to speak, should be the least of those worries. 

And certainly having the two relatively comfortable and unique dresses helped make it even more memorable. I got endless compliments on both dresses! So thank you, thank you, thank you for helping to make my special day even more fantastic.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better day! 

Huge congratulations to Alexandra, and thank you being such a delight to work with. We loved sharing in your amazing day.

Love 
Helena 
Heavenly Vintage Brides

Photographs with thanks to Sasha, San Francisco

If you would like to see more lovely original vintage wedding dresses, do contact me through my website.