A GUIDE TO VINTAGE LACE WEDDING DRESSES Part 1: Pastel and Coloured Lace

Dear Reader

Most of the brides I meet love vintage lace wedding dresses. And there are so many fabulous types to choose from. Today, I'd like to talk about the pastel-coloured lace often used in 1950s wedding dresses.

A glimpse of a beautiful vintage lace wedding dress, for more details see below

COLOUR
One of the most common reasons brides come to see me is that they don't feel modern wedding dresses offer enough choice of colour. 

Contemporary lace wedding dresses are mostly available in bright white or still-fairly-bright ivory. With modern dresses you are always limited by what is currently fashionable. With vintage, you have access to up to 100 years of style!

Hand-making lace, on the Italian island of Burano, 1950s

Vintage lace wedding dresses come in a much wider range of colour options, which are often softer and deeper. Most of my dresses are gorgeous shades of white, cream, pale gold, and deeper ivory. 

One colour palette I particularly love for lace is the pastel champagne / blush / apricot shades. Many brides don't initially think of these colours for vintage lace - but they are so soft and flattering to wear.

BEAUTIFUL LACE WEDDING DRESSES FROM MY COLLECTION
I'd like to show you some examples: the three dresses below are currently available at my studio, all priced at £595.

1950s lace wedding dress with vintage flower trim, £595 

1950s lace wedding dress, pretty 'boat neck', £595

1950s lace wedding dress, elegant 'V' neck at back

Lace wedding dress, classic 1950s silhouette

1950s lace wedding dress, with lovely vintage-style flower detail £595

1950s lace wedding dress, 3/4 sleeves, £595

Beautiful dress from late 1950s/early 1960s, £595

Late 1950s/early 1960s dress, ruffle neckline, £595

Flattering softly fitted bodice, £595

Pretty satin ribbon and vintage crystal belt

Classic 1950s wedding dress, £595

Lovely 1950s silhouette - so feminine, £595 

1950s wedding dress: 3/4 sleeves and blush satin ribbon tie, £595

FABRICS
The three dresses above are all shorter length and date from the same time, late 1950s or early 60s. Like most 1950s lace wedding dresses, they are made with high quality synthetic fibres blended with cotton. 

After the war, these new fabrics were highly admired for the strength and flexibility they offer, making them feel soft and lovely to wear. And because of the strength of the modern fabric fibres, these dresses - like many 1950s wedding dresses - are still in wonderful condition.

Queen Elizabeth looking rather fabulous in pastel lace, 1959

Before the war, lace would always have been made in cotton or silk. Sadly, most antique silk lace has become very fragile and can no longer be worn.

However vintage/antique cotton lace is often still in very good wearable condition, as it is such a strong fibre. And although it gave way to the fashion for synthetics in the 1950s, cotton lace swung back into fashion in the 1960s and 1970s. I have many lovely cotton lace dresses in my collection.

VINTAGE LACE, FOR TIMELESS STYLE
Lace wedding dresses have been popular for over 400 years. In the 1600s, weight-for-weight, handmade lace cost more than gold. Lace was desired not just for its beauty, but as a sophisticated way to show your family's wealth.

'The Lacemaker' by Johannes Vermeer, painted c 1670

Lace would be worn by wealthy families at every formal opportunity, and was often passed down through generations as a valuable inheritance. 

So it is no surprise that lace became the first choice for opulent and exquisite wedding dresses. It is right back at the height of wedding fashion today, and vintage offers such a beautiful selection.

I will feature other types of lace in later posts, so please check back in! And thanks for dropping by today.

Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

To complement the perfect vintage wedding dress.... a beautiful vintage-inspired headpiece.

Dear Reader

I am often asked for advice on the perfect accessories to complement vintage wedding dresses. 

Here we teamed 'Butterfly', one of our beautiful vintage-style lace wedding dresses with a lovely headpiece by Abby at Cherished.

Abby makes each exquisite piece using original vintage materials: this one was cleverly created from an original paste dress ornament, combined with vintage 1920s gold bugle beads and ivory satin glass beads.

You can see the full range of Abby's beautiful vintage-style accessories on her website, or her Facebook or Twitter pages.

Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

Photograph c. Robert Lawler

A busy week at Heavenly! And real vintage bride Olivia's perfect Autumn wedding...

Dear Reader

Friday... at last! Thanks for joining me at the end of an exciting week. Autumn is always busy here - as so many girls start their search now for the perfect vintage wedding dress for a wedding next Summer.

At the start of each appointment, I give every client time to look through my entire collection of around seventy original vintage and vintage-style wedding dresses (usually while I'm in the kitchen rustling up a nice pot of tea!). I'm always amazed and delighted to see which dresses a clients picks out at this stage - every girl is completely individual, and chooses a unique combination of dresses!

Even after many years of matching lovely brides with their perfect vintage wedding dresses, this is still one of my favourite moments: meeting each new bride and seeing the first dresses she has chosen.

Now - as promised - I'd like to share those pictures of beautiful vintage bride Olivia and husband Nick, fresh from their wedding just a few weeks ago.

When Olivia came to see me, the first thing I noticed was how soft and gentle she seems. The perfect vintage wedding dress would need to be really special, to complement Olivia's lovely relaxed and bohemian style. 

Well, reader, we found it... In this this beautiful 1960s full length white lace gown, with pretty pink satin ribbon tie, Olivia makes a fairytale bride. Don't you agree?

To complement her romantic lace wedding dress, Olivia cleverly chose a garland of simple Autumn flowers in soft dusky colours for her hair, created by Roz at R&R Saggers. In Olivia's words:

"I wasn't really keen on a veil, and I felt flowers matched my hair better than a jewel headpiece. I like the hippy element to flowers - they are so free and not at all formal."

The same beautiful dusky colour palette ran through the bridesmaids' outfits, with tea-length dresses from Monsoon, shoes from Debenhams, and delicate headbands from Accessorize.

The wedding took place in their pretty-as-a-picture local parish church, All Saints Little Shelford. 

After a wedding breakfast in her mother's elegant garden, Olivia and Nick partied the evening away at 17th Century country house, Anstey Hall in Cambridge. Here, they were surrounded by friends and family, and sustained by an unending supply of delicious treats including a chocolate fountain, cupcakes and a hog roast!

Warmest congratulations Olivia and Nick, and thanks so much for sharing your wonderful day with us all. I'm delighted to have played a small part in it!

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

Olivia wore a beautiful 1960s full-length lace dress, with a pink ribbon and vintage flower belt. 

In her hair, a garland of Autumn blooms by R&R Saggers. 
Olivia's best friends cheered her on in pretty bridesmaids dresses by Monsoon and shoes by Debenhams. Their hair sparkled with delicate hairbands by Accessorize.
They ate, and drank, and ate some more at Anstey Hall. Then they all danced the night away to the funky sounds of Swagger!

Heavenly! Real vintage bride Olivia. And a glimpse of lace.

Dear Reader

The briefest of posts, to brighten a grey day. Another lovely picture from beautiful real vintage bride Olivia...

Real vintage bride Olivia wore a soft and romantic full-length lace dress

... and a glimpse of original vintage blush lace. Just one of the stunning dresses I'll feature in my guide to vintage lace wedding dresses, coming soon.

Original vintage wedding dress in pastel lace, with satin ribbon tie

I'll leave you with a promise of pretty things to come... Check back on Friday to enjoy all of Olivia's wonderful day.

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

BEAUTIFUL REAL VINTAGE BRIDE OLIVIA - So pretty in her 1960s lace vintage wedding dress.

Dear Reader

I opened my email on this cold and crisp Monday morning and found this beautiful image had just arrived. I felt instantly warmer.

Heavenly vintage bride, Olivia, married two weeks ago in her pretty 1960s lace vintage wedding dress. She looks so beautiful, I wanted to share it with you straight away...

Real vintage bride Olivia in her lovely 60s lace vintage wedding dress

Check back later this week for more pictures of real bride Olivia, and a guide to lace vintage wedding dresses. 

Happy Monday!

Love

Helena 

Heavenly Vintage Brides

Vintage wedding of the week: Chelsea and Chris tie the knot in pastel pirate style!

Dear Reader

Thanks for blowing in to join me at the end of a stormy week here in England. Today I have a fabulous vintage-inspired wedding to share with you: the lovely Chelsea and Chris. 

Chelsea and Chris wed earlier this year: the crowning moment in a romance that started when they met aged sweet sixteen. In stunning 1950s pastel lace, Chelsea was the perfect vintage bride. Here's the gorgeous moment when she reveals the dress to Chris...

And here's the beautiful bride, so no wonder he looks like the cat that got the cream!

When she visited my studio, Chelsea had already seen many dresses. In her own words,

"We had spent a whole day trying on dresses and while enjoyable it was unsuccessful…until our last visit to Heavenly Vintage Brides. Helena had so many gorgeous dress and I picked out sooo many to try on, but it happened…THE dress. I never really believed in that moment, but it happened. 

I didn’t cry but my face hurt from how much I smiled and my IQ seemed to drop several points as I kept repeating ‘Its just so…lovely. It’s so….lovely’ over and over again. Just two days later my Mum was dragged to London and we brought the dress. My Dad’s face when he saw me in it totally confirmed that it was ‘the one’."

To complement the 1950s pastel lace dress, Chelsea picked out some amazing blue pompom shoes by Vivienne Westwood, and the prettiest felt bouquet by Jennifer Rae.

And for a dusting of edgy glamour, she teamed these with an Alexander McQueen-inspired 'knuckle-duster' clutch bag.

Just like the dress, every detail at this gorgeous wedding was a perfect expression of Chelsea's unique and quirky style. From Chris' Lego pirate cufflinks from Crimson King, to the cute cake pops by Scrumptious Pops... 

If you'd like to see more of this wonderful day, there's a lovely post on vintage wedding blog LoveMyDress, and so much more on Chelsea's own wedding blog. 

And now, I'll let some more of Chelsea's dreamy pictures do the talking... Enjoy!

Thanks so much for visiting my vintage wedding blog today. If you'd like to know more about original vintage dresses or my own Heavenly Collection of vintage-inspired dresses, do contact me.

I hope to see you again soon!

Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

Chris said 'I do' in a suit by Formality Formalwear
And in Lego pirate cufflinks by Crimson King on Etsy. 
They celebrated with all their friends and family at Villiers Hotel
Chelsea danced all night in heels by Vivienne Westwood
Chelsea's hair had lovely sparkles by Ivory and Co
She carried the prettiest felt bouquet by Jennifer Rae
And their beautiful bridesmaids wore blue dresses by For Her And For Him
They all ate Cake Pops by Scrumptious Pops
They rocked out to the Indie Killers
Lucy Turnbull took the pictures
And Chelsea wrote all about it on her lovely wedding blog