These could be dresses or tops, skirts, jackets, pants etc, even accessories including belts, hats or gloves. But they must be in good condition and not old and worn looking. You will be selecting from items other participants have brought along so make sure you bring things you think people would want.

I also share lots of photos, industry news, things that inspire me and behind the scenes via:

I’m excited to share some photos of my couture bridal gown client Melissa and Derryn’s wedding at Manly in NSW. Melissa opted for a full lace wedding gown that was super slinky and fitted her like a glove. The fabrics are a beautiful scalloped lace and silk satin underneath. I added some pearl beading to the dress for extra shine and detail. (& because who doesn’t love pearls? – they’re actually very fashionable for bridal gowns at the moment too..)

All photos are by James Bennett www.jamesbennett.com.au.

Below is Melissa’s mum Gae’s dress which we created for her in silk chiffon with a little beading in blue and green. It’s such an unusual stylish look for Mother of the Bride and Gae modernised it with her signature jewellery.

We made the little page boy’s bow ties in matching satin to the bridesmaids.

I created silk and lace flowers with rhinestone beading for Melissa to wear in her hair and as a brooch on her bridal gown.

Buttons and loops are a signature of my wedding dresses. They are something that really sets apart a made-to-measure couture wedding gown from an off the rack wedding dress, as it is more work to create the buttons and loops and you need to have the gown fitted to your body. At the top of Melissa’s wedding gown we did a sheer lace panel for an alluring low back effect showing off the lace by making it more contrasting against the skin.

We created the Mother of the Groom’s gown in coral lace and Melissa’s (new) Sister in Law’s bridesmaid gown in peach silk chiffon. The ceremony was at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in Manly.

Melissa particularly wanted a super long train on her wedding dress.. Seeing these photos of her wedding ceremony I can understand why! How gorgeous does she look…

After the ceremony, the bridal party went to Little Collins Beach and North Head in Manly for photos.

We created the bridesmaids dresses in different shades of peach silk chiffon for a subtle difference. I love when bridesmaids get to wear different style dresses like Lauren and Emilee wore. Melissa was a lovely bride in that she let her bridesmaids totally choose the style they wanted so that both girls are actually keen to wear their dresses again – Brides take note!

All photos by: James Bennett: www.jamesbennett.com.au

I wanted to share some thoughts with you about design after lots of reflection about all the gorgeous wedding gowns I have created since I have been in business..

As a fashion designer it’s great to see how each wedding gown evolves and it’s especially exciting when I have a client who is comfortable to let me design her bridal gown based on my delicate design aesthetic.

I do love seeing your ideas including photos and sketches you have collected. It’s also important for me to be aware of fashion trends, weddings and haute couture collections. Some of you may have imagined your wedding gown for years.. And even if you haven’t it’s just a matter of a quick search on Google Images or Pinterest to be overloaded with wedding dress images! So it’s almost impossible not to have some clear ideas about what you want your wedding gown to be like!

However I still think it’s a great process to design your gown without looking at lots of photos but to start instead with a blank piece of paper. If we sit down and discuss your wedding and the type of atmosphere and theme you want for the day I can get a feel for the type of wedding you’re having and what sort of gown would be perfect for that occasion.

We can also discuss what aspects of your figure you want to show off (and also those things you’d like to disguise..). We can look through some of my sketches so you can point out the ideas you like and I will create a design that will really suit you and your wedding day theme!

An example of a client who went through this process was Cate (pictured above left). As Cate lives in Brisbane (and I am based in Sydney), we had a phone conversation about how her wedding was going to be styled, the venue etc and what Cate’s fiancé was going to wear. I met Cate in Brisbane a little while later and we discussed some designs I had created to show her and she told me which ones she liked and we created a final design from there.

I was really proud to have created Cate’s bridal gown – knowing she was so happy with it and that it suited her style so perfectly. Cate was an unusual client because she never collected any photos of wedding gown images at all! Cate allowed herself to be a blank canvas!

It was a huge challenge to design a wedding gown for Cate with only a telephone conversation, some photos of Cate on my mac and a blank piece of paper! But this process worked so well because Cate trusted me completely. While on my short trip to Brisbane, I showed Cate my ideas for her gown and we discussed them in detail and put these ideas into one final design.

You might have noticed Cate’s couture wedding dress on my Home Page, but if you haven’t here’s another sneek peek until I post a full blog about her wedding very soon!

Image above by Foster Photography. (I love their photography style. You can have a look at more of their work here: www.FosterPhotography.com.au)

Over the two days, I made new friends such as makeup artist Liv Lundelius. I got to say hi to some of my lovely existing clients and I met a few wedding vendors I follow on social media including celebrant Sarah Cummings!

I was also approached by several bridal mag stylists and have some up and coming features (Hush Hush).. And MOST importantly I met loads of newly engaged brides who are just starting their wedding planning! It really was a great weekend!

I was quite proud of our wedding gown exhibit in the ‘Ladies Dressing Room’ at One Fine Day Sydney. I derived the whole design concept for our booth from my website so that we’d be instantly recognisable!

One of the decorations we used was ‘foamy’ roses (I just love the texture of them).. They have bendy stems so you can loop them around furniture and of course they won’t die or wilt so you can set them up days before your wedding and do really creative things with them.

We also tied silk dupion bows around the furniture and had pieces of lace and rolls of fabric draped artfully. Everything was DIY and easy to set up and (take down) in a short space of time.

A major attraction to the wedding fair was the ‘Gallery Space’. We featured several gowns on models in this space who rotated to different plinths in a kind of live gallery. We received loads of comments about our gowns for their uniqueness and wow factor! One of the models told me on Instagram that my pink wedding dress was her favourite gown to wear in the whole show..

If you’d like to see a little more of the weekend that was.. (and plan to go to the next One Fine Day Sydney event which I believe will be early next year) you can have a look at the official video from One Fine Day Sydney made by Paper Cranes www.papercranes.com.au below. A couple of our gowns are featured in the video too!

To see more of our behind the scenes, extras and other things we’ve been up to you can follow us on:

First of all I’d like to share the gorgeous wedding of Natalija (Natalie) and Jonathon who were married in November 2012.

To create Natalija’s bridal gown we chose a blush pink silk dupion overlaid with ivory tulle and a rich ivory Guipure lace which we embellished with pearls and chiffon to create some delicate detailing.

Natalija was lucky enough to have her wedding featured on Polka Dot Bride as you can see below. Looking at how Natalija brought all the gorgeous elements together with the help of some amazing vendors, you can see why it was featured:

You can view the original blog post from Polka Dot Bride blog here:

http://www.polkadotbride.com/2013/02/natalie-jonathons-vintage-twist-dayboro-wedding/

Natalija was also kind enough to send me some extra photos of her wedding, so you can look forward to seeing more details of her gown with it’s fabulous kimono-esque bow detail and Guipure lace in a future blog post!

I thought I would share some of our recent publicity from The Knot!

You can click through to see the original article here: http://theknot.ninemsn.com.au/community/blogs/wedding-obsessions/sarah-alice-andrews-couture

It’s always interesting to see what comparisons other people draw between my bridal gowns and other influences. I like that they referenced the Indian Sari look as I do love those textiles and I would LOVE to plan a trip to India one day..

And we were also featured on this “Portrait Back Wedding Dress Gallery” below:

Here is the link for this article here: http://theknot.ninemsn.com.au/bridal-fashion/back-gallery

For more information about how to have a made-to-measure couture wedding gown created just for you in your choice of colour, silk fabric and style and made to your individual measurements, send us an email or call us: Contact us here:

You can also see more of what we’ve been up to including real brides, industry news, things that inspire us and behind the scenes here:

Twitter – @SarahCouturier

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/SarahAliceAndrews

Pinterest - sarahaandrews

Happy Wedding Planning! x Sarah

With the trends towards sleeves and illusion necklines coming through in a big way for wedding gowns at the moment, there is more opportunity for brides who want or need a Chapel ready (Church appropriate) wedding gown that covers the arms, shoulders and decolletage (think Kate Middleton’s gown).

Exploring this trend, while knowing that most brides still wanting to feel alluring and beautiful, I created some sketches and here is one of them:

This gown is all about the amazing French lace which is cleverly cut and stitched on to tulle around the neck and shoulders. It also accentuates the back with pleats creating a bustle effect which is very elegant.

A gown like this would also look super cute with a small ruffle right down the centre back all the way to the skirt train. (Can’t imagine this? I’ll have to draw it for you sometime..)

If you are looking for a Chapel ready gown you will find they are extremely hard to find. A lot of brides end up buying a strapless dress and having it altered to have the appropriate coverage, but it just won’t have the same effect as a bridal gown that was designed to have sleeves.

So talk to me about having a wedding gown created especially for you!

I am still taking bookings for as early as February 2013 weddings but not for long! So contact me asap if you want a couture dress made just for you for an early 2013 wedding!

Send us an email or call us: Contact us here:

Twitter – @SarahCouturier

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/SarahAliceAndrews

Pinterest - sarahaandrews

Happy Wedding Planning! x Sarah

For those of you are curious about how I create my couture wedding gown designs, it often happens on the mannequin. I start by draping scraps of fabric so that I can ensure that the ideas I have sketched or am visualising can technically work on the proportions of the human body.

Here are a few images of the process I went through for one of my recent bridal gown creations (This was from Rebecca’s wedding gown design). We call this ‘toiling’ or creating a ‘toile’. Usually toiling is done in calico cotton, but for these early draping sessions I used scraps of fabrics which would have similar texture to what the real wedding gown fabrics would feel like.

Some Instagram photos. To follow me on Instagram: @sarahcouturier

And below are some photos of the actual toile bride Rebecca tried on during one of her early fittings. You can see this one is in calico cotton. (And then later when we were happy with the design and proportions we made the real couture wedding gown in beautiful silk fabrics):

 And yes all this hand draping was done by myself. If you’d like to see how this gown turned out in the silk fabrics when it was finished, then make sure you check out my previous blog post about Rebecca & Paul’s wedding.

 Hope you enjoyed, if you’d like more information about how you can have your own couture wedding gown designed and made by us then you can contact or follow us via the following:

Send us an email or call us: Contact us here:

Twitter – @SarahCouturier

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/SarahAliceAndrews

Pinterest

Instagram: @sarahcouturier

x Sarah

I am very excited to show you the full post of Rebecca & Paul’s wedding at Sydney Dance Studios, Woolloomooloo.

Rebecca is a gorgeous, intellectual young woman and she was such a lovely bride to work with. From the outset she had total trust in us to create and design her gown although she had clear ideas about the style. Rebecca wanted a sophisticated wedding dress that had lots of detail in the draping of the fabric so that she could avoid needing lace and other embellishments.

Rebecca trusted me to choose the colour and fabrics, so I chose a Silk Dupion as the main base fabric with a gorgeous satiny Silk Organza and soft English Tulle as the overlays.

The result was a very elegant, romantic wedding gown that suited her perfectly. We also made her veil and she sourced her own headpiece to match.

I love how Uber Photography has captured all the precious moments of Rebecca & Paul’s wedding day, while also injecting some seriously fun and unique shots of the couple. Uber Photography are based on the North Shore and you can see more of their work their website: www.uberphotography.com.au.

I always love to hear about the story of how a couple met so I asked Rebecca a little bit about how she met Paul:

“I was invited back to my previous law firm for drinks one Friday night by my old boss to celebrate the move into their new office. Paul had started working there after I had left and we were introduced… We hit it off straight away and the rest is history!”

“Paul proposed to me on our 5^th anniversary (Romeo & Juliet style on our balcony) to one of my favourite songs – Love Story by Taylor Swift. He had set up candles and love heart arrows down the hallway, long stemmed roses on the balcony, a bottle of Verve in a champagne bucket with glasses and strawberries and presented me with a little blue box from Tiffany’s with the most beautiful engagement ring inside. The whole thing felt like a dream! We decided that night to get married on our 6^th anniversary the following year. We planned our entire wedding together, which is why I think everyone felt that the wedding was so ‘us’. It was a really enjoyable experience planning our wedding, and because we were equally invested in it and could count on each other with all the arrangements, it all went really smoothly.” – Rebecca

Below is Rebecca’s testimonial she wrote to us (about her couture wedding dress) which you can check out on Facebook:

I hope you enjoyed! More Real Wedding Posts to come so stay tuned!

If you would like to have your wedding dress, accessories made or bridal veil, give me a call or send me an email – details on my contact page.

You can also chat with us on Twitter – @SarahCouturier

Comment on our latest blog posts & stay tuned to up and coming posts on Facebook.

x Sarah

I thought I’d share another snippet of our recent publicity. This one is from The Knot which I’m sure every bride knows! We were one of their featured suppliers in their e-newsletter on 28th August 2012.

You can see an online version of this email newsletter here: The Knot.

Don’t forget to tell all your friends about us! We create more than just wedding gowns, also mother of the bride & groom, bridesmaids, boutonnières for your groomsmen & special head pieces & accessories to match your wedding gown.

x Sarah