“Julia is a truly outstanding seamstress; she has helped make our dream wedding outfits into an unforgettable reality.

I came to Julia with a very specific vision for my wedding outfit: a corseted, pink jumpsuit with a tulle train and white sleeve additions. Julia worked according to my vision with practicality and creativity; she also made a corseted waistcoat for my now husband. It was exciting to attend the fittings and watch the visionary outfits come to life. Our guests are still raving about our wedding outfits and were enormously pleased with the results. I would recommend Julia to anyone who would like a corset as part of their wedding outfit, or indeed any special occasion. Thank you for contributing so much to our wonderful day!”

Eleanor came to me in March with her vision of a 'gothic woodland fairytale' themed wedding. As always it's quite hard to put yourself in the mind of someone else but Eleanor was very specific with her vision - she's an artist after all. For her wedding ensemble, Eleanor wanted a cupped corset, cigarette pants, and a tulle overskirt in rose gold, overlaid with lace.

Soon Eleanor’s Groom Harry enlisted, and he decided to have a waistcoat style corset made from different shades of traditional wool fabrics.

Fabric choice is so personal that I am always quite flexible with clients on where these are sourced. Although I can supply virtually any colour or texture of silk in virtually any colour, there are some specifics which are not possible, or which are easier seen on a roll and where the clients prefer to choose their own fabrics, I give them a set of guidelines on fabrics which are suitable for corsetry, and off they go. In reality, you can make a corset from virtually any fabric, so the list isn’t all that restrictive. Eleanor and Harry had very specific ideas about what they would like, and so they were able to shop around and find the best fabrics, textures and colours for their day.

Eleanor's fabrics were a sumptuous length of a rich rose gold dupion silk, shot with purple that she had fallen in love with the moment she saw it. She chose a dusky pink guipure lace to go over the top and together we matched the lace and the silk with some gorgeous floaty pink tulle from James Hare. A bold purple ribbon for the corset lacing contrasted perfectly with the purple silk shot through the rose gold silk.

The period where we perfect the technical side of designs is a good time for percolating upon finer details like fabric and embellishments. As the outfit takes shape, so too do more ideas. Eleanor added a pair of sleeves to her design to finish off the ensemble. These were made from tulle mounted on a top sleeve and shoulder made from silk organza. The organza ensures that the sleeves hang nicely and support the lace embellishments well. They were secured with a ribbon matching the corset lacing.

Harry provided three types of wool suiting for his corset, a blue, a red, and a patterned blue/grey - we spent a while in the studio draping these over his corset toile until we settled on a really lovely combination - a blue back, the patterned front, and a red belt feature. We tweaked the corset pattern so that it gave a gently ‘V’ shape to his torso, rather than a more extreme hourglass shape, and made sure that the whole thing fitted perfectly by doing a third fitting in the final fabrics.

When Eleanors toiles were all finished I made the trousers and the corset in the silk, and then at the final fitting, we draped the lace on her live in a design which was to coil around her as if it were growing or as if she were part of the vine herself, and we played with some practice tulle to figure out how best to do the overskirt. Ideas change organically and where she had originally thought the overskirt would be full at the front and back, we decided that it would look best in a waterfall effect attached at the sides with burnous pleats (a Victorian device to incorporate lots of fabric in a small space) and tumbling down the back in a beautiful ethereal train like a beautiful cobweb or a silken waterfall. She was going to be a fairy queen after all.

It's always quite sad when a bridal commission is complete. You have shared a huge and important part of someone's life - more when the groom is involved too. And there have been some amazing and heartwrenching stories. The stories always have this happy ending which is of course the joy of weddings and bridal work. But the day always comes when the bride arrives and the outfits leave. Thank you Harry and Eleanor for trusting me with your special outfits.

Harry and Eleanor were married in the Divinity School, in Oxford and their beautiful ceremony was followed with a reception in a country setting with a totally vegan menu and a festival vibe. Exactly the type of wedding I would have myself if I hadn't had something very similar 30 years ago. Eleanor and Harry have given me permission to share some of these gorgeous images from their special day. If you’re in Oxfordshire and getting married, please check out the credits below for links to some other awesome small businesses in Oxfordshire. Click on pics for bigger view.