The Dress

The wonderful ladies at Paddington Weddings: Bertossi Brides in Brisbane hand-made this beautiful dress for my October 2014 wedding. I have hung onto it because it is just so pretty, but I have finally decided that I would love to see it make another lady look and feel as beautiful as I did on my wedding day, rather than have it sit in my wardrobe.

The dress is based on their 'Gabriella' design (as per first picture), with a full skirt and train which can be bustled up (you can see the difference in the picture in the bedroom compared to the picture in the bush). The material is Italian raw silk and Italian lace on the bodice, which means that it is definitely ivory/cream, rather than brilliant white. The close up photos show the colour more accurately.

The dress features:
1. pockets in the skirt which were super handy for tissues, speeches etc.
2. hand-sewn beading lightly strewn randomly on the lace bodice;
3. silk buttons up the back;
4. raw silk bow belt, which isn't attached to the dress itself, so you don't have to wear it if you don't want to; and
5. boning in the bodice, which means no bra is required!

I am 164cm tall and I was a size 10 with size DD boobs at the time of my wedding, but because the dress is hand-made, it is very easy to have it altered and if you live in Brisbane, the ladies who made it can alter it for you, which means it is a very affordable way to get a beautiful customised wedding gown.

The dress was dry-cleaned by Leon's Fine Dry Cleaning immediately after the wedding and has been stored (double-bagged) in my wardrobe since, so it is very clean, but very creased due to being raw silk, so it will obviously need steaming to get the wrinkles out. There are no holes or tears in the hem or skirt, but there is some signs of wear, in that the silk is kind of 'pulled' in places. It is hard to describe and didn't show up when I tried to take a picture of it to include in the listing. I really don't think it is noticeable, as it kind of looks like part of the raw nature of the material, but I am mentioning it for full disclosure anyway. It is also really only on the last two inches of the train, so if you were really bothered by it, it could always be cut off.

I am also including the Kaye West tuelle petticoat which is worn underneath (as per the pictures), but you can also wear the dress without it if you don't want it to be so puffy. I think it is a size medium. This has not been dry-cleaned and has a small stain on the top because I took it off during the night and it must have got something on it when it was in transit on the way home.