Today's featured bride is the lovely Libby, who wore a bespoke Suzanne Neville wedding dress for her two celebrations; a glorious, joyful and intimate destination wedding in Italy, followed by a fun party back in the UK.
Libby's dress is a shining example of the structure, flexibility and timeless style that we love from Suzanne Neville, combining the different features that Libby loved from three of our classic Suzanne Neville styles into one final dream dress.
Read on to find out more about Libby's dress, and her wedding to husband Phil.
Suzanne Neville bespoke wedding dress
I chose a bespoke Suzanne Neville, incorporating the Cavetto top, a Sanzio middle and Dahl skirt, with large detachable bow and feather trim.
After visiting a few different kinds of bridal boutiques, I came across Miss Bush Bridal. One visit with Emma was all I needed to be persuaded that I should be wearing a Suzanne Neville dress. As I'm a tall 6ft bride, the bespoke option made the most sense to make sure that all of the dress proportions worked, and as this wasn't my first wedding and I was no spring chicken, initially I didn't want to look particularly bridal. Suzanne happened to be holding a Designer Day at Miss Bush a couple of months later and I took the opportunity of having a private appointment where I tried on a couple of styles before she went to sit down and 5 mins later came back with a sketched drawing of my dress! Completely unique and different, with all of the elements of design that I'd been looking for! Obsessed with having a large bow somewhere on the dress, that was the part that drew the most gasps from friends and family.
I'd heard about the infamous Suzanne Neville corsetry, but until you wear one of her dresses that is made to fit you and only you, there is no comparison. It pulled me in, pushed me up and flattered me in all the right places. Genuinely the most comfortable dress I've ever worn.
Dress Shopping
I brought my best friend Caroline to the Suzanne Neville Designer Day as she had been to all of my previous appointments elsewhere, but not to the original Miss Bush visit which had been quite spontaneous. It was so important for me to have her there because I wasn't able to try on 'my' dress on the day, but she had seen me try on many other styles and helped me narrow down exactly what suited me best. Caroline clearly had to be at all of the dress fittings and I've never known her be so quiet....she thought the dress was completely stunning....and completely me.
I absolutely loved getting to know the team at Miss Bush. Each visit (there were 6 in total), I was greeted so warmly by everyone and they all seemed to know who I was and which was my dress, which made it such a personal shopping experience. They are true experts in their field of making a bride look and feel incredible.
Styling
Because I was having two wedding events, a small ceremony in Italy with our children, parents and my best friend, and then a large wedding celebration party in the UK a couple of months later, I wanted two different looks, or at least the opportunity to change things up for the evening part of our UK event. I'd seen a well known singer (Jorja Smith) wear an incredible dress at The Brits in 2019 which had a stunning ostrich feather feature, and so asked Jo during one of my first dress fittings if she could create a feather trim to suit my dress style. We came up with a design that would be attached from a thin satin band onto the inside of my v-neck by tiny poppers. The large bow on the back of the dress could be removed when I put the feathers on for the evening celebration. Absolutely stunning!
I have large, wide feet, and wanted my shoes to be a pop of colour beneath the ivory dress. I had chosen a vibrant tomato/red and found a bespoke shoe design company called Solely Original. They scan your feet and make a wooden last which is entirely your own (so you can have more shoes made in a similar style at a later date). You then select the shape of toe, whether you want a slingback, closed or side cut-away style, plus the heel height and style, choose your fabric and they make a pair of shoes guaranteed to fit perfectly. I wanted to add some bling so sourced and designed a pattern of Swarovski crystals which Solely Original incorporated into the shoe.
For Italy, I wore a crystal headband from Katherine Swaine (NOTHS), Scallop Statement earrings from Botias Accessories, art deco crystal bracelet from Butler & Wilson.
For the UK wedding celebration party, I wore Cosmic earrings from Victoria Percival, bracelet from Butler & Wilson.
A relaxed, elegant Hothorpe Hall wedding
Because we were on the Amalfi Coast, about 20 minutes from the town of Sorrento, I knew that the backdrop of the Bay of Naples with views of Capri and Ischia were going to be stunning. The hotel was styled and decorated extremely tastefully but minimally, so incorporating the bright pop of colour to match my shoes was an obvious choice. I didn't want to use the traditional lemons and olive leaves decorations of the area, so we had designed our own wedding logo in a hexagon shape with our initials joined together inside; the hexagon representing the family of six we were becoming on that day. We had napkins, fans and candles made using the coloured logo. We had been given the top terrace of the hotel for our Reception and it looked absolutely incredible!
We also had some red helium heart shaped balloons which we all released at sunset, with Phil and I also releasing two more in memory of his mother and my father.
The best bits
My favourite part of the day was after the ceremony, once we had driven in our vintage Mercedes convertible car back from Sorrento to our hotel. All the locals beeped their car horns and people on the streets shouted 'Auguri' or 'Congratulations' when we passed. But standing on the top terrace of the hotel, wearing my beautiful dress, husband, family and best friend with me, drinking Prosecco in the warm Italian sunshine and looking out at the jaw-dropping views toward Capri. Pure contentment.
UK Celebration
Libby's Advice
Every element of wedding planning takes longer than you might think, so start looking for your dress as soon as you are engaged and start thinking about the type of wedding you want to have. If you don't want to go down the traditional path, don't. This is one day when you can do whatever you want. People might get upset with some of your choices, but it's hard to please everyone and it's most important to make sure that you and your future husband are the happy ones.
In terms of finding your dress, make sure you are really comfortable with the bridal boutique. They should be encouraging but deadly honest. And they are the experts.
Suppliers
Italian Suppliers:
Reception venue and accommodation: Relais Blu
Ceremony location: Sorrento Cloisters
Hair and Make Up: Jimena Puy
Wedding Planning Service: Alex Sorrento Weddings
Photography: The Bros Photography
UK Suppliers:
Hair: Donna Cook James Bopp Salon
Make Up: Rachel Lindsey MUA
Flowers: Fairy Nuff Flowers
Earrings: Victoria Percival
Bracelet: Butler and Wilson
Wedding Rings: Bespoke from Nicols Jewellers
Shoes: Bespoke from Soley Original
Music: Peter Falconer and Soul Calibre
Photography: Sam and Simon Photography
Venue: www.thewharfteddington.com
Signage: Victoria Steward Signs
Cake: Debbie Rose The Cake Studio London