The journey
Honestly, I found out what I didn’t want before I found what I wanted. After just a few appointments and trying on different styles, it became clear really quickly. It was quite simple in the end, but it did take a fair bit of shopping to get there.
I didn’t do much research at all – I googled the top places to go in London, saw what was nearby, and just booked in. I went to Galia Lahav, Philippa Lepley, and a few smaller, boutique-y ones too. Then I had an appointment with Sassi Holford herself, and she was such a lovely person – so easygoing and honest. I really liked her as a designer; she was super cool. She pulled this dress out, I put it on, and I just thought – this is it.
The vision
I’ve never really been one to have a set idea in my head – I was very open-minded the whole way through. What mattered most to me was finding a dress that suited the venue. When you’re having a destination wedding, there’s so much to factor in, like the weather and the setting, and I really believe you should choose the dress to fit the venue rather than the other way around; certain dresses just wouldn’t suit certain settings.
My brief was classic and almost rustic, with a New York feel: floaty and light, but really classy, and traditional too. You only get married once, so I wanted to keep it traditional.
The decision
I always had a feeling that the moment I put the right dress on, I’d just know – that’s exactly what happened. As soon as I tried on the Sassi dress, I thought, yeah, this is it, done. It was an easy decision in the end, even if it took a fair bit of shopping to get there. There’s so much more to a wedding dress than just a dress, though. It’s the one time you’ll ever wear it, and you’ve been picturing that moment for so much of your life, so it feels really important to get the right one.
The support network
I went with my maid of honour, who’s my best friend, and my mum came along to a lot of the appointments too. Funnily enough, my mum came to nearly all of them, but the one she missed was the one where I actually found my dress. She did come to the fitting, though, and I already knew she’d love it. My mum is really honest as well, so she’d tell me straight – either ‘absolutely not’ or ‘oh yes, that looks amazing’ – which was exactly what I needed.
The accessories
The veil was from Sassi Holford too. As we were getting married in Spain, we added a little lace to it – a single-tier veil with a small bit of lace towards the end, just to give it something. Lace feels quite Spanish, so I loved linking that in. In the end, though, I actually preferred a scarf to the veil. I added a gorgeous silk neck scarf, floaty and long at the back to match the dress, and it worked so well that I took the veil off as soon as I’d walked down the aisle and wore the scarf instead – it was one of my favourite parts of the whole look. That’s what I loved about the dress: you can accessorise and style it so many ways, whether that’s a scarf or a lace bolero over the top.
For jewellery, I went to Boodles and chose earrings and a necklace from the Be Boodles range – it’s a little bee design that almost looks like a butterfly. It kept everything classic and quintessentially British, which tied in beautifully with the Sassi dress. My shoes were Jimmy Choo. I asked friends and looked on TikTok for the best bridal shoes, and Jimmy Choo kept coming up, so I went for a pair in ivory silk with a lovely diamond ankle detail – a bit more glitzy to elevate an otherwise pared-back look. As gorgeous as they are, they aren’t the most comfortable when you’re on your feet all day, so I did swap them out for something comfier fairly quickly.
Advice for brides
My biggest piece of advice is that you’ll know when you know – it really is true. As soon as you put the right one on, you’ll know whether it’s yours or not. I’d also say take photos and videos at every appointment, so that if you’re ever unsure you can look back and remind yourself how a dress actually looked on. And give yourself time. It took me a good few months and a fair bit of shopping around to find mine – about five appointments in the end. People often say don’t go to too many places, and there’s something in that, but I just knew I hadn’t found the one yet, so I kept looking until I did.
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