Lucy's just sent me a lovely email and gorgeous pics of her wedding day:  "I wanted to send you some photo's of my niece Celia in the beautiful dress you made for her to wear at our wedding!  She looked amazing and so many people commented on her dress."

The dress is a full length Bella Luella handmade in Liberty's limited edition Paulie's Parrots print.  I have just a couple of metres left.  It's divine but I have to admit I'd never have thought of it as bridesmaid dress material but Lucy's judgment was obviously spot on.

It brings an understated, playful touch to the formal occasion and what's more it suits Celia's colouring perfectly and I adore her choice of a Liberty purple bow to match the groom's tie.  (I also love Lucy's dress with its sophisticated little bolero).

The best days are the days that pictures of little girls and boys wearing my dresses pop into my inbox...and today was a real treat.  Elaine kindly sent me these pics of her bridesmaid Maddie wearing my Lily May twirl pinafore bridesmaid dress made in a limited edition Liberty print called Plum Dog (now sadly out of stock).  (There's more about how I designed this dress on an earlier blog post).

I adore Elaine's dress - turns out it's from Abigail's Vintage Bridal, described by Elaine as "a fabulous, very clever girl in Rutland who does vintage dresses from home".

You simply have to check out her website - it's vintage heaven.  Abigail sources the finest original and unique vintage gowns from around the world from the turn of the century to the early 70s and meticulously cleans and restores them to their full glory. Dresses are available from the turn of the 20th Century to as late as the early 1970's.  And what's even better is that she offers an in-house alteration service.  What more could a girl want?

...which is rather unusual as here at Peak Princess Palace it's usually girls clothes which make up the bulk of my business.  I started off only making girlswear, then responding to demand I designed a limited capsule collection of little boys' clothes.  This is my friend Jane's little boy looking super cool in New York in an Eliza's Owls print short sleeve shirt --> But over the past couple of months I've branched out into handmade Liberty print men's ties and most recently have started experimenting with patterns for handmade Liberty print men's shirts.  (More on the shirts in a future post). A month or so ago I got a last minute request from a bridegroom who needed ties and waistcoats to go with tweed suits for a glamping wedding being held in a Welsh field.  Sounded fun and the gentleman in question was very charming*. Now, last minute in my books is anything under a month.  I normally like to make for weddings with at least 6 to 8 weeks to go in case exchanges are needed.  This was really cutting it fine...but as a former Radio 4 news producer I'm a sucker for a the adrenaline hit of a deadline.

By the time the fabric (Liberty Glenjade with plain biscuit lining) arrived we had two weeks and the order by this time had increased to 6 junior ushers waistcoats and 5 adult ushers, plus a handmade tie (narrower cut than my usual pattern) and 6 hankies.  All told about 2 weeks' work that I'd scheduled in 2 days for.  There were quite a few frantic calls between the said gentleman standing in Liberty's Regent Street store and me in my sewing room and a few sleepless nights but I think you'll agree, this preview snap sent from honeymoon has made it all worth it.

*I got a delightful thank you note from his then fiancee, now wife, explaining that this is why her betrothed is known as 'Captain Chaos'!

This is why I love my job!  Fabric, buttons & ribbons brought to life...

A huge thank you to Olivia for letting me share the photos of her wedding day.  And to Victoria Dawe at Elegant and Wild wedding photography for giving me permission to publish the beautiful photos she took. 

Bella Luella puff sleeve dresses, Samuel L short sleeve shirt and new waistcoats, handmade in Liberty Betsy print.

Browse & order online from my bridal boutique.

It's always lovely (flattering) to get a word of mouth recommendation, so I was delighted when my god-daughter's Mum, Jo, recommended me to her friend & colleague, Lisa  Even lovelier is when a picture pops into my inbox of one of my little dresses being worn and loved.  Clemmie's Mum Lisa says:  "It has turned into her favourite little dress and she wears it to all her special occasions." (By the way, this gorgeous Liberty print is also called 'Clemmie'.  This style is my 'Bella Luella' puff sleeve, button down back dress).

I just love the casual yet sophisticated binoculars over the shoulder ready for a day at the races!

My favourite days are when my customers are kind enough to send me pictures of my dresses.  In my little sewing room here in the Peak District I try my best to imagine who'll be wearing them but it's always wonderful to see them being worn and loved. 

Caroline sweetly shared these adorable photos from her recent wedding in France.  I made two Grace Kelly pleated shirt-waisters for her little bridesmaids in a limited edition Liberty print called Lou Lou Isabella.

Caroline generously writes:  "An email just to say thanks!! The dresses were perfect on the girls and they loved them!!! I have attached a few pictures for you to see. I only have one of the two of them and its a bit blurry cos the little one was a bit excited but hope you find it pretty anyways!! Thanks again, the dresses were exactly what I had hoped for, they made the day just that little bit more special!!"

Thank you Caroline.

I've just been lucky enough to spend a lovely week with my Mum in my old stomping ground of Paris where Mirabelles are in season.  The sweet little plums (a variety of greengage I'm told) are delicious.  Derived from a 1960s' archive design Liberty's Mirabelle print doesn't feature plums but it is terribly sweet and one of my favourites.

I have two colourways - red/pink and red/blue.  Bride Rebecca chose the latter for her bridesmaids who wore full-length, sleeveless Bella Luellas that Millie helped me sew.  One wore a matching plaited hairband, the other button hair clips handmade for me by Kate Yorke at Emily Pickle.  And little Wilfred wore denim Harvey Moonbeam dungarees with matching Mirabelle trim.  So it was a real team Peak Princess effort.

What a delight to receive these pictures this week with kind words from Rebecca:  "I just wanted to send you a quick email to say thank you SO much for the dresses they are beautiful and the girls (plus Wilfred in his dungarees) looked amazing. I have attached a few photos for you to see the finished produces in action. It was a battle to try and get the girls out of the dresses at the end of the day as they loved them so much! Everyone commented on how pretty they looked, they were simply perfect. Thank you again for all of your patience with me and my multiple orders!!!"

Mum Emma sent these pics of Georgia Jay at her christening wearing a Bella Luella dress in pink Eliza's Owls with pale silver ribbon.  Emma writes:  "Just wanted to say thank you again for Georgia's beautiful dress - she looked an absolute picture today, and got lots of compliments on her fab outfit!"

Mum Sam writes:   "Madam Jones is now finally big enough for your gorgeous romper! Can't tell you how many compliments she got at Mums and Tots this morning!!!"

Making a bridesmaid dress is always exciting and a little nerve-wracking as I always want to do my bit to make the big day special. 

For her wedding Hattie wanted six dresses for her bridesmaids in three different prints (Wiltshire, Nancy Ann and Tatum).  She had the great idea of using contrasting ribbons on each dress to link the prints together.

 

The beauty of handmade dresses is that you can adjust bodices and lengths to fit each girl.  As you can see, I was getting so confused that I ended up pinning little pencilled notes to each dress with their heights whilst I was adjusting each dress so make sure they'd each be the right length off the floor!

I think you'll agree, they (and she) looked divine on the big day.

Hattie wrote:  I've been meaning to email you for a while to thank you for our amazing bridesmaids dresses - all the girls really loved them. As you can see they looked great!

NB Wedding pictures courtesy of customer - please do not reuse without prior permission.

Sarah ordered a Bella Luella puff sleeve dress and two Grace Kelly pleated shirt-waisters for her bridesmaids.  These are the pics I sent her from my sewing room...

I was over the moon when she sent me these beautiful pictures from her big day.

Caroline writes:  Our beautiful bonnets arrived today and in the nick of time too! Had a scorching afternoon down in the Palais Royale where they were very much admired by the Parisian ladies ( I was also stopped twice in the supermarket!) I have attached a photo of my youngest daughter Poesy at the columns.  Many thanks! Just gorgeous!

Mum Amanda writes on receiving her package:  We love the top & the knickers!! Anna looks gorgeous. I will take a proper photo when she isn't looking. In this shot she was trying to show you her top?!   She will live in it this summer!! 
And later:  We are at a wildlife park. Too busy looking at goats & meerkats to look at the camera!!
Shame about the drinks carton though.... Anna models Peak Princess in the sun studying the pigs!  ( of which she was completely besotted...... "Daddy, can we have a pig?........")

Sarah wrote:  "My sister's wedding was on Friday in North Yorkshire and the children's outfits worked perfectly. They looked gorgeous and were much complimented.  Thank you again for making these up so quickly for us. We were thrilled to have such original and pretty clothes for the children to wear at the wedding and you were an absolute pleasure to deal with. I hope that it won't be too long before I have an excuse to place another order!"

And this is Cosmo earlier in the year wearing my Izzy Whizzy baby top and culottes in Liberty's Joli Jardin print.  Sarah says:  Just to let you know that the shirt and dress arrived today. Gorgeous!  It was 34 degrees here today so light cotton is the order of the day!  Other pics are Cosmo wearing my Freya Bean blouse in Liberty's Wiltshire and Little Mari prints - also perfect for the hot weather.

Barbara loved grand-daughter Freya's 'Freya Bean' blouse so much she's just bought her an 'Aubrey Andromeda' jacket in Liberty 'Paul' cord for her birthday.  Barbara says:   Just wanted to tell you that the jacket arrived safely in time - and is a huge success! It fits freya Perfectly - and looks really lovely.  Many thanks for sending it so quickly.

Mum Daisy sent me these pics taken on hols in Morocco:  Here is baby Rose in her lovely romper suit in Tangier.....she looks so great in it.  It's DIVINE. I LOVE it. Thank you so much.

Mum Sarah sent me this gorgeous pic of Hannah wearing her Liberty 'Peasblossom' romper:  Hannah kept cool in the south of France in her lovely romper and culottes outfits.  I adore the knitted jacket which Sarah says was a handmade gift from Hannah's grandma.

Barbara sent me this pick of her grand-daughter Freya in the aptly named 'Freya Bean' smock blouse.  She writes:  Thanks so much for all your help‚ not least that we were able to see how happy Freya was with her Freya Bean blouse.  As also were her parents!

Mum Sarah ordered a Bella Luella dress in Liberty Tatum with a matching Betty Braithwaite bonnet.  "Just to say a massive thank you for the beautiful outfit...it was much admired- especially the delicious bonnet- she looked good enough to eat."
Many many thanks!

Lucy ordered 3 dresses for Matilda‚ Mina and Daisy:  "You have a beautiful range of fabrics to choose from and your designs were exactly what we were looking for.  The classic cut of a traditional little girls' summer dress combined with timeless and beautiful Liberty print fabric is perfect - simple‚ pretty and a world away from the modern‚ sequinned bridesmaid dresses on the high street.  What's more‚ since the wedding‚ the girls have been able to wear their dresses over and over again and they've been admired everywhere they go.  People always ask where we got them!  You have been a pleasure to deal with - so helpful‚ friendly‚ professional and responsive‚ I would recommend you to all my friends."