dingwedding: March 2014

Friday, March 28, 2014

Hairstyles for 1950s and 1960s vintage wedding dresses

Dear Reader,

I confess I have a special interest in hair: I spent 20 years as a hairdresser specialising in designer fashion shows and fashion shoots. And I always loved creating wedding hairstyles, as it's an opportunity to do something really special.

What an icon! Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, 1961

In my last post, I looked at hairstyles that suit 1930s and 1940s vintage wedding dresses. Today, I'm going to suggest a few styles that rock with 1950s and 1960s vintage wedding dresses.

1950s

In the 50s, hair was still worn wavy - but often shorter and more layered than in earlier decades. It would still be set with rollers, but now the curls would be slightly looser.

And the ultimate 1950s icon, Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe is the perfect example. This classic style can still work wonderfully today, as in Katherine Heigl's glamorous red carpet look.

Katherine Heigl wearing 1950s Marilyn waves

Marilyn Monroe, 1950s platinum blonde

Scarlett Johansson, the modern blonde bombshell

Another instantly recognisable 1950s movie icon is Grace Kelly. In contrast, Grace Kelly's more sleek look represented immaculately groomed young ladies everywhere - a picture of elegance and modesty.

Grace Kelly, a more restrained 1950s glamour

Grace Kelly, always elegant

But the 50s was a decade of huge change. And for the other extreme, just look at Brigitte Bardot in 'And God Created Woman' (check out the fabulous trailer below!) Bardot's tumbling sexy curls hold a promise of the wilder decade to follow!

Brigitte Bardot, Ooh-la-la!

1960s

The 60s was all about volume and backcombing, and is typified for me by two stars, Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s from 1961, and the tousled blonde curls and high up-dos of Brigitte Bardot.

I recommend taking from each decade what suits you and making it your own. So if you love 1960s style, you don’t have to go for huge amounts of volume to get the look. I also love Tippi Hedren’s ultra-groomed hair in the wonderful Hitchcock film 'The Birds'.

Ice blonde Tippi Hedren in THE BIRDS

This is a look that is often worn on the red carpet today. I've included lots of examples of contemporary versions below, for inspiration.

Angelina Jolie in sophisticated 60s style

Brigitte Bardot's tousled appeal

Bardot-inspired messy chignon with backcombing

Bardot!

Bardot with tousled backcombing

Bardot!

Kelly Brook with sleek 1960s inspired updo

Sophie Ellis Bextor with pretty 1960s-style backcombing

Penelope Cruz

Gwyneth Paltrow does 1960s chic

Sexy 60s styles: Rachel McAdam, Sarah Jessica Parker & Scarlett Johansson

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip around the world of vintage-inspired wedding hair! Next time, I'll suggest hairstyles for 1970s vintage wedding dresses, and I'll show you some divine styles for short wedding hair.

Thanks for stopping by,

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Inweddingdress Review #34

Review as follows:

I ordered a custom wedding dress from In Wedding Dress a few weeks ago after reading the reviews on this blog. I sent over the link to the dress I wanted a copy of and my measurements (they had a great video on the site on how to measure - my fiancé took the measurements for me) and it arrived yesterday and I'm over the moon with how it turned out.

The material of course is not of the same quality as the original, however with the original costing £1,195 and this one costing just £214 it's to be expected! I would say it is about a 95% replica which I am more than happy with.

It is all lined so isn't itchy at all and the zip at the back is very well hidden.

My only complaint is that there a perhaps a few more embellishments and sequins that I would have liked, however I plan on removing a few of these myself.

I would recommend In Wedding Dress to anybody, I'm very impressed!

Charlotte

Inweddingdress Review #33

Hello !

I would like to review a dress that I’ve ordered from inwedingdress.com.

I’ve ordered this one :

http://www.inweddingdress.com/theme-wedding-dresses-bg118.html

I’ve ordered the 16^thJanuary 2014 and it arrived the 26^th February 2014 (to France).

It cost me about 217€ (about 300$), price including shipping costs.

I took the custom size option.

The dress was wrinkled, because it was packed in a very small bag, but it can easily be fixed by going to the dry cleaning :

The finishing on the bottom of the dress was clean :

It fit me perfectly :

And the finishing on the bust and behind was not really good, it looked a little cheap to me :

To conclude, I would say that I am still satisfied despite the little defaults, it worth the price that I’ve paid it !

F.C.

Not a vintage wedding dress in sight... but I love this fun guide to tricky fashion names!

Dear Reader

I know, I know... I'm supposed to be blogging about all-things-vintage-wedding-fashion. But I loved this new video about how to pronounce awkward designer names.

Indulge me this once, I think you'll enjoy it!

Admit it. You loved it too, right? Back to vintage weddding dresses later this week...

Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

Monday, March 24, 2014

Vintage wedding dresses, and vintage-inspired jewellery

Dear Reader

You may remember a sneak preview of this photo-shoot from a few weeks ago...?

Jeweller Judith Brown recently used some of my vintage wedding dresses to help launch her latest collection of pretty vintage-inspired bridal accessories.

Heavenly Vintage Wedding Dresses VIOLETTE and Judith Brown jewellery

'Violette' 1930s inspired wedding dress from my Heavenly Collection

Heavenly Vintage Wedding Dresses and Judith Brown jewellery

Model wears Heavenly Vintage Brides original 1950s wedding dress

Heavenly Vintage Wedding Dresses BUTTERFLY and Judith Brown jewellery

'Butterfly' 1930s inspired wedding dress from my Heavenly Collection

Model wears Heavenly Vintage Brides original 1950s wedding dress

'Butterfly' 1930s inspired wedding dress from my Heavenly Collection

Three of my dresses are featured here: BUTTERFLY and VIOLETTE from my Heavenly Collection of vintage-inspired dresses, and an original vintage 1950s wedding dress with fitted lace bodice, sweetheart neckline, cap sleeves and tiered tulle skirt. All the lovely delicate jewellery is of course from Judith's collection.

'Butterfly' 1930s inspired wedding dress from my Heavenly Collection

'Violette' 1930s inspired wedding dress from my Heavenly Collection

Thanks to Judith, and to photographer Holly Booth for these lovely images. To see more of any of these dresses, please do contact me or check out my Heavenly Collection blog pages and website.

Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

Jewellery by Judith Brown or www.judithbrownjewellery.co.uk
Photographs by Holly Booth

Venue Dunwood Hall or twitter

Friday, March 21, 2014

A Fun Day Out at the Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair

Dear Reader

On Sunday I had the most enjoyable day out at the Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair, which takes place every year at Bristol Zoo. It's one of my favourite events in the vintage wedding dresses' calendar.

Heavenly Vintage Wedding Dresses at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014

The fair is organised by Ali, a most lovely and well organised lady, and is always a great success. I took about fifty of my original vintage dresses with me, here are a few shots of my stand.

Phew! All set up just in time for the lovely crowds to arrive...

And I was helped by my ace team: my sister Kathy who is invaluable on my stand, and my clever photographer husband Robert who took all the pictures. (You can see more of his wonderful wedding photography here.)

A snap of me with my dresses, taken by fellow exhibitor Delia from Flo-Jo

Let me tell you about some of the nice people I met, with their quirky ideas for making weddings special. First, Steph from Sweet & Pretty who sets up sweet tables to keep your guests amused - especially the children I imagine! I was stopped in my tracks by the smell of all the delicious offerings.

Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014

Steph had some beautiful floral arrangements on her stand done by Adele who has her own business called Tin Can Floral. I love flowers and I really thought Adele had a great touch with the delicate little grouping of arrangements.

Opposite my stand was a lovely lady called Delia from Flo-Jo, who had a fun idea for hen parties: lovely vintage-knicker-making parties! Here are some pretty shots of her stand and the lady herself!

I then spotted a very pretty vintage-styled model and asked Robert to photograph her; it’s always good to have a bit of vintage style inspiration! I was impressed by her feather headpiece, made by Tricia Hamilton, it was a perfectly balanced little thing and suited the model so well.

The model is Lauren, and the dress is by Pearl Bespoke. The lovely vintage hairdo is by Fiona at Beehive Brides, and I did notice it stayed very nice all day!

I mentioned that the vintage wedding fair is organised by Ali, who also has a company hiring out vintage crockery. I'll leave you with some pictures of her gorgeous vintage china, and if you love them, you can find lots more on her website here.