Friday Inspo: Oscar de la Renta's vintage–inspired wedding dresses for Spring 2016.

Dear Reader,
Our Friday Inspiration this week is from Oscar de la Renta's Bridal range for Spring 2016. Lots of delicious vintage–inspired wedding dresses, with more than a nod to the 1950s and 1960s…

Gorgeous! If you'd like to see more lovely vintage–inspired wedding dresses, then please check out my Heavenly Collection. I like to think they're every bit as beautiful and – ahem – rather more affordable than couture! 
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

100 Years of Vintage Wedding Dresses – in 3 minutes.

Dear Reader,
Have you already seen this fun movie..?



Of course, it can only show a few examples. (And the dresses featured are not specially fitted to the model, so don't look anywhere near as beautiful as one of my original vintage dresses or my vintage–inspired Heavenly Collection will look on a bride!) 

But it's a fun and super–quick romp through a hundred years of vintage wedding fashion. Enjoy!
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

And if you'd like to see some REAL examples of beautiful vintage brides and wedding dresses from every decade, just click here!

Friday Inspiration – more fabulous vintage wedding dresses from the Vogue Weddings Book.

Dear Reader,
I promised I'd show you more of the Vogue Weddings Book, didn't I? So for this week's Inspiration, let's kick back and enjoy more iconic photos from 120 years of vintage wedding style…

Divine!
All photographs with thanks to Vogue.
Love 
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

Friday Inspiration – Vogue Weddings Book: Brides, Dresses, Designers.

Dear Reader,
Today's inspiration is the spectacular Vogue Weddings Book...

Exactly as you'd hope from Vogue, it's a gorgeous glossy collection of over 400 iconic wedding photographs that have appeared in the magazine over the past 120 years. Pictures so beautiful speak for themselves…

But if you'd like to see more about Vogue's sumptuous book, just click here… And keep watching, I'll be featuring more of these fabulous images very soon.
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

All photographs with thanks to Vogue.

So Long Our Cilla, We'll Miss You Chuck x

Dear Reader,
It's time to bid a fond farewell to Our Cilla today… 

Remember Blind Date? Back in 1988 – way before X Factor or BGT – Cilla Black's saucy TV dating game was an essential part of my Saturday night. Well, every girl's Saturday night really. It was the perfect backdrop to pouffing up your 80s hairdo ready for a night's dancing...!

But it's easy to forget that Cilla was a pop star twenty years before this, with a sweet and expressive voice that earned her a string of great hits. Take a look at her in 1968 – adorable at age 25, and already a mahoosive star. This song was written for her by Paul McCartney!


With her cute 60s style and natural warmth, Cilla became an enduring icon of the Swinging Sixties…

Cilla with Cathy McGowan

Cilla's own 1969 wedding to Bobby Willis was a media event in itself. Check out this gorgeous clip from Pathe News, which was broadcast into cinemas…




Sadly, Bobby died in 1999. But they did enjoy a long and loving marriage that lasted 30 years.

With Cathy McGowan in Kensington's Biba store

So long Cilla – we send you off with a lorra lorra love!

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

Friday Inspiration – 1950s Wedding Dresses and Original Vintage Kisses!

Dear Reader,
Romance is in the air today at Heavenly Vintage Brides, as we take our Friday Inspiration from a charming new book, Hackney Kisses…

Original 1950s wedding dresses and original 1950s kisses!

Created by Sweden–based photographer Stephen Gill, the book has a lovely back-story too. While browsing on ebay, Stephen came across a single 1950s photograph that interested him. He bought it, and then saw another listed. And another. And so on. 

1950s wedding dresses and original 1950s kisses!

Eventually, he contacted the owner and offered to buy the entire archive – a treasure trove of over 9,000 vintage wedding photographs from the mid to late 1950s. The photographs were all in packets addressed to the bride's parents, but with no other details.

1950s wedding dresses and original 1950s kisses!

Some packets had many photographs, some just three or four...

1950s wedding dresses and original 1950s kisses!

But in every packet, the image that really leapt out was the kiss.

Original 1950s wedding dresses and original 1950s kisses!

Of the brides, Stephen says "I've never gone looking for relatives, but wouldn't it be great if someone recognised their aunt, or their mum."

Original 1950s wedding dresses and original 1950s kisses!

1950s wedding dresses and original 1950s kisses!

1950s wedding dresses and original 1950s kisses!

If you'd like to see more of these delightful rediscovered pictures, click here...

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

Vintage Wedding Dresses and Summer Festival Style.

Dear Reader, 
Hooray! The sun is out and summer kicked off with almighty–Glastonbury–bang last weekend. Festival style is everywhere!

Kate Moss, the original Festival babe in vintage-inspired wedding dress

The 1970s–inspired festival look always work so beautifully in summer, doesn't it. Even the smartest of city girls are currently skipping through our hot London streets in flowy dresses, loose tresses and pretty sandals. 

Farrah Fawcett marries Lee Majors, 1973

With their flowing lines and delicate trims, vintage wedding dresses always suit this free-spirited Festival styling. Today, I thought I'd pick out some pretty examples of 1970s-style brides – and some fabulous free-flowing hairstyles – to inspire any Summer brides…

Actress and model Marisa Berenson, 1976 

Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady, 2009

1970s style icons Yoko Ono and John Lennon

Mick and Bianca Jagger's St Tropez Wedding, 1971

Poppy Delevigne's Marrakesh Wedding, 2014

Jane Birkin, inspiration for free-spirited 1970s girls everywhere!

I hope I've inspired you to slip on your finest silk dress today, to waft around in this glorious sunshine – or simply to lie on your sofa and imagine you are in Marrakesh!

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

If you like this post, please try…

Hairstyling to suit 1970s vintage wedding dresses

All photos with thanks to Vogue.com