wedding
Full skirts and ivory bodices – the romance of Wuthering Heights makes it to the wedding catwalk.
Emerald Fennell’s recent movie adaption of the tragic live story is influencing bridal trends at the National Wedding Show in London.
Designer Josephine Scott says there are key features that her clients are looking for in their dresses.
“Draping in luscious fabrics, this is a beautiful drape. So it just looks effortless, it looks like we are just trying to mould the figure rather than force it into anything and just make it look naturally beautiful. Also pick ups, one of my favourite trends. This is big time going to come back around. It just adds a little bit more volume and a little bit of texture, a little bit of interest rather than just your typical A-line,” she says.
Another striking new trend being shown by designer Alan Hannah on the catwalk is hand painted dresses.
Each dress is bespoke and painted in Hannah’s London studio – the bride can choose the colour or even the design of the fabric paint.
A hand painted wedding dress from Alan Hannah costs around £5,000.
In this economy, that’s a lot of money for a dress that will probably only ever be worn once.
And with global events squeezing even this industry, prices are not likely to drop.
The recent outbreak of war between the United States, Israel and Iran shows no signs of resolution after talks held in Pakistan failed.
Oil prices have risen in response and this has had a knock-on effect to the price of fabrics, shipping and transport.
Josephine Scott says: “Prices are going up. We always try to keep the prices fair as low as we can, but it’s just part of the world. Everything is going up today.”
Alan Hannah has been selling wedding dresses for 35 years and he’s seen a lot of global upheaval in this time.
He admits fabric prices and shipping is increasing – he has many clients in Japan, for example – but says he is able to mitigate some of these additional costs by using recycled fabrics wherever possible.
“Well, whenever there’s some kind of crisis the cost of shipping fabrics or even shipping dresses goes up,” he says.
“But it’s something we’ve kind of learned to live with. We’ve been in this for 35 years, so we’ve kind of seen it all before in some ways. So it does fluctuate.”
But dresses are just one example of wedding planning that could be more expensive.
The fuel for the gas-guzzling limousine to the venue, the ingredients for the cake and even the flowers – which have likely been grown abroad and air-freighted to the UK.
But for those planning a wedding or honeymoon abroad the situation is even more complex.
Foreign weddings are popular with Brits tying the knot.
For 30 years Sharron Masoura and her husband have been planning and hosting weddings in Cyprus.
She says that – so far – the conflict hasn’t stopped happy couples from getting married on the island.
Sharron Masoura says: “It’s been a scary time where people have thought about Iran, Lebanon, Israel which obviously are the closest… we are one step before that. But it’s not affected us whatsoever.”
The main impact of the war has been the rising fuel costs and her yachts – on which she hosts the weddings – are thirsty.
“Which our main cost is fuel for the yachts and it’s very expensive. And also for decorations, we need bands, we need transport, we need lorries etc, we will absorb that. We have absorbed it. We will absorb it,” she says.
Travel consultant Ligia Schuurman at Not Just Travel is often tasked by couples to help them plan their dream wedding abroad.
She says couples are getting more adventurous in their wedding destinations, with Antarctica proving increasingly popular.
Ligia certainly specialises in unusual wedding locations – she married her husband in a chapel beneath the earth in a Polish salt mine.
But few destinations will be immune from rising fuel costs, and weddings are no exception.
Ligia Schuurman says: “I think the current situation in the Middle East is having an effect on holidays in general. I’ve personally not seen it affect the destination wedding market yet because people are booking in advance, when they’re going away they’re booking it in advance. So we’re hoping that things will have changed by the time the weddings come around. But the benefit is when you book it through a travel agent, you’ve also got a lot more flexibility.”
The National Wedding Show ran from 11-12 April at London’s ExCel exhibition centre.
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