Ailsa Munro -dresses for romantic heroines
When I got married I wore an Edwardian cotton tea dress from my mum’s collection of vintage dresses bought a few years previously at a French brocante. I didn’t even try any other dresses on. I sometimes wonder if I missed out on that quintessential bridal experience of the bridal shop, but as a vintage lover I think I really could only have ever been happy in something old or had I known about her then, an Ailsa Munro gown. Ailsa’s one off wedding dresses are pure romance of the best kind, historical novel romance. A touch Little Women, a sprinkle of Lizzie Bennet and a pinch of Demelza. Becoming an Ailsa Munro bride is to be a tousled heroine striding across the moors in the mist, staring wistfully out to sea on a cliff top and hoisting up your skirts to climb a stile. All softly gathered muslin, the finest draped silk and whimsical puff sleeves. Carrying a garden and hedgerow gathered bouquet of seasonal flowers, naturally (and I can help with that part).
Each dress is bespoke, designed and made just to fit you in Ailsa’s Devon studio. The process is relaxed and thoughtful with Ailsa taking the time to understand how you’d like to feel. With prices inline with off the rack gowns from bridal shops, these gowns feel like a better investment. I adore Ailsa’s insistence that her dresses be washable, not dry-cleanable, ensuring that they can be sustainably worn again and again and even passed down. Heirloom quality is a wonderful design philosophy and which aligns with my values of weddings not costing the earth.
Katy dress by Aisla Munro photo by The Caryls
If I were designing the flowers for an Aisla Munro bride I’d look to include heirloom and heritage variety blooms, such as sweetpeas and cosmos, alongside scented herbs that speak to the nostalgic feel of the gown. Taking inspiration from the woodlands and hedgerows and featuring the kinds of flowers the historical romantic inspiration for the gown would have seen - snowdrops in January, bluebells and blossom in April, cow parsley in May and so on with the ebb and flow of the season.