Introducing… Your New Favourite brand: Made with Love Bridal

Dress like a laid-back Melbourne chick at the registry office in Stevenage by choosing Made with Love Bridal

Today, I’ve fallen pretty hard for Made with Love Bridal… it doesn’t happen often because as you can imagine I see a lot of wedding dresses, but these cool cats have swept me off my feet! They’re laid back luxury look & contemporary stylings have given me the feels and I can’t bare to delete their tab off my browser! So in order to get the monkey off my back I’ve decided to share some of my favourite gowns from Made with Love bridal and why I think they need to be on bridal radar!

Made with Love bridal is a Gold Coast-based Australian bridal brand that started out as an online store but is now thankfully stocked in some of the coolest bridal boutiques around the world. Their signature style is contemporary laid-back luxury, with a wide-selection of styles that range from eclectic and boho to glamorous and ultra sexy. Think elegant minimal, opulently embellished capes, fluttering shoulder details, romantic skirts and figure-hugging silhouettes, Made with Love bridal has simply got it all!

The Made with Love bridal story began just after Josh proposed to the MWL director, Carla, in February 2013. When Carla started the search for the perfect dress, she went to more than 10 bridal stores on the Gold Coast and Brisbane and was left unsatisfied… She couldn’t find one dress that was perfect in style, fit and price. So, she decided to make her own! By June 2013, Made with Love bridal had their first bridal collection complete! Don’t you just adore a lovely backstory to a brand!

The world is an ever-changing place, our once bricks and mortar experiences are quickly shifting online (especially during a pandemic… going out for dinner? Who remembers that?!) and there are many that believe wedding shopping should be no exception. It’s becoming more normal, choosing your bridal gown on ASOS, picking a groom suit on Net-a-Porter or even designing your wedding invites on MoonPig is not normal but also not extraordinary. Its something that I think is a shame for many reasons, mainly because we need to support our local businesses but also because we’re losing those special, intimate experiences. Brides and wedding shop owners that I have encountered through the years remember their bridal appointments vividly (for better or worse!), they were a part of the big day journey & something to be cherished. Now, if we move this all online are we going to have the same intimate, caring experience with our computer screen, most probably not! The reason I bring this up is that Made with Love bridal began as an online store, and continues as an online store albeit now with stockists around the world. I’m sharing their brand today in contradiction to what I said before, we cannot stand still and fight for something that girls may actually not want. This 2020, not all brides will want to visit their local wedding shop and pick from what is on the rails – their local wedding shop is at their fingertips, it’s called the internet! Not only that but times are hard. Big day budgets are not what they were and if a bride can save half the money on her wedding dress by ordering it online and having it fitted locally, then that’s pretty favourable! At Made with Love they use a generic size chart when ordering styles, the size they deliver is determined by the professional measurements you have taken and sent over. Once the garment is received they suggest that it is tried on straight away and then taken to a local alterations person to get it fitted. That’s how they keep the costs down. Your local bridal shop will factor in these other stages of the wedding shopping experience as part of the final price, ergo the price is higher. The difference is its all taken care of. It’s a little bit like choosing a package holiday put together & booked by an agent (yes kids that still happens!) versus booking your flights, hotel, transfers, insurance etc separately and all yourself. The benefit of the package is that its all taken care, the downside is it’s probably more expensive. Booking yourself means you can shop around, mix and match and find the best deal – slightly more complicated but cheaper. The same applies to wedding dress shopping. Now, I’m not saying this is what I recommend but the choice is out there and if there is one thing that the internet has brought us, that is choice.

You’re not here for my semi-rant on our globalisation, you’re here for dresses! The Made with Love bridal dresses are simply stunning and that’s why I wanted to share them with you. They’re delicate, they’re floaty, and they’re so chic its almost unbearable! I love a pant suit for a bride and the Lola pants are so gorgeous, a high-waisted palazzo in a light, all-over beaded fabric that does away with the idea that your big day might be uncomfortable! It’s impossible! If they weren’t beaded you’d probably wanna wear them to bed! They’re also versatile, meaning you can wear them on your nuptials paired with a suit jacket, and then as the evening goes on ditch the jacket and throw on a cool tee for when you wanna let your hair down! Besides the trousers and accessories, their small collection is expertly thought out, using tried and tested bodices for example that they then pair with different styles of skirt. It works. Alongside that there are some seriously stylish, figure-hugging crêpe styles that scream sexy sophistication.

I briefly mentioned accessories earlier, but its also worth mentioning that they also do capes, veils, separate skirts, T-shirts, eye masks & shoes! The Ramones (above) are honestly my ideal bridal shoe. Delicate, nude and crafted in soft leather to ensure that you are gliding down the aisle, and not wincing! Seriously, if you come away from this post with just one thing, it has to be these shoes!

So, Andy, where can I purchase these beautiful bridal gowns & accessories? Well, dear reader, you can visit their website of course or if you are looking for that more inclusive, intimate shopping experience you can visit one of their stockists. Unfortunately my beloved Portugal does not have any here yet, we would have to hop over to Madrid. But in my motherland of the UK there is a plentiful supply of Made with Love bridal stockists. From Vintage Pearl Bridal in Galway to LOVE Bridal in Cheshire & in London they have their very own boutique in Bermondsey – you’re spoilt for choice, unless you live in Wales! For the rest of you, check out their stockists page and pinpoint your little part of the world on their map. You can also follow their insta here.

Adeus x