2 weeks Ago By Alice Newbold
Many brides-to-be (and editors) were heavily invested in Katherine Ormerod’s mission to find the perfect wedding dress (reader: if you missed this continent-spanning mission, 120 gowns were involved). But on the big day itself , deep in the California desert, it was not Katherine’s Vivienne Westwood Cocotte gown that my eye zeroed in on, it was her peach ombré veil. The bespoke Hermione de Paula confection was, said the bride, “a love note to [her] teenage self.
” Inspired by the rose-tinted John Galliano gown Gwen Stefani wore to marry Gavin Rossdale in London in 2002, Katherine, “a massive Gwen fan girl back then,” was “blown away at the audacity of it.” “It was the perfect dress on the perfect woman at the perfect time,” explains the fashion history nerd, who knew that when her turn came to walk down the aisle, she had to incorporate Stefani’s spirit—and that splash of color—into her own look. Dressing for the Coachella Valley had its challenges.
A blushing dress? “Too Barbie!” decided Ormerod, who ultimately landed upon a more subtle homage to the singer. But her dip-dyed veil, which cascaded down her Westwood silk and landed in a frothy pool of sugared-almond sweetness, was no less time-consuming than a custom dress design. The bride visited de Paula’s City Road studio four times to nail the hue, which had to complement the 12 hand-painted tablecloths Ormerod had been finessing late into the night in the run-up to the celebration.
Two days before her flight to LA, Katherine was back in front of Hermione’s team with a last-minute request to go punchier. “I’m so glad I did, because it so beautifully reflected the desert sunset when it came across the Santa Rosa mountains.” Ormerod’s splash of pink tulle reflects a wider trend for tinted veils that has proliferated in alternative corners of the Western wedding sphere, where women aren’t robbed of £50 for a warm glass of Prosecco and the privilege of wriggling into a grubby one-size-fits-all sample.
“We often have brides who want a pop of color, choosing an ivory or white dress and combining it with a brightly colored tulle veil,” shares Molly Goddard, who is currently on maternity leave and has pivoted her business to focus on the booming bridalwear requests. My own sister, a Manchester-based nurse, sought out Goddard because, in the crowded bridal market, the playful designer looks like a beacon of authenticity. “The clothes are fun and feminine, but they also give you space to feel like yourself,” she says of selecting a hand-smocked cotton voile strap dress, named Larry, to wear to her wedding in a brewery, which lent itself well to a decidedly extra red veil.
Make-up artist Celia Burton, meanwhile, teamed her own Grace Kelly-inspired Goddard dress with a baby blue silk slip and a matching veil to incorporate some warmth into an otherwise brilliant white palette. “It was totally unexpected, but better than anything I could have imagined,” recalls Burton, who decked out her bridesmaids in bespoke blue dresses by London’s reigning queen of tulle. Fellow Molly bride Laura Linden, meanwhile, swerved a face covering altogether in favor of some cherry-colored tulle opera gloves, which matched the ribbons in her hair and the sweet bow-bedecked table settings for her celebration in Lake Windermere.
The message from Team Goddard? Peppy twists on traditional accessories totally make the photos. For some, scene-stealing veils are necessary to reflect the bride’s entire fashion direction for the wedding. Washington Post investigative reporter Jackie Alemany selected a cropped tulle number embroidered with sequin hydrangeas to complement the Alice in Wonderland -inspired blue Mark Ingram gown she chose for her Montauk nuptials .
“How joyful and whimsical can we make the weekend?” asked Alemany, whose answer lay in color-fantastic frills that made her feel like a “fairytale princess.” While vibrant veils represent a rise in individualism in classic-leaning UK and US-centric markets that are still so often swathed in cream, color has long been incorporated in Eastern celebrations, which don’t base all sartorial decisions for the bride around her supposed purity. While Indian brides traditionally wear red—which represents passion and prosperity and pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga, who symbolizes new beginnings and feminine power—a growing number of brides are plotting out their own Pantones for their special days, while still incorporating flashes of the saffron hue.
Kajal Patel, for example, knew she wanted to wear red (she found her dream dress thanks to Indian brand Chamee and Palak), but commissioned five extra looks in emerald, mustard, and white, all of which were meaningful—or simply looked fabulous. Tiwinkle Khurana, too, set her sights on making her Malibu wedding to Gurkirat Grewal feel like a modern-day, pink-saturated Bollywood fairytale. “I always wanted to dress up the way the main actresses did during the wedding scenes,” she recalls of finding The One—a heavily embellished lehenga and veil, which her family would go on to embroider—in one of Manish Malhotra’s Indian boutiques.
“I felt like a princess, and all the customers in the store, as well as the staff, were also in awe. I had to buy it!” Khurana accessorized with emerald jewelry by KK Jewels, while the bridal party incorporated elements of pink into their looks and the groom’s side had accents of green, to make both elements of Khurana’s outfit shine. The guests, in contrast, wore white, illustrating that, in this day and age, the only fashion rules to have and to hold are the ones that ensure brides feel exactly like themselves—or rather, the princess they always dreamt of being.
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