Accessorising High Street Dresses - Monsoon

Or, as I like to think of it: Blinging up your Bargains!

As more and more high street shops are adding bridal collections to their repertoire, I thought it might be an idea to look at how to accessorise them. So i've spent some time (far too much time actually!) researching, and over the coming weeks will bring you what I consider to be four of the best high street bridal dresses along with some suggestions of jewellery and hair accessories to complement.

The first shop that sprang to mind was Monsoon (www.monsoon.co.uk). I love Monsoon dresses, and have owned a few myself over the years. This is my favourite from their current bridal collection: The Valley Mesh Dress, priced at £225.

I love the vintage feel that this dress has, and the detailing on the shoulders is just gorgeous. Team it with a side headband that has an equally vintage feel to it, such as "Selene" from our Goddess collection, and a pair of bridal earrings that combine sumptious pearls and crystals for a softly sparkling effect.

I haven't included a necklace as i'm not really sure the dress needs one, there is already so much detail around the neckline. However if pushed, I would suggest going with either a pendant or a Y shaped necklace, something that will drop beautifully into that deep V-neckline. The Vintage Glamour bridal necklace below is a good example:

I spent a long time researching shoes for this dress, and actually couldn't find what I was looking for.  I wanted something with heavy pearl and diamante beading to echo that shoulder detail, but nothing seemed quite right.  So in the end i've gone with these gorgeous peep toes, called "Crush" from Pink by Paradox.

Feel free to leave us a comment below, and follow our blog to receive notification of our next post, which will be looking at accessories suitable for another high street wedding dress!

High street wedding dress:  Monsoon (www.monsoon.co.uk)

Bridal Shoes:  Pink by Paradox (www.paradoxlondon.com) 

Bridal Jewellery and Headband:  Starstruck Designs (www.starstruck-designs.co.uk)

Glitter, Grace and Glamour...

....And that's only 3 of the newest necklaces to be added to the Starstruck Collection!

Its been a busy few weeks here, which inevitibly results in the unveiling of new pieces that have been created especially for brides. Its takes me a while to get the photos "just right", and then a bit longer to add everything to the website, but i've finally finished updating the necklaces page with our most recent designs.

Introducing Glitter, and Grace - The perfect balance between sparkle and pearl:





We've seen a lot of sweetheart and 'V' necklines on bridal dresses recently, and have designed three gorgeous Y style necklaces in response. Vintage Glamour and Enchanted combine pearls and diamante, whereas the Wildheart necklace has its fair share of crystals, creating an incredibly sparkly, yet beautifully soft effect.





And then we have these two little beauties - Purity and Clarity. Both are illusion necklaces, so the crystals and pearls look like they are floating. Purity was created for a bride who was looking for the elegance of pearls, whilst still keeping an element of sparkle. Clarity was based on the same design, but this time the wearer was a bridesmaid wearing a gorgeous dusky rose dress.






There are more, but you'll need to check out the website for the rest of our gorgeous new bridal jewellery. And keep an eye on the blog, for updates to our bracelets collection!

Happy Anniversary!

So last week was my Wedding Anniversary! The 6th of April marked the day that my gorgeous husband and I had been married for 9 years. I still can't believe its been that long - 9 years!?! Where the heck does time go? For some reason, this year I really did spend a lot of time thinking back to our wedding day, remembering every aspect of it: getting ready in the morning, the drive in the car with my Dad (He was so nervous the driver had to do his tie up!), arriving at Boringdon Hall and the feeling of being in a dream as I got out of the car! The build up of excitement and nerves as I stood outside the room we were to get married in, and could hear the start of MY entrance music (Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" - lol!)



Then I walked into the room and developed the weirdest tunnel vision. I'd planned to smile graciously at all our guests as I glided down the aisle, and instead, all I could see, all I could focus on was my Husband To Be. It was almost like someone had blurred everything either side of me and there was only him. I think I almost ran down that aisle. To the man that I loved, that I wanted to marry, that I was about to MARRY!!!



It really was the most wonderful day - the weather was gorgeous, really sunny and not a cloud in the sky, although it was really windy, but that just meant some fab photos of me veil streaming out behind me! I've always loved this photo, which was taken by my Sister in Law - it always makes me think of a perfume advert:



It was so lovely to spend a whole day with our friends and family, celebrating our marriage. So much hard work goes into planning a wedding, but I can promise you it is absolutely worth it on the day to see it all come together. Having said that, I must admit that there were several things that went wrong on the day which should have been a disaster, but just weren't! I really couldn't care less that the music in the ceremony was a bit messed up, that the venue forgot to play our chosen CD's during the wedding breakfast, or that the DJ turned out to be a cheese-tastic School Disco kinda chappie who offended my mum almost to the point of tears (!!!). None of it mattered. I was married!! Nothing else seemed very important any more!

And here we are, 9 years later. Lots of wonderful times behind us, and a fair few tough ones as well. With our 2 beautiful children who we both adore, and who drive us up the wall at times!