Custom Cathedral Lace Train - Special project to create a custom cathedral lace train. Bride attached to back of gown.
34, 3rd Circular, Cantonments, Accra, Ghana, West Africa
8th May 2015
Dear Kathy and the exceptional team that worked on my lace train,
On Friday 10th April I got married. I have just received the photographs and settled in to my very different life in Ghana. I wanted to write you a letter but with no post, this electronic version will have to do.
Ever since I was a little girl, the cliché dream of being a bride has never been far from my mind. The dreams further intensified when I went to London College of Fashion and studied a BA in Fashion Photography. A collection of iconic visual imagery has built up over the years and set a very high benchmark to my more recent dreams. So when I became engaged, the hunt for on for the dress of my dreams which was not going to be easy! My ‘buzz’ words were: ‘ethereal’, ‘pre-Raphaelite’ and ‘old Hollywood glamour’. I wanted a dress that was as graceful as it was magnificent, as unique as it was timeless. The pressure mounted when I was lucky enough to have the privilege of getting married in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford as well as having the Household Cavalry Guard of Honor and Coach Troop, making the whole setting grand, enchanting and all the makings of a fairytale. My dress was going to be the center of attention and I wanted it to belong in that setting.
My attention was always more focused on the back of my dress, especially with my hair being a focal point of my visual identity. So the vision I had was the embroidered Cathedral length lace train. This, in my mind *and turns out in reality too, was the pinnacle to all my dreams. You and your team made that happen. My expectations were sky high and it took me several weeks looking online every day from the tropics to find your company.
The first time I tried on the train with the dress I lost my breath and just stared. It looked as though it had been designed as part of the dress even though it had been designed from people who were the other side of the Atlantic, and had never seen the dress.
When I walked into the Cathedral on my wedding day, towards the love of my life, the train came very subtly alive and picked up slightly, gliding behind me, sparkling against the ancient floor. It was stunning.
I cannot begin to thank you for your patience, your effort, your skill and your natural ability to visualize and carry out a design to make it the best it could be which in this case, was perfection. It was flawless and it made me feel all those things every bride wants to feel. To think that strangers I have never met made such a hugely significant and positive impact on two decades worth of dreams, not to mention the most precious day of my life, is touching and makes me have faith in humanity.
Thank you for making my dreams come true.
Yours,
Hannah "
