I was honoured to be asked to assist Caroline on the morning of her wedding back in August.
Its always an early start for everyone involved on the morning of the wedding.
First job is to unpack all the dresses, veil, accessories and shoes and make sure everything that needs to be is hanging up ready for steaming.
Once the wedding dress has been steamed that is usually the perfect time to work with the photographer to get that perfect shot of the dress all pristine and ready to go.
I always work closely with the bride and hair and make up artists on the day to work out timings - when the bride needs to be dressed by, how long hair and make up will take, how long we need to dress the bride and her bridal party, how long any last minute hair touch ups will take, how long it will take to dress the bridesmaids etc.
It is usually very chaotic and you will be surprised how quickly the time can run away from you so its always good to have someone making sure everything is on schedule.
Dressing the flower girls can sometimes be the trickiest part for me.
It can go either way - the over eager excitement of dressing up as a princess for the day - or the tears because they don't want to dress up as a princess for the day!
When some form of encouragement is needed we offer dress up teddy - a super cute teddy that has had a perfect replica dress made for it, in the hope that once your little ones have seen teddy in its pretty dress they will want to match it and put theirs on too.
Luckily on this occasion there was much excitement about wearing a princess dress although some disappointment at not being able to wear a bumble bee costume!
You will always have something that catches you out on the morning - but I am always prepared for those last minute emergencies.
Here the Brides mother realised she didn't want to pin her flower to her satin dress so using some ribbon I had with me I quickly turned it into a wrist corsage instead.
The last thing to do before leaving the room is to dress the Bride, I always make sure all bridesmaids, flower girls and mums are dressed first.
At this point we can usually set up a staged photo with the photographer of mum or bridesmaids helping you into your dress.
This dress had an inner corset and then satin buttons and loops - which can be super fiddley to do up especially if you have had your nails done!
I make sure all under layers of linings, nets and overskirts are pulled down and straightened before helping you with your shoes.
The very last job is to get you from that room and either to the alter or to your wedding car.
Being the person to put you in the car means I am usually the last person still left there - bridesmaids have gone, mums have gone, photographers have usually gone to be able to capture you arriving at the other end.
It is always a special moment filled with excitement and nervous anticipation.
It was such a privilege to get this photo of Caroline and her dad all ready for the off and I was so happy to be able to share it with them.
