Married in a Castle
I always knew I wanted to get married in a castle.
I knew if I was going to plan the classic fairytale wedding, then I needed to do it right. Every detail just so, castle and all. So, determined to find a place with impressive views both indoors and out, we selected Rhodes Hall. Its beauty and grandeur spoke to our shared love of old-world and classical architecture and design.
We love putting together a great theme party, and our wedding was no exception! The theme was “Woodland Faerie,” and the big thread entwining almost every detail of the occasion was nature elements like vines, leaves, and flowers. They were in the tiaras and jewelry the bridesmaids and I wore, in the centerpieces, and on our programs, guestbook, and favors. We served wines and a signature cocktail made from flowers. Even my engagement and wedding rings by Doron Merav have twigs and leaves in them! Depending on the origins of the story, fairie tales have so many different aesthetics. But the one thing almost all of them have somewhere is vines and flowers!
When I first started looking for the perfect Woodland Faerie wedding dress, I already knew exactly what I wanted. I used keywords to try to find all those features together. It turns out that while there are endless gorgeous gowns out there, it’s hard to find every detail you have in mind together in one! I could have settled for any number of other beautiful dresses that included some or most of the details I envisioned, but I just kept asking myself, ‘Why settle?’ A good friend once offered some advice I have never forgotten: “Never settle for second best.” The wedding dress is an incredibly personal choice and can be a pricy part of the day. Since I already knew exactly what I wanted, why would I settle for anything else? So I turned to Reddit to figure out how to get the precise image from my imagination.
As I scoured Reddit discussions about finding the perfect dress, I kept seeing recommendations for Elena Thomas from My Amazing Wedding Dress. When I started searching for Elena, I found still more wonderful reviews outside of Reddit. I had a good feeling I had found the person who was going to make my wedding dress.
Elena’s process is very simple. You schedule a video call so she can get to know you, your personality, and what you have in mind for the dress, and you can ask any questions you might have. I found this to be a fun first step. Elena is not only an expert on how to make a fabulous dress; she’s also super sweet! And she knew just how to guide the conversation, including any technical terminology I wasn’t certain how to describe. We discussed each piece of the dress—the waist, the skirt, the neckline, what kind of back I wanted, etc.—and I supplied a folder full of photo references showing exactly what I was picturing, so we could both be sure we were speaking the same language. After our call, I was ready to take the plunge.
Just a couple of days later, I excitedly opened my email to find the first sketch of my dress waiting for me! I could hardly believe it—it looked exactly like what we had discussed. It’s hard to describe the feeling of seeing something that previously only existed in your head represented onscreen. There’s a tingly sort of electricity to it. Moreover, I hadn’t realized until I saw it, but the dress silhouette I had been envisioning all that time was almost exactly like Belle’s yellow ball gown from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast! I had been putting it together in my head piece by piece without even realizing it. Even the three-dimensional roses could have been (but weren’t intended to be) a nod to Belle.
Elena helped me find the perfect floral, vine-y fabric overlay for my bodice and fringe, but I felt I needed a bit more to connect the top with the bottom. So she cut out some of the flowers and vines by hand to run up the skirt for another pop of color.
After seeing the first sketch, I changed my mind about a couple of small things. Elena and I went back and forth for about a week, with her showing me updated sketches while I made up my mind. I’m easygoing, so a few times I was tempted to just say, “This is fine, this will do” before I was ready, but I thought that would have been doing both of us a disservice, as I knew by then she could produce exactly what I really wanted. So I kept requesting tweaks until I was completely satisfied. And then the waiting began.
It turned out there were so many other preparations to handle, I forgot to be anxious about waiting for my dress! With my background in tradeshow management (I actually converted my custom tradeshow planner into a wedding planner!), my husband and I both agreed to let me handle most of the plans. I busied myself with designing centerpieces and programs; choosing a wine list; writing our ceremony script; selecting a cake; finding the right shoes, gloves, and jewelry to go with my dress; and carefully curating playlists from fairytale-themed films, operas, and Broadway musicals. I had such a great experience with all the coordination and then the event itself, I am now considering taking on other people’s wedding planning as a side gig!
As my husband-to-be and I practiced our first dance in the months leading up to the big day, I began to get a little anxious. “You know,” I warned, “when we do this for real in front of all those people, it’ll feel a lot different because I’ll have that big dress on! There’s no way to prepare for that! We’ll just have to wing it!” Unconcerned, he simply smiled at me, smooth as ever, and said, “I bet you’ll look just like a princess” and warmed my little heart right up.
It only took eight promised weeks from the time I approved the final sketch and sent in my measurements to the time the dress was finished. I couldn’t believe an entire dress could come into being in that amount of time, especially with all the other work Elena must have been doing simultaneously! But with everything else a bride is worrying about, that quick turnaround was a massive relief!
When I finally held my dress in my hands, I did not attempt to try it on. I was still a little nervous, because I had always heard every wedding dress needs an alteration somewhere. And I knew those could sometimes cost just as much—or more than—the dress itself! So I made an appointment with a tailor to find out what needed fixing (and to have someone help me get into it).
I couldn’t believe it when I first stepped into it. Elena had brought the dress from my head into real life, and I was wearing it! It felt so much more personal and special than buying an off-the-rack gown, knowing I had the dress from my own dreams. It was all mine, and there was no other like it in the world. Not only that, but it felt so luxurious.
You cannot imagine the mix of shock and delight that went through me when that tailor said, “This dress doesn’t need a thing. It fits you perfectly, and it would be dishonest of us to take your money.” Somehow, without even having seen me in person, Elena had made me a dress more flawless than every other wedding dress I’d ever heard of!
Fast-forward to the next time I got to put on the dress. To avoid any tragic mishaps, I kept it in its bag and did not step into it again until the wedding day. Knowing that getting in and out of such a gown is an event all on its own, I woke up that morning and hydrated accordingly, with four liters of water from the moment I floated out of bed until precisely two hours before getting into the dress. (This worked exactly as planned, as I had no need to climb out of it again until after the show was over!)
It’s a very special moment with the ladies once you’re all dressed up and you all realize: this thing is really happening. There’s a thrill that goes through you that’s like being backstage before a play, when you’ve all put your costumes on and realize, this is it, the audience will arrive soon, and all our planning and hard work are about to culminate in something incredible. That was my first spot of nervousness that day. But, like putting on a costume, with my dress on, a different role quickly took over—that of the princess I’d been longing to play.
It was important to me for my bridesmaids to feel special that day, so I had them choose their own dresses and then bought them all matching sets of tiaras and earrings so we could all be faerie princesses together. It was so much fun watching their faces all light up as they opened them in a white elephant game and chose their favorite ones, along with fairytale-themed tote bags and faux fur wraps in case of cold weather.
My husband and I felt a bit silly about the concept of “First Look” photos, but it turned out not to be so bad. My mom and bridesmaids were off to the side watching and giggling, and our photographer was superb at making us feel at ease. (I found out after the fact that Elena and my photographer, Brad from Forevermore Media, know each other! What a small world!) After that first moment, when the pressure was off my husband for the initial reaction, we got a moment to just relax and reunite after the morning’s separation. Brad had me spin and twirl, and we all laughed a bit as I delighted in the sensation of the dress swaying around me like a bell.
Our fathers were both standing in a room off to the side, so I got to have a second First Look with the two of them, which was just as special as the one with my betrothed. Both of them looked a bit teary-eyed, although their faces lit right up when I walked into the room.
My grand entrance felt extra-special, because I was so excited to show off the dress that I had conceived of myself. Honestly, I will recommend a custom dress to any bride I meet for the rest of my life! There’s nothing like owning and wearing such an amazing and one-of-a-kind item that was made with so much care just for you.
Some of the earliest feedback I received after the wedding was that I “showed so much grace through the whole night.” Upon hearing those kind words, I reflected that it is impossible not to show grace when dressed like a princess. The moment you put on that gown is like stepping into a fairy tale, and wearing it paints every move you make with that whimsical brush for the duration of the event.
My dress from My Amazing Wedding Dress truly made me feel like a princess for my fairytale castle wedding.
Written by Carrington Shaw
Read more about this Fairytail Wedding :
My Dream Fairytale Castle Wedding
How I Planned a Fairytale Wedding
Fairytale Wedding Playlists
Vendor Credits
Bride: Carrington Shaw ,
Photographer, Forevermore Media: @forevermorefilms
Venue: @rhodeshall @thegeorgiatrust
Bride’s Makeup: @laurenamodeo
Bride’s Hair: @brushworx
Bride’s Jewelry: @howlingmoonuk
Ring: @doron_merav
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