Happy Monday Dotties! April showers – certainly the weather is changeable at this time of the year. From sunshine, to cloud and wind – be prepared for Mother Nature’s moods – don’t let those showers or the weather spoil your day. Have a back up plan – move inside or provide other shelter of some sort – a verandah, tipis  or even umbrellas.

In our Polka Dot Directory  and our Honeymoon Directory we have so many vendors – all of whom are talented and committed to crafting the best day possible for you.  Choose from Styling & Hire, Wedding Planning and Photography. We also have Entertainment,  Cakes and  Cinematography – and check out our Honeymoon Directory – for services in Australia and overseas.

Check out the Polka Dot Directory for wedding vendors who will love your wedding as much as you!

Images from the Wild At Heart Collection – Photography: Diamond Portraits and Weddings, Hair: Hair Appeal and Beauty Connection, Makeup: Iconic Faces, Jewellery, Model: Connie Klav and Location: St George Motor Boat Club.

Maria of Vellos Bridal is all about “beautiful fabrics, the perfect fit and beautiful timeless details that often give a feeling of a time when femininity is what dressing was all about.” Based in Sydney, Vellos Bridal offers you a full couture option or a made to measure option. Choose a gown from her existing collection and have it made to your measurements over the course of several fittings (they will absorb the cost of extras like additional fabric for extended sizing). You can even make some changes to any of the samples to better suit you.

Or the couture option where, creating from an idea, Maria uses luxurious silks, laces and beading to craft the exclusive gown of your dreams. From the initial meeting discussing your ideas with you, to sewing on the last button, Maria is with you at every step. How exciting to see your gown evolve at every fitting  from a simple sketch to the finished gown – it’s the stuff dreams are made of!

We asked Maria of Vellos Bridal five questions in five minutes:

Weddings are the best to work on because….

I didn’t enter the wedding industry straight out of my design studies, at the time I just wanted to work in fashion, designing and not so much sewing, but I soon learned that design here in Australia was becoming less and less in demand, sure I could work as a designer, but with budget cuts and competition from mass produced off shore “disposable fashion” I found that fabric quality choices had to be increasingly compromised and we were designing less, rather we were reproducing the same styles in different fabrics.
Wedding dresses is a market where I could still design, create and actually get excited about, I can work one on one with my clients to create something new and individual every time.

What is something people would be surprised to know about your job or something that challenges you about your job?

I often find that my clients assume that I design the dress with them and then send it off shore to have it made, I can understand why they would assume that as that is what happens with a lot of Australian fashion, but, no that’s not the way I work. I am actually the person behind every step of the process, I design, measure, pattern make, cut, sew, fit and finish every single Vellos Bridal dress. It’s this individual service that allows my clients and me to brainstorm on the way at fittings and watch the dress evolve and become personalised.

What is it about the creative process that you most enjoy?

I still get very excited about new fabrics, like a kid in a candy store, I’ll have some of this and some of this, oh… and I can’t go past this one! My mind goes into design overload in fabric stores.
I also love fittings, often when a girl books in to have a dress made that she hasn’t seen in the flesh, but rather just a sketch on a page, there is a level of hesitancy and concern, “but what will it look like on me”? The creative process means that it will look good on you because we can change things on the way to make it look good. I love seeing how excited the girls get when they see the dress coming together.

What are you hilariously bad at?

I try, I really do, but technology and I don’t mix well. I can be shown how to do something and 10 minutes later, it’s gone, I can’t get my head around it. For this reason I hold onto my phones and computers until I just can’t get by without an upgrade anymore, the stress of having to learn how to use a new one is not enjoyable for me.

When you were small what did you dream of being and where have those dreams taken you?

I was always going to do something creative, I couldn’t imagine sitting at a desk all day, focussing on a screen.
As a teenager all I wanted to be is a hairdresser, I even worked in a salon after school and Saturday mornings and continued to do so even after I began working in fashion. My parents had other plans, as new Australians they dreamed of their daughters having desk jobs, which they believed were an easier and less tiring path. Of course they knew if they told me no, you can’t be a hairdresser, then I would have become a hairdresser, so they used a different angle telling me that I was too short to be a hairdresser and I’d struggle to reach my clients heads so I wouldn’t be good at it. No, long term effects as a result, no height complex, I mean, yes I’m short, but it doesn’t effect or bother me, in fact I laugh about this deterrent method all the time.
Moving on, this made me start considering 2 other paths Fashion Design or Graphic Design both creative, but ultimately I chose fashion as I saw it as a more organic art form which suited me better. I am lucky because I am able to do something I love, sometimes the deadlines are hectic, but I always feel privileged to have clients that trust me to create their dream dress.

Visit Vellos Bridal’s pages to find out more about our Vendor Of The Week.

Vellos Bridal is a member of the Polka Dot Directory.

Main image from the Euphoric Dreamer collection: Photography: Jetty Blue Photography, Hair and Makeup: The Butterfly MUA and Model: Vanessa Tomasello