The Dress with Juste McKeown

Our wedding day was small, spontaneous but perfect! Planned only in 4 weeks, it was a rollercoaster but everything was falling into place so effortlessly like it was meant to be! Juste and Michael McKeown + Florence our daughter who was 1.5yo and a baby bump (4months pregnant)

THE JOURNEY:

I have been working as a model for over 15 years and tried hundreds of wedding dresses before and could never understand why brides cry when they try THE dress, I was sure that experience was ruined for me due to my job. I was 3 months pregnant as well so even though I was not showing much yet.. I had to consider the fact that I could be on our wedding day!

I don’t consider myself sexy, I am more fashion / sporty spice so I know my dress would have to reflect my personality. Pockets was a must! With only 4 weeks till my wedding I didn’t have an option of designing my dress, but I could fit the sample size! I was browsing online and came across this designer Elbeth Gillis and she had a few of the dresses that I loved. I got in touch to enquire about the dress just to find out that they are based in South Africa! They did have a stockist who was open (its covid times) in Hastings and they could send the Vivian only sample they had to them and try few other dresses from the collection. So I took a shot.. Ordered a dress without trying it and went to Hastings 3 weeks before my wedding! I am 6ft tall so it better be long!

I arrived to the boutique, had a cup of tea with the owner and crossed my fingers! I tried the dress on and believe it or not it fit like a glove! But.. I had a bump growing! I asked them to move the buttons as far as they can and send me the dress when its ready!

THE VISION:

As a model I could fit any dress and look ok, and I have many pictures in different dresses.. lace.. big skirts.. two piece.. silk.. you name it. But I was choosing by my personality and what I would feel confident in. As I mentioned I am not a sexy sultry type of person, I am quite reserved and shy and sporty and elegance oriented. My dress had to be classy with a twist of fashion, definitely pockets and I was not scared of having a statement detail on it because I felt like I can pull it off.

THE DECISION:

I did not have time to panic. 4 weeks to have your wedding planned from scratch is not something many people do. I am quite chill person so I was able to put a lot of trust into people who do this for a living! Micromanaging every detail of the wedding can drive you mad and take the fun way. My advice is don’t choose the dress by design, choose with your personality. It is your who will make the dress look gorgeous and not the other way around.

THE STYLE SUPPORT:

Did it all myself with a final approval from my mum who came to the dress fitting with me.

THE EVENING LOOK:

I did not change. If the circumstances were different I would have had a second dress, Maybe something lighter and smaller but due to covid we didn’t have a big party with lots of dancing so I stayed in my dress.

THE ACCESSORIES:

As I am 6ft tall and slightly taller than my husband I know that I will be wearing flats for the wedding day! There is no way I will be towering over him in a huge dress with a bump to kiss him I DO! I love Manolo Blahnik Hangisflat in white and I am super grateful to have amazing group of friends who sneakily got the information out of me and chipped in and gifted it to me on my mini hen-do!

I wore statement diamond earrings which I owned already but they looked good with the dress!

ADVICE FOR BRIDES:

I mentioned earlier. My advice is don’t choose the dress by design, choose with your personality. It is your who will make the dress look gorgeous and not the other way around.