Real bride wedding dress shopping at Carolyn Baxter

Hollie married Sam at Vegas’s A Little White Chapel on 7th February 2024, wearing a custom creation from bespoke bridal designer Carolyn Baxter.

The Carolyn Baxter bride shares a first-hand account of her wedding dress design story and doesn't leave out any details...

When did you first start wedding planning?

"For Sam and I, the idea of getting married in Vegas had always lingered in the back of our minds. 

"We’d been together 10 years and really wanted to go on holiday there anyway. So, while we weren’t engaged – or even looking to plan a wedding – it became a case of will we go to Vegas? And shall we just get married while we’re there?

"Yes was the answer to both..." 

Did you tell anyone about your Vegas elopement plans?

"The entire elopement was done in secret, so we didn’t tell any of our family or friends before we left: it was just us and our little boy, Cass, who came with us. Minimal fuss and faff were exactly what we wanted.

"We booked a time slot at the chapel in Las Vegas and a USA-based photographer, By Brianna Marie (who was amazing!), so all that we had to organise in Scotland was what we each wanted to wear."

What should a bride do if she's not interested in having the full wedding dress shopping experience?

"I knew from the outset that I didn’t want to trail around ten different shops doing the whole ‘wedding dress shopping’ thing, so about five months before going to the States, I started browsing potential wedding dresses online. 

"It became clear to me quite quickly that I wanted to design something myself and have it made for me."

When it comes to your wedding dress, and, most importantly, how you feel in it we’d argue there’s absolutely no room for compromise. Read more in confidence without compromise: bridalwear edition

What wedding dress style did you envision yourself wearing?

"I knew I wanted to wear a mini dress, but I also had my heart set on a full-on cathedral-length veil I’d fallen in love with from Etsy (it had scalloped pearl edges and added embroidery – a dream!). 

"I found that a lot of the shorter dresses I came across just seemed too casual and more suited to a hen do than to wear with a veil like that."

How did you decide on your custom wedding dress designer?

"Luckily, I’d been following talented Edinburgh bridal and event dressmaker Carolyn Baxter on social media for about seven years. 

"I own a beauty salon that offers prom hair and makeup as one of its services, so I’d become familiar with a lot of Carolyn’s prom work over the years and liked what I saw.

"Her name came to mind almost immediately, so I got in touch with my ideas. After I sent over my initial ideas and a couple of inspiration photos from Pinterest, designing the dress was quite a quick process.

"I was relaxed about the whole experience and happy to let Carolyn work her magic!"

What was the Carolyn Baxter custom dress design process like?

"To avoid having to travel to the Edinburgh shop too many times, Carolyn sent me a lot of videos of samples and different swatches to get my initial thoughts. 

"By the time I went in for my first fitting in October 2023, the dress was ready for me to try on!

"Alongside the veil I brought along myself, she added so many extra bits – from new sparkly add-on sleeves, to a detachable overskirt we’d envisioned in the initial sketch – for me to try.

"As the ceremony was going to be so short (only six minutes) having an array of detachable elements meant that I’d be able to get a variety of different photos of all the switched-up looks."

Do you have to bring someone wedding dress shopping?

"I went to both the initial October fitting and the final January fitting on my own. 

"I would happily have brought Sam – and I actually kind of wanted his opinion because no-one else knew – but whether he wanted to stick to ‘tradition’, or actually just wasn’t interested (haha!), I’m not sure... he just told me that he wanted to wait to see me wearing it in Vegas.

"Thankfully, Carolyn was a supportive substitute." 

Is it expensive to have a bespoke wedding dress made?

"I expected the dress to be more expensive than off-the-peg options, but I found the cost very reasonable.

"I never felt I had to awkwardly enquire about any prices, as Carolyn clearly made me aware of any extra costs when we were adding accessories or making tweaks so I could stay within budget.

"She made the whole experience straightforward and was a joy to work with. Both Sam and I were thrilled with the end result and I wouldn’t change a thing about it."

Carolyn Baxter's custom wedding dress design process

Designer Carolyn Baxter weighed in on the process, telling us: "As soon as I saw Hollie’s inspiration pictures I was excited! They were right up my street aesthetically, and I knew we’d be on the same wavelength with the outcome.

My custom design process is always led by the client and starts with a sketch.

Often brides-to-be who come to me are looking for something that little bit different – something they haven’t seen already – my goal is to help them turn the vision they have in their head into a reality."

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