Review: Wedding Dresses Part 1

I bet by this time, it is no longer a secret and that most of you already knew that my solemnization and reception dresses were made by the most sought after, young and talented Unaisah Azlan.

When the uber talented Shaliza Mokhtar got married and did her review on her wedding dresses by Unaisah back in 2008, I was smitten by her dresses as I share the exact same sentiment with her. In her entry she wrote;

I knew that I wanted to wear something different than those lacey, heavily beaded kebaya or kurung that are so beautiful but let’s face it, every second bride in Malaysia wears almost the same thing.

And I vowed to myself that when my time finally comes, I will look for Unaisah. Years passed by and her name actually slipped from my mind. When I was still planning for my engagement in January, I read in one of the bride-to-be blog with the name Unaisah mentioned. Some how, the name ring a bell but I couldn't grasp where I first heard it. Then I remembered that Shaliza's entry and I immediately emailed Unaisah to book the slot. As I recall, she was quite eager when I mentioned that I first heard about her in Shaliza's blog and even more eager when I mentioned that my dresses (initially) are inspired from the 70's hippy bohemian era.

Well, what can I say, I am a hippy bohemian girl at heart.

Even in January she's already booked until July 2010. I was keeping my fingers crossed for the available slot. Then finally in early July we met up and she's this very friendly and bubbly girl. It was so easy to deal with her and I have only good things to say about her.

When we first met, I showed her all of the pictures that I had compiled as the inspiration for the dresses. I told her that I intended not to have lace, (heavy) beading or anything typical for my dresses. I want to have that minimalist, clean, elegant and sophisticated look that when I am old and fugly, I can look back at my wedding dress and found that it still looks relevant. Wah, berangan nak mampus. Ya ampun, poyonya aku. HAHA.

I also told her that I love pleats so much and wanted to incorporate that into the dress.

Weeks later, Unaisah emailed me her 3 pages full of sketches, each dress so unique and pretty that I have hard time choosing! I chose the simplest design for solemnization dress. The reception dress was a mix and match from 3 different designs then combined into one.

Months passed by and I was anxious about the outcome. I also had a mixed feeling because let's face it, my (reception) dress is not exactly wedding-ly apart from the colour. I know that the design is so me but I am afraid of the perception of others especially the elders. But boy, when I laid down my eyes on the dresses for the first time, I instantly felt in love with them though I had doubt about the solemnization dress at first.

The Solemnization DressIt a kurung moden with (initially) batwing sleeves. At first, I don't like the fact that it overly accentuate the broadness of my shoulder but Unaisah luckily understood and had them altered. It has simple and minimal beading around the waist and sleeves with a flared bottom. The material is french crepe because I wanna run away from the usual flowy chiffon. I love the material because it's heavy that the bottom falls nicely.
I know that for the fact that I didn't want to wear any veil during the nikah ceremony but felt like it's gonna be too bare without any. So I had Unaisah custom made my tudung for nikah. It is a long selendang with patch lace border around the face area and at the corner.

People commented how I "looked" like Hana Tajima during my solemnization. Seriously, I am flattered because Hana is so uberly pretty and stylish and I am not even close. Hehe. The idea of wearing the selendang like that is pretty spontaneous when one day I played with it during fitting session with Unaisah that she commented that I should wear mine exactly like that. So I did. And couldn't be happier especially when H commented how pretty I looked. Trust me, he rarely give such compliments so I was over the moon when he actually said those words. Yeah, I am such a sucker! Hehe


Coming up next, the review on the reception dress that I love to bits!

All photos via Fadza Ishak (official photographer)