"The Art of Bridal"

Having a dress designed and made for you is a great way to cut down the amount of people who handle your dress. No trying on lots of worn sample dresses and pushy sales. No visiting lots of shops and coming into contact with lots of people. Made in the UK not China. The way I work has not changed apart of the the obvious mask, visor and hand sanitizer. The Blades Studio is an isolated environment set in open countryside, it is a studio design experience rather than a bridal boutique. Giving you what you want in the most efficient way. I do not and have never had lots of people in and out of the studio as it is both my sanctuary and a safe place for my cherished customers. Your dress is designed and made specifically for you . You will have your own toile made for you and then try on your own dress . None of these will be tried by anyone else at any time . At this time I will be focusing on bespoke customers only and not alterations to limit the number of customers at the studio. If you would normally travel into London to shop for occasion wear this may be your best solution. Please check availability for intimate weddings and occasion wear for events taking place within 6 weeks. Please note that Wedding dresses can be designed in a way that they can be worn twice giving the bride two different looks for both intimate wedding and larger wedding. Alternatively we can make two separate outfits if required. Please respect my isolated environment and only visit if you are feeling well. If you are from a very high restricted area please postpone . Please either come on your own or with just one other individual. I look forward to hearing from you . Thank you for helping me keep my cherished studio safe and consistently creating your dreams Take care Catherine

Society is being squeezed right now . I’d like to think that we are heading towards a new structure of society that works way better than our current system but that’s the optimist in me. All I know is historically after any Great Depression comes a Renaissance. Today I’m sharing a Blades art piece we did in June after lockdown. This surreal Salvador Dali inspired piece reflects the squeeze of consciousness and time. The narrow balance of making the right decisions and being pulled through the eye of a needle to a better future. Photography - Edit - www.samlucas.co.uk

Shortly before lockdown we were so priviledged to work with the fabulous team at Rock n Roll Bride Magazine again. This time around a kitsch Elton inspired shoot was the order of the day, bright, brash and bold, and oh so glamourous. Thank you again to Cat, Lisa Devlin and Alex at Bijou Bride for creating such an awesome set of images.

Catherine Blades is a force to be reckoned with, a powerhouse and true boss babe who founded a company of the same name. Catherine Blades Couture , award winning wedding dress designer, exploring the world of art, love and female consciousness and a name that should be on everybody’s lips. When you think wedding, you need to think Catherine Blades Couture. Catherine Blades provides a fully bespoke service creating stunning wedding gowns and occasion wear that are unique to every client. Her intimate knowledge of cut and fit set her apart from other designers. She is a highly skilled dressmaker, taking your ideas and transforming them into the dress of your dreams. The warmth and personal service you will receive at the Blades Bridal studio makes having a dress designed and made by her a truly wonderful experience, one that has her clients feeling at ease, and thoroughly enjoying the process from beginning to end. Catherine learned her craft with some top name designers, including Alexander McQueen, and over the past 20 years has refined her skills to become a couture dressmaker, designing and hand crafting exquisite gowns using a mix of traditional and modern techniques, luxurious fabrics and stunning embellishments. Catherine designs with innovation, and her creations are cutting edge. Catherine works from the beautiful Blades Bridal studio, set in the tranquil countryside on the Berkshire/Hampshire border. All dresses are designed, made and fit by Catherine personally and her attention to detail leave her clients owning a truly stunning bespoke gown. Catherine is not just a couture designer. She is an artist in her own right, creating stunning works of contemporary art and exploring the art of bridal in a totally different way. Her work as an artist allows her to bring that creative vision to her design work, which sets her apart from so many other designers. Here, we spent some time with Catherine to find out more…

Contending with restrictions on numbers and large wedding cancellations in recent months, the popularity of small and intimate weddings has increased no end. Small and beautiful venues are coming into their own, and with destination weddings often resulting in only close friends and family as guests, the intimate wedding is on the up. But intimate doesn't mean less important. A small wedding doesn’t mean you require anything less important than the dress of your dreams .

Emma and Matt wanted a rustic, country style wedding, and when beginning their search for the perfect venue, they stumbled upon Almonry Barn in Muchelney, Somerset. The barn really brought their rustic wedding dream to life, and it was the only venue they fell in love with straight away. Their summer wedding was booked at their dream venue, and it was on to the planning.

Adam and Emily planned their sunny destination nuptuals in the gorgeous South of France, and it didn't disappoint. Emily fills us in on the planning, details and their romantic Chateau wedding. The Venue We had driven around France a couple of times prior to the wedding and adore skiing in France. The people had always been extremely welcoming so it was an area that we thought made a lot of sense. If it wasn’t France it would have been cornwall and in honesty, what we paid for the chateau for three nights is what we would have ended up paying for a venue in cornwall for 11 hours. With that, the fact that we could almost guarantee the good weather and the travel time was pretty much the same as our london based friends to cornwall then it made a lot of sense. This particular venue just tugged at the heart strings. We had searched around online and found a few different chateau’s in this vague area but this one always looked fabulous. From looking at the pictures we had both agreed that if it was as good as it looked we would go for it. On arrival to look around I have to say that it was even more striking than the photos do justice. It really is a stunning venue and somewhere we still feel hugely fortunate to have found. We did some shopping around online to try and find the ideal place and just came across this one randomly. The thing we loved about Chateu de Lisse is that the venue had a chapel so people just needed to get to one location (at least anyone that wasn’t staying on site). That and the fact that it was a truly fabulous view out at the back of the chateau which is what we would look over for our wedding breakfast. We were fortunate that the Chateau itself housed the entire bridal party and as we only had 80 coming to the wedding itself this didn’t leave a huge number to find accomodation. Thankfully, Jo (our aforementioned wedding planner) had a shortlist of places that she recommended people should stay. On our drive over to search out wines we stayed at the place that would accommodate most of the other guests and it was delightful. Jo really made this very easy for us in this sense. All we did was listed these venues on our website and let people book directly. We organised for a bus to pick people up on the afternoon of the wedding and bring people to the venue with two of the ushers onboard to check that everyone made it on and up to the venue.

Patricia and Joe married in the stunning Italian sunshine, surrounded by close friends and family.