Ailsa Munro – Your bespoke bridal dressmaker

Your bespoke bridal dressmaker

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"Some of the loveliest, most enchanting gowns I've ever seen"

- Claire Gould, The English Wedding Blog

Hi, I’m Ailsa – an award-winning wedding dress designer, working with brides from Devon and Cornwall, the South West, and all over the United Kingdom. I lovingly hand craft made-to-measure, bespoke dresses for brides – all for no greater cost than an off-the-rack boutique dress.

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About Ailsa

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Award winning bespoke wedding dresses. For if you want to look like you're on the cover of a romance novel, or feel like a whimsical woodland fairy

A few from my sewing room this year ❤️✂️🪡🧵

One of these things is not like the others 😂👀 wait for the end

When you create a pin on pinterest you can see the names of the boards people save them to! These are some of my most popular pins. I'll link to my pinterest in my stories 😍

Note for 2025 brides 2025 brides seem to be booki

Note for 2025 brides

2025 brides seem to be booking things nearer to their weddings, I'm getting an unprecedented number of enquiries for next spring still and I'm trying to juggle all of them in a fair order and it's taking me a little while to get through, particularly with backlog from having been out of action sick last month. My two things to take away from this,
1- if you haven't paid a deposit, you're not officially booked and I may end up booking out my diary in the meantime
2- if you want to make sure you get the suppliers you really love, book earlier rather than later! I have still got space for spring and summer bookings, please do get in touch soon if you are interested.

I understand that there's an inherent irony in my

I understand that there's an inherent irony in my sustainable fashion crusade when my entire profession is making dresses for single occasions. I love beautifully made clothing and there is little to none of that in mainstream fashion, which is part of why I love bridal! It's a rare opportunity in today's clothing landscape where people are willing to spend enough to pay garment workers a living wage- although this is not always where the money goes.
The fashion industry is hugely labour dependent, with 1 in 8 people globally working in fashion and 80% of those being women. I have found in my work recently that a lot of brides are going on to buy their own sewing machines and learning to make their own clothes because having their wedding dress made for them has given them a new passion and understanding.
Buy sustainable clothing, make your own, mend what you have, and for the love of the planet don't buy a single use halloween costume.

A little behind the scenes from St Ives yesterday

A little behind the scenes from St Ives yesterday
No one could have modelled this dress like @rachaelovvy did, and it was such a joy to be out with Work Wife and chosen sister @lyraandmothphotography

@weddingsatstivesguildhall @tidetheknotweddingplanning @thesaltyblonde_stylist @3acreblooms

Me *claims not to have favourite dresses* Also me

Me *claims not to have favourite dresses*
Also me *celebrates this dress' anniversary every year*

Happy 5th anniversary Sarah & Sarah's dress
@novaweddingphotography

This dress is such a beautiful collection of the t

This dress is such a beautiful collection of the things I love- gorgeous matt ivory silk, movement, drape and sweet detailing combined to make the snow white princess look straight from a daydream 🥰🥰🥰

As always, my girl @lyraandmothphotography did a phenomenal job telling the story of the day in these beautiful photos 🥰🥰🥰

🥰 this dress makes me do girly giggles. The Low

🥰 this dress makes me do girly giggles. The Lowenna dress on Lowenna the human.

A follow up to my recent semi-viral reel, A coupl

A follow up to my recent semi-viral reel,

A couple of weeks ago I shared a reel that said the worst thing you can do with your wedding dress is leave it dirty; the dirt often has a chemical impact on the dress and so the longer it's left it can damage the fibres of the silk. I am not saying this to make people feel guilty for leaving their dress dirty! What I'm trying to say is that if you wash your dress; in a bath, washing machine or by having it dry cleaned, and it is damaged by the cleaning process that you do not have to feel guilty! If you had not washed the dress, you would have an unusable, dirty dress and so any gamble is worth the risk.

My preference for washing your dress-
Wash in the bath with a little gentle non-bio laundry detergent. Gently swoosh it around and let the dirt soak out. However, if you're reading that thinking "ah yes, I'll get around to that eventually", a machine wash today is better than a bath wash you never get around to.

I loved making this dreamy ivory wedding dress 😍 the movement, sweet details and fabric worked so beautifully together and Lucy made a beautiful bride.

Thanks as ever to @lyraandmothphotography for taking these beautiful photos 🥰😍

From an initial enquiry, through the moodboard, th

From an initial enquiry, through the moodboard, the sketch and then the finished wedding dress 🥰🥰🥰 can't wait to share more from Lucy's beautiful wedding.

Cover some buttons for a new design with me 🥰

Cover some buttons for a new design with me 🥰

A dress and a sketch 🍂🍁🧡 I absolutely lo

A dress and a sketch 🍂🍁🧡

I absolutely love these Anne Of Cleeves sleeves done in beautiful embroidered tulle lace. The pleating and covered button detail on this dress were so sweet and special!

🩷🩷🩷 this pink dress is a perfect mix betw

🩷🩷🩷 this pink dress is a perfect mix between Princess and the Swan and Bride of Dracula. Holly wanted something she could re wear, so we opted for simple square neckline dress under a chiffon gown which can both be shortened and worn again and again.

I've had a bit of time the last few days to tear t

I've had a bit of time the last few days to tear through my book, "souvenirs" by Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun. Its the personal memoir of Elisabeth written in 1830s about her time as the favoured portrait artist of Marie Antoinette and then her life after the French revolution. She's got a reputation in art history for being a charming lady and I have to say it shines through in the book beautifully, she has so many cute sweet stories (sitting on a painting palette in a white dress! Accidentally yelling at the King of Poland! Dressing her pals up as ancient Romans for a party!) And it's just been a delightful read. Heavily reccomend.

Paintings 1&2- self portraits
Paintings 3,4&5 - gal pal Marie Antoinette
Paintings 6&7- frenemy Emma Hamilton, thot who later snagged Nelson

Reflecting on my busy busy year and thinking about

Reflecting on my busy busy year and thinking about how lucky I am to have my business. I'm so grateful to the brides who took a chance on me in those first 3 years! I still have so much love for those early brides who made my business what it is, who were so generous sharing their feedback and their photos.

Rating tools that live on my sewing table 🩷 I h

Rating tools that live on my sewing table 🩷
I haven't included my mannequin in this rating because there aren't mean enough words to describe how much I hate mannequins so I thought maybe just don't start.

I loved making this linen gown for Heidy ❤️❤

I loved making this linen gown for Heidy ❤️❤️ she had such a gorgeous vision for this romantic dreamy day, and @lyra_and_moth and I got to work together to make it happen ❤️❤️

I've been in this game a long time and the advice

I've been in this game a long time and the advice I now give my brides is to machine wash their dress, inside out on a cool setting, the week after their wedding.
Why? Because the absolute worst thing you can do is leave it with all the dirt on it. Even if you think it's clean, quite often people find that when it comes out of the bag a year or two later a big mark has appeared where a clear liquid has eaten away at the fabric. Silk HATES anything acidic, like soil or sweat, and it doesn't do well with basic fluid like sea water either.
Of course, you can have it dry cleaned, but my kinds of brides tend not to be that organised and even dry cleaning is a risk so my advice is (usually) to just machine wash it.
And if you're still not convinced, I used to work in a boutique that charged £200 for its specialist cleaning service, which was..... washing it inside out on a gentle cycle.

Much Ado About Nothing 1993 I think it's telling t

Much Ado About Nothing 1993
I think it's telling that this was the last movie Phyllis Dalton ever worked on because its fucking perfection. Is it historically accurate? Not at all! But the vibes are fucking immaculate. I love the sheer fabrics, the silhouettes, the nods to historical costume, the 90s hair, the way these dresses move, it's PERFECT and I basically am a sneaky Much Ado fan account because I'm always trying to recapture this vibe in my wedding dresses.

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