The Shelley Theatre is situated in Boscombe Manor, Shelley Park, Boscombe and was bought by Sir Percy Shelley for his mother, Mary Shelley, authoress of Frankenstein. After she died Sir Percy and his wife made Boscombe Manor their country home. A theatre was added to one end of the house which is now being renovated and used for various productions. Have a look at the work that is being done here at http://www.shelleytheatre.co.uk. We were lucky enough to be allowed to photograph one of our vintage inspired wedding dresses together with a small flower girl dress and we loved the way that the beautifully derelict background contrasted so well with the pristine white and blue of our dresses. The dresses are inspired by the 1950’s and made in lace, satin and tulle, both button at the back as zips were not in general use until the late 1950s. The fascinator was made to complement and is a circle of satin decorated with Swarovski pearls, blue feathers and lots of bridal veiling to make a proper birdcage veil which encloses the face, it fastens easily with a large clip on one side and a tiny one on the other decorated with an embellishment.
The theatre has at least three levels and this was a small room over the stage which probably was used as a dressing room. The view is lovely out of the window. The theatre is much bigger than you think with lots of twists and turns and there is plans to eventually make this into a wedding venue which will be fantastic.
The stairs are amazing, such beautiful wood and are in the corner of the stage leading up to the small room where we took the previous photos.
The stage is quite large and here you can see our lovely models, Tilly and Lois making full use of it.
Our models had fun
They also had a dance:-
and played the piano
Off to the side of the stage there was another small room.
The mirrors work so well, obviously used for make up and hair in stage performances but add an extra dimension to our photos. Here you can also see Lois’s hair, Jessica (my wonderful sister and hairdresser) did such a great job on both girls’ hair.
In the next photo you can see how well the fascinator sits on the head and is complemented by the hairstyle.
There is a lot of renovation work on the ground floor but in one area we found this superb armchair which proved to be an excellent backdrop for Lois.
The last photo of the morning we took outside.
As with the previous shoot, this was an unplanned extra and therefore there were no funds for a photographer. I do like to be on the sidelines directing however I again picked up my camera with my mother this time taking photos from different angles and I am very pleased with the final result.
When designing a dress for either a real bride or a photo shoot, I like to think of what will suit the person best which includes their shape, their personality and their preferences. On our website http://www.mimibespoke.com you can see real brides all dressed totally differently, all looking amazing because they all feel beautiful and happy in what they are wearing. There are so many advantages in having a dress made just for you, from the fit right through to the finished look, a bride can really be proud in knowing that they had a part in designing their dream dress and it is genuinely one of a kind.
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