Retrospective: My years as a custom picture frame craftsman

In last week’s post, I mentioned that I no longer have a day job.  You may not have known for the past 9+ years, while starting up and growing my dressmaking business, I spent my days working as a custom museum-quality picture frame craftsman.  I’ve often wanted to write a post about the similarities between […]

My Dress for Loula’s Wedding (pt. 2- Draft to Dancefloor)

Brooks Ann Camper Bridal Couture

Yes, I got to wear a wrist corsage! This is the second post about the creation of the dress that I wore to Loula’s wedding, shown above with my handsome husband Charles.  It’s an asymmetrical color-blocked wool sateen pencil dress.  You can see the inspirations and learn about the pattern drafting in my previous post. Caught […]

Meet Margaret!

Margaret's Mother of the Bride Dress by Brooks Ann Camper Bridal Couture

Happy 2013 everyone!!! I’ve been a little absent from the blog lately, but I’m really excited to finally introduce you to Margaret!  She will be wearing the next Brooks Ann Camper Bridal Couture original dress for her daughter’s wedding in March. Yes, I know that I normally only work with brides on bridal dresses, and […]

Retrospective: My Own Raw Silk & Cotton Lace Wedding Dress

Brooks Ann Camper Bridal Couture

Yes, I made my own wedding dress. After making his sister Katie’s wedding dress and his sister Melissa’s wedding dress, I got engaged to my wonderful amazing handsome husband Charles.  Our wedding was held on the afternoon of the Ides of March 2008.  It was our seven year Kissaversary. So what does the wedding dressmaker […]

Retrospective: Katie’s bias cut silk charmeuse wedding dress

Katie's custom wedding dress by Brooks Ann Camper Bridal Couture

  This is my gorgeous sister-in-law Katie.  She got married in 2006 and wore the very first Brooks Ann Camper Bridal Couture dress ever made.  Before the blog, before the website, before the logo, and almost before the studio, Katie accepted a wedding gift of a custom wedding dress, a feat I had never attempted […]

Finishing touches!

Hooray!  By this time, Greta and I were nearing the finish line for the completion of her custom creation! This will be just a quick blog post about some of the little hidden final details that often go into a Brooks Ann Camper Bridal Couture dress. One thing I always like to do is to […]

A Very Unique Accessory

A fun bride named Erin contacted me a while back about the possibility of creating a custom bouquet for her January wedding.  She loved the butterfly bouquet that I made for Jill last year (blog post about Jill’s bouquet can be found here) in the photo that is currently in the Add-On Services section of my […]

The Box

One thing I learned in graduate school was that a dress is never finished until you have a way to hang it, (meaning: don’t forget the hanger tapes).  In Leah’s case, we needed more than just a way to hang it, but a way to safely transport it all the way from Hillsborough, North Carolina […]