Caitlin Crisp’s fairytale wedding
Earlier this year, New Zealand fashion designer Caitlin Crisp tied the knot with Andrew Vincent, in the garden of his childhood home. Metropol Deputy Editor Nina Tucker caught up with Caitlin for all the details.
Like all good fairy tales, there’s a lot of thought, time, creativity, and planning that goes on behind the scenes to make the magic, as Caitlin discovered. Her dress inspiration was nothing short of the same. A long process, for a showstopping dress to walk the aisle in, while friends and family watched on wearing Caitlin Crisp designs too.
“I thought to myself, ‘What’s the most amazing, princessy dress I can possibly think of?’, and that’s what we made.” She adds it’s now the favourite of all her designs, even though creating her dream dress took some fine-tuning.“To start with, I wanted to have the fairy tale experience that other brides get, trying on stunning white dresses with a [glass of] bubbles in hand, and finding ‘the one’. After trying many on, I never had that moment.”
A fairy tale is also how Caitlin describes her love for Andrew, laughingly explaining that meeting him “was the best thing that’s ever happened to me”. Her wedding was “the perfect day”; truly indescribable. “Having all the people you care for the most surrounding you while you marry the love of your life, nothing
can top that.”
She laughs, saying that when emotional, people either become ‘gigglers’ or ‘criers’. “I am definitely a giggler, so my emotion just came out in a beaming smile the whole day.” That’s one tip she has for brides-to-be, “because with the right person, that’s all that matters”.
Together Caitlin and Andrew crafted a day so special to them, creating a lifetime of memories. Like most brides, Caitlin pre-planned for months to avoid hiccups on the day. On the night before, Caitlin shot up out of bed and yelled, her veil had been left back in the city. That, rain, and a car nearly not starting all added to the wedding’s character, a day of imperfect perfection.
Dress details
Caitlin’s gown used 200m of tulle and took a year to create with the help and hands of her friend Nolene. Sewing and crafting hoops from plumber’s pipe for the petticoat, Nolene worked on the physical dress, while Caitlin refined the design with each fitting.
She began with the dream of a frilly skirt and experimented with the bodice, originally designed to be detailed, but then pared back to highlight the skirt. Hidden buttons of different colours and sizes held special meaning, once belonging to her late grandmother.
Caitlin fell in love with what they created so much she didn’t want to change into any other outfit, so fitted a zip to remove half of the skirt following the ceremony, a bonus when such a warm day arrived.
Images: Stephan & Nakita Photography
