Aïcha T.’s Custom Wedding Dress

February 9, 2019
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Bride

Aïcha T.’s custom wedding dress

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the JoSaBi Blog! I hope you are having a stellar day, with fun and snacks (…as snacks equal happiness in my eyes ). We have a classic gem to chat about today: our JoSaBi Aïcha. She chose JoSaBi Mariées as a partner for her February 2019 wedding in Burkina Faso. Her dress is one of the most popular of all time on our social media pages, and you will see why below. It really embodies grace and glamour, with its delicate lace bodice and decorated sleeves. Let’s dive right into JoSaBi Aïcha’s wedding dress journey!

Aïcha T.’s Custom Wedding Dress

Custom dress design

Her sister Farida is actually the one who discovered JoSaBi Mariées (via our Facebook page). She vetted us for a couple of days before formally introducing us to the bride. During that time, we managed to nail a general style story down, based on what Farida knew her sister wanted. Therefore, by the time we started chatting with Aïcha, we already had a solid idea of what she was looking for in her custom wedding dress. Aïcha was all about class and details. She wanted a mermaid wedding dress with tiny lace patterns, a fitted bodice and a slightly flared bottom with a lace edge and a long train (we settled on 1 m). She wanted some shine, but mostly subtle accents in the center of the bodice; the rest of her wedding dress was to purely be about fit and craftsmanship, with pure white lace (more about wedding dress colors here). After initially opting for short sleeves, she ended up falling in love with the idea of skin-colored tulle sleeves with lace details. We hence changed the style to ¾ sleeves with lace appliqués. Accessory wise, the veil she chose took the already lovely look to regal status: a classic cathedral length veil with matching lace all-around. Just- ugh. Love.

Creation

We started creating Aïcha’s JoSaBi wedding dress around the end of October, when she placed her order. The work started off with a draft bodice (so we could nail the shape of the bust down). Aïcha approved it before we really kicked off the work. And, yes this was just a draft- the dress did not have blue lining!

Once we had Aïcha’s green light to move forward, we pinned each tiny lace piece to the dress, and completed half of the beading for her to get an idea of where everything was headed; it took our team close to a month (maybe a little more) to put all the little pieces of lace down on the bodice, and the result with the little pins was actually awesome (I find that sight weirdly satisfying , am I the only one?) I will note that the actual production of this dress was a breeze, as we had taken a lot of time to go over all the details in the beginning (which is why we love our free bridal consultations!). All the specifications were set with the bride from the get-go, which made her feedback in-between steps always super light.

After she approved the first set of images, we carried on and completed the custom wedding dress around mid-January. It was shipped over to her via DHL express, and arrived in Burkina Faso 5 days later. Her fitting went well. She had lost a little bit of weight, and our team tightened up the dress to her new measurements and had it ready for her a few days later.

Wedding

She looked soooo beautiful and happy on her wedding day! We loved receiving the little video below, as well as some of her bridal portraits.

She was also awesome during the whole process: communicative, sweet, patient and just so kind. She told when she was traveling or otherwise unavailable, so we could always reach her easily. Making her dress was an absolute pleasure, and seeing her joy in the end was the best reward. Corny, but 100% true.

Thanks again Aïcha for choosing us, blessing us with your lovely personality, and for being such a sweet bride. The whole JoSaBi team wishes you all the happiness in the world, and we remain incredibly grateful you picked us for your custom wedding dress. Thanks again Mrs. Congo!!!!