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Hey hey JoSaBi family!!! How are you guys today? Here’s to hoping your day is fun, productive albeit quarantined, and filled with laughter and loved ones. As always, please stay safe and home if you can, and our heart goes out to all the brides navigating uncertainty these days. We are right besides you, and sending you love and strength. Today, let’s chat about JoSaBi Sandrine and her glamorous custom mermaid wedding dress with long sleeves, adorned with a suuuuper long train!
A mermaid dress with long sleeves and bling: The story
Like it happened for our previous bride JoSaBi Aïcha, it was actually Sandrine’s sister Nadine that first came to JoSaBi. She was sent over as a referral from a previous bride, JoSaBi Carole. After chatting about the overall concept of the dress over a few weeks, she brought her sister over to get the conversation (re) started. Side note: it can be a great idea to design with a friend, by the way. Having a cheerleader who understands your vision and knows you well can be an asset, and can make designing the dress a great bonding experience. Sandrine and Nadine balanced each other very well, and working with them actually made the process easier and more fun.
Design
Sandrine and Nadine had a vision in mind, and we added more pieces to it as we went along. Indeed, the initial brief actually wasn’t a mermaid dress with long sleeves, but rather with a sleeveless mermaid wedding dress with BLING. Sandrine was pretty serious about her bling: she wanted to be seen “from 10 km away”! 😂 (We eventually settled on 1km.) She also wanted complexity in the design of the lace. We therefore chose a lace with little diamond patterns, and inter-wove it with swirl shaped lace motifs. (We later hand beaded those with sparkling crystals to add the required bling.)
As we progressed, Sandrine fell in love with a particular kind of skirt shape: large, lace- adorned, with deep structured pleats. Those made a unique statement, and definitely made her dress stand out. However, as we were moving forward with her mermaid wedding dress, Sandrine also felt that she would actually be more comfortable with long sleeves. We hence designed nude skin tulle sleeves and added lace at the wrists and shoulders, complete with crystal beading. She also opted to have her dress in pure white.
The final touch to the dress was the super long 1.75m (or 5.7 feet) train. Initially, we had actually opted for a 1m train (as you will see in the production clip). However, after perusing our social media pages and keeping up with all of our creations, she changed her mind. We encourage all brides- to- be to follow us on Instagram, as we share new styles weekly. As a matter of fact, JoSaBi Yasmin also used the designs on our page to refine her vision.
Sandrine and Nadine both agreed that something longer than 1m was needed for our glamorous bride. Turns out, Sandrine actually always wanted a train of royal proportions. As a result, we pushed the length to 1.75 m to make her dream come true. We also added lace and beading details at the edge of the train. The final look of the dress was unique and dramatic, yet comfortable.
The final touch to her long sleeve mermaid wedding dress was the super long 1.75m (5.7 feet) train!
Creating Sandrine’s Long Sleeve Mermaid Wedding Dress
We kicked off Sandrine’s dress in mid-June. The dress progressed pretty fast, and the first week of August, we had most of the laces pinned up. The shape of the dress was coming along, and we sent Sandrine a video to check things out.
A few weeks later in October, Sandrine’s mermaid wedding dress with long sleeves was completed! It was shipped to Sandrine via express mail, and she received it within a week. She needed to tighten the sleeves a bit, but after those minor alterations, the dress was ready for the big day!
Wedding Day
Sandrine’s wedding took place on December 14th. Her whole look was perfect: hair, makeup and shoes were all flawless. Her mermaid wedding dress with long sleeves looked amazing and royal; the train fanned out behind her, the bodice was full of sparkle, and the pleats were gorgeous. The finishing touches to her look were blue details; her satin shoes and bouquet were the perfect “something blue” additions. Her squad wore a traditional Burkinabè fabric called Koko Donda, in blue hues as well. She looked radiant, confident and 100% perfect. More something blue ideas here and here, in case you are looking for some!
Final thoughts
Thanks so much Sandrine and Nadine for trusting JoSaBi! We had a blast working together and it was so rewarding to see your dress shape up, day by day. We had fun experimenting with different looks (the long sleeves turned out to be a great addition to the wedding dress), and it was overall an amazing experience designing with you guys. Thanks also Nadine for the review, as Sandrine is not on social media much. 🥰
If you’ve read so far, thanks so much for hanging out with us today!
As usual, we are available via email for any questions. Please leave us a comment if you loved Sandrine’s story, and book a free consultation if you are ready to bring your dream wedding dress to life!
Thanks as always for your time, and until next time– stay safe, stay home, and wash your hands. More info on the Coronavirus here; let’s protect our families and healthcare workers by doing our part and being careful.
See you next time for another dress adventure!
Team:
- Makeup: Makeup By Elsa
- Photography: Groupe Esprit Communication
- Hair: So Nice Institut
- Bouquet: Le Bouquet de La Mariée
- Cake: Ammi’s Fabulous Cakes
