This Bridal Designer Created Her Entire Wedding Wardrobe for Her Tropical Nuptials in Nevis

After years of creating custom bridal looks for clients, Alexis Levan Whelan said there was “no doubt” she would design her wedding wardrobe herself. Her engagement to Cooper Davis came just after she began running her brand full-time, and she was fully prepared to create a lineup of looks for her own celebration. “I had done all that groundwork finding the best ateliers, finding the best factories, and finding all the best laces,” she says.

“It was actually really beautiful to be engaged and go through that time with my clients.”
The wedding weekend would take place over three days on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean. The bride had a personal connection to the location as her aunt lived on the island and she visited with her family throughout her life. Alexis and Cooper knew it was a perfect fit for their wedding and began scouting venues for a full weekend of activities even before they got engaged.

Those visits helped Alexis begin to ideate her looks. “I love designing with a location in mind,” says the designer. “It just feels so much better to me. I feel more comfortable and more confident when I’m in a space and my outfit makes sense.”
Each event’s look had its own aesthetic that threaded together the story of the weekend. “I always like to balance out the looks,” she notes.

This ethos began with her welcome party dress

This ethos began with her welcome party dress. Alexis wanted it to have a sexy feel with a high-low hemline, delicate lace overlay, and an organza corset. “I really wanted some sheer element, so it felt light and floaty,” she says. “I did four iterations of the corset because I needed the inner structure to feel good but still look sheer.” While she began dreaming up her looks well in advance, Alexis didn’t finish draping the chiffon with her pattern maker until just a week before the wedding.

“I really love when things are organic and very hand-done, so I needed to put it on and exactly place where the pleating was,” explains the designer. “We hand-sewed it, and the whole thing came to life.”
The following day, the couple and their guests spent the afternoon celebrating at a rustic beach club complete with dips in the water and volleyball. Alexis took on the challenge of creating her first-ever bathing suit, along with a skirt and headscarf to cover up from the sun.

While on the hunt for fabric for another project, the bride found a hand-woven, tussar silk she fell in love with. While that project fell through, she was able to use that silk to craft her cover-up skirt. Her headscarf incorporated French lace and chiffon in a similar hue to tie it all together. “In designing the whole beach look, it had to be functional. I had to not pop out while I’m on the volleyball court, because I’m very competitive,” Alexis laughs.

To achieve this coverage, the designer created

To achieve this coverage, the designer created a piece with a halter neckline and tie closures. “I feel like with my collections in general, I like to add a lot of hardware,” she adds. “I used this gorgeous gold clasp at the back that felt sporty but still elevated. It was kind of the perfect balance of elevating a swimsuit and making it feel interesting enough, but while still feeling comfortable and able to move.”
Her wedding day would take place at the ruins of a church on the island, so Alexis hoped to bring that vintage romance to her ceremony look.

In a sense, the fabric she used to create the dress was “something borrowed.” Alexis connected with a bridal designer as she was shutting down her own business and was given garbage bags full of fabric to use for her growing brand. “My wedding dress fabric was in there, which I didn’t know at the time,” says the bride. “It’s a silk dupioni, so it has these raw rips in it, which is very me and true to my brand.

I like when things aren’t so perfect, and they had a vintage edge to them.”
Alexis thought about what she wanted to feature most—her décolletage and torso—and began draping on her own body. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna make sure I love the way this drapes in the real fabric instead of doing the muslin,’” she says. She found hardware to create a front closure along her midline and pulled extra lace she used to make her sister’s wedding dress to craft straps.

Her atelier helped bring everything together just

Her atelier helped bring everything together just as she planned. Alexis also began hunting for more lace to create a veil and purse, but it took time to find the right match. Two weeks ahead of the wedding, she figured it out. “I went to my favorite lace mill in New York, and I knew something there was gonna be perfect. I finally got to the lace I used, and I almost started crying,” she shares.

“Thank God I was in love with this!” When she finally got to wear the final product on her wedding day, she says, “I was so comfortable because everything was made to my body. I was just so happy and free to be in it.”
To end the night, the bride and groom hoped to dance on the sand next to a beachfront bar crafted from driftwood. When Alexis found a silver, beaded fabric reminiscent of fishnet, she knew it was the perfect material for her after-party location.

“I really just wanted to wrap it around my body,” says the designer. Unfortunately, the weight of the material scared away many seamstresses from working with it. A friend who is a technical designer came to her studio, and the two got brainstorming. The solution? The design was crafted in three different layers. First, a silver corset and shorts were made to create a base and lend extra shine to the look.

A second layer in the beaded fabric could

A second layer in the beaded fabric could adhere to the corset to secure the fabric. Finally, a third layer created dimension and draping with a long skirt that tied to the other layers. Alexis often had to hold this long, heavy material to keep from dragging in the sand. “I liked holding it while dancing,” says the bride. “It was a little prop to move with.”
Looking back, the bride notes how proud she was to not only pull off planning a wedding, but also to launch her brand and craft her entire bridal collection.

“My biggest takeaway is how much fun it was and how lucky I was to be able to do all of this,” she says. “Even though I did so much work, it’s just such a blink in time. I’ll never forget this year-and-a-half for so many reasons.”

Source: www.vogue.com