Some brides have a very specific idea of what they want to wear when they get married. They’ve got a signature style or a beloved designer whose work they’ve endlessly pinned, or they were that little girl who always dreamed of a fairytale wedding. Yet there are also plenty of women whose idea of what they thought they wanted, versus what they actually ended up choosing, can be two very different things. In many ways, everyone’s bridal style journey is as unique as the wedding itself.
© Matthew WalshSuch was the case for the model and creative producer, Emory Ault, who wed her actor beau Nick Blood in Liverpool in June 2023. “I always thought I’d go vintage,” she shares. “I wear a lot of vintage clothing and I love that old-school aesthetic, especially the silhouette of the 1920s. I also liked the idea of not making something new for the occasion from an environmental perspective. The great irony of course being that that is exactly what I did end up doing!”
"You should feel like the best version of yourself, and wear whatever makes you feel the most confident"
Despite having the vague idea that she might go archival for her wedding dress, and having a Pinterest board to prove it, Ault ended up commissioning a bespoke design from the Australian bridalwear designer, KHYA by Khya Scott. “I’d modelled in her 2020 campaign so I knew her designs intimately and also that we got on really well,” she explains. “I reached out when I got engaged to see if she’d like to work on a dress together and amazingly she said yes. It was such an amazing opportunity to create something bespoke that even though I’d wanted to wear vintage for my whole life, it felt like something I had to do.”
© Matthew Walsh
© Matthew WalshThe only kicker? The time difference. “There were a lot of early morning and late night calls,” she explains. “And we did manage to meet up a few times when we were both in New York for work or she was in London. But it was a really collaborative process with lots of back and forth. In the end, we created something that reflected both of us.”
One of Khya’s dresses in particular has prompted Ault to reach out – the Palomar, with its mermaid skirt and short train. “I’m not one of those women who has always dreamed of her wedding dress,” she explains. “But when I wore that dress for the shoot, I just had a moment, a spark, I knew I wanted to wear it for my wedding one day.”
© Matthew Walsh"I wouldn’t change anything about my wedding day look"
With her heart set on the Palomar’s skirt, it was just a matter of working out what she wanted the top part of the dress to look like. Tackling it like a jigsaw puzzle, she started trying on all of Khya’s dresses, seeing which top half might go best with the bottom she wanted. At one point, Scott flew to London with the samples of all of everything for Ault to try on, but nothing felt quite right. “We ended up actually creating something that was completely new and not in her collection,” explains Ault. “It was a high-neck, butterfly-sleeve top, inspired by one I loved by Victoria Beckham a few seasons before. It matched with the skirt perfectly and created the timeless yet modern look I wanted.”
The finishing touch was a simple veil, clipped into her hair, which Scott embroidered with hibiscus flowers from Ault’s native Hawaii, and some English foliage to represent her husband’s family. “I wouldn’t change anything about my wedding day look, but we could perhaps have gone bigger on the embroidery,” she says now.
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© Matthew WalshFor her accessories, Ault opted for vintage and borrowed pieces, reflecting her style philosophy. “I wore a beautiful pair of statement orchid earrings, which my mother had bought me from a vintage shop,” she explains. “My grandmother loaned me a multiple-pearl strand bracelet with a green stone in the centre, one she’d actually let to about eight other brides in our family before!” And the shoes? “They were by Marc Jacobs and a £30 bargain from Vinted!” she says. “They were a playful element – they had these balls on the toe which peeped out from under the train of the dress.”
Despite loving fashion, Ault decided not to change into a second gown, but instead prioritised her wedding day look itself and to maximise the time she had in it. “It had a bustle so that we could pull up the train in the evening when we were dancing and pin it at the back,” she explains. “I got really excited about that bustle!”
© Matthew WalshAs someone who works in fashion, there were lots of different brides that Ault thinks she could have been – after all, she grew up fantasising about Elie Saab’s ethereal gowns but often wears a lot of tailoring, so a Bianca Jagger moment wasn’t out of the question. “I was actually very close to buying a really princessy dress,” she shares. “It was strapless with a huge skirt, completely the opposite of what I ended up wearing. But ultimately, I think for our setting, in the glass house of the botanical gardens, what I wore made the most sense.” More recently, she gave her husband heart palpitations when she saw another bridal gown with a belt she loved. “He was like, ‘oh God, are we going to have to get married again!’” she laughs. “I wish I’d had that belt.”
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Her advice to any brides-to-be is to stick to their usual style identity and not to try anything crazy on their big day. “You should feel like the best version of yourself, and wear whatever makes you feel the most confident,” she says. “And if that’s a crazy couture avant-garde Cinderella dress, then do it. Follow your intuition. Don’t go against the grain. When we were designing the dress, Khya always emphasised how important it was for me to feel like myself. As a model, you are so used to putting on someone else’s vision of you, so I had to put that feeling aside and focus on what felt the most authentically ‘me’”.
