Luxury wedding dress designer Mara Marie is one of the sweetest I have ever met, and has such a talent for design. As part of my blogging series where I share with you other wedding vendors and venues, I had to write a blog about her.
Destinations with Dana
Hi, there! Welcome to another blog post where I share with you some of my favorite wedding vendors I have worked with. My name is dana, and I am a destination wedding photographer. Since 2018, I have been photographing weddings all over the U.S and now, in Europe and Japan.
I truly love what I do. I get to wake up, and serve incredible couples getting married. Whether I am their wedding photographer already, or sharing inspiring wedding imagery to couples who are newly engaged. You will find me sharing all things weddings and travel on my Instagram and here on the blog.
Today’s blog is about Mara Marie Bridal. I met her back in the UK when I attended my first ever AMV retreat. Throughout 2022, I got to see her and her business flourish. She’s a luxury wedding dress designer, a great friend, and an inspiring artist.
Luxury Wedding Dress Designer
Mara’s desire to design her own dress light started way back in 9th grade. She took a home economics class (something I also took in High School), and had her epiphany right then and there. Design wedding dresses. For 15 years, she never gave up on her dream as a luxury wedding dress designer. For going on 7 years now, she has fulfilled her desire to create beautiful wedding dresses. Even after all this time, she still smiles with glee when a bride asks her to design a wedding dress for them.
I got to know Mara over the last 15 months or so. I loved following along on her journey as a true luxury wedding dress designer who serves her brides well. By reading some of her reviews, I could fully understand where they were coming from. Mara listens to her brides. She creates a dress that not only fulfills their vision, but also designs a dress that is comfortable to dance in! To me, that is the best of both worlds. I have seen this all first hand as she worked at the retreat in Greece to the point where our model was made for the Athena gown.
In truth, Mara is an inspiring artists. From the get-go, she has worked hard to get where she is today. Hard work, the spirit of imagination, an eye for true editorial bridal beauty, and a personality that makes anyone feel comfortable being themselves around her. It’s why she is the only dress designer I will be featuring for my destination brand and why I will refer all my future brides to her if they are looking for a true Bespoke designer.
Athena
The process to design a dress is like a painter with a clean canvas. Mara always starts with a mannequin and uses fabric that simply sparks inspiration. She created the Athena gown for our recent retreat in Greece. Perfect name of the dress, I know. Especially since our model, Masha, is full of wisdom and beauty. To Mara, she loved how the feathers moved in the wind. Loose and freely. Just like a spirit when visiting Santorini and seeing the sunset for the first time along the Aegean Sea.
When designing the Athena gown, she used the location in mind for a way to design the dress. Santorini is all white. So, she wanted to add flexible texture that not only flows in the wind, but looked stunning in front of the white, washed out buildings of the resort. I never even thought of that being a consideration, so again, another true talented idea right there.
Adding organza petals, soft tulle, and pearls brought this gown to life. Athena was perfect for our bride Masha, our location at Rocabella Santorini, and for the perfect golden hour sun that set along the sea with a warm breeze that evening.
Luxury Wedding Dress Designer
Whether you are getting married in Europe, or the United States (or anywhere really), I would look into Mara Marie Bridal. Having your own wedding dress that was made personally by a bride herself will only give you an experience made just for you. Your own dress. That no one else has. That to me, is worth investing in.
To reach out and learn more about her, you can head to her IG here or her website here.
Now, let me share a few more of my favorite images of Athena!
