Wedding dress project revisits bridal wear 30 years on

For many the key moment during today's royal wedding will be the moment Kate emerges from her car and her wedding dress is revealed.

Whatever the design, it's a reflection of both the bride and the fashions of the time. Photographer Leticia Valverdes has been exploring this issue by inviting women who married more than three decades ago to be photographed wearing their old wedding dresses once more. As Leticia notes: "Husbands might have gone, but the dress remains."

The dress carries with it memories, and for that one big day made its wearer feel special. According to Leticia wearing the dress once more brings back that feeling for those involved in the project. She said: "It makes its owner go back in time. To dance, play and at times cry remembering that youth is still there, somewhere under the skin of reality. Afterwards it goes back in to a box of memories and is once again put in the bottom of the wardrobe."

For some of those in the pictures the day of the shoot is the first time they have seen their wedding dress since it was put away many years previous.

Leticia said: "On the day we meet for a shoot most of the women are absolutely sure they will not fit into their dresses. We begin by looking at the wedding album together and talking about the memories, some of which are surprisingly vivid, start to come back. Little details, emotional moments, speeches, gestures, music that was played, food and much more.

"Then we focus on the dress. It is touched, appreciated and rarely criticised. With a bit of reluctance at first, but with great curiosity they always end up trying it on. Despite in some cases the zipper not coming up all the way, most feel pleased with themselves.

"There is lots of laughter and some self criticism, such as: 'Look at my boobs.' 'What happened to my arms? So fat.' 'Let's put the veil on so we don't see the lines on my face.' 'I am no longer photogenic.'

"Yet, at some point I invariably see eyes shining with visions of the past. The photographs are just a brief register of those moments."

Here's a selection from Leticia's project, with comments from the women involved and their modern day picture placed alongside a photo from their wedding day.

Patricia Ferguson, Bristol, married 1963

"The dress was made by my aunt for her daughter who then sold it to me.

"It was cream satin brocade with snow white lace over the skirt. My mother, like my aunt was a dressmaker, but she looked at me in the dress and ripped it to pieces. The lace was discarded and the dress cut and re-sewn. My sister-in-law later wore it.

"This was the period of the shift dress, at knee level, followed by the hem length rising to the mini over the next few years. So my wedding dress was the first time that I wore a long dress over a stiff under slip. I felt very nervous and had to remember that the entire congregation was made up of friends and relatives who wished us well.

"After the ceremony I thoroughly enjoyed the reception. At pre-wedding meetings the Vicar had told us to look at each other when we spoke our vows, not at him. Apparently some couples looked him in the eye while saying them so I suppose this was a standard warning."

Sarah Avery-Wrington, Somerset, married 1967

"On my wedding day I felt quite shy but quietly confident. While I was getting ready there was a photographer hanging around taking photos of me around the house. I never liked having my pictures taken, but as we went to the church it was lovely.

"An old friend drove me and my Dad all the way through the village and people were waiving and wishing me well. That's what happened when you got married in the village where you lived. When I got to the church and saw John in front of the altar I couldn't stop smiling. Neither of us could stop smiling. At the end of the day both our jaws were hurting.

"I never really dreamed of getting married, but I used to think that if I did get married I would have wanted to see someone just like John at the end of the aisle. Something in me recognised he was the one. I was very lucky I got him.

"I felt very beautiful in my dress. I had spent a lovely day with my mum choosing the material. She was a very elegant women and I made her proud. It was a very special day and my parents gave me a lovely reception here in the house where I still live."

Caroline Toll, Somerset, married 1968

"Ray and I shared the same birthday although he was five years older. Despite having very different pasts we discovered we had a lot in common, such as music, art and literature, and had both matured to the same point and time. He was separating from his wife who later had cancer and died within a year, leaving a daughter who came to live with us after we got married.

"My dress designer was John Kavanagh, one of the top designers in London at the time. It came from his ready-to-wear range.

"My recollection of my feelings on the day were enormously happy. We were at last to be a public couple. As neither of us were religious we had decided to have a registry office wedding with just close family there, and a big party afterwards with all our other family and friends who could make it. My parents let us have it at their house and garden, my old home, and the weather was lovely so we were outside all the time.

"Ray's family, who were still Plymouth Brethren, stayed very much detached as we were drinking alcohol and they had not been willing to go to the registry office wedding because of their beliefs.

"Sarah, my stepdaughter who was 11, had a very good friend of hers there and was a bit miffed that Ray and I were going to be in London on our own that night. The four of us went away the next day to camp in the New Forest together for few days. Then, as Sarah was going to boarding school, Ray and I had a few days in Dublin as a semi-formal honeymoon."

Catherine Lillingston, London, married 1981

"When Hugh asked me to marry him we were in a restaurant in London and I could not stop laughing. At the same time he was crying. The waiter was looking and wondering what was going on.

"On our wedding day we were on the moon after staying the night at the Claridge's, then getting hair and make up done, being pampered like a princess, luxury and love. It was so intoxicating! Stoned with pure love, preparing the ritual, living the dream of the moment that a wedding is.

"The hired vintage Rolls drove slowly through Hyde Park, so slow we nearly missed our slot at Kensington registry office. My French family were looking in wonder at our arrival in a cream and brown Roller. Hugh's father was so impatient and worried about our lateness that we were ushered through and everything went in a haze - but fun too. When the registrar asked our two witnesses for their names, Moon and Fortune, he did not believe it.

"Both of us were in white tailor made Anthony Price suits, we were, still are in a dream. Love had struck us both at a party very strongly as our two selves connected unexpectedly powerfully and sensually never to look back. Love, but not peace as the speed of life happens. Three adult children, many careers, many celebrations, many creative endeavours and challenges; good and seriously bad stuff too.

"That day in London in our same outfit at the wedding registry before a big party will always be in my mind, a dream and not just a memory but a true story of our life, our day. Being in love is a universal force of an infinite, delicious, eternal dance."

You can see more of Leticia's work on her website.