When Felicity Van Der Zwan’s daughter, Alie announced her plans to wed, Felicity had no idea finding the perfect Mother of the Bride outfit would take almost three years.

Not long after announcing their plan to wed at Canberra’s St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Alie and her husband-to-be announced they were pregnant again and their wedding was postponed for a further 8 months.

Felicity was overjoyed with her daughter’s pregnancy news and more than a little grateful for the opportunity of 8 months more time. So far, her search for a Mother of the Bride's outfit had taken 2 years and been unsuccessful.

Alyssa pictured here in a beautiful dress lovingly made by her Nana Felicity. Nana Felicity in the foreground holding Alyssa’s wee shoe.

‘I had been looking for the perfect outfit on and off and I couldn’t find anything I liked. I’d looked online, I’d looked in shops, Canberra although quite a decent shopping area, doesn’t have a lot of variety – all the Mother Of the Bride dresses were the same – all that billowy, chiffony...you know icky. You know I couldn’t imagine myself in what they say is the uniform of the mother of the bride.’

Disillusioned with the fashion choices on offer, Felicity decided with a little ingenuity to make her own outfit. But when she revealed the pattern and linen to the bride to be, Alie was not happy.

‘I was told I wasn’t allowed to do that. I was told I had to wear something that was a bit more glamorous’.

After the birth of Evelyn, a beautiful baby girl, the finishing touches of Alie’s wedding were almost complete and time for Felicity’s search for her Mother of the Bride outfit was running out.

‘The wedding was in November last year and about 6 weeks out of the wedding, I was having a major melt down, I had no idea what I was going to do. So I was in my local Westfield and walked past this shop which I’d never seen before and it was plus size girls and it had an evening glamour wear section and I looked around and I went ‘you beauty, there’s some things here I could actually wear.’

Felicity thought she would tempt fate and return to the store later. Luckily for Felicity, Swish team member Jane suggested to search Swish online for styles not yet showcased in store.

‘So I did and I found the reflections dress, as soon as I saw it OMG it was absolutely perfect. I sent the image to the mother of the children, the Bride and she absolutely loved it. She said it was perfect. She was really happy with it and that was all that really mattered.’

So I went back straight into the store and ordered in the jacket in my size, turns out though that they didn’t have a dress in my size, not even close. They had a size 12 and a size 14 and I need at least a size 22.

So I bought another dress cream to match and it looked lovely but I was lying in bed that night and thought ‘you idiot, why don’t you just buy the two reflections dresses and cut and risk restyling them into a size 22.

Which is exactly what Felicity did. Felicity’s almost 3 year search for her perfect Mother of the Bride Dress was over and with a little bit of Mother of the Bride ingenuity and a few alterations her outfit was a huge a success.

'Everybody loved the dress, I felt great. In the 2 years that I was looking I hadn’t seen anything else that I liked. I love the stuff at Swish it covers such a great range from daywear through to formal. And when you’re a working woman who is a bit larger than normal you need something like that and it’s Australian made, hello?’ 

More Mother of the Bride style tips and more, located here.