Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale.
The question has been popped, diamonds exchanged and pledges made to unite until the end of time.
Up until this point, much like a caterpillar, we’ve made our way through the beginnings of life on a journey alone. Even once we’ve grown and blossomed, we are akin to the butterfly who can’t see its own wings, unaware of the beauty it exudes. It’s only when we’ve found our soul’s true companion that we are given a chance to glimpse our innate beauty reflected in our beloved’s eyes.
Indeed, when one soul finds its mate, it is the stuff of fairytales – and it’s this very magic which Leeffect founder Tracey Thompson seeks to celebrate with A Bride’s Memoir – a project that, unbeknownst to her, has been in the works since she was just 10 years old.
Back when a ten-year-old Tracey decided to enter a competition being run by a local television station, she painstakingly designed an intricate diary complete with embellishments, paper pop-ups, transparent overlays and hand-drawn caterpillar caricatures. She loved the idea of creating a beautiful space for storing memories – but little did she know the diary was never actually posted to the TV station, and amid the busy minutiae of daily family life, soon forgotten.
That was, until 2016, when Tracey was a little over a year into creating A Bride’s Memoir and had, in the face of a myriad of obstacles, almost given up. Then one afternoon she discovered her old diary, buried deep in a box of childhood keepsakes. To her great surprise, there were uncanny similarities between the prototype for A Bride’s Memoir and the design she had created as a young girl – complete with the caricatures of caterpillars, which had become a central motif in A Bride’s Memoir.
It seemed the passion for creating beautiful bespoke stationery ignited in Tracey as a young girl had withstood the test of time, and she knew she must continue with her mission to help others preserve their most precious memories. This discovery reignited her vision for A Bride’s Memoir and she began working with renewed vigour using embellishments, pencil and scissors to make a prototype of the compendium.
The end result was a luxurious high-end couture wedding planner and journal: A Bride’s Memoir.
SO BEGAN LEEFFECT…
As the saying goes, one’s life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take your breath away – and none is perhaps quite so breathtaking as the day you say “I do”.
A Bride’s Memoir is a sacred space to record the wedding journey from “Yes” to “I do”; a treasured memoir that marks the beginning of your own precious family story.
There will be times when planning your wedding will be overwhelming. Let A Bride’s Memoir be your companion each step of the way, your chic go-to resource to keep plans running smoothly. Within these pages you’ll find suggestions to help keep you on track to creating a wedding day that’s uniquely yours.
We recognise that there have been some changes in matrimonial rites, most notably, the legalisation of same-sex marriage in some locations around the world. We use the terms ‘bride’ and ‘groom’ loosely, so use your A Bride’s Memoir as a celebration of love regardless of sexual orientation and gender.
Inside A Bride’s Memoir you’ll find spaces to record your emotions and memories of this special time, from a swatch of your gown to your dad’s speech at the reception. Because when the years are stretched out behind you, it will be those tiny moments of magic along the way that will remain the most poignant – the sparkle of a diamond, the brush of a hand against tulle, eyes dancing with tears meeting across a sea of heads, vows spoken, promises made.
Fortunately, nothing is ever really lost so long as the memory is preserved. A Bride’s Memoir will be a timeless treasure for you and your beloved to go back to over the years, and to pass down for generations to come. For the days may be long but the years are short, and before you know it you may find yourself rifling through a box of keepsakes, reminiscing over this very time (and, perhaps, wishing you had stored more mementos).
Ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.
