Famous designer gowns! Why are these gowns so popular?

These bridal gown designers buck the trends. They don't want to just follow fashion — they want to create it. They incorporate trendy elements into simple, elegant designs that will enhance your wedding celebration with a sense of elegance and formality once achieved only by top wedding designers like Vera Wang, Watters & Watters, and Bill Levkoff. They use elegant, European fabrics hand-detailed with beads, pearls, and fine embroidery. Their designs range from traditional to very modern, but all have one thing in common — a kind of New York savvy that defines the art of couture rather than following it.

Lea-Ann Belter has been making beautiful wedding dresses for almost two decades. As a top student in her fashion class, and nominate for many design awards, Lea-Ann Belter trained with a couturier before opening her own custom wedding dress boutique in Yorkville, Toronto. She was a top student in her fashion class and has since been won many design awards. Her collection has become one of the most sought-after in America today, but is still available in only a select few bridal salons across the country.

The nearest salon to feature her gowns is European Bridal in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lea-Ann Belter wedding dresses are made with sophisticated designs and an attention to quality and detail that is equal to the top couture designers in New York, Paris, and London. Her gowns represent the ultimate in understated elegance, with a flair for the type of designs that emphasize the natural radiance of the bride on her wedding day. It has been said of her gowns that "when the groom sees you walking down the aisle in this gown, he will fall in love with you all over again." These photos show why.

Venezuelan-born Carolina Herrera designs couture gowns with impeccable craftsmanship and understated elegance. A mother of four girls, Herrera's first experience was collaborating with couturiers on her own clothing collection. She attended runway shows from the age of thirteen. Her first collection in 1980 received critical acclaim. She has since won many awards for her fashions which break all trends without being "trendy". In 1981 she moved her family to New York and formed her own fashion company, which has since taken the bridal world by storm. She was presented with the 2004 CFDA Women’s Designer of the Year honor.

Once again, the nearest salon to feature her gowns is European Bridal in
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Surprisingly, many of the lesser known young, rising stars of haut couture are not afraid to take an existing design and improve on it by simplifying the lines and using higher quality fabrics with more attention to small the small details. Luxurious French satins, duppione dsilk, silk organza, and hand-made Welsh tulle characterize and lift their creations from the commonplace to the sublime.

“Shop owners are banging on my door and ringing me up every day,” says designer Ann Winters, founder of Artistic Bride, pushing her long hair back with a pair of pinking shears. “But I have to turn them away. I just can't produce enough to sell to everyone, and I don't want to go into mass production and cheapen my work.” Her dresses are currently only seen in a select few stores, including European Bridal in Cincinnati Ohio

Brides travel from all over the United States to visit the shops in Reading Ohio. 37 bridal shops on one street make it the destination for brides hunting for that special gown. It's no wonder that European Bridal and the other shops on this street are so busy. Our advice—try not to visit on a Saturday as the lines for dressing rooms can be quite long.