When you get your old wedding dress out of the loft and hold it up in front of the mirror, how do you feel?

Astonished that you ever got into it?! That was my first impression. That along with a jolt of surprise at the face and body looking back at me. You may feel better than every before about how you look, but it's impossible not to compare the reflection in the mirror to the woman who wore the dress before. Here's what I want you to remember: your body has been hard-won. There is no “Better or worse”,

Can you recommend a good wedding dress book? One that really tells it like it is, under the surface, behind closed doors?

With all the stuff you really want to know if you’re a bride to be. The kind of book you’d like to flick through if you were sitting in a bridal boutique watching your sister try on wedding dresses.

Well, a year ago, I wrote one myself and it’s nearly SOLD OUT. The only wedding dress book of its kind, Relovable is celebrating its first birthday today, and what a year it has been!!

How would you feel about sharing your old wedding dress? Would it somehow diminish its meaning?

 Like many brides, I used to feel that part of the value of my dress lay in it being exclusively mine. But as time has passed, and I’ve relaxed my grip on it, I started to change my perspective. I’m not personally ready to chop it up yet, but I am ready to share it. And the main options for this include lending, renting or wearing it again.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I grew up in the 1970s, when there was a TV show called The Good Life featuring a couple trying to be self-sufficient in their suburban semi in Surbiton. I would watch it with my mum, sitting on our avocado velour sofa, eating butterscotch-flavoured Angel Delight.

That was where my wedding dress journey began… it sowed that little seed about combining sustainability with style.