Gypsy Wedding Dreams: Ten dresses. Ten Dreams. All the secrets revealed.. Thelma Madine

panicking that she was about to lose control over her parents because she was soon to become a married woman. She didn’t know if her husband would be as quick to bend to her will, even though her dad told me he was very laid back!

      I think that if she’d had those 29 flowers ripping the fabric to shreds as she’d requested, she would still have done the same thing. It was her transition to womanhood that she was crying about, not the dress. She just wanted to keep her mum and dad to hand to keep sorting things out for her, even though on this occasion there wasn’t anything to sort out. It was kind of checking, to keep up her skills as best she could. I never went to that wedding, though. When she left the shop, I leant against the door and slid down it in relief.

      A week later I phoned to see how it had gone and she said the wedding wasn’t for another month. She had lied about the date to get the dress there with enough extra for a little tantrum time!

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      Even when pushed to the limit by drama queens like Ashleigh, I do usually end up being fond of the girls that we work with. They are usually so grateful afterwards, or on the big day itself, that it all seems worth it and I tend to forget about the time I spent tearing my hair out. I like to think that I’ve got pretty good at working with the traveller community now, that I’ve seen it all. I know their customs, I understand what’s important to them and I admire their sense of style – the way that they’re not influenced by fashion in the traditional sense.