This is the incredible wedding dress that Gemma Winter will be walking down the aisle in as Coronation Street gears up for its second wedding of the year. Her big day hasn't been far from her lips for months now after Gemma got Chesney Brown to agree to tie the knot.
The couple's romance has been a series of ups and downs, from the high of giving birth to quads on a cable car to the lows of struggling to make ends meet, one thing that has stayed strong is their love for each other and their big blended family.
And getting the wedding together hasn't been easy for the cash-strapped couple, however, and Gemma's twin brother Paul Foreman has been helping out despite his own money woes after making a promise to his sibling. But next week on the ITV soap, it's finally Gemma and Chesney's wedding day.
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Everyone is determined to have the best day ever - in particular Paul who is keeping his devastating Motor Neurone Disease diagnosis a secret so his family can enjoy the big day. But as his condition worsens, questions are hanging over whether he'll be able to walk her down the aisle as promised.
There is, however, one thing that is for certain and that is that all eyes will be on Gemma as she walks down the aisle in what could be the most extravagant wedding dress Weatherfield has ever seen.
In first-look pictures, Gemma, played by Dolly-Rose Campbell, can be seen sporting the impressive two-metre wide dress, with a stunning seven-metre long train and complete with fairy lights, alongside her groom, whose suit has been bought by his son Joseph's grandmother, Linda.
The kebab shop worker, played by Sam Aston, looks dapper in the navy three-piece which has been worn over a crisp white shirt and is complete with a matching silk orange tie and pocket square. The loved-up couple are also seen alongside their children with Joseph wearing the same as his father.
The quads, meanwhile, are simply adorable with Aled and Bryn sporting white shirts and navy trousers with orange dickie bows and matching braces while Carys and Llio continue the theme in white leotards with tutus to match their mum's dress and added multi-coloured. fairy wings.
But back to Gemma's dress and on screen, the mum-of-four has bought a charity shop dress which has been dyed and customised by her pal, seamstress Izzy Armstrong, played by Cherylee Houston. However, in reality, the huge jaw-dropping orange wedding gown has been co-designed and made by drag queen and fashion designer Liquorice Black.
Famous for their stunning unique creations for shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, Liquorice Black has teamed up with Coronation Street's head of costume Alex Hatzar to create the impressive gown which was crafted at Liquorice Black's studio in Manchester.
The dress has 125 metres of tiny fairy lights on wire an the lights on the train are activated by a remote control. There are approximately 10,000 stones all individually glued on by hand and the dress took over 200 hours to make. In addition, the train is seven metres long, and Corrie revealed Dolly wanted it even longer, but joked she had to be reined in.
Speaking about the first time she put the dress on, Dolly told the Manchester Evening News and other press: "I was just blown away by the dress. It's an absolute work of art. The detail that's gone into is just beyond anything I ever imagined and it was comfortable. Compared to a lot f Gemma's other costumes, because it was made to fit me from scratch, it was comfortable."
Dolly said she was 'overjoyed' to get Liquorice Black, whose real name is John Roberts, involved with the dress and shared some of the inspiration and the process behind the final look. "I based the idea off weddings I had seen as a child because these would have been the weddings Gemma would have seen as a child, growing up in the nineties.
"But then, added extra touches such as the fairy lights which were a little bit extra and that's quite Gemma." And on the orange, she revealed: "The colour was the idea of our costume designer Alex. She really wanted it to be orange because it's the most Chesney colour which we all found so funny. We agreed!"
And on how they got Liquorice Black involved, Dolly said: "Myself and Alex in costume had lots of discussions about what Gemma would want as her dream dress and had put some ideas together. We decided on orange as a nod to Gemma and Chesney being ginger and also Gemma loves bright colours.
"Liquorice and I have a mutual friend and I had seen an exhibition of their work and knew they had worked on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK so I knew that they would be the best person to make the dress, I was absolutely delighted when they said yes."
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