Bride to Be owner Rebecca Thompson is revolutionising the wedding dress industry

Creating empowerment by designing wedding dresses for all shapes, sizes and abilities is how this regional Qld dress designer is taking the world by storm. See her creations:

Christine Schindler

2 min read

January 19, 2025 - 11:08AM

Toowoomba Chronicle

Wedding dresses designed by Bride to Be Dare to be Different, Rebecca Thompson. Picture: (supplied)

Toowoomba

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Revolutionising the wedding dress industry was not what Rebecca Thompson had in mind when she caught the bus home from work in the Brisbane CBD to celebrate her engagement nine years ago.

But that fateful afternoon, in what she describes as a “sliding doors” moment, the law student got off the bus to cross the street, was struck by a car, and left with life-changing injuries.

Since then she has taught herself how to walk and talk again, and still struggles with functional neurological disorder – a lasting effect of being hit by a car, where she is prone to seizures, chronic fatigue, and can’t always determine temperature changes.

Wedding dress designer Rebecca Thompson in her wedding dress. Picture: (supplied)

Her aspirations to become a barrister faded with the neurological diagnosis, but when she posted photos of her wedding day online, the dress she had designed and had made especially for herself – turned heads.

“My first ever client, without ever meeting me, was from Sydney,” Ms Thompson said.

“She saw my wedding dress and said, that’s my story, because I’m five foot.”

From then on she has been revolutionising the bridal dress industry by supplying something truly unique and special to brides on their wedding day – regardless of sizes, shapes and abilities.

“I’ve had women that have gone into dress shops, and they’ve left crying because they don’t have anything in their size,” she said.

Most wedding shops have dresses made for six foot models, not for curvy women or short women, or women over size 16 who are often charged a “fat tax” with alterations that cost almost as much as the dress, she said.

Wedding dress designer Rebecca Thompson has been taking the international wedding industry by storm – custom designing dresses for all shapes and sizes, colours and tastes. January 8, 2025. Picture: Christine Schindler

“I’m about empowering women from wherever they come from,” she said.

One of her special creations was for a client who is visually impaired and could only see blue and yellow colours.

Ms Thompson worked with her to design a sunflower dress in those colours with raised flowers, so the bride could not only see the colours on the dress, but also feel the patterns and trace the outline.

Another client had brittle bone disease, so her task was to make the dress extremely light.

Based in the spare room of her Toowoomba apartment, Ms Thompson is busy each day responding to brides reaching out to her from around the globe to make their wedding dreams come true.

Wedding dresses designed by Bride to Be Dare to be Different, Rebecca Thompson. Picture: (supplied)

She then workshops their ideas, designs the dress, and sends the instructions off to her workshop in the Philippines.

Even here, her ethos of empowering women is put into practice, and each night the shed turns into a school for the children of her employees, she said.

The shed was also built to withstand monsoon season, and has been used as a shelter when the storms come in, she said.

From beginning to finish, Ms Thompson pours creativity, passion and flair into each dress and said the work was very rewarding.

“You know it’s just about making women look and feel beautiful,” she said.