So today I did a couple of small but significant jobs - I checked the lace (for that sort of money, I'm making sure I get every cm I pay for and that theres no smudges, snags or faults) - Its perfect!
I was a little disappointed to find that the main fabric only has the wide scalloped border on one edge, and that the majority of the motifs are smaller than the ones in the photograph. Fortunately I hadn't counted on things being otherwise, but I do feel the catalogue was a little misleading.
That aside, the lace is GORGEOUS! The beading is the nicest I've seen, super sparkly but in a subtle way as the colour of the beads is perfectly matched.
The other job was to add a couple of feet onto the bottom of my dress bag. Since the dress is gonna spend some time in it to avoid him seeing it, I need it to not crease things up!
Oh, and my silk came too and is also gorgeous.

Well, I visited Berwick street in London and was massively disappointed by it - after spending half an hour in the New York Fabric district last summer, London did not live up to my expectations with a small selection and astronomical prices! I saw a total of 2 white beaded laces, one for £250 per metre and one for £600 for 3 metres. So Naomi by Carrington it is - delivery times are 7 to 10 days so thats a brilliant news!
On the subject of silk, there was a good selection of colours available in the London fabric stores, but it was priced at £20/m for 60" wide (which is what I worked out my yardages for) compared to £15/m from silk baron (after adjusting for postage) so that going to be an internet purchase too.
I guess at least its all decided now!

So, some more on the search for lace. The picture to the left is of the inspiration dress - its lightly beaded and has a flower pattern, but the main thing is to have the right components - that is a scalloped border of a reasonable width (at least 6"), at least one type of free standing motif, and a symmetrical border of 2-3" in width.

For the benefit of anyone else searching for lace (and maybe my future benefit!) here are sources I've looked at:
Ebay.com seller bridal girl 55 has some lovely lace, but the one I really like isn't beaded (and john likes sparkle so I want beaded if I can get it!)
Ebay.com seller wowfabric4less123 has beaded lace in an interesting pattern in lots of colours - not quite my taste as the beading is a bit chunky, but if I was looking to make a evening gown rather than a wedding dress I might be back!
Harringtons has lots and lots of yummy laces, but nothing that fitted with the piecing I want to do - no prices on the website!
Bridallace.com is an american site, again with a lot of choice but nothing that works. Prices are not too bad but I find the layout of the site annoying.
Bridalfarics.co.uk has nice stuff too - I really like the look of olivia, which is a laser cut lace - very different from everything else I've looked at. It went off the short list when I realised I'd never find a border to match because it was so different. This one is trade only.

And finally, the pictures (massively colour altered so you can see the outlines over the glare) below are of a lace called 'Naomi' by Carrington (stockist Fabulous fabrics). I really like this and, since I can buy the border separately, works out to be reasonably priced. It has all the components I wanted, comes in white or ivory and in beaded and unbeaded varieties. The one thing I need to check is delivery times (once bitten, twice shy right?)

So the fabric samples came, but none of them were what I wanted - the two silk dupions were cream rather than white, and the duchesse satin, while it was white, didn't have the wow feeling of the expensive stuff. To be honest, the polyester version from fabric land feels much more luxurious, and if I was having a winter wedding I'd probably be buying that right now!
But I'm not, so the latest sample I've ordered is for 'arctic white' (sounds good) machine woven silk dupion from silk baron (a US seller) for $16 a meter. Fingers crossed its good and that the shipping doesn't make it more expensive than the hanssons stuff!

Anyway, the silk wasn't even meant to be the difficult bit of this fabric quest! The lace is the really tricky bit!
About a year ago when I was first thinking about making my own dress, I found what I think is my dream lace! Its from www.bridallace.com and I ordered a sample and its yummy! Unfortunately, back then they had it in stock in both white and ivory. Since then, they've run out of the white, and white I must have! They very kindly offered to order more in white, but the scheduled delivery is 15th-20th May! Waaaaayy to late! So thats off the list. That said, they'd be my first recommendation because they did everything they could to help me, and both their range and their prices are fantastic.
Here it is by the way, just in case anyone knows of another stockist! I like it cos it has just the right amount of beading and different siz

Beckford Silk has silk dupion in 'natural white' for £11.53 a metre and duchess satin for £28.75.  I've ordered samples of each, but suspect the white might not be white enough.
Cheap Fabrics has silk dupion for £11.79
Hansson Silk has silk dupion for £15.99, but has limited stock of pure white. They also have duchess satin for around £50, way out of budget!

For future reference, the fabric shops on woodland lane in Slough has a small selection of colours (including ivory but not white) in silk dupion for £9 a meter.