Instead, the bride asked Brazilian dress designer Ducarmo Castelo Branco, a 78-year-old family friend, to craft a gown for her June 9 nuptials to Matthew McConaughey.
“Ducarmo has been making wedding dresses for her entire life,” says Alves, who has known the designer since she was a young girl growing up in Brazil. “I guess you can say she has been planning this design for over 20 years.”
Branco worked on the project with a group of eight local women, and Alves’s faith in that team’s vision of a dream dress — a delicate beaded lace gown — never wavered. “I went to Brazil for a day and a half to work on the dress,” the bride tells PEOPLE. “I left and I just had to trust them. They finished the dress 22 days later.”
For Matthew and Camila’s exclusive wedding album — and to see the dress up close — pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
–Elizabeth Leonard
WANT MORE CELEBRITY WEDDING EYE CANDY? CLICK HERE!
To get a sneak peek of this week’s issue click here 
