Beautiful Bride is a white pony with white hair and wedding lace decorating her hair. She has a ring on one leg. She has hearts on one side of her body and two rings as a cutiemark on the other side of her body. She is yellowing slightly from age.
Beautiful Bride Unnamed Purple Strap Ice Cream Pony
These customs are from the year 2000. I got them from an Ebay seller who was selling their old collection and brought them out of storage. I also bought Elisabeth's Carrosel Belle pony and gave it to my partner. The earliest discussion I've been able to find online about them is 2000s collectors groaning in exasperation, because these customs were slightly controversial at the time. Many collectors thought they looked ugly or gaudy, with their black outlines and dozens of beads or sequins or feathers. That, and the fact that Elisabeth purchased good condition ponies to customize (You will notice that all of her customs still have their original hair, with these ponies being a Whizzer, Coco Berry, and someone in the Posey pose with either white or fading pink hair...) Many people raised a fuss about this, because by customizing good condition ponies you're depleting the market for those ponies which aren't made anymore!
But to be honest... I feel as if a lot of this backlash was just because: It was the earlier days of customizing. There were relatively less customs posted online then than there are now. And I personally feel that those concerns about customs were a little blown out of proportion. I do think it's noble to want to preserve toy history and restore ponies of course. Sure, customizing a good condition pony will mean there's one less of that pony out there forever. But who's to say that pony wouldn't have been destroyed due to the sands of time anyways? In a few hundred years, even if collectors have done their best to preserve these toys, there likely won't be as many in circulation anyways. These are also children's toys at the end of the day, and many children will ruin the condition of their toys through the act of play: They will get dirty, have cut hair, or be colored all over... None of this is an inherently bad thing, either, this just shows that the toy was especially loved or that the child was trying to be creative with their play. It is a part of how human children learn and grow. More importantly, if someone is buying a toy with their own money, like it or not, they should be allowed to do whatever they want with them, including customizing them. Yes, even if it's painful to other collectors because it's a rare pony or something like that. Sometimes I see people using restoration techniques that I frown upon, or otherwise treating their ponies in a way I wouldn't like, but that doesn't mean I should dictate what they can and can't do with their toys.
I think art should be celebrated anyways, and that means all art. Even art that people think is "badly done" or "cringe". Because humans expressing themselves is a beautiful thing that should be encouraged. I dislike the bullying feel of how cringe culture made people feel ashamed of being themselves or making something indulgent, or not being the most skilled artist. Everyone starts somewhere, and even if their art never improves, it still has value. I think Elisabeth's customs are kinda ahead of their time anyways, and there is appeal in the weird color choices and all of the accessories piled on top... It is endearing, a little campy, and fun.
Beautiful Bride is a white pony with white hair and wedding lace decorating her hair. She has a ring on one leg. She has hearts on one side of her body and two rings as a cutiemark on the other side of her body. She is yellowing slightly from age.
This pony is unnamed. She is a purple unicorn with an ice cream cutiemark. She has straps decorating her entire body and beads around her neck, on her head and back. Her paint is slightly cracking from age.
