What the Dress Costs for Your Body

By body and by problem

Bodice and torso fit

52 accounts, median $275 where a figure was named.

• Retired tailor: the only way to a true sweetheart is sourcing matching fabric, scrapping the bodice and rebuilding it with support boning, which would cost roughly what a new dress costs because of the dismantling involved.
• Taking in the bodice of a lace gown at the waist and bust quoted at 575, on top of straps, hem and bustle in a total just over 1000. The dress already fits decently and she liked the clipped version at the first fitting.
• Bridal alterations professional: a bodice normally has a corset interior that must be unpicked and rebuilt, lace, beads and sequins add hours, one snag can ruin the gown, and a full skirt can mean six layers of hemming.
• Attributes the shape difference to the underskirt rather than the bodice: hers is a bell shape against the other dress's dome, so a fuller crinoline would create the small-waist look without over-tightening the bodice.
• Alterations professional: a neckline can be cut down but never built up. Hers dips where a sweetheart arches, so there is no fabric height to carve the shape from; a different neckline shape is the only route.
• Bought gown is not yet fitted; she wants it to read like a sweetheart-neckline dress she saw later, and the bodice is loose enough that brides read the waist as unshaped compared with the other dress.
• Diagnoses an armhole cut too low, tying sleeve to bodice; the fix is opening it and resetting the sleeve, with applique across the shoulder seam unpicked and hand-sewn back at the top of the quote.
• Roughly a size 8 with large hips, small waist and very narrow shoulders, and a bust bigger than it looks; her top half takes a size below her bottom half, so she wants structured thicker fabric.
• Bought a size 12 sample gown when she is closer to a bridal 6 to 8, so hers needs heavy taking in; she also found that every dress she tried had very long straps despite her being 5 foot 6.
• Comparing the designer gown with a cheaper lookalike, she notes the held-in feeling comes from internal structure, and an illusion back with a softer bodice gives noticeably less support
• Seamstress hemmed the gown, took the bodice in slightly, and removed the adjustable hardware from the straps so they were sewn to her exact length; whole gown plus this work came to 350
• The gown was likely cut for a much slimmer body, so even a good off-the-rack fit left visible take-in room; she was warned off redoing the neckline and steered to minor work only.
• At 5 foot 6 in three-inch heels a sweep-length cape veil worked mounted at about mid shoulder blade rather than at the neckline, which she found more flattering than a high mount.
• Suggests lining the sheer bodice front so the hard line between transparent top and heavy skirt stops pulling the eye to the midriff - a seamstress job rather than a sizing one.
• Bridal hems are frequently shortened from the waist to protect decoration at the hem, which is more complicated and pricier; a plain hem on a plain dress is the cheap case.
• Warns from a friend's case that a corset section can genuinely be too tight, producing pronounced back rolls, and that the fitter insisting it is normal is not always right
• Vintage gown bought online sat 6-8 inches too big through the bodice; a DMV-area seamstress took it in and hemmed 10 layers of tulle, lace, applique and crystals for 275.
• brides read wrinkling at the waist in her photos as proof the bodice can still be taken in, which would move it from a dress that fits to one that looks made for her.
• Rejected a fit-and-flare gown because the fitted waist and hip drew her own eye to her stomach in try-on photos, and bought an A-line instead a month before the wedding.
• The dropped-waist cut reads almost as a mermaid but has no shaping through the hips, so it flattens the silhouette and lands on the widest part rather than the narrowest
• At 5 ft 9 and 135 lbs she was told the basque-waist gown's width, not its length, was the problem for her frame; booked a tailor to see how far the volume could come in.
• Warns that taking in a well-constructed beaded gown may mean opening the internal corset, and that making the beading read seamless afterwards is the labour-heavy part.
• Her seamstress will hem the bottom, fix the adjustable tulle neckline permanently in the off-the-shoulder position and add light beading; no price quoted here.
• The waist seam should sit level all the way round; in the profile photos it dips at the front or rides high at the back, and the bodice should be snug around the ribs.
• Quoted the same 575 at her first fitting to take in the sides and add boning to stop torso bunching. Her gown is silk, where the bunching shows, while lace hides it.
• Warns against sewing a sweetheart layer underneath the existing neckline: the seam outlines and the extra structural boning would show through the fabric as lumps.
• Azazie style ran small in the bodice: a true size 8 buyer ordered a size 8 and had to put it into alterations. She also warns the order took a long time to arrive
• Overrode a seamstress who called the fit perfect, had the bodice let out, then held the looser corset in place with dancer's glue; wrote before and after photos
• Went in wanting sleeves for coverage and found the lace straps on the gown she bought far more comfortable than she expected, so no sleeve alteration was needed
• Off-the-rack gowns are cut to a fixed bust-waist-hip ratio; a body far from that ratio means sizing up again and paying more, whatever the number on the tag.
• Paid to have a gown already in her own size taken in at the sleeves and waist and hemmed; used that as the yardstick for judging a three-size quote as fair.
• Advises doing the hem and straps first: once the extra skirt weight stops pulling down and the straps are shorter, the bodice may no longer need taking in.
• Bought a second-hand gown whose waist had been taken in for the previous owner; the consultant confirmed it would fit her once the tacking was let back out
• Wanted to wear her gown strapless; the seamstress pinned it that way to demonstrate it would not hold, and she was relieved she accepted straps instead.
• Had a button back converted to a corset lace-up with extra boning added to carry the tension, which allowed far more cinching than the original closure.
• A Nashville seamstress shortened the straps, added a hook and eye at the back and cut out the mesh modesty panel of a size-10 Amazon gown for $54 total.
• Reads the bodice as sitting an inch or half an inch too low, so the strap alteration already booked may lift it and remove the reason for the take-in.
• The 150 online gown fit with no alterations at all: a steam to drop the shipping creases and a good corset underneath were the only preparation.
• Converting her own dress to a lace-up corset back because she fluctuates and bloats heavily around her period and wants day-long adjustability
• Says to get professional help with undergarments and not to economise on them, since the bust lift and waist cinch decide how the dress reads
• Split sizing only stretches one size step, so a 0 bodice with a 2 skirt is possible but a 00 with a 2 is not; a wider gap has to be tailored.
• Says the difference between the two dresses is the snatched waist, achievable by tailoring the bodice and wearing good shapewear underneath.
• Used a Dominique longline from a lingerie shop for about $75 in place of a bridal corset back, and says the same brand is cheaper online.
• Buy a corset back for adjustability and avoid dresses heavily embroidered around seams and hems in case a tailor has to move them.
• Changing a neckline means detaching the entire bodice from the waistline and turning it inside out, not a quick fix at a fitting.
• A clearance gown in the final size available needed bell sleeves narrowed, a hem, cups inserted and a train loop, totalling 550.
• Reads the waist seam as sitting below her natural waist and would ask the seamstress to raise it as well as line the front.
• Chose a short lace dress with an optional corset back specifically because lace-up sizing is far more forgiving than a zip.
• Pear-shaped brides often have to hike a skirt up to clear the hips, which is what creates the unplanned folds at the waist
• Corset lacing up the back means the gown needs almost no fitting work: the bride expects to pay only for a hem.
• Had a corset back put into her gown so that normal weight fluctuation before the wedding would not matter.
• Has worn corsets for years at a range of sizes and says the compressed skin appears at every one of them

Tall brides

21 accounts, median $750 where a figure was named.

• Her daughter's gown had to be ordered in tall, which costs more because it is longer, and they added two extra yards of the same silk to have sleeves or a shrug made for a church that bans bare shoulders. That is what took the order slightly over budget.
• Length is the hard limit on any secondhand gown, since it can only be shortened; the dress works only if the previous bride was your height or taller, and cleaning and flaw repairs add to the price on top of alterations.
• Tall bride needed the train removed and the hem shortened for floor clearance; the chain refused as it would change the designer's style, and a local seamstress did it for $40 and made straps from the cut fabric.
• At 5'8" and a US size 2, none of the rack gowns in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City would do up; two staff members were pulling at the dress asking whether she could still breathe, so she moved to custom quotes instead.
• Long torso meant bridal gowns with a defined waist never sat right. After trying most shops in NYC and NJ she doubled a $4,000 budget: made to measure, which starts around $6,000, was what finally fitted.
• At 5'3 her gown was hemmed for heels and still ran slightly long. She advises a tall bride to buy a larger dress and have it altered down, since length cannot be added back.
• About 6'0 and between a size 8 and 10, wearing flats on the day, which she says makes finding a secondhand gown of the right length much harder than the size itself.
• At 5ft 9in a sample gown one size down reads short at the hem; she is barefoot in the photos and brides say flats or a kitten heel would still work
• A size 8/10 at nearly six feet tall bought the sample in a 10 and needs no tailoring at all, including no hemming, which is unusual at that height.
• Warns that a gown styled on a very tall model cannot be altered into the campaign look and that starting over beats paying for endless alterations
• Tall bride skipped heels altogether and wore Dr Martens; she says she has never been a heels person and valued comfort over height on the day
• At 6ft3 secondhand shopping and later resale were both unrealistic, so a local seamstress is building a two-piece gown from scratch for 750.
• At 6ft she is used to trousers and gowns being too short, and was pleased to learn bridal is cut long enough that she may not face that.
• At 5 foot 10 she found most secondhand gowns had already been hemmed for a shorter bride, which made resale sites much harder to shop.
• Suggests a seamstress let the hem out or add a decorative lace underlayer to gain length rather than replacing the dress
• Points out the hem is wide enough to be let down, which is the standard fix for a tall bride in a sample-length gown
• At 5ft10 and skipping heels she fits most gowns, since local women reach about that height once they put heels on.
• Being tall meant her off-the-rack sample needed only shortened straps, bust darts and a bustle, and no shapewear
• Tried the gown at 5 foot 10 in a size 8; her only complaint was a slightly itchy neckline
• At 6 ft tall she could not use off-the-rack lengths and had to order a custom gown
• An $800 gown fit without any alterations, which she puts down to being tall.

Pregnant brides

17 accounts, median $250 where a figure was named.

• Bought a fitted mermaid gown before conceiving and was nearly in the third trimester by the wedding; a private seamstress reworked it so it read as a maternity dress rather than a let-out gown.
• Bought a gown five sizes larger while pregnant with twins. After losing the pregnancy an independent tailor resized the whole dress for $250 in 1994, far below what the bridal shop wanted.
• Found a replacement in 24 hours: a size 10 lace mermaid gown that is not maternity but fits well at 36 weeks. Her conclusion was that length and sizing matter more than a maternity label.
• Normally a US size 0 to 2, so guessing how many sizes to add for the bump was the hard part; the result felt a size small from the sternum down and a couple of sizes big at the chest.
• Explains why the fit felt wrong: the belly pushes the fabric forward, so the skirt pulls taut across the thighs and the hem rides shorter even when the legs have not changed at all.
• Ten weeks postpartum, plans to fit the sample gown three months out, reasoning that a made-to-order dress would be measured 2-4 months ahead and still need tailoring near the date.
• Sized up a non-maternity online gown for a 36-week bump after checking her measurements; it still came out short, tight over the bump and thighs, and loose through the chest.
• Married at eight months pregnant in maternity shapewear that was not tight over the bump; it stopped the fabric clinging and hid the panty line, worn together with a slip.
• Warns a 10-week postpartum bride that the ribcage takes months to settle back even when weight drops quickly, and suggests waiting about six months before any tailoring.
• Seven months pregnant at her wedding, so she ordered a custom cream silk dress from Vietnam made to her own measurements rather than trying to alter a standard size.
• Her bump and bust grew week to week late in pregnancy, so she moved the elopement forward rather than risk the dress not closing; advises fitting close to the date.
• Bought a mermaid gown at David's Bridal before she was pregnant and wore it at five to six months rather than replacing it; the fitted cut worked with the bump.
• Boutique owner says an A-line silhouette is the most forgiving for pregnant brides and gives the most fit flexibility as the pregnancy progresses
• Became pregnant during the year-long postponement; her seamstress let the gown out at every fitting and it fit properly on the wedding day.
• Pregnant bride hired rather than bought, $150 with free express return shipping, because buying to a changing shape made no sense
• Her friend wore a maternity bridesmaid dress in a light shade for a reception at about seven months pregnant.
• Recommends a corset back over a zipper for a pregnant bride because it adjusts far more

Hem and length

15 accounts, median $512 where a figure was named.

• Wedding dresses are notorious for running smaller than the tag size, and since bodies are not symmetrical a gown that fits the bust may not fit the hips, so almost every dress needs some adjustment even if only the hem.
• Shortening her long sleeves to capped sleeves left them so tight they marked her arm and stopped her lifting it. The shop is attempting a second alteration using leftover fabric, three weeks out.
• Explains why re-altering fails: embroidery taken off for a hem is usually reattached permanently afterwards, and the bride reselling may not know, so some dresses can only be altered once.
• The thrifted gown runs about half a size large and is going to a seamstress; she was told to have the petticoat assessed before removing layers because it changes shape and hem length
• Bridesmaid lines in white and ivory run under 300 in standard sizing, but come without trains, so a cathedral veil at 50-75 supplies the ceremony length and saves bustling costs.
• Two online-ordered gowns could not be made to fit even with a seamstress working on them; the in-store dress she bought three weeks out fitted her size with only a hem needed.
• Had an underneath bustle added because the antique lace makes the train heavy, along with a hem; after collecting the dress she said she would skip bustling it after all
• Points out that the hem carries most of the cost and multiplies with every layer of skirt, which is why complex gowns are expensive to fit.
• Taking a sample size 12 down to a 4, plus bustle, hem and resewing missing buttons, was quoted at $1,000-1,500 on a $1,750 dress.
• Her hem had to be pinned a second time because she was hunched during the first fitting; posture changes where the hemline falls.
• Per bridesmaid dress to take in the sides and shorten, at an outside shop rather than the chain where the dresses were bought.
• Advice to retry the gown in the actual wedding shoes, since part of the poor drape is the hem sitting at the wrong height.
• Home seamstress took a size 10 gown down to a size 2, hemmed it and built a 5-point bustle for 500 Canadian.
• Normally a size 6 or 8 but ordered a small because the sequin knit stretches; 5'2" so no hemming was needed
• A sample gown one size too big cost 525 to take in and hem, more than half the 800 dress price.

Everything else brides raised about fit

110 accounts, median $800 where a figure was named.

• A bridal boutique worker: floor samples stretch and soften from repeated try ons, so a newly ordered dress in the same size fits stiffer and tighter than the one tried in the shop; a gown alterations specialist can usually still work within 24 days.
• A gown already fitted to another bride is hard to re-fit; some seamstresses refuse the job outright, so she had to look for sellers with very similar proportions and found unaltered dresses priced close to retail.
• Bought in November for a late-summer wedding and left the sleeve question to her April alterations appointment, where she can price opera gloves, an added sleeve or a jacket against a possible eczema flare
• Says designer construction fits like a glove almost every time, and shapes you would never pick online can look completely different on. Try them at David Jones, or at home via The Iconic's free returns.
• Looked at a consignment gown needing a size 12 taken down to a 6 and was told by David's Bridal that a drop of that size was not worth doing, on top of their refusal to touch an already-altered dress.
• Her sample sale gown was a made-to-measure order abandoned by another bride who happened to share her exact size and height, so it fit like a glove straight off the rack with no alterations quoted.
• Asked about hunting a specific style in a size 8, the answer was that the odds are poor: the selection is very limited and some stock is older seasons and floor samples never listed online.
• Had cap sleeves added to her own gown; her seamstress kept them loose by attaching the two sides of each sleeve to the dress separately rather than sewing a closed sleeve circle first.
• Secondhand supply is concentrated in the bridal 8 to 14 range, so anyone outside it has far fewer resale options, on top of new collections rarely reaching the resale market at all.
• Found a suitable evening gown for under 600 Canadian but could not get it in her size, the recurring limit on the non-bridal route where stock is one-off rather than made to order.
• brides shopping online found most bridal jumpsuits cut too tight, too sparkly or too revealing through the seat; the draped cape style was the first she could picture dancing in.
• A buyer matched the resale gown on both size 6 and height, and had an appointment to try the same style at the salon in two weeks, which is how secondhand fit risk gets managed.
• Ordered a gown too big in the chest because her hips are disproportionately wide; it looked wrong on arrival until the seamstress pinned it at the first alterations appointment
• Rates Rebecca Vallance's white dresses at $600-$1,200 for a consistently flattering fit, which is why she considers a designer piece a better buy than a gown costing thousands.
• Bought a size 12 off the rack as a size 4 to save money. Nobody at the shop flagged the gap; the alteration quote came back at 1600, a second seamstress at 1200-1500 minimum.
• Secondhand reception dress came in very tight and the seamstress is letting it out by an inch at the top; the ceremony gown fit as-is and needed only two open seams resewn.
• Tried on several bridal jumpsuits and found many of them unflattering purely on cut and style, and suggests keeping one as a reception option rather than the ceremony look.
• Book a fitting in the exact shapewear you will wear on the day, because alterations pinned over different underwear will not sit right, and it leaves time to change plan.
• Her alterations shop added off-shoulder sleeves and a full bridal cape to a sleeveless gown after she brought in reference photos of the look she wanted. Cost not stated.
• Bought a resale gown that was too big and had it taken in successfully; says too big is worth a seamstress consultation before ruling a listing out, unlike too small.
• At 5 foot 4 she bought a vintage gown straight off the shop mannequin and it fit with no alterations required, hitting the floor correctly with the right heel height.
• Bridal seamstress warns against buying a size 10 gown for a size 6 body - taking it down that far shifts the patterned lace and proportions and is not worth the work.
• Argues that dropping six sizes is effectively recreating the dress, needing a very skilled and expensive seamstress, and that she would break even against buying new
• Seamstress warns the extra inch has to come from both the lining and the tulle, and that pulling the tulle overlay can expose old needle holes in the fabric beneath
• Same complaint at David's and a couple of other shops: nothing in her size to try on because samples were too big. Best for Bride solved it and she paid about $500.
• Says bridal alterations carry a premium, so at least a couple of hundred unless a relative sews it as a gift, and a fitting second-hand dress costs about the same
• At David's Bridal nothing fit her because all the try-on stock was too big, which she lists alongside poor quality and dated styles as why the appointment failed.
• Neither sample size nor plus size: at boutiques only one or two gowns existed in her size and style, while the chain carried the widest range she could get into.
• Working seamstress: taking up shoulders starts around 50 and climbs with how hard the shoulder is to reach and how much lace or beading must be lifted and reset.
• Calls it extensive work at 500 or more depending on location, and doubts the result would satisfy her; suggests a resale designer dress that already fits instead
• The size 2 sample fit perfectly but a size 4 was ordered; taking it back down to a 2 cost $800. She advises checking what size is actually written on the order.
• Wedding dresses run small: she wears a street 0 or 2, the gown was a bridal 4 and fit well even before alterations; anything smaller would have been too tight
• Her Avery Austin made-to-order gown fitted completely differently from the sample she had tried; the factory had built it wrong and she was refunded in full.
• The ordered gown arrived with completely different dimensions from the in-store sample; she bought a replacement off the rack three days before the wedding.
• Floor samples are not cut to the person trying them, so judge fabric and silhouette at an appointment rather than how the sample currently sits on the body.
• Paid a flat $1,000 alterations rate at Kleinfeld and would now choose a gown with stretch instead, because a stretchier fabric needs far less fitting work.
• Warns that store samples always read worse than the gown ordered in your size and altered to your body, so fit judgements made in the salon are unreliable.
• David's Bridal took the gown from a size 6 down to a size 2; she does not name the alterations bill, and the fitting room was 80 degrees with no AC running
• Hourglass shape meant the salon wanted to order the gown in three different sizes combined into one, a $600 surcharge on top of a $3,700 dress. She walked.
• Rates the chain as one of the few places carrying most styles across all sizes, so she could see each silhouette on her own body before booking boutiques.
• The salon's Galia Lahav try-on sample was a size 2 and far too small for her, which is why the designer gown photographed worse on her than her own remake
• Her sample sale location held 12 to 15 styles, each in a size 6 or 8, a 14 and a 16. The 6s were gone by 7:30am while 14s and 16s were still on the rack.
• Found a discontinued gown new with tags in her exact size at a charity shop, so her alterations are limited to a small nip and tuck rather than resizing.
• Azazie's free custom measurement service meant her white bridesmaid dress arrived needing no alterations at all - useful when a body is still changing.
• Had the cap sleeves removed from her dress with only weeks left before the wedding; describes it as a quick, easy alteration that transformed the look.
• Found the used gowns she liked were almost all size 4, so buying secondhand was a size gamble; she bought off the rack at a non-bridal store instead.
• The shop sample happened to be her size and fit without alterations, which is what made the 1300 dollar sample purchase viable rather than just cheap
• Had sleeves added to her own gown during alterations and rates the result, offered as the fix for a bride who wanted sleeves but bought a strap gown
• Tried the same style and found it did not work on her body at all, a reminder that a gown fitting one figure off the rack says nothing about another
• Sample sale gown fit off the rack with no alterations mentioned, which is luck: the sale only carries the sizes the shop stocked as try-on samples.
• Never had her too-big gown altered at all and calls it her main regret; as a wedding photographer she now tells brides to alter and wear shapewear
• Chose Azazie specifically because free made-to-measure sizing on an unusual body avoids a large alterations bill, even if the fit is not perfect.
• Loved the Sottero and Midgley Mirabella but the salon sample ran too large on her, and the quote of about 3000 already included the alterations.
• Sleeves are slightly loose but the gusset sits too low in the armpit, so the fabric pulls and she cannot raise her arms even to shoulder height.
• At 6 foot, losing nearly 20 pounds while gaining muscle moved her from a 12/10 to an 8/10, but broad shoulders still need a 10 in many dresses.
• Had the Halston one shoulder jumpsuit tailored after buying it off the rack online; no figure given, but she says it fits and feels right now.
• In her area the top would have to come apart and be remade, so well over 1000, and she says even a low cost-of-living area would not be cheap
• Points out the try-on photos show a sample held on with clamps and a skirt still too long, so the shape only becomes real after alterations
• Paid for custom sizing on an online bridal order and it still needed alterations; she warns to budget for a tailor even on made-to-measure
• Answering a worry that samples only come in 2-4: her sample was a size 12, bought at a sample-only store, needing just beading tightened.
• The all-crystal gown weighs about 20 pounds; it feels far heavier held on a hanger than worn, and she has enough movement in it to dance.
• Berta's sample sale had plenty of gowns on the rack but sizing ran only 38 to 40, so shoppers outside that narrow band had nothing to try
• The bride agrees the shapewear she wore to her try-on was poor, which is part of why the gown did not sit as she imagined in the photos
• Sizing risk on marketplace gowns handled by ordering several styles that all qualified for free returns, then keeping whichever fitted.
• Bridal seamstress: has detachable flutter sleeves made for brides who dislike their upper arms, and says they work best on A-line gowns
• Dreams Bridal at Cookstown carries off-the-rack stock in sizes 0 to 24, so brides outside standard sample sizes can try their own size.
• Wanted a bridal jumpsuit but felt her body shape did not suit one, so she put her honour attendants in grey linen jumpsuits instead.
• Seamstress charged 850 CAD to alter a heavily beaded gown; the cheapest plain-dress job she saw at the same seamstress was 400 CAD.
• Sample sale stock sold out in her size across every style, the standard risk of shopping sales rather than ordering to measurement.
• Cannot lose weight because of medical conditions and medication, and was fat-shamed while dress shopping until she explained why.
• A size 2/4 shopper in the first fifteen still found the small-size selection disappointing and bought a veil rather than a dress.
• Skipped the sale on the day and, reading the recaps, concluded nothing there would have fitted her without extensive alterations.
• Same point put simply: the new dress is tight because it has not been tried on by hundreds of people the way the shop sample was.
• Her secondhand dress cost a quarter of what the alterations did; bridal alteration prices surprised her when she started looking.
• Asks whether she wore the foundation garments she intends to wear on the day, the standard check before judging how a gown falls
• Alterations on a 1700 sample-sale gown quoted at 650 because the whole dress is beaded and every seam has to be reworked by hand
• Fitting the designer's sample size well meant a near-new off-the-rack gown at about 1500 needed only around 100 of alterations.
• Her $500 secondhand StillWhite gown arrived a perfect fit with no alterations needed at all, five weeks out from the wedding.
• Needed the gown taken in substantially and hemmed a lot; a walk-in dry cleaner did the whole job a month before the wedding.
• Buy the size that fits you now, because letting a gown out is far harder than taking it in and often cannot be done at all.
• The satin underskirt carries about an inch of seam allowance on each side, which is what the whole let-out plan depends on
• She happened to fit the salon's floor sample, which is what let her buy that gown at $2,500 rather than about $3,200 new.
• Charity-shop gowns are often already altered for a previous bride, so many run smaller than the size printed on the tag.
• A UK size 4-6 bride found the same shortage of small sizes on the sample rack and expects dress hunting to be difficult.
• Hit the same split-sizing situation and went ahead with the pricier gown and the multi-size order rather than switching.
• Puts a 14 to 8 reduction at 600 to 1000 depending on the shop, and a full redesign of the dress at a couple of thousand
• Had the sleeves taken off the same David's Bridal gown because she could not raise her arms, then had the rest fitted
• A US size 4 bride went through the whole sample stock and found very little in her size, so she sat the giveaway out.
• At 115 lb and 5 ft 5 her own back looks the same in her gown; offered as evidence that the effect is not about weight
• Tailoring this gown in the New York City area came to about $450; a different shop quoted her $900 for the same work
• Bought a clearance-rack gown off the rack that fitted well enough that she is not having any major alterations done.
• Paid an extra $500 in alterations on her own gown and says saving on the dress is what makes room for the tailoring
• $850 of alterations on a $960 lace sample gown, which she still rates cheaper than what her friends were charged
• Bought a long-sleeve gown outright after trying several sleeveless styles and never feeling comfortable in them
• Same alteration job quoted at 900 by the bridal shop and done for 400 by an independent seamstress in Vaughan.
• Most bridal brands have not restructured their size systems in about 30 years, only added sizes at either end.
• Sides and sleeves taken in one inch cost 350, which she offers as the scale of minor work against the asking bride's 1500.
• Her seamstress is making cap or off-the-shoulder sleeves that detach so she can raise her arms while dancing
• Guesses close to 1000 but argues it is still cheaper than a new gown and costs nothing to get the estimate
• Only one size too big, 1000 spent, and the fit was still not right; she stopped rather than spend more.
• Made-to-measure gown that still needs small adjustments in several places, quoted at 900 for the set.
• The winner of the size 10 gown found it slightly big on her and plans to pay for it to be taken in
• Had an ASOS dress tailored to fit properly; dress and tailoring together still came in under $600
• Preloved gown bought online arrived fitting well enough that no alterations were booked at all
• Repeats the two-size ceiling and says the consultants failed the bride by selling outside it.
• Bride calls the site's sizing and measurement guides the most useful part of shopping there.
• Second dress tried at a donated-gown shop fit perfectly off the rail with no changes needed
• Tried to thrift her own gown and gave up because nothing on the racks fitted her body type
• Fabric and embellishment are what drive the cost of significant alterations.
• Had small flutter sleeves added to a strapless gown for arm comfort