What is a wedding dress? Well, simply, the dress you wear at your wedding. It can be a traditional ball gown or a short cotton frock. It can be separates or a jumpsuit, white or pink, silk or lace, purchased from a bridal boutique or from a thrift store. Bottom line, once you decide to wear it for your wedding, it is now a wedding dress. A wedding dress isn’t a specific style, but a garment for an occasion. It’s the reason why you are wearing it that makes it so special.
Why would anyone down play it then? Why would anyone say, “it’s not really a wedding dress”? Then are you not really getting married? Over the years this has baffled me. When customers call to set up an appointment or inquire into alterations, we always ask if it’s for a specific event. A wedding is a VERY specific event. And every year we have a handful of brides that do not disclaim that the dress they need altered is for their wedding. WHY?
At Silhouette we have two bridal specialists, a ready-to-wear/formal dress specialist, and two menswear specialists. This is not to say that someone that doesn’t specialize in something can’t do an ok job at pinning. But, we aren’t striving for an ok job. Our customers come to us because they want the best alteration service they can get. So, why would you want just anyone working on your wedding dress?
A few summers ago, a woman set up an appointment to get a dress hemmed before she left on a trip a week later. She said it was “simple” and not for an occasion, just for the trip. I set her up with a thirty-minute fitting with Jana, who at the time just pinned ready-to-wear garments, not formal gowns. As she was traveling to a humid location, I figured it was a light weight knit dress. She shows up to her appointment with this Needle & Thread wedding gown from BHLDN (Anthropology’s bridal department) and we find out she is wearing this to her wedding reception.
First off, this hem takes MINIMUM 1.5 hours to pin. It has one of the fullest tulle skirts we have ever dealt with—something like 40 yards at the circumference—which is very misleading as it is not a ballgown. But how is a fully beaded and sequenced dress with an extremely full tulle skirt simple? Or anything other than a wedding dress?
Here are 4 reasons why you should tell us it’s your wedding dress (even if it’s untraditional):
1. Specialty
You probably just spent more money on this one garment than on anything else in your closet. It’s special. Do you now want to take that expensive dress to just anyone that says they can sew? Going to a specialist ensures you will get the best result. I have had brides tell me that other alteration studios have told them that their dress can’t be hemmed, bustled, taken in, etc. All these alterations could be done. The other studios just didn’t have the knowledge or ability to do the work. Going to a bridal specialist (even if your dress isn’t traditional) means you are going to be working with someone that is comfortable with tricky materials, couture techniques and most importantly, is good at problem solving.
2. Time frame
Just as we have bridal fitters, we have seamstresses that just focus on sewing bridal gowns. We need to make sure we will have enough time to not only schedule the appointments but also do the sewing. At Silhouette, we set up your full series of appointments up front and then schedule your gown into our sewing queue so no matter the turnaround, we are completely ready for your dress.
3. So we aren’t mad
Not going to lie, when clients deliberately mislead us we get mad. By not giving us all of the information, we cannot give our best work, which sucks for everyone.
4. It won’t be any cheaper
If you think by deceiving us your alterations will be cheaper, this is not the case. We charge based on garment construction and time needed to complete the alteration. Generally speaking, wedding gowns are just more complicated garments which in turn makes the alterations more expensive. And once we see the dress in person we are going to know it’s a wedding dress. *Cough* Cate gown.
