Hemming wedding dress

My dress is also a Martina Liana, and during my appointment (it was a trunk show) we discussed customizations (ordering it in ivory/ivory, closing the plunge by a few inches, close hip/side cutouts, extending the lining to meet the end of train, having the hem accommodate my 2.5” heels, etc). All of these customizations did cost extra, but, aside from the bustle, I shouldn’t have to have any (or limited) alterations (It just arrived, so I’ll find out later this week). The “custom design fee” to start the process was $50 and the “special hem” was $150 (I ordered my dress in July).

Check out https://www.kleinfeldbridal.com/2021/02/20/wedding-dress-customizations/ for more info. The article is from Martine Harris, Chief Creative Officer of Martina Liana and Martina Liana Luxe, and in it she discusses customizations at Kleinfield. I ordered my dress from True Society (Kansas City), so customizations aren’t limited to just Kleinfield. But, with that being said, I’m not sure if they are offered through all of their retail partners or if it is a trunk show exclusive.

Maybe your bridal salon can/should reach out to their Martina Liana rep?

Your bridal salon is really the best place to ask that question. We can guess and assume but the salon has the actual answer and can provide more information.

This is the standard way and I’m sure there are lots of reasons. But a big one is that dresses aren’t hemmed to your natural height, they’re hemmed to your footwear. So, most people don’t have their shoes picked out as early as they’re ordering their wedding dress, and some will change their minds even if they do, so it’s a bit of an insurance policy that everyone will have enough length— you can always take some away but you can’t really add more. Many pants are manufactured the same way.
It’s also a production issue, every dress being made the same increases consistency and efficiency. While wedding dresses are often “made to order” this doesn’t mean they are “custom made” (which would be to your body)— some places might do that, but for a free, as it adds time and labor costs, so it’s not the standard. The standard is to measure you for your closest fitting dress size to your largest measurement , to guarantee that it will fit you (and so that production can stick to following their set patterns), and then can be adjusted , importantly by someone who can be there with you physically, to alter the dress to fit your specific body

I worked in bridal for three years. It is standard to order the dress at regular length and hem it when it comes in. Whatever trim is at the bottom gets removed and replaced after hemming. Having it hemmed during production is very risky, because if the dress comes in too short, very little can be done. As a result, even with custom length, a lot of people still need a hem when the dress comes in, which just means you have to pay for a hem twice. Hemming costs the same regardless of if you're hemming an inch or six inches- custom length just isn't something that's generally worthwhile.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! This was really helpful!

View Quoted Comment Make sense thank you!

View Quoted Comment Yes I saw the article after I purchase the dress ( which I had to pay in full for the dress no down payment).

McSkipper explained it perfectly!! At the bridal salon they'll take all of your measurements - but that's just so they can order your gown in the best standard size! For example they noticed that my hip measurements actually pushed me a size up - and they always order to you largest measurement because it's much easier to take dresses in than to let them out.

Everyone needs to get their dress hemmed and have other minor alterations done!!

View Quoted Comment Gotcha. Thanks. I just thought maybe it wouldn’t come out the same due to the design at the bottom.