I am a big fan of Lord of the Rings/StarWars/ and Medieval Stuff.... I knew long ago in my teens (I am now 33) that I wanted a custom made dress for my wedding dress. AS a preteen/teen I wanted a white dress Like Princess Leia's at the end of A New Hope when the gave the medals to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker... then when Lord of the Rings came out I wanted a wedding dress that looked like Arwen's Bridge dress (the white dress she wears when she gives Aragorn the Evenstar Pendant in the movie)
Princess Leia (I ended up getting silver heals like she is wearing)
Arwen Bridge Dress
Below is what I ultimately decided on...
to start:
I googled custom made wedding dresses and found a company in California called Annomalie, a husband and wife team who made custom wedding dresses.... I started talking to them and getting pricing quotes for my vision... The girl I spoke to on the phone was amazing, very friendly and easy going...sent me pictures and I sent her pictures through their website to get my vision put on paper so to speak... the dress quote came in at $1,275 (I originally didn't want to pay more than $800 for a dress.... my first thought was no more than $500 but my mom gently reminded me that what I want in a dress will not be found on any rack in any bridal store around here and I may need to pay more for a custom dress.... so i said yeh you're right...and annomalie was willing to a budget payment system with me.. sounded great! Mom saw the price quote and was a little shocked, not much but a little.... and recommended I try finding a custom shop closer to home.... just to compare before I fully go through with this.... THAT'S when I found ieie Bridal in New Jersey .,. (I live in SE Pennsylvania).
ieie Bridal is order online only...no phone calls, no store to walk into. just emails to start, and then when the dress is done, she will ship it to you (I got it within 2-3 days). Wendy quoted me $650 for what I was looking at doing with $30 shipping.... I was VERY PLEASED it was under my $800 budget!!!!! (It's gotta be that California mark up with the other company... or accounting for all the shipping back and forth, not sure....) Wendy was easy to talk to via email, making sure she understood the look I was going for. I sent her pics she sent me pics and used photoshop to try to blend the different pieces from different dresses I wanted. I repeated over and over in paragraph form what I was looking for.... Wendy sent a form for me to fill out (through drop box) for my measurements and any special notes. that would update as I typed (not printing out, and re-scanning back to her) I had stated several times over, and in the dress form i filled out, that I wanted the skirt to have pockets, and to have elastic in the waist band to account for loosing/gaining weight since I am not sure when my wedding is yet, and I was trying to save on alterations since it was supposed to fit me perfectly as they were my measurements we were working off of... I saved all of the emails we sent back and forth and I have the forms as well from drop box, pockets were listed as well as elastic yet the finished product i got had neither and the skirt was 6 inches or so longer than I had expected.
I got the dress yesterday and tried it on this morning (8-13-2020)... quality is very well done! this is just what i had envisioned.... there are some minor issues though that I just emailed ieie Bridal about seeing if she will honor it or not.... i asked for pockets in the skirt, there are none. the length is WAAAYYY off.... like 6 inches or so.... due to a waist vs "natural waist" measurement
below: the back... i would prefer to see more of the lacing shown...my sister laced me up loosely here in this picture... (mom tightened it later and u could barely see the lacing (looked zippered instead) the whole point of corset lacing is to SEE the lacing!! ) The bodice could have been another 1-2 inches longer to actually cover the waist line when i sit down and not ride up on me to reveal my belly. and not as wide in the back to allow for more lacing to show. that's what the modesty panel was for....
this picture below is where the hemline SHOULD HAVE FALLEN... (but who wants to wear a skirt up under their breasts like Steve Urkel from Family Matters??!!) according to ieie's "natural waist" measurement ... uh no, that's not right...
so thus far, she is a great seamstress, the quality is VERY WELL DONE, (it does not feel cheap at all, skirt is heavier than I thought it would be). Lesson: go with your gut though with your measurements don't just agree with her...this is the second time where my gut said one thing and i caved and the gut was correct about where things fall on your body... If Wendy won't honor what was on the form, I will try to find a local seamstress to make the adjustments I need... THANKFULLY... I am not engaged yet, and no wedding date set yet, so I have time to get this fixed... but still.... it's frustrating that the form she went off of that i finalized, had pockets on it, and she didn't add them in the end... and the hem is off, but easily fixed...the waist bands needs some adjustments too...
Part 2 follow up post about how Wendy responds will be given once I know myself.... fingers crossed this goes well....
