Price of alterations?

I would put between $200 - $400 aside for alterations. My hem, bustle and modesty piece was around $360, but I also went through David's Bridal. Good Luck!

It will depend on your area and also what your dress looks like. For instance, my dress had lace all the way to the bottom. A simple hem required my seamstress to individually take off each piece of lace and then sew it back on after hemming the underlay. I am in NJ and spent about $500 for relatively minor alterations. Meanwhile, my SIL had to have her dress taken in like 5 sizes because she got a great deal on a too big sample size, and she paid $200 in southwest Virginia.

Mine was $365 for 5 layer hem, bra inserts, cap sleeves and bustle

I paid $485 for hem, bustle, and to shorten my straps.

I paid $370. My dress was hemmed, a bustle was added, the zipper was shortened (I have a short torso), cups added, and it was taken in through my hips and midsection.

Daughter's dress only needed to be taken in a little in the bodice/cups added, the straps lengthened, and a bustle created (they ended up doing a 3-point over-bustle for the tulle/lace layers and a 3-point under-bustle for the lining layers of her aline ballgown). In total, the alterations were about $450, at the bridal salon. The initial estimate was lower by about $150, but they had a tough time getting the bodice exactly right and I think she ended up with a total of four appointments. It can be deceiving, because her dress fit pretty well before anything was done, but even "small, fine-tuning" type adjustments added up to more than we expected. I'd try to budget $500, and then hope you'll be pleasantly surprised if it's lower. (We also spent nearly $100 to have her dressed steamed....) Good luck!

I just went in for my first fitting on Saturday. My cost is $400.


I had a friend that had a cost of $700. She had a lot of alterations to the top of her lace dress. She also had a lot of layers that needed to be hemmed.
I think it really depends on the dress.

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I'm also going through davids bridal and when buying my dress they told me that I shouldn't put too much aside because they don't think it should cost more than $200, but I am also afraid that they will up-charge me (they tried to with my dress, but I luckily had taken a picture of the price on my phone at my first appointment). I was thinking about putting around $400 aside. So thank you!

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Did you get your alterations done at the same place you bought the dress or a different shop?

And ok, I totally didn't think about the layers involved, my dress does have quite a bit of under layers in some sections.

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Ok! It seems that 400-500 is a good saving point, thank you!

And did her dress have lots of layers that needed to be steamed? I'm just curious also on the price point on that,

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Oh wow! what a price difference! thank you so much for your input!

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Her dress was Rebecca Ingram's Allison, and, yes, the skirt had a lot of layers. There were at least two layers of tulle and lace, then a satin lining, and several layers of crinoline, and it had a moderate train. She took it to a higher-end dry cleaner for pressing the week of the wedding (she had her dress for about a year before the wedding, stored in it's cloth dress bag, and the alterations were done about 4-8 weeks before the wedding date, so it had been hanging and then worked on in alterations for a while). The cleaner did a wonderful job in less than an hour and were willing to let her wait while it was done, if she wanted (she was super nervous about it being out of her sight at that late date). She didn't go that far, but when she picked it up, it was perfectly packaged around a cardboard dress form so that the bodice was completely stuffed with tissue paper and the skirt was arranged so that the super full skirt and train wouldn't pick up any wrinkles. They also explained exactly how to unpack it the day-of. She transported it laid out flat in an SUV. It looked beautiful & perfect when we unpacked it and she put it on at the venue just before first-look! Good luck!

View Quoted Comment My seamstress works from home. She was recommended by the shop I got my dress.


I didn’t think about the multiple layers either when trying dresses on. I know my friend didn’t. She was shocked by the alterations cost. I picked a different seamstress that she did.

View Quoted Comment Yeah, it was crazy. I joked that, if I had known, I would've driven the 7 hours to SIL's just for alterations lol.