Those who have had their dress made from scratch..

I had mine made for me and loved it.

Like you I had VERY specific ideas about what I wanted (1950's audrey hepburn style tea dress) and though I saw many on the internet that I liked there were none that I loved. So I went to a local seamstress recommended to me by the lady who made my engagement ring and over a couple of meetings she came up with a design that was perfect.

Over 8 months I had several fittings and the dress evolved each time, however I didn't see the finished dress until two weeks before the wedding which was a bit stressful and I did worry whether having it made was a good idea at times. But when I saw the finished dress I knew I'd made the correct choice.

It was also several hundreds of pounds cheaper then the ones I saw online, however not as cheap as I'd hoped (final cost was £640).

It was a great (if slightly stressful) process. The only tips I have is go to a seamstress thats been recommended and check you like their work. Also you develop a pretty close relationship with them, you have to like them and trust them... if you don't get the right feeling when you meet them go elsewhere.

Here's my dress... completely unique!

I had mine made and LOVED it, it was a short 60s style though

My mother made my wifes. Although she did have an advantage of being a dressmaker to the Queen when she was much younger......As mentioned though, you need to have firm ideas and my wife and mother had different ideas.

Peter

First time round a family friend made my dress; it was exactly what I wanted and to this day I've never seen another one like it. There was a lot of material in it, but all in for mine and the bridesmaids dress was under £100.

I am having mine made, I can't comment on the end result yet but I am enjoying the process so far ;-)

It is nice to be able to have exactly what you want and my dressmaker is really helpful with tweaks to my ideas so that it will suit my body shape, etc.

I'm not sure it will work out all that much cheaper though than getting one from a shop.

To give you an idea of price, my dress will be loosely based on this one and I've been quoted £750-£800 depending on exact fabrics used. It will be made of dupion silk and lace...

A friend of mine had hers made. She loved her dress, however has said there were 2 clear downsides......

1 - she never got to go dress shopping with her mum in the traditional way of trying lots of dresses on. Which in retrospect she feels she missed out on.

2 - she only saw the final dress 1 week before her wedding. Prior to that she was going off of sketches from the designer & had to try on cotton bases etc to get the right shape. She found this really stressful as she couldn't envisage what her final dress really was going to be like.

Hope this helps.

I considered it, but was too scared after seeing some naff fabric samples the person I originally looked into sent me. It was some of the cheapest feeling material I'd ever seen.

but I had my heart set on something based on a seriously unique looking dress. In the end I bought a plain dress on sale from BHS:

(£200)

and I got some amazing lace on Berwick street in London, some silk tulle, and burgundy ribbon, and had a dressmaker make this:

I spent roughly£350 on fabric, and maybe £250 on alterations and labour for the dressmaker.

I'm so glad I did it, as it ended up cheaper than it would have been to get any of the dresses in shops I liked, and I got to have something made just for me, and I didn't have the stress of not knowing if I would have a dress, because the BHS dress was lovely all on its own, and would have been fine even without the rockin lace top.

I'm considering doing this too as I've fallen in love with a VERY expensive (i.e. ludicrous) dress; I have a friend who has connections with some wedding dress manufacturers so we should be able to get it at cost as we'll be sourcing the fabric direct.

But yes, I am pretty worried about it! I guess it comes down to getting a good toile made first so you're happy with the shape, and working with someone that you trust and are on the same wavelength as

All of these dresses are amazing! I think I'm sold on the one of a kind dress. How long would you say the process would take/how long before the wedding should I get it sorted?

This dress is lovely! If I was still having a summer wedding I'd definitely be having something similar. Is that a Vulture? You'e wedding looks awesome!

I paid my deposit and discussed initial ideas at around the year mark; my dressmaker said she gets booked up quite far in advance. However she said she doesn't actually start making wedding dresses till around 8 weeks before the wedding due to bride's fluctuating in weight or changing their mind! In the 8 weeks before the wedding she said I will need to see her for fittings at least 4 times. Hope that helps ;-)

I've had a bridesmaid dress made before but I had no say in that whatsoever and was quite far removed from he process, so Its good to have an idea, thankyou!

I think you're talking about my dress, so thank you for your kind comments. And yes that is a vulture, called Fagin... the whole wedding was at a local Hawk Conservancy, so birds of prey featured heavily.

The whole dressmaking process took 7 months, but as has been said before most of the process happened in the last 2 months. My dressmaker said that shes done them in 3 weeks before.

we live very near this place and are members and its a great place to go! I had an owl experience day there too and flew Fagin How was your wedding there?

I also had my dress made as I wanted a particular colour and couldn't find Brides dresses, just bridesmaids and prom styles.

I paid more than I thought as I had double material which brought the cost up but it was totally unique and everyone loved it

~Ashil that is a stunning dress....Im having mine made, I get married very soon (see ticker) and so far I have a bodice lining and a petitcoat haha! I have 300% trust in my dressmaker, she is Extrememly enthusaistic about my dress and really wanted to make it so ensured it came in on budget, my dress is going to in total cost me £340 but this is because we are upcycling alot of material from other things Cant wait to have finished dress to show you all

x

Our wedding day was amazing, the lovely people at the trust were so lovely and couldn't do enough for us. I highly recommend it not only as a great day out, but as a lovely event venue.

I'm having mine made too, but that's because I didn't want a long or white/ivory/cream etc dress! I found a local(ish) dressmaker who specialises in reproduction vintage clothing, with a heavy focus on 50s style, which happily suits my body shape the best. I tried on some of her already made dresses so I could see roughly how the idea would look on me, then made some tweaks to the general style/idea.

So far the process is going well, albeit slowly. I went to source my own material in Goldhawk road, which meant I got some glorious silk and lace at a good price. I'm a bit impatient to see it, but realistically there's no point her making it too far in advance! However, I think she's going to whip up a rough version (probably just pinned/not entirely sewn together) for the next time I see her.

Hi,

My daughter had hers made from scratch and it cost the same as her sisters from Berketex bride. Both were exactly what they wanted. the one from scratch was made in red and black by Love Couture of Norwich.

Lynne