Gettin' Altered for the Altar

Rule #1 of alterations - if you can, bring someone with you. I had been worried about going to my first fitting by myself (4 of my 5 bridesmaids don't live in Chicago), but the experience was perfectly fine except for from a photographic standpoint. I would have loved to have a ton of pictures snapped, but of course the seamstress needing to be pinning, not snapping!

Check out my awesome photography and the front of my beautiful dress:


If you look at the waist, you'll see the flower I ordered awhile back from 5eizen on Etsy. As a part of the alterations process, the flower will be attached.

Source: Etsy

Of course, the most exciting part of the alterations process is getting the bustle done! Since my dress has so many tiers of fabric, I was intrigued to find out how the bustle would look. Here's the back of my dress without a bustle:


And here it is all pinned up, how the bustle will look (I was able to get her to snap one picture!):

Apparently a French bustle (or having it go underneath) looks best for my dress...she was definitely pinning a lot, so I wonder how many hooks will be in place!

I said goodbye to my dress and will see it again in early September, sigh. Since I purchased it as a sample dress, it needs to be cleaned. My seamstress will send it out to be cleaned before I see it again - one less thing for me to worry about.

While my alterations were about $150 more than I'd anticipated spending (although, truly, I had no clue what to expect) and I had to deal with the added sticker shock of paying for the cleaning (another cost I was clueless on), I have to remind myself that we got such a fabulous deal on the dress and to just take a deep breath!

For those of you in Chicago, I went to Ms. Couture at North/Clybourn, who had great reviews online! The store is really cute and my experience was fabulous. Best part of it? The dress didn't need to be let out at all, and she even encouraged me not to lose any weight between now and the wedding - she definitely knows how to make a bride-to-be feel fabulous!

Did you go solo for your first fitting or did you bring along your entourage?