Wedding Dress Fittings and Alterations

A made-to-order gown arrives close to your measurements. Alterations are what make it yours, and they are the part of the process brides plan for least.

What alterations actually do

Three things, in rough order of frequency:

Fit through the bodice. Taking in at the side seams and back, adjusting straps, correcting a neckline that gapes. This is the bulk of the work on most gowns.

Length. Hemming to your shoes — which is why the shoes must be bought before your first fitting and brought to every one.

Structure. Adding a bustle, adjusting internal boning, fixing cups or support.

What they are not is a redesign. Alterations refine a gown; they don't turn it into a different one.

What alterations cannot do

Worth knowing before you fall for something.

• Make a gown substantially larger. This depends entirely on seam allowance left in the construction, and there is often very little. Going up is far harder than coming in.
• Change the silhouette. A mermaid cannot become an A-line.
• Move a neckline much. Small adjustments yes; a different neckline no.
• Alter heavily structured or lace-overlaid areas easily. Lace has to be unpicked and reapplied to keep the pattern reading correctly, which is skilled, slow work.

If you are between sizes, the general rule is to order the size that fits your largest measurement and take it in. Alterations that aren't possible covers the limits properly.

How many fittings

Two or three for most gowns.

First fitting — usually four to eight weeks before the wedding, once the gown has arrived. The seamstress assesses it on you and pins the major work. Bring your shoes and the underwear you will actually wear.

Second fitting — the major work has been done and is checked and refined. This is where the hem is usually set.

Third fitting — final check, around two weeks out. Ideally nothing changes here; it exists so that if something has, there is time.

Complex gowns, or bodies that have changed, can need one more. How many fittings will you need goes further.

The scheduling mistake

This is the single most useful thing in this piece.

Brides plan the making of the gown carefully and then treat alterations as something that happens afterwards. But alterations need two or three appointments, spaced weeks apart, fitted around a seamstress's diary in the busiest months of the year.

That means:

Book your alterations slots as soon as you have a delivery estimate — not when the gown arrives.

By the time the gown is in your hands, the good slots in wedding season are gone. This is where the last-minute panic almost always comes from, and it is entirely avoidable.

What to bring to every fitting

The same things, every time, without exception:

• The exact shoes. Not similar ones. The hem is cut to them.
• The underwear you will wear on the day, including any shapewear.
• Your veil, once you have it, so the whole look is assessed together.
• Someone who can learn the bustle. Genuinely — one other person should be able to do it, because you cannot.

Bustles

If your gown has a train, it needs a bustle so you can move at the reception. The seamstress will fit one, and there are several types depending on the gown's construction and weight.

The important part is not the type. It is that somebody other than you knows how to do it up, and has practised. Ask the seamstress to teach whoever that is at the final fitting, and take a photo of the finished result. Bustles, explained covers the options.

Body changes

Bodies change between ordering and wearing, and this is normal.

Two pieces of advice. Tell your seamstress early if something has shifted — a small adjustment made in time is straightforward, and the same adjustment two weeks out is not. And do not plan to lose weight into the gown. A gown altered to a body you have not yet got is a gown that fits nobody. See body changes between fittings.

Costs

Alterations are almost always charged separately from the gown, and the range is wide because the work is. A hem on a simple crepe skirt is a modest job. Taking in a boned, lined bodice with lace over it is many hours of skilled work.

Ask for an estimate when you order, not when the gown arrives. It belongs in your budget from the start — see how to buy a designer wedding dress and what alterations cost.

After the final fitting

• Have it pressed or steamed, and ask how it should be stored between collection and the day.
• Store it hanging, covered, somewhere dry and not in direct light. See storing a gown before the day.
• If you are travelling with it, ask about it before you collect — travelling with a wedding dress.
• Decide about preservation afterwards. Sooner is better than later for marks — wedding dress preservation.

A note on minimalist gowns

Fit matters on every gown and it matters more on a plain one, because there is no surface interest drawing the eye away from a line that sits slightly wrong.

If your gown is unadorned — see what is a minimalist wedding dress — allow more alteration budget and more time, not less. The gown is the fit.

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