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What type of bustle for my dress?

What type of bustle would I need for my ball gown style wedding dress? You can see a photo of the train here

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Taffeta-Strapless-Pick-Up-Ball-Gown-with-Lace-OP9102

I don't want it to cover up the skirt in the back so ideally it would tuck under. I've also considered not having the train at all but if I decide to resell my dress to another bride, I might want to keep the train on there.
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Re: What type of bustle for my dress?

  • You want to get your dress bustled.  Otherwise, you will be getting stepped on all night.  And if you want to sell your gown after, it may be ruined by all the foot traffic.

    I recommend a French Bustle.  It tucks underneath and will be tied underneath.  For the most part, once you get the ties tied, you don't have anything else to worry about.  As a BM with brides who used the hook and eyes, they always come undone and need to be re-done throughout the night.  Once I even took a butter knife to close the hook, since it was coming undone every time the bride sat down.  That is usually with an American bustle.

    Also, any good seamstress will help you go over your options for bustles.
  • I did a tuck under bustle on my dress and loved it & think that it would look great with your dress. I had a lot of details on the back of my dress that I didn't want covered. I got mine at DB too and they used buttons and loops which stayed perfectly all night. With my dress it did get pricey to go this option because I ended up needing I think almost 20 buttons to properly bustle my dress and after the first 3 there was a charge per button, but it was totally worth it. It was so easy to walk around with it and I loved how it looked. Unfortunately I don't have any pics to share of the back after it was bustled.
  • I would do a ballroom bustle - pins the dress under making it look like no train is available.  IF you don't want a train for you wedding, you can ask your seamstress for a more permanent bustle.  That's what was recommended to me by the seamstress when I originally did not want a train.

    Ballroom bustle:
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  • French bustle worked great on my gown.  The strings were color coded--just tie blue to blue, yellow to yellow, etc.  My MOH had it done in two or three minutes.  Everything tucked under, which was important to me.  A traditional bustle flips the train upward/outward.  My ceremony was outside, so I knew train would get dusty.  This way, any dirt went underneath and wouldn't be on display in the back.  Even if your ceremony is indoors, the train will get dirty.  Tucking under is a good choice.
  • I did an under bustle on my dress and I seriously hated it! They used hooks and buttons which created little pocket things all the way around the back of my dress. I kept stepping in the damn things all night and getting my shoes stuck and tripping. I was so irritated by it that I ended up not even wearing my dress for our after party. 

    It sounds like other people had good experiences with them though so maybe I'm just clumsy!
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  • I'd think an overbustle with a few points or French bustle will probably work. The look of the bustle will change depending on how many points you need as well. But the pickups should lend themselves to doing a nice bustle.

    Go talk with a good seamstress and she should be able to help you. Mine mocked up a couple bustles until we found one that worked and was secure but I still liked the look of it.

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  • I ended up requesting my dress to be made with no train, because I was concerned with the bustle too. I have no regrets. My mom is a bit disappointed, because she had this vision of me in a train. She will get over it though, and I couldn't be happier with my dress.
  • You want to get your dress bustled.  Otherwise, you will be getting stepped on all night.  And if you want to sell your gown after, it may be ruined by all the foot traffic.

    I recommend a French Bustle.  It tucks underneath and will be tied underneath.  For the most part, once you get the ties tied, you don't have anything else to worry about.  As a BM with brides who used the hook and eyes, they always come undone and need to be re-done throughout the night.  Once I even took a butter knife to close the hook, since it was coming undone every time the bride sat down.  That is usually with an American bustle.

    Also, any good seamstress will help you go over your options for bustles.
    My sister had a French bustle and it looked really nice. I wish I'd had that!  

    To the bolded: it's interesting you had this problem.  I had a two-point bustle with hook and eyes (actually, it was hooks and eyes made of a loop of about twenty or thirty strands of thread: like the picture below) and I had no problems with it coming undone.

    image
  • You could even do a 3 point over bustle.  The connection points could be added to the pick-ups themselves.  Like when you look at the back of the dress in the picture you posted you could put one on the left, one in the center and then one on the right.  You could make the connection points right where the fabric was pulled up to make the pick-up.

    Also in regards to the hook and eye issue with American bustles, I had a 2 point American bustle and mine was made with two buttons and two eyes (or loops) made with a crap ton of thread. So not all American bustles are made with hooks, but I do believe that hooks could easily come undone in bustles because typically the hooks are pulling sideways to keep it tight, while with bustles they are slipped down into the eye/loop and moving a certain way could allow the hook to slip up and out.

  • You want to get your dress bustled.  Otherwise, you will be getting stepped on all night.  And if you want to sell your gown after, it may be ruined by all the foot traffic.

    I recommend a French Bustle.  It tucks underneath and will be tied underneath.  For the most part, once you get the ties tied, you don't have anything else to worry about.  As a BM with brides who used the hook and eyes, they always come undone and need to be re-done throughout the night.  Once I even took a butter knife to close the hook, since it was coming undone every time the bride sat down.  That is usually with an American bustle.

    Also, any good seamstress will help you go over your options for bustles.
    My sister had a French bustle and it looked really nice. I wish I'd had that!  

    To the bolded: it's interesting you had this problem.  I had a two-point bustle with hook and eyes (actually, it was hooks and eyes made of a loop of about twenty or thirty strands of thread: like the picture below) and I had no problems with it coming undone.

    image

    The entire wedding was ridiculous, the time I took the butter knife to the hook to close it.  The "eye" was made out of thread too, it just didn't want to stay.   It was a pain in the ass!
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