Having Dress Made...Should I Buy A Backup?

NOLAbridealmost

Hi Knotties.

Well, my wedding is exactly five months away from today.  I have dreamed of wearing a simple, mermaid style dress with a sweetheart neckline made of white seersucker fabric forever.  The only embellishment I want is a thick white satin sash around the waist to add just a little something.  Because seersucker dresses are all but impossible to find, I bought the fabric myself and hired a seamstress months ago to make a dress according to my vision. 

I trust this woman.  I've seen lots of her work and it's all very well done, but I am worried that once the dress is done I won't like the way it looks on my body or just won't live up to what I've imagined....or worst of all: make me look fat.   She is starting the dress in early March.

I am afraid that it will be too late for a plan B if I wait to see how the first fitting goes....should I try to buy another dress in the next week or two to have as a backup? 

How impossible would it be to get a back up dress in March if I don't like what I am seeing?  I know that the usual time frame is to order a dress 6 months out, but are there options later on?  I don't want to waste money on a second dress, but I might go into hypertension if we're 2 months away from the wedding and I don't have anything. 

I would especially appreciate advice from anyone out there who has also decided to have a dress custom made.  How was your experience with it? 

cqbride

I had my dress made and wouldn't have even considered having a backup. If you trust the seamstress and have a clear idea of what you want, I can't imagine that you'll end up in a predicament that would require a different dress. The point of having a first fitting in muslin is that you can change the dress if you don't like what you're seeing and can go in a slightly different direction. When you have a dress custom made, nothing is set in stone. You need to relax and enjoy the process.

[Deleted User]

I absolutely agree with cqbride.  I also had my dress made because I wanted my wedding dress in white velvet and, like the seersucker, would have been impossible to find in a store.  My wedding was almost two weeks ago, and we are actually getting thank you notes from guests telling us what a gorgeous event it was.  My best advice to any bride is to relax, enjoy the whole planning process and try not to take it so seriously.  The more emotion you invest in the details, the more likely you will find fault with the results.  I actually loved the muslin dress and if I had had to wear that, it would have been fine.  It just got prettier as the process went along, and my dress was actually delivered three days before my wedding.  I never considered having a back up.  I feel I chose my dressmaker, as well as other wedding participants, carefully and then let her do her job. 

NOLAbridealmost

The point of having a first fitting in muslin is that you can change the dress if you don't like what you're seeing and can go in a slightly different direction. When you have a dress custom made, nothing is set in stone. You need to relax and enjoy the process.

Thank you so much for saying this.  It never even dawned on me that things could be tweaked as it goes along. 

I will trust.    

Thanks to the ladies who suggested getting a backup also.  It was my gut instinct, but at the worst case scenario I can buy off the rack later. 

BlueBoxBride

I bought my gown through Nicole Miller. Her gowns are made in the USA and I received my gown only 1 week after I ordered it.

I would be VERY involved with a custom dress... a girl I went to HS with posted her pictures on FB. I knew it was a custom dress since she was asking about seamstresses around Austin... and I feel mean for saying this, but her dress looked terrible. The seaming and darts did not fall in the right places... it looked like a Project Runway reject dress. You don't want to be in a situation where you're wearing a dress that looks like that...