The Cost Of Bridal Alterations – Phoenix Wedding Dress Stores – Bridal Shops & Independent Seamstress

Finding the picture perfect wedding gown or wedding dress is often more challenging than a bride-to-be expects or is prepared for.

Choosing a wedding dress is an important part of each brides special day, as the dress reflects each brides personality and style.

The wedding dress also compliments the wedding theme, wedding venue and the season for each brides special day.

With this in mind, finding the perfect wedding dress is both exciting and nerve wracking, for many brides…

Especially with so many considerations to be made…

One of the most important considerations in attaining the picture perfect wedding dress, is finding the right seamstress…

Getting the bridal alterations  done right the first time around, can ultimately take an ordinary dress and make it extraordinary…

With this in mind, proper alterations to the wedding dress, ensures that the wedding gown truly inspires a bride and her guests.

While shopping for the perfect wedding dress can be exciting, conversely, many brides encounter difficulty in finding the perfect seamstress…

Once they’ve narrowed their selection down to a few wedding gown styles or purchased a wedding dress, the next step is to verify WHO will be working on the dress and how much the wedding dress alterations will cost.

Whether a bride selects an A Line, Mermaid, Trumpet, Fit and Flare or a more traditional gown, the challenge boils down to making sure the wedding gown alterations are done professionally and on time.

Each bride must also make sure her dress fits properly and is comfortable for her body type and shape…

Each wedding dress silhouette poses a different set of alterations requirements for each brides body type. Brides do have intuition and know how their dress feels once it is on. Many times after principal alterations have been completed, a bride may still “feel” that her dress is too loose, or the hem is too long.

This is not uncommon, and while many busy bridal shops will remedy a brides concerns, others simply do not have the time or inclination to revisit a dress. In fact, many stores will offer a bride “supportive observations”, basically directing a bride away from doing more alterations and adjustments…

If a bride presses on, with valid concerns with the fit of her wedding gown after the alterations have been done, some bridal stores indicate that “additional alterations fees” would be necessary to continue to change the dress.

Many stores also schedule alterations and bridal fittings too close to the wedding date. This quite often leaves too little time left to do multiple fittings and adjustments for what many stores call “picky brides” that want “the perfect fit” The end result is a percentage of brides that feel they received lesser service.

This is where having a patient & highly skilled seamstress can make all the difference.

First, an independent seamstress can often offer both better prices (up to 50% less than bridal stores in phoenix)… Second, an independent wedding dress designer & Seamstress almost always offers more personalized service… This is because a seamstress may only have 20-30 brides to assist each week, whereas a store may have over 100 brides to keep up with.

The fact is, many brides report in online reviews receiving slower store service, bad alterations and high bridal alterations prices… It is also a fact that most stores make a higher profit margin on wedding dress alterations and wedding accessories. Many brides are caught off guard by the high cost of alterations, as this usually occurs after they purchase an expensive gown. To be fair, for the many negative online review, there are others that are positive… but the thought of any store with multiple negative reviews raises valid concerns. A bride being treated poorly and crying in the store is not a good scenario.

For this reason, brides should be patient and careful when selecting a wedding gown store. Most importantly brides should know the cost of wedding dress alterations before they purchase their gown and how many fittings they are guaranteed to make their dress right…

Yet strangely, many brides end up purchasing their gown at an expensive bridal boutique without knowing how they will be treated during the alterations process…

As a result, despite succumbing to pressure to purchase a higher price wedding dress, many brides end up with sticker shock at the extremely high price of bridal alterations at some local bridal shops and wedding dress stores in phoenix… (we’re not mentioning any names) .

Add to this scenario the fact that many brides report wearing a dress on their wedding day that they were not completely happy with… and you have a recipe for disaster… that needs to be addressed in the industry…

Regardless of whether it doesn’t happen to every bride…, it shouldn’t happen to any bride…ever. Period.

Here then, are some tips to avoid the common mistakes brides make when shopping for the perfect wedding dress.

Actual online reviews from brides can help brides avoid common pitfalls by asking the right questions…

In addition, knowing what to look out for… when purchasing a wedding dress…. and before agreeing to do the wedding dress alterations at an expensive wedding store, bridal shop or boutique is extremely important…

1.       Keep The Cost Of Bridal Alterations In Mind.

Selecting A Wedding Dress With Patience … Means finding the right seamstress for the job.

If you think about it, a seamstress is more qualified to help a bride with trying on a wedding dress and making suggestions as to fit, appearance etc. in the first place. This is because a seamstress knows bridal fabrics and works with altering or creating different wedding dress styles and lines everyday.

A patient seamstress is a good listener, and will always put the total comfort and satisfaction of a bride first. A professional seamstress will listen attentively to ascertain how a bride feels in her wedding dress, first before any alterations are done at the bridal fitting.

By keeping each brides wedding dress fit, style and theme at the top of the priority list, an independent seamstress can guarantee that each bride receives the result they want, in plenty of time before the wedding, and at a price that is affordable and agreeable.

The last thing any busy bride-to-be needs… is hidden “surprise costs” and “unexpected problems ” with how the wedding dress alterations turn out… especially right before the wedding…

Therefore, brides should make sure to ask important questions to determine how patient the seamstress or bridal store is with their bridal alterations customers. Brides should find out how much time for fittings is guaranteed to be provided for adjustments and who will be doing the alterations on their wedding dress. Brides should also inquire about the general pricing for doing a hem, multiple point bustle, bodice sizing (taking in sides) bead work and making a custom veil.

A seamstress that is truly experienced and knowledgeable can often provide brides with the kind of patient demeanor and attentiveness that helps them to sort out their thoughts when looking in the mirror at the wedding dress fitting.

A seamstress should have a patient and positive attitude, offering helpful suggestions and showing each bride different ideas and solutions to each concern or question raised. A bride should never feel rushed during a bridal fitting. If a bride does encounter feeling rushed during a fitting, being “steered” in one direction or being told “not to do” one alteration or another because there “isn’t time” or the alteration is “too costly”… It’s time to get a second opinion!

A seamstress should offer service with a smile, helping each bride through the fitting process and making sure they are completely comfortable.

This requires professionalism and proper time management and scheduling. Basically, a seamstress should schedule each bride to receive sufficient time for questions and total satisfaction at each fitting. Fittings should never be overbooked, as in many busy national bridal shops and wedding dress stores. Brides should never feel like a number, and more importantly a bride to be should never, ever purchase a dress for thousands of dollars, only to not wear it and purchase another dress before the wedding. This scenario is also quite common and is often the result of a bride being talked into a wedding dress they were never sure about.

Again, patience, starting early and asking about the cost of alterations can help each bride avoid paying too much for the wedding dress…. and paying too much for alterations.

No bride should ever end up receiving less than stellar service after making an expensive wedding dress purchase… Every bridal fitting for alterations to the wedding dress should be fun filled, shared with mom of bride and friends…. and trouble-free…. Unfortunately, not every bridal store can guarantee that… only some brids are lucky and get the perfect fit and perfect service…

So ask questions about the cost of bridal alterations before purchasing any wedding gown or wedding dress. Ask to meet the seamstress that you will be working with… Are they pleasant and patient?

It’s worth mentioning that WHO a bride selects as their SEAMSTRESS is just as important as WHAT wedding dress or gown they choose. So searching for the perfect wedding dress in reality means searching for the perfect seamstress.

The fact is, 95% of all brides require alterations to ensure their wedding gown or wedding dress truly fits and flatters to their satisfaction. Finding the picture perfect wedding dress and a great seamstress is a major challenge because one store may have what looks like the perfect dress… yet have tons of negative reviews online when it comes to their alterations department…

This is the main area where patience on a brides part is required. Do your due diligence and at least visit one independent seamstress before having alterations done to your wedding dress at an expensive bridal boutique. Also, read online reviews of independent seamstresses and bridal shops alike, to determine WHO truly offers patient service, better personalized attention and LOWER PRICES…

With careful research both via the internet and in stores by asking the right questions about alterations costs, a bride can find an experienced seamstress or alterations dept. that truly shines and ensures EVERY bride is happy.

Remember the bride (customer) is always right and deserves to look and feel spectacular in her wedding dress on her special day… With patience, a bride can find the right seamstress for the job…

2. Keep Your Options Open

You’ve tried on what seems like an endless array of wedding dresses, in half a dozen local phoenix bridal stores and wedding stores. Your feet are tired and you’ve likely lost weight in the process!

Your head is aching from the glare of your LCD computer screen after surfing through countless online bridal stores and retailers… Now that you have decided on a wedding dress style or silhouette (shape) it’s time to start comparing prices. But what about making sure that you include the cost of alterations in your price comparisons both online and offline? What about a reasonable evaluation of the level of service you can reasonably trust to receive at each bridal store, department store, boutique or independent seamstress? Have you decided to compare ALL of your options including visiting an independent seamstress, and not just expensive boutiques and bridal shops?

Most brides are surprised once they encounter the high cost of wedding dress alterations at many bridal shops, wedding dress stores and tailors. Even department stores often have high prices on altering a wedding dress or gown. What to do? Well, for starters how about comparing each of the above stores with an independent seamstress prices? A savvy bride will also read online reviews for multiple stores in regard to their alterations department and level of service excellence, AFTER a wedding dress purchase is made…

Based on each option, which stores can a bride expect to receive the highest caliber of service at? Which store or seamstress offer competitive prices both on the wedding dress and the alterations…? Alterations will undoubtedly be required…

What additional cost may a bride encounter once the wedding dress is purchased and alterations are started? Will the seamstress meet the bride before the sale is made to show the bride options for her dress as well as general pricing? Will the bridal fitting be patient, fun and with ample time to ensure even a picky or conscientious bride will be totally satisfied with the result of the alterations done to her dress?

Only a seamstress with many years of experience in providing bridal fittings and performing highly skilled wedding dress alterations and restyling can help each bride to identify their preferences and discover the perfect bustle or fit for their dress in the bust, hips, waist and hem length.

Again, each bride is different and will have unique ideas and preferences, and these choices should be heard and respected, while offering real solutions. This requires a seamstress of exceptional skill, and patience, that has earmarked sufficient time for a higher level of service for each and every bride….

There are a myriad of possibilities when customizing a wedding gown and finding the perfect balance of options, fit and style requires a seamstress with both experience and patience. Simply put, a seamstress must have the time and patience to perform even major dress restyles and alterations.

3. Keep The Wedding Dress Shape In Mind

Knowing your figure will help make the most of finding that perfect dress with your seamstress. And while guidelines exist for you to follow, no one should choose what you want except you. The following are suggestions and are not to be taken as rigid rules; every bride is different.

Hourglass shape: a slim waist with a balanced bust and hips. If you are fortunate to have this shape, you have many options, but Mermaid style dresses (sheath gown to the knees, with a flare out), pure sheath, or gowns with horizontal seams and styles, (Ball Gown for example), all take advantage of your flowing curves.

Pear shape: an attractive upper body with a more pronounced bottom. The key here is to emphasize your face, neck, shoulders and bust. Gowns for this shape let your top do the talking and let your most attractive features shine.  A-line and empire styles are good choices, while off-shoulder or strapless necklines help lend prominence to the upper half of your body. Fishtail designs and Mermaid style dresses can also work incredibly well.

Apple shape: a truncal upper body with narrow lower parts, almost the opposite of the pear shape. So if you’re bigger in the middle, an A-line or an empire can easily disguise or hide your stomach.  Also possible are sheer waistlines, or princess-cut can give you a sexier look but can conceal as well.

Busty shape: Just as it sounds, dresses here help craft a more flowing silhouette and can use halter necklines, which narrows your shoulders while making you bust look smaller. V-neck and wrap neck are choices to consider as well. And unless you want to push your bust out even more (which you can certainly choose to do!), you’ll want to skip sweetheart or strapless necklines. A talented and experienced seamstress can accentuate and customize any style to take advantage of the dress that will be perfect for what you want for your day.

4. Keep Wedding Accessories Options In Mind

Veils, tiaras, jewelry, flowers and gloves; they all exist to complement the gown. The most beautiful gown in the world will be missing something without the right accessories.

Too much can look gaudy. Too little, and it can appear plain or as if you look like you are not whole. If it doesn’t complement the style and silhouette, even the venue or time of year, you’ll lose out on that perfect gown.

An experienced independent seamstress can often offer custom wedding dress accessories for hundreds less than busy bridal shops and wedding accessory stores. For example, custom wedding veils at Touch Of Class Bridal & Alterations start at just $80-$120 and are often more decorative and stylized than veils costing over $200 in expensive bridal boutiques. Swarovski crystals, bugle beads, sequins and more can be added to veils and tiaras for an elegant look.

Again, details are everything. Tiaras, for example, have grown more popular, but there are hundreds of styles. Even wearing them at the wrong angle can affect your look. And choosing the right jewelry is an art all its own, while gloves and flowers require a deft, subtle touch. Complementing the perfect dress is a rewarding challenge, and a professional seamstresses can help a bride choose wedding dress accessories that are both affordable and easier on the budget… An experienced independent seamstress and designer can also help a bride with custom bolero jackets, sashes, gloves, crinoline slips, and veils that provide timeless elegance so every bride feels beautiful and  every inch the princess on her special day.

5. Knowledge Is Power.

A bride that keeps all of her options open by visiting and comparing an independent seamstress for a custom wedding dress or even just saving on the bridal alterations is armed with more knowledge and better choices.

By receiving more perspective from an independent seamstress outside of a busy bridal shop or wedding dress store, many brides ALSO discover they can receive better service and lower prices… way lower in fact… Just look at the online reviews below of some expensive bridal stores where service was second to sales…

Before having your alterations done at ANY busy bridal boutique or bridal shop / wedding store why not get a free bridal fitting with an independent designer and seamstress?

This allows a bride to take more time and to ask all the questions that should be asked when altering a wedding dress… It also affords a bride the often rare opportunity to slow down and make better decisions when deciding on which alterations should be done and at what price?

An independent designer and seamstress can also show a bride many different options for adding customization to their wedding dress, like sweetheart necklines, french bustle points, adding a corset and adding applications or adjusting the hem or train length…

A seamstress with at least 25 years experience is often required to perform more intricate and more elaborate wedding dress alterations and complete dress restyling. Only with knowledge, experience and patience can a seamstress truly help a bride get the look and fit they deserve. Let Touch Of Class Alterations create and design the gown you’ve always dreamed of, or provide professional bridal alterations to make your wedding dress picture perfect…

Is there anything more important than choosing the right seamstress?

Actual Wedding Wire Reviews From Busy Bridal Stores Below:

Here are some actual reviews from brides that didn’t get the service they deserved. I know it’s not always accurate to judge any store by just one bad review… but a great store should have very few or NO bad reviews at all… These wedding wire reviews are from actual brides that spent MORE on the dress to get better service…. Yet even though they had their alterations done at an expensive bridal shop or wedding store… they didn’t get the results they wanted. Therefore this information IS relevant to help brides avoid these EXACT same scenarios from happening to them…

“I’d recommend having your alterations done elsewhere, no matter which dress you go with.  I had a terrible experience with the bridal shop that did mine, and I’ve known so many other people who did, if you can find a seamstress on your own, go that route!…” (review from actual bride)

“I have huge horror stories when it comes to  _____… I don’t know where to begin. I would not recommend this place by any means. Lets just say..I didn’t even wear the $2,700 gown that I purchased… So, if you’re interested in a beautiful gown, I have one you can buy! …never worn. (they have a no return/exchange policy…under no circumstances..even death…” (actual bride review of boutique)

“…Please don’t go to _____…. They lied about random discounts to get you to put a deposit that day… “Oh, what a surprise, that dress is on sale today;” and they’re never consistent… they changed their “taking-picture” policies like ten times…  I honestly was mortified with their customer service. The dresses are beautiful… but I want the dress shopping experience to be happy and fun… not another horrible sales tactic …

” My dress was not made correctly and I had to pay to have it fixed (extra loops on the corset back because they did not got down far enough) I spent $400 in alterations to get a sewing machine hem (that was not straight) and bustle that did not hold up at my wedding reception for more than 15 minutes… “We had to use safety pins:( big disappointment to be worried about my wedding dress the whole day after i spent that much money…”

When they ordered my dress, they said I should get a size 8… I said ok… When the dress came I tried it on, it was so huge that it kept falling off of me… It wasn’t even close to fitting right. I accepted this because brides always hear that it’s better to have the dress be too big than too small… Let me rephrase that, I accepted this… until I found that I would be paying $570 in alterations after already spending over 2k on the dress...”

It was supposed to be ready for pickup at 10am the day before the wedding. When I arrived at noon, my dress was not only not THERE to be picked up… but it had not even been FINISHED…”

“It hadn’t even been touched since the last time I had been there, and my wedding was THE NEXT DAY… The store mgr said it “wasn’t a big deal” (at that point I started crying) and that they would have it done for me later that day…

What I didn’t understand is WHY didn’t I receive a phone call? Why do they allow this to happen to brides ever?  I already was SLAMMED with appointments (nails, hair, etc..) There was no way I could get back later to pick it up…”Luckily, one of my bridesmaids was due to pick up her dress later that day, and she was able to get my dress at that time….

Unfortunately, I did not try my dress on a final time until the day of my wedding… “

“Since the final touches were so slight, and I knew my dress fit well.. I didnt think anything could be wrong with it… I was just happy to have it. When I put it on… the cups were sewn up too high. So high up, that I couldn’t even pull my breast INTO THE CUPS!

Because of this, my dress fit very uncomfortable and looked very weird.…

By the end of the day…. the claps behind the bodice kept coming undone and people had to keep hooking (fixing) my dress for me throughout the evening…” …

“Oh yeah…. lets talk about my bustle. After an hour of having my bustle up, it broke… Not during dancing, mind you.. but during our photo session after the ceremony. My sister had safety pins and had to keep pinning it up in random places because it actually had 4 different bustles to hold it up.

At my actual reception it had fallen so many times that I kept stepping on it and other people stepped on it and PIECES of my dress RIPPED off… It was actually comical because people were wrapping the pieces around their necks like scarves or around their waists like sashes… “And finally.. the beads… I noticed loose threads when I got my dress before the wedding. It bothered me but I am kinda low key… so I figured it was such a small thing no one would notice. The closer I looked, however.. I noticed that beads and crystals were missing everywhere. ”

“My bridesmaids complained about the service there. My friends I referred to  _____  also complained about the service. I am sorry to have referred them. You would think that for the money you pay you would have a better experience and more of a quality dress. Save your money and go elsewhere…”

“…________ had some bad online reviews when it came to alterations. But I went there anyway…. My thinking was – you only really hear about the bad reviews as opposed to the good reviews right???

And, if there was any issue with alterations, the salon could resolve the issue and get me a new dress if need be, right? Wrong.  I didn’t want to take the chance and go some where else and not have the salon liable.  Since I was having some more complex alterations, I stuck with them and paid too much for terrible service. Price – I had heard alterations were pricey at  ______.  And, yes.  They were. 

Alterations were almost half the cost of my dress! I almost died! But at that point… when it’s so close to the wedding, you don’t care. I just decided to drink a Bloody Mary afterwards and not worry about it…”

And finally, “….My one complaint about my dress alterations was that the seamstress didn’t want to take in my dress as much as I wanted…  And for me that was unnerving.  I know me.  I am a realistic individual and had NO intention of looking like I had been stuffed in my dress and had it sewed on the day of….” I just knew the longer I wore my dress, the looser it became, so I wanted the seamstress to take it in to account for that.  Understandably, she was worried that I would pop a seam.  But as I suspected, on my wedding day, I found my dress to be looser and less form fitting, than I wanted. ”

Ultimately, I wasn’t entirely happy with the overall alterations.  I wanted my dress to fit and feel better than it did. The bustle didn’t look right and came loose before the reception…. ” ” … A lace up corset back would have made the dress fit perfect… but they couldn’t add a corset in time for my wedding…” Plus they wanted $280 to add a corset…”

Again, the above online reviews, are real experiences that may not happen to every bride… but these scenarios DO occur. We hear many of the same alterations horror stories from brides that come to Touch Of Class Bridal & Mari for help… this is always after experiencing an alterations nightmare that no bride should endure before her special day…

Alterations disasters, wedding gowns arriving late, incorrect hems, sides of the wedding dress being “taken in” way too far… and then the extra fabric being CUT away by an inexperienced seamstress from inside the wedding dress…. in this case the dress cannot be “let out” after a mistake is made… Or the opposite scenario is where many brides find seamstresses that are unwilling or unable to make their dress “fit right” because they are told to leave the dress looser to prevent mistakes.

Many brides are left wearing a dress that is either too tight or too loose on their wedding day. The end result is a wedding gown that does not fit and flatter in the wedding photos that document the disaster for a lifetime! Ouch…

Other brides end up buying more than one wedding dress out of frustration… There’s plenty of brides that will attest to buying more than one dress…

It simply is not fair to busy brides-to-be to go through such ordeals when they can be completely avoided altogether in the first place with a talented seamstress… By interviewing the independent, bridal shop and wedding store seamstress before agreeing to purchase a wedding dress, a bride can find out just how patient and experienced they are. Getting the real truth on the cost of alterations first, is another prerequisite for brides on a budget 

Don’t simply trust your wedding gown alterations to any store or anyone without doing careful research into their commitment to service and protocol to prevent alterations errors and scheduling mistakes….

OK… we’ve seen what can happen when a bride does not do enough research into the service of any bridal shop or store…We’ve  identified how each bride should be completely comfortable with the seamstress that will be working on her wedding dress…

We’ve also covered getting up front pricing on the cost of alterations for each bride and her wedding dress or gown…

Now Let’s Look At Some Positive Reviews:

Touch Of Class Phoenix Bridal & Alterations on Wedding Wire

Touch Of Class Bridal & Alterations On Google

Touch Of Class Bridal & Alterations On Merchant Circle

Touch Of Class Bridal & Alterations

P.S. Visit many stores and entertain all options, but don’t forget to consider a custom wedding dress or gown and or wedding alterations & bridal alterations from an independent designer and seamstress!

Mari