Daisy's Day at David's Bridal Alterations

One of the reasons Lily and I thought we'd start this blog is because we are just at that age where all our friends are starting to get married. Our first wave of weddings starts this summer, and dutiful girlfriends that we are, we've been called up on to be bridesmaids, so we think we have a unique insight into wedding planning, and an up-close opportunity to compare and contrast what like about what we see.

This August, I'm in my good friend Theresa's wedding, and I'm wearing style 81509 from David's Bridal, in the color Lapis (shown on the right). It definitely complements Theresa's gown, style CRL277, but I'll confess I was nervous when I saw what she had chosen. I have not had a lot of luck with empire waist dresses, because I am what they call "top heavy." I went to the shop last October to get fitted and order the dress, and let me first note that one of the key advantages to DB is that they have stores everywhere. Theresa's registered in Toledo, but we tried on dresses while we were both in Indiana, and I ordered the dress in Okemos, Michigan, near where I live.

Unfortunately, neither the Indiana store nor the Michigan store carried that specific style in my size, size 12! I was very upset, because I was very if-fy on this style of dress, and no one wants to spend $130 blindly. I tried on a 14 and it hung on me, but the 10 was just a little too tight. So I had to order the size 12 without trying it on, something I really wish I didn't have to do.

The dress came in in December, and this week I went in for my alterations, because, while the dress fits the top half of me well, the skirt of the dress is this sort of mermaid-trumpet style. It's supposed to hug the hips, but my hips just don't fill it out. But once Patty, the alterations specialist at the shop pinned the dress to the right size for me, boy, did I feel better! It looked great! I can't wait to see how it turns out: I'm scheduled to pick it up May 6th.

All in all, the dress was $135, but I got $20 off because Theresa bought her gown at David's Bridal too. The alterations cost a total of $65, and that was to 1.) tighten the spaghetti straps, 2.) take in the skirt and 3.) hem the skirt.

A note on the hem: this dress has a train, which I didn't find out until I went in for the alterations fitting. Patty asked whether the bride wanted me to leave the train when I got the dress hemmed, and I couldn't get a hold of Theresa right then. So Patty pinned the dress as if we were taking the train off, and told me to call her within a few days once I got a hold of Theresa. We ended up leaving the train, figuring that not all the bridesmaids would need a hem anyway, so why make them pay more when they didn't have to. So I want to thank David's Bridal in Okemos, Michigan, and Patty, for their flexibility in this; it really made my life a lot easier. Additionally, hemming the skirt and leaving the train cost the same as hemming the skirt and cutting the train off.