The Wedding Day :)

I know I said that I would update yesterday, but the weekend was extremely busy, and I was shattered, still am. But it was also fabulous. The perfect wedding with tears and drunken fun.
Now to the dress. The posts below explain the build up, but I promised photos, so here we go. The dress was a veromia dress designed by the amazingly talented Jason Jennings, and is stunning. But my niece didnt want a train and wanted the train used to make ruffles at the back of the dress, to make it more like the front.

This was how the dress maker interpreted "ruffles down the back please"

Not right! So this was unpicked, and the shop assistant had one attempt at it, and then asked us to leave the changing room, so her daughters future mother in law could try on an outfit, saying "you know what she wants, you do it", and left us to it.  Please keep in mind that at this point the wedding was a week away! This was what me and my sister came up with in a few minutes.

So the dress maker attended and said that couldnt be done, and came up with this.

By this time my niece was so fed up she agreed to it, left. After sleeping on it, by this time it was Saturday, we both decided that it wasnt right and rang the dressmaker to ask her to stop, but couldnt get an answer. We finally got the dress back on Tuesday, most of the alterations had been done, and as we (me and my sister) were unsure if we were going to have to sew the dress we decided to leave them, and they had taken care of most of the train. We spent a coupleof hours on Tuesday evening pinning the dress into ruffles, and it looked quite good. I dont have the pics of that as they are on my nieces camera, sorry.

So the following day my sister took the dress to the Haberdashery shop in Dover, to speak to the woman who had said that she may be able to help, at this point we were unsure if she could do the whole thing, or just finish off the train, once it had been ruffled. She took one look at the dress and said that she knew exactly what it needed, but she would have to take out what the previous dressmaker had done, because that type of stitching didnt belong on a wedding dress.

The woman was amazing! We all love her so much for what she did. The dress was perfect, better than we ever imagined.

Totally gorgeous.

The bride and groom.

The wedding party, a few flower girls are absent, I think they were off playing.

The whole wedding was perfect.

Congratulations to Matt and Becky, love you loads.xx

Happy Dress Update!

Yay! I have good news.
I woke really early today, so thought I would give you a quick update on my nieces wedding dress. We got the dress back on Tuesday, and the shop owner was a rude and dismissive as she had been on previous occasions. When we unwrapped the dress, we noticed that most of the alterations had been done and looked alright(ish) but nothing special. (the photos of that bit are on nieces camera, so will have to ask her to send me them) So we decided to leave the alterations in, as they had taken up alot of the train and we could work around them. The next 1 1/2 hours was spent pinning the dress, and we managed to achieve a look that we all really liked.
On Wednesday my sister took the dress to the little local Haberdashery shop in Dover. She had spoken to the owner on Monday, and she had offered to help, saying that she always keeps a couple of slots free for emergencies, and if she could do the job she would. The dressmaker spent some time looking at it, and said that she knew exactly the look at we had tried to achieve, but had to take out what had been done by the previous dress maker, as it belonged on a curtain, not a wedding dress. The dress was left in her hands, and many fingers were crossed!
She spent wednesday night unpicking and repinning the dress, and yesterday the bride went to try it on. She is over the moon! She says that she never imagined it could look that good, and has fallen in love with her dress all over again. :) My sister said that she cried with relief that someone had actually listened and understood what she wanted. The wonderful dressmaker is now spending the next 2 days completing the dress for her to walk up the ailse on Sunday.
I now cant wait to dress her on Sunday, it was a job that I was dreading doing a few days ago, but Im really looking forward to it now.
Pictures to follow on Monday, and if anyone wants to know the names of the two shops involved Im happy to tell you in a private email.

Wedding Dress Nightmare Update.

So the decision has been made! The seamstress has been stopped half way through her alteration design, and we are getting the dress back today. The plan for this evening, it to try a few different ways of achieving the look that she wants, it can be done, because we did it in the shop with pins, and the alterations are going to be done by my sister and myself, with a different seamstress, and a grandmother on standby for sewing up the train once we've finished.
I know this seems like a mad idea, but even if it means that we dont sleep between now and the wedding, she will get the dress that she wants!
Pictures to follow on Monday after the wedding. I will put up all of the pics so you can see the original look, the two options that the seamstress said were the only ways that it could be done, and the final look that we will achieve (fingers crossed) Wish us luck, I have a feeling that we may need it.

Wedding Dress Nightmare

My poor niece, has not had a good experience with her wedding dress. After trying on many dresses, she eventually decided on one of the first dresses that she tried on, with alterations that they agreed to the back of the dress, and this was ordered from a local shop in September last year.
In December a phone call was recieved to say that the dress had come in, and she could come and try it. At the same time as this there was a death in the family, so the actual fitting didnt happen until January.
The dress was ready for her when she arrived at the shop, but as it was being put on, she realized that it wasnt a new dress, but was the sample dress that she had tried on originally, complete with pin marks in the back and a new scorch mark at the front! When confronted the shop owner originally denied that it was the sample dress, but eventually stated that my nieces dress must have been given to a bride who had bought the sample dress. She was asked if she had ordered the dress in the first place, and was adament that she had, but was unwilling to provide any proof that she had placed this order.
She initially refused to refund the money, asking for a chance to put it right, this was agreed, but while sorting this out, she continually moaned about how she would be out of pocket, etc etc, at which point my niece said, forget it, I will go elsewhere!
Thanks go out at this point to Mrs P&P, for advice, and Madeliane Issac James for offers to help.
So, at this point we are in mid January, and the wedding is in May, ands we have no dress!
My niece tried on a few more dresses, but then ordered the same dress from a different shop. The only other stockist in the area, and was told that it wouldnt be in the shop until  May 16th (wedding is on the 29th), and would still need the alterations at the back. My sister attempted to contact the company to try and get it delivered earlier, but met with resistance, and was told that she couldnt speak with the manager. A few weeks later the manager contacted her and said that she couldnt believe that she hadnt been told about the situation and would ensure that the dress was delivered as soon as possible. One helpful person!
The dress was delivered at the end of April, but the shop stated that she couldnt have a fitting until after her hen weekend in case she put on weight! So last week was the fitting. On arrival we were pointed to the changing room, and left to get on with it. So I dressed the bride.  The dressmaker/seamstress attended and the changes were discussed and agreed. Yesterday we had another appt, and again were left to dress the bride. The changes to the dress had been done on a temporary basis, but werent right. We were discussing this when the shop assistant asked us to leave the changing room so a member of her family could try on a dress for her daughters wedding. A member of staff assisted us at first with trying to get the look right at the back of the dress, but then said 'you know what she wants, you do it' and left me and my sister on the floor pinning up the dress. The seamstress arrived, and played with it, and ended up with something that the bride thought was ok, but still not what she wanted.
The situation at the moment is that the seamstress has taken the dress to work on, but I know my neice isnt happy with it and its not the look that she wants. And its not her being a bridezilla.
The question now is, do we stop the seamstress, and look for someone else who hopefully get the idea of what she wants and get the look right? Or do we let the seamstress continue and she walks down the ailse in 8 days time in a dress that shes not totally happy with? We are at a loss as to what to advise her to do. The whole thing hasnt been a pleasant experience for her at all. Such a shame :(