Customizations

Let’s Talk “Customizations”

When shopping for your wedding dress, you may find yourself confronted with loving all but one aspect of a dress. What many brides do not realize is that the dress you love can often be customized by the designer. For many designers, you can customize anything from a small strap adjustment to mixing tops and bottoms and changing necklines. We are here to breakdown one of the most un-talked-about parts of bridal shopping & provide you with the tools to successfully navigate the world of customizations.

Important Side Note: Customizations are a true collaboration between you and the designer who creates the design you are interested in editing with them. The best part of the process is being in touch with the creative who will be able to tell you what aspects of the gown can be customized and which part/s of the gown they keep the same (and the reasons why) so that you can achieve your ideal vision. We recommend going the customization route if you find a dress you love and it’s just one detail that’s holding you back. Head’s up, customizations can be amazing, but they will usually involve an upcharge (we’ll discuss this in more detail).

Remember to approach the customizations process as a partnership. And remember that tweaks can be made, but if you’re looking to overhaul multiple aspects of the gown, the custom route may be better for you. Learn more about designers that offer both customizations and custom on Dress Hunt.

The Process

Customizations can be approached from a few angles. If you’re shopping in-store, your stylist will be key to success in this process. If you find your dream dress through Dress Hunt and learn you can customize it and buy it online, the designer will be your key contact and will walk the entire process with you (how amazing to be in touch with the designer directly).

If you’re most interested in shopping in-store, before heading into a boutique, go to Dress Hunt’s PreShop boutique section to look for your dream dress. While exploring, you can view the dress’s listing description to learn if the dress is customizable. While at your appointment, the stylist, or in some cases, the designer, can draw you a new sketch with the desired customizations. Sometimes, they will even show you the top of one dress with the bottom of another to help you visualize the change.

In addition, whether you intend to shop in store or online, you can always inquiry directly with the designer on Dress Hunt if you have a question about the customizations options for a particular dress or the process overall.

Check out a few of our amazing designer partners & book an appointment to find (and maybe even customize) your dream wedding dress.

What Is Customizable?

You can customize everything from a small strap adjustment to mixing tops and bottoms, changing necklines, or even working one-on-one with a designer to create something from scratch!

It is up to each designer to decide the extent of the customizations, and up to the store & stylist to decide what makes the most sense financially for the bride. There may be some customizations that your stylist will recommend for post-production, in alterations, as it would be more affordable than paying a designer and production team to customize your dress prior to production.

Once you gather all of the information through the in-store stylist or designer, you’ll know what’s best for you – trust your gut! With the right information considered, including other ways to shop like exploring the custom route or separates, you’ll be sure to create the look you’ve always dreamed of.

Customizations Cost

As a rule of thumb, customizations can start at a few hundred dollars & go up from there. The price is based on the designer’s production cost and extent of the desired customization from a time, money, & materials standpoint. Keep in mind, some designers will offer various lining color options at no change in cost.

Some changes might be cheaper to do post-production with a seamstress while other changes are cheaper being done by the designer. Again, talk to your stylist in-store or the designer directly through Dress Hunt. There are many factors that contribute to which option would be the best for you (your location, budget, resources, etc.).

To keep things simple, time and materials - the more that is required of them the more it will cost.

Who Offers Customizations?

Unless the bridal boutique is willing to customize post-production in alterations with their in-house tailor, it is up to the designer as to if they offer customizations. To find out which designers offer customizations and to what extent, head to Pre-Shop Boutique or Shop Online (depending on how you want to shop) find a dress you love, and look in the description to see if it can be customized.