Journal
Top 5 Pro Tips for Designing your own Wedding Dress
We are beyond excited for all the creative wedding dress designs we are working on this year! See below our top five professional wedding dress designing tips for designing your own wedding dress with us!
1. Narrow down your complete bridal look before your first design meeting.
Be sure to have your complete look in mind prior to your first meeting. Utilize Pinterest, wedding magazines, or Google images for inspiration. When you pin or print your inspirational photos write a caption with description of which feature you loved about your dress.
2. Have a budget in mind for both your dress and alterations.
While we include alterations in custom dresses for our local clients, if you are long distance you will need a separate budget for alterations local to you.
3. Trust the process!
Once you’ve booked your custom wedding dress, trust the process! It’s so hard to wait, but just like in the shop, all good things take time. Gown production can take 6-9 months.
4. Select shoes of the same height before your try on.
While you might not have the right vision for your accessories, shoes are the most important for a first fitting. Be sure to check return policies with the boutique you order from.
5. Have a selection of undergarment options ready for try on.
We have a selection undergarments we can special order for you. Be sure to inquire this at your time of measurements and fabric selection. Most cases dresses are created with enough support to avoid the need for undergarments. However, it is important to keep this option in mind.
We hope this helps you with your custom wedding dress design process! As always, feel free to reach out via text if you have any questions: 208-696-1155
Best,
Brittanie
-The Bridal Tailor
Sami & Tyler | McCall, Idaho | Custom Wedding Veil
“I would definitely recommend Modern Cottage for any alterations or custom pieces. Brittanie is detail oriented and is focused on creating a beautiful product. She had a lot of great ideas for alterations and for my custom veil that I didn’t think of. I appreciated her expertise and her willingness to bring my ideas to life!”
-Sami
Hey! Britt here with Modern Cottage. What an amazing wedding this was to get to be a part of. We loved the creativity Sami had with her veil and her bridal style she put together. Sami came to us in need of a custom veil and some standard alterations on her simplistic modern wedding gown. We just love how this look came together with the wedding venue, custom veil, and all!
How did he propose?!
“We moved to Boise (my hometown) almost three years ago after living together in Boston for some time. He proposed in my best friend’s back yard in September 2020 with all of my friends watching secretly inside the house. It was cute and intimate!”
-Sami
Custom Wedding Veil
We can’t say enough about the the ease of details Weddings by Soiree put together for this very special day. For more on their wedding details see the list of vendors below. For more information on our custom veils please click here or text us at 208-696-1155.
Best,
Brittanie
-The Bridal Tailor
Vendors
- Photo: Brie Thomason Photography
- Venue: McCall, Idaho
- DJ: Eric Rhodes
- Catering: Horsewood Catering
- Planner: Weddings by Soiree
- Floral: Boise At It’s Best
- Cake: Greg Marsh Cakes
- Bridal Shop: Bespoke Bridal Boise
Top 3 tips for Designing a Custom Wedding Dress Online
Hey! Britt here! I wanted to let you in on my top 3 tips for designing your wedding dress online with us; especially if you are designing long distance where we will be shipping your dress.
- Accurate Measurements:
Once your dress design is complete, the next step is measurements. We utilize pattern making programs to create your pattern made to fit your measurements. With this in mind, our pattern making program requires several measurements for making your dress. That’s why we then schedule a 1:1 Video Session for measurements. After booking and dress design confirmation, we will send you a link to schedule your virtual appointment for guidance taking measurements.
- Fabric Swatches
One of the most important aspects of your wedding dress design remains in your choice of fabric. Your fabric choice can add dimension, uniqueness, and overall aesthetic of your dress. We know this is important, so we send you all your lining and base colors of your dress. While we want to prioritize lace swatches, sometimes lace that we don’t currently carry isn’t easily accessible for swatches.
- Seamstress for alterations
While it is our goal to get the closest fit to your measurements, most dresses ordered custom or in boutiques will need some sort of alterations. When designing your wedding dress online with us, we can point you in the right direction for follow up alterations with a bridal seamstress in your area. If you are local to Southern Idaho, we are happy to adjust your gown complimentary when you order through us!
For questions regarding custom wedding dress making, please text us at 208-696-1155 or send us a message here!
Best,
Brittanie
-The Bridal Tailor
How to use our Wedding Dress Preservation Kits
Shipping Kits US wide
Hi! Britt here with Modern Cottage. I love how simple our wedding dress preservation shipping kits are! We can ship these wedding gown cleaning kits all across the United States, so don’t hesitate to reach out with questions even if you aren’t in Idaho.
Here’s how you can prepare your dress to ship out for a wedding dress cleaning or preservation:
STEP 1: Be sure to add your wedding dress color, fabric content, designer, and dress value to your form. These things are extremely important. You want to be sure our gown cleaning experts can address your gown color and content accurately. It is also important to know the designer and value for insurance purposes. However, in my 17 years of preserving and cleaning gowns, I’ve had great experience with our signature required shipping.
STEP 2: Mark with the “stain” stickers specific stains you would like brought to our attention. This is easier than it looks! You really can’t mess it up, just put the stickers where you want us to really dive in to cleaning that stain.
STEP 3:
Roll your dress and set in the bag gently, be sure to include any accessories you want preserved. Then ship via the prepaid shipping label. When rolling your dress up try to start from the top with the skirt being on the outside. Be sure to deflate the bag after putting your dress in it to keep the packaging compact.
Top 3 Reasons to have an Expert Clean your Wedding Dress
Hello! It’s Brittanie Cline with Modern Cottage. I am jumping on here to share with you my top three reasons why you need a gown expert to clean your gown. Number one, the biggest thing is fabric content knowledge. A gown expert is going to know what type of fabric you have and the best treatment for your gown. Number two, beads and stain treatment. So basically, what is on your gown embellishment wise as well as your specific stain for treatment?
“A gown expert is going to know how to identify the grass stains versus the dirt stains versus food or wine and how to differentiate treating that with each fabric content. “
-Brittanie
A gown expert is going to know how to identify the grass stains versus the dirt stains versus food or wine and how to differentiate treating that with each fabric content. Number three, in handling and packaging, it is important to have a gown expert because they’re going to be adequately trained to package your gown in acid free tissue paper and acid free cardboard box with the shadow box. Generally a gown expert will also know to wear gloves while handling your dress. It is important that any time you pull your dress out of the packaging as well, even if you’re looking at it after it’s been cleaned to wear clean gloves; this way you are preventing oils from your hands going on to your dress. When you do that, you’re preventing any future stains. By wearing gloves, you are preventing those future stains so that we can maintain that color and that lasting color for up to 100 years. Those are my top three reasons why you need a gown expert to clean your gown. If you need your dress cleaned, feel free to text me at 208-696-1155 and I would be happy to ship you a wedding gown preservation kit, or you can drop it off at our local location just between Sun Valley, Idaho, and Twin Falls, Idaho.
Best,
Brittanie
The Bridal Tailor
Top Three Partial Wedding Planning Ideas
No. 1: The first thing I think about with partial wedding planning is a coordinator, which is more of what I do alongside my alterations. A coordinator is someone that helps you basically plan out the day of and make a game plan for that that can be shared with all vendors. They help you coordinate how the whole day is going to unfold. They are generally right there with you for a chunk of time, maybe 8 hours helping you. When I coordinate, I’m generally there for 8 hours, so I let that be either heavier on the side of decorations or later in the day and heavier on the side of the reception. So that’s a wedding coordinator.
Secondly, when I think of partial wedding planning, I think of a digital planner. A digital planner is someone that you consult with over the phone. They are someone that can help you over phone meetings as you plan your wedding. You can generally book with this person as you go. So if you feel like you only need an hour, you can book a one hour consultation or you can come back and revisit that. Generally, a virtual wedding planner is going to help you create that timeline and execute that and be able to delegate that to a family member or someone else who is going to step in the day of.
The third and last one is selecting a wedding planner book. I recommend selecting a wedding planner book that is going to guide you through the process. That I could see as partial wedding planning. You will need to find a good wedding planner book that will help guide you through the process efficiently. Those are my top partial wedding planning. Keep your eye out for our summer launch of our very own wedding planning book! We will be announcing it at Instagram. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and go follow us on Facebook. And if you haven’t yet and you’re in the middle of planning your wedding, go ahead and go to our home page and grab that free to do list. It’s called our I Do List. You don’t want to miss out on it. It’s totally free and it’s going to help you. It’s just 15 minutes of your time to de-stress your wedding just a little bit. Talk to you soon!