Just because I'm curious...can anyone tell me about having a gown made?

For any bride who had a dress custom made for her, can you tell me: What would the price range be? Where you would go to get it made? How long might it take to make? Just wondering. TIA.

Re: Just because I'm curious...can anyone tell me about having a gown made?

I own a company that designs and manufactures sexy trendy maternity clothes. My desinger / sample-maker is very talented and can make exact copies of any designer item...D&G, Versace, you name it. She's made bridal gowns for other companies, done work for Anna Sui and Betsy Johnson... and there's NO WAY I'd have her make me a dress.

Think about this:

1. You need to pay for a pattern, which is easily $150 to $350 for a wedding dress, depending on who makes the pattern

2. The pattern then needs to be translated into a sample dress using an inexpensive fabric called muslin, but you have to pay for the sample which can be $200 to $400 depending on who makes the sample

3. If you don't like the sample this process needs to be redone. Or maybe you want minor adjustments, so the sample maker will need to charge more.

3. You need buy the fabric for your wedding gown and if you're having custom made I'd only use silk. It's a lot of work to look for the fabric. There are so many shades of white and ivory, several different types of silks, and several stores that you might want to comparison shop.

Good quality silk will cost you between $15 to $20 a yard and because silk generally comes in shorter widths like 45" or 52" you're looking at about 10 yards (many places require a 15 yard minimum like Eastern Silk in NYC) and this will be around $200 for just the fabric. You'll need to decide if you want duchess silk satin, silk tafetta, silk charmeuse, etc.

4. You may want trimming, which means rhinestones or beading. If you are having this custom made you might as well go for the swarvoski crystals. Retail you'll pay quite a bit for this. And you'll have to run around shopping for it.

5. You may need a seperate contractor to put the beads or rhinestones on the dress, because you're dress designer may not be qualified to do this. Once again you'll have to run around and negotiate with different people to do this.

6. What if the dress doesn't come out as planned or if it's not done in time?

I'm in the business and I didn't want to do this. In the end I thought it would be just as expensive as any of the designer wedding gowns. But even if I could do it for less money, it wasn't worth the headache. There are so many things that you might stress about, I felt that the wedding dress was the last thing that I wanted to freak out about. I thought I'd leave the wedding gown to the designers who have experience doing this for years. I hope this helps! All the best!