Veronica is THE BEST! I was fairly certain I wanted a custom gown going into the whole engagement thing, but I went to a fancy bridal salon with a posse of ladies just to try some things on and see what I liked. On the one hand, I discovered some insights about my wedding dress preferences that I wouldn't have known otherwise (blush!) but it was also enormously stressful (they were telling me I had to order a dress that day to make it in time for my wedding). Ultimately it made me even more certain that I wanted a custom gown. I went home and emailed Veronica after some research and had an appointment for a consultation within a couple of weeks. She totally got my vision. I went to her with a sort of "franken-dress" concept that pulled together elements from several different dresses and the process went really smoothly. She even found a piece of vintage lace in the exact color of peachy-blush we were using! I LOVED my dress and got so many compliments on my wedding day! There are many things to stress you out when planning a wedding: at least for me, the dress was never one of them. I knew it would turn out perfectly and that I needn't worry a bit. Veronica is also a lovely person inside and out, and it was an utter joy working with her. She also has a bridal collection of her own in addition to custom work, all of which is incredible and completely charming. read more

I can't imagine having a more magical wedding dress than my Veronica Sheaffer custom gown, nor enjoying a more fun and relaxed process of its design and creation. With elegant aplomb, Veronica designed a dress that recalls my favorite vintage styles, expresses my personality, and singularly set the tone of my wedding celebration. I had always wanted something totally unique for my dress, and was drawn to a mix of vintage designs and looks. But, being no designer myself, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted or even where to look. I heard about Veronica from a friend, and was thrilled. I corresponded with her over email and sent pictures of dresses I liked, and by the time we had our first meeting and consultation, Veronica had made several sketches - I fell totally in love with one on first sight (more quickly than with my husband! ) and we began to bring the sketch to life. I'll never forget how happy and teared-up I got when I saw it for the first time, or how happy and teared-up I was wearing it on my wedding day. I received SO MANY wowed compliments on the dress, it completely dazzled our guests. They kept saying, "It's just so you!" Veronica is terrifically talented at putting your personality into the dress. She's a great listener, and incredibly creative, and just loves making dreamy things come true. With her energetic enthusiasm, she's also really fun to be around, and it was really great to have her as part of my experience preparing for the wedding. She's amazing to work with, always savvy and attentive to details that cumulate into the fantastic realization of a dream wedding dress. If you're looking for a custom wedding gown designer, she's the one! read more

Veronica created a custom gown for my wedding this past October. She is an amazing person and her work is a reflection of that. Before I was even engaged, I saw a photoshoot of Veronica's on a blog and bookmarked her name for the future. Her dresses stood out to me because they were so different from everything else out there. When the time finally came to actually look for my dress, I really wanted to work with Veronica, but I did my due diligence and looked at MANY bridal shops in the area. Needless to say, I never found the one. I had a very specific dress in mind that just wasn't available anywhere I looked. I finally made the smart decision and contacted Veronica. After my first meeting with her and seeing the initial sketches, I knew that this was the direction I wanted to go. From the start, Veronica completely understood my vision for the dress. I wanted a blush gown, very vintage looking and whimsical and she completely got it. You can tell that she truly cares about her clients and the work. Her talent and the quality of her gowns is clear - her work is impeccable. She actually didn't have any gowns in her studio when my mom and I first came to meet with her (they were at a trunk show), so I asked if we could come back in and look at them before "sealing the deal" so to speak. She was super sweet about it and completely understood that we wanted to check out the dresses from her collection. She was always so kind and very good about reassuring me - with any concerns. For fittings - she was always so easy going and super calm - which is a welcome experience for anyone planning their wedding. Veronica was also super flexible - even when I had to contact her last minute to do a quick alternation before the wedding, she accommodated my schedule and did everything to make sure I was happy. Veronica truly created my dream dress and it felt like a dream on the day. It was exactly what I had imagined! Thank you, Veronica! read more

To begin, I'm a wedding coordinator and have dealt with wedding gowns in every way imaginable. I've seen all the bad, from missed deadlines, faulty bustles, poor fitting bodices, to diva seamstresses and bossy tailors. But I have also had a LOT of wonderful experiences in the wedding gown department and Veronica Sheaffer comes through with ALL of the best qualities of a gown designer. She is the best of the best!! I've had several brides contact Veronica for both custom gowns and to make alterations to a new or vintage gown. She is always quick to communicate via phone and email, she has the most positive, outgoing, bubbly disposition, she really listens to what her clients want, and she more than delivers...I love that she is open to creating something entirely custom or even just adding a few little tweaks to make a wedding gown feel unique and perfect for her brides. My clients have had such amazing experiences with Veronica, I knew exactly who to turn to when it came time for my own wedding. I found a vintage dress that fit me like a glove, but it was long sleeved. Veronica expertly transformed it into a perfect dress with little capped sleeves and then she made magic happen by using the leftover sleeve material to add a much-needed kick-pleat to the skirt. I never would have thought of that!! She also added a row of covered buttons down the back, which was the tiny detail that was needed to take the dress from "vintage white maxi dress" to "the most amazing wedding dress you've ever seen". IT WAS PERFECT. I still love that dress so much, I sometimes just wear it around the house. My mother came up for a fitting and loved Veronica so much that she still asks about her! Veronica is so sweet and genuine-- you can tell that she truly loves what she does, which makes all the difference. It's never about a sale, it's about connecting with a bride and give her the dress of her dreams. Each new line of dresses is more gorgeous than the last and I am so excited that she's now doing gowns in colors-- Look no further for elegant bridesmaids gowns and fancy evening-wear! Her studio is gorgeous-- you'll love visiting her for fittings. It's bright, open, and so welcoming. None of that "bridal shop florescent lighting" or "please step on this dingy carpeted box in your dress"...No way. The space is well-designed and echoes Veronica's personality perfectly. In short: Veronica is the absolute best and I highly, highly, highly recommend her if you're looking for a wedding or evening gown! read more

During the wedding planning process I had toyed with the idea a having my dress custom made. Just to be sure I wasn't totally crazy I had visited a bridal boutique in Chicago to try on a few specific dresses I had seen online. I walked away from that appointment more determined than ever to find a dress that was completely unique to me. I tried on many beautiful gowns however they all seemed to be off ever so slightly, whether it was color, material, cut/style, price etc. I decided to stay in on a Friday night to do some custom gown research. I had come up with a few leads through my Google searches however it was until I turned to Yelp to find Veronica Sheaffer Custom Bridal listed. After viewing her professional website, I stumbled upon her blog. A few hours later and many posts deep into her blog I realized I needed to reach out ASAP. I identified with Veronica's design aesthetic, personal projects, and overall view on planning a wedding. We set up a time to meet and someway, somehow she was able to sketch the most beautiful dress that I had no doubt, would be perfect for me. The best part of this process was seeing my dream gown come to life from a sketch. It was such a cool process to experience. Veronica was always so calm and easy going during my fittings. Many people asked if I was nervous about getting my dress custom made however Veronica made this experience completely the opposite. In fact, it was my favorite part of planning my wedding! When the big day finally arrived I received an overwhelming amount of compliments (which is probably normal for all brides), but the compliments have kept coming well after our wedding day. Family, friends and coworkers who attended the wedding or saw photos are still talking about how beautiful and unique the gown was! I look back on our wedding photos fondly for many reasons, but my heart still skips a beat when I think about that dress. - so soft, light and easy to wear. Veronica absolutely nailed it! read more

After trying on dresses I thought I wanted (but realized I looked like a cupcake in), I purchased a simple chiffon strapless dress from JCrew. My mom passed away several years ago, and I wanted to add the beautiful embroidered lace from her dress to mine, along with straps and some sort of pouffy flower on one side. Then came the amazing and talented Veronica Sheaffer! After I had my dress, my mom's dress, and some extra fabric ready, I started searching for someone who could help me visualize what I wanted and sew it all together. A mutual friend suggested Veronica, and immediately, when I clicked on her website, I fell in love. So in love, that had it not been too late in the dress making game, and had I not already bought my dress, I would have asked her to make me a dress that second. I seriously searched and searched for dresses for months, finding nothing I liked. From the super expensive to vintage dresses, I saw nothing that was pretty, delicate, unique, or me. Veronica's dresses are a dream come true. She uses the most beautiful fabrics and knows how to piece them together into something modern with an angelic vintage feel. So, I knew I wanted her to help me with my dress, because I could tell she'd understand just what I was looking for. Veronica is just as sweet as her dresses. When I met with her and her intern, they made me feel so comfortable, I wanted to stay and hang out all day! They had me try on my dress and we talked about what I was looking for. The next time we met, Veronica had sketched out a design that I loved and I felt confident with both dresses in her hands. She even wrote about my dress a couple of times on her blog, which made me feel really special and gave me some sneak peeks, too! When I saw my dress for the first time, I wanted to cry. It was beyond what I imagined. Veronica turned my simple dress into something that was so meaningful, one-of-a-kind, and such a combination of my phenomenal mom and me. She pays such attention to detail, the hand-sewn flowers she created on one shoulder were so perfect, she even cut some of my mom's lace to make leaves, and placed little pieces inside for the centers of the flowers. She also added the lace to the waistline and straps she created, allowing it to just poke out underneath. And, she took the time to open up the bodice of the dress, reinforcing the straps inside the corset, and bringing the skirt up from the waist, instead of re-hemming from the bottom. She also made me a gorgeous hairpiece to match the flowers on my dress! Everyone was amazed at what Veronica created. Veronica completely transformed my dress, and made it into something that I will cherish forever. I got so many compliments about her beautiful work, and my cousin has already gone to her for help with accessories for her wedding. I have to say that Veronica's prices are very reasonable for the incredible job she does creating her wedding dresses and the work she did for me! I couldn't imagine working with anyone else, and I would recommend her to anyone in a heartbeat. If you haven't seen her blog, you should check it out! http://myhandsmadeit.com/ read more

Was just sitting here with my husband talking about our wedding - our 3rd anni is tomorrow. Made me spring for my computer, remembering I could review Veronica's business on the internets! Finding Veronica in my neverending search for a wedding dress was such a relief. I had gone everywhere - from Kleinfeld's to David's Bridal - to much frustration. With me living in New York, and her being in Chicago, it wasn't super ideal at the outset. But after an hour long phone consultation, it was an easy decision - probably the easiest of my wedding planning. From start to finish, she was professional, supportive, intuitive and enormously creative. She listened to my ramblings and nonsense and figured out how to put it on paper and eventually fabric! She had the right ideas for fabric and cut to make the 30s-ish vintage inspired look I wanted to work with my shape. She even took me and my dad fabric shopping with her! Anyway, there were lots of small touches I never would have thought of - handmade silk covered buttons lining the back, pink silk lining that shone through in the sunshine, etc. She even helped me find a headpiece on Etsy - this was way before she started her own line of them. It was really ideal - could not have asked for better. read more

Veronica designed the shrug that went with my off the rack wedding dress. She had amazing design and fabric suggestions, steered me in the right direction, and was a great communicator. My shrug was beautiful, fit perfectly, and garnered lots of compliments. She was a pleasure to work with, and I highly recommend her. read more

Veronica created an absolute dream gown for my wedding in September 2012 and I haven't stopped referring friends, colleagues, and strangers whilst eavesdropping to her whenever any conversation circles around to weddings, gowns, and all the lovely bits and pieces that go into this crazy wedding culture we have. I was a nervous wreck going to meet Veronica for the first time -- I had a lot of ideas that I didn't really feel were cohesive, too much time spent on blogs and wedding websites trying to find my identity in striped paper straws and burlap table runners, and no real idea of how to go about working all of these expectations about the "best day of my life" into a dress that made me feel beautiful, confident, and most importantly, like myself. Veronica saved the day and my sanity. She designed a breathtaking sketch and created an elegant, but not stifling gown that made me look and feel like the best version of myself. Every single person I encountered had to stop and catch their breath when they saw me. Every person at my wedding asked about my dress and exclaimed how beautiful I looked -- my normally fairly taciturn and very masculine brother-in-law could not stop extolling it's loveliness (honestly one of my favorite memories of the day) and Veronica is to thank for it all. She is supremely intelligent, a great listener, and one of the most talented and creative people I've ever met. I feel honored to own one of her creations and look back so fondly on the process of having a custom gown made by such an inspiring woman -- something I never anticipated being able to say. Thank you x 1000, Veronica! read more

I should preface this by saying my dress is still just a sketch, but I LOVE Veronica. She has been nothing short of amazing to work with. When I first started to think about my wedding dress, I took note of the fact that I wasn't excited to have the bridal salon experience; the thought of going to a store and being presented with dresses I knew I probably wouldn't like really didn't appeal to me. At that time, I decided to look into a custom dress, not really knowing much about the process OR whether or not it'd be financially feasible. I knew roughly what sort of dress I wanted, which was another reason why I didn't want to go to a bridal salon. I was picturing something with no lace, no beading, preferably long sleeves, and a unique look. (Now that I've watch Say Yes to the Dress a few times, I've learned that "unique" is like Pandora's Box when it comes to wedding dresses!) I googled Chicago custom wedding dress and Veronica popped up, so I decided to shoot her an email. A few months later (I was VERY ahead of schedule with wedding planning) we had our first meeting and it felt like meeting an old friend. She was(/is) warm, funny, creative, and thoughtful about what you want. What I appreciate the most about working with her so far is she's honest about what will work from a design standpoint and what will be flattering for your figure while still considering your overall look/feel. Another thing to note is she's patient and flexible. At one point, we had more or less honed in on a design and suddenly my mind started to swirl with new ideas that were veering away from what we had initially come up with. We decided to chat in person about the design to try to wrangle in all the ideas I was sprouting off. At first I felt like I had de-railed our progress, because I suddenly realized that I didn't really know what I wanted anymore; I had so many ideas that I felt like I wanted to incorporate all of them. (I was really excited.) Once we figured out what the front of the dress should look like, we had to figure out the back. She brought out a mannequin (this was fun) and we started to pin some fabric in different designs. Some ideas were tossed around and then BOOM it was figured out. She sketched the dress that we (mainly her) had concocted that day, and it was love at first sight. It was like discovering what I didn't really know that I had wanted the entire time (if that makes sense). AND not to mention picking out the luxurious AF fabrics was another amazing part of the day. I can't wait to watch this dress come to life! read more

fist let me start off by saying- finding Veronica was a gift from the wedding planning gods! she was the sweetest, most talented, and loving designer EVER! her love of wedding dress/veil designing comes through in each and every garment she creates. the veil she designed & made for me was the most beautiful accessory I wore on my wedding day and it fit right in with all my other vintage jewelry. after buying my dress I knew I needed the perfect veil to match my 1930s English garden themed wedding. I searched high and low for a unique veil that would be just right. you name it, etsy, e-bay, antique stores, my grandma's closet . . . I looked and could not locate a veil that came even close to the look I had in my head (I did find a few beautiful pieces but they would have cost the rest of my wedding budget). then I stumbled upon a wedding website with a beautiful bride, that was wearing a veil just like the one I was looking for; the dress & veil designer, Veronica Sheaffer, was listed, I contacted her within minutes! (turns out the wedding I was drooling over was her own!!!! aka, this means she has fabulous taste) Veronica and I meet on snowy morning in January and within five minutes of talking she had drawn out a quick sketch and nailed the look of the veil that I had been dreaming of for over six months but could not find! (and her price was very fair for a custom design) I left her apartment on a cloud, floating the whole way home. within weeks she had started the project and would periodically send me pictures of her progress. we made a few minor adjustments from the first meeting but by the middle of March the veil had arrived! my wedding wasn't until the end of May so I had plenty of time to get the cathedral length veil trimmed to match the train on my dress and to do a trial run on my hair. if you are looking for a unique, classic, tasteful, beautiful, dress or veil for your wedding, Veronica is for you! she is a gem and I can't thank her enough for giving me so much love and support on my wedding day- even if it did come in the form of a beautiful veil. xo. read more