I had a bad experience working with Z on alterations for my wedding dress. At first, everything seemed fine; she seemed sweet and she listened when I expressed my wishes. However, my experience was soured by three things: 1) Z's extreme lack of transparency on pricing 2) my bustle not holding up on my wedding day, and 3) delays on her end. I would recommend that brides look elsewhere for alterations.
I ended up paying $1646.25 for the alterations for my dress, which is WAY more than I thought it would cost. You could buy a brand new wedding dress for that amount, if not 2 brand new dresses. I had 4 fittings for my dress, and just before the second fitting, the price Z quoted via text was $1200. That price floored me, but Z had already started altering my dress, and my wedding was 3 weeks away, so it would have been hard to find someone else to tailor my dress on such short notice. So, I took the gut punch and moved on. Then, when the alterations were done and I was about to walk out the door with my dress, Z told me she needed to add $650 to the cost because the alterations took longer than expected, bringing the total to $1850. I told her that I appreciated her time and hard work, but that I didn't think it was fair to surprise me with an over 50% increase in cost at the very end. We went back and forth and she eventually agreed to accept $1500 and waive the sales tax if I paid with cash. I didn't have $1500 cash on me, so she added the sales tax (making the total $1646.25) and I paid via Zelle.
In my view, part of Z's job as a professional seamstress is being able to accurately estimate how long a job will take to provide accurate cost estimates to clients. I understand things come up, but an estimate being $650 off target means the initial estimate was just not right to begin with. I had been expecting to pay $500 or so based on what I had read online. The alterations I needed seemed fairly standard to me: hem, bustle, taking in the top of the dress a bit, and shortening the straps. She also made a minor adjustment to my veil. I asked Z what the alterations would cost at my first fitting, and she told me she would have to get back to me after taking a closer look at the dress. That seemed reasonable to me at the time, but now I wish I would have demanded to at least have a ballpark estimate. In the same way that Z deserves to be fairly compensated for her work, customers deserve to be given fair notice about the prices they can expect to pay. Had I known what she would end up charging me, I would have looked elsewhere for a tailor who could alter my dress at a more reasonable price.
The main issue I had with the quality of her work was that my bustle broke THREE TIMES on my wedding day. The first break was as my maid of honor was very carefully putting the train up: one of the hooks fell up and the dress had to be safety pinned. Break #2 occurred mid-reception as I noticed my train was dragging on the floor. I had to leave my reception and have someone help me pin up my dress as more of the bustle hardware had fallen off. The third break occurred about a half hour before the reception was supposed to end. I, sick of dealing with this on my wedding day, just held my train in a free hand for the rest of the night. It makes me sick to know I paid so much for alterations only to have my dress falling apart on my wedding day and taking away from my time with my guests.
I also encountered delays working with Z that were stressful for me. I had originally reached out to her on January 6 about altering my dress for my April 29 wedding. She agreed and suggested we set my first appointment for March 18 in case my weight fluctuated. That seemed like a good idea at the time. However, despite the fact that I planned ahead, she did not finish the alterations until 2 days before I had to leave for my wedding. There were multiple delays on her end, which created a lot of added stress during an already stressful time. These delays made it even more surprising to me that she increased her price after it was all said and done. read more