July 2012 Brides and Grooms

wxy

wanchai wrote: »

Sorry to bore on even more about my dress saga but FutureCooper suggested that I ask wxy how much she thinks it would cost to make this dress in terms of materials and labour (I am asking a dressmaker to do it but we haven't met to discuss costs yet).

wxy, any advice/thoughts would really be appreciated!!

:j Wanchai - It's a beautiful dress - I love all of the dresses you've shared with us so far!

Price wise that's a tricky one. I would say the costs would depend on a number of factors:

1）Material - it is hard to tell what the dress in the pictures is made of but my guess is silk. If you are not bothered about using polyester satin for example, then the costs would be sooo much less! The dupion for my dress cost £10 per meter (1.5m width which is pretty much the widest that you can easily get hold of) and I bought 10 metres of it and only have 2.5m left - and I still need to use some for my finishing touches. Just to give you an idea.

The dress in the pictures looks like it has quite a full skirt so I would expect quite a lot of fabric to be used. If you are using silk then chances are you will need to underline it (to strengthen the fabric and avoid seam slippage) so I then spent about £10 per metre on silk organza... I bought a lot of that...

Then I had to buy fabric for the lining layer - again in silk. That wasn't as expensive.

Tulle/dress net - my dress is quite pouffy at the bottom/it's quite full but judging by the photos you may not need a lot of that. It's not very expensive anyway.

Also if it's silk then you may want silk thread to match the fabric - not cheap...

If you would wear polyester then I would expect the cost to be at least half the price.

2) Does the dressmaker need to draft a pattern or can she/he just buy a commercial one? for this I would google 'sewing patterns uk' and have a look at the available patterns that are for sale to get an idea.

I had a quick look for you and didn't think any pattern was particularly similar to what you're looking for...

I started off with a purchased pattern and had made lots and lots of changes to it. but it does make it a lot easier to have something as a starting point.

3) Labour - now this is the part that I don't have experience on. time wise, because I'm using silk, I had to hand sew A LOT - would expect to have spent maybe 100 hours handsewing so far... but if you are not bothered about hand finished seams then a machine would be able to finish the seams in a much quicker manner but will add a bit of bulk (bearing in mind almost all RTW dresses are overlocked by machine it shouldn't really be an issue).

I think the most time consuming part is to decide/finalise the pattern and the hand sewing...

Hope this helps - let me know if you have more questions

MrsDrink

Wooo hooo - just paid some more off our honeymoon. Love Thomas Cook for that - I don't have to save it up and pay it off in one big lump - as the money comes in I can get it paid for. (Means I don't have money sitting in my account tempting me to spend it on something else). I got my diving fins yesterday and I'm so happy with them - I really cannot wait to get them wet!! We're going to a swimming pool in January to practice some of our skills - am looking forward to that.

Incase you're not on my FB or haven't read it - yesterday I found out I have passed the final module of my Masters in Education :T Very pleased about that.

Other news? Well no surprise really I fell off the motorway last night but have managed to jump straight back on it this morning

FutureCooper

:j well done Natalie, excellent news and well deserved i'm sure.

for Emma. Its horrible when your man is away and there is no one to cuddle up to. I feel very lucky the H2B doesn't work away at all. My ex was in the Army so i was always home alone.

Phew to Alice, I never really thought about the hand sewing hours involved in your dress. OMG over 100 hours!!! I would want to the dress everyday after all the work that has gone into it. It has made me appreciate my dress more now!

Wanchai - My dress isn't really my dream dress. I brought it because i really wanted a shorter tea length dress and the one i purchased will alter really well and it was in the sale as the top layer of tulle was damaged. At the moment it looks like this huge meringue of a dress (think puffy princess :eek:) but i can see that after a LOT of the tulle skirt is removed and shortened it will be the sort thing i want. The spare tulle and lace edging is going to be made into a small, short bolero to cover just enough of my bingo wings and back fat! I did post a picture a while ago but i find it difficult to show my dress as even i go WOW that is a big dress! and it does scare me as i never look at a picture of it and like it,i have to look beyond that and imagine what it will be like when its altered. I have to wait a whole 6 months yet though.

fawny

MrsDrink wrote: »

Now he has to decide what colour, what metal, (I'm hoping for a silvery colour so we can go down the tungsten type cheaper metals lol), what thickness, what shape, and what width band he would like.

Hi MrsDrink,

My H2B is having a tungsten ring & we got his from an internet company www.weddingrings-direct.com They are very good & a really good price too, the ring is lovely. The quality & look of the ring is excellent & came in a lovely box too. They did send me a card with it offering a 5% discount off another order so let me know if you are going to get one from there & i'll pass you the code.

PinkPrincess83

Melanie- my oh never usually works away, which is probably why Im finding it so hard as I am so used to having him here. I encouraged him to put his name down for a course (he wasnt that bothered but I thought it would be good for him to learn something new) but I didnt realise it meant 2 weeks away (just coming at the weekend!!)!!

:j at paying off some of your honeymoon Natalie. We should start paying some of ours off really!! (well oh as he is paying for it!!)

Could someone send me some energy- I am soooooooo drained at the mo. Feeling a bit better in myself today- was having a real down day yesterday, which is really unlike me- Im a very bubbly happy hyper person usually but am feeling much better today!!:D

MrsDrink

Lol well I'm blaming you Emma for my veering off the motorway and crash landing in yep you guessed it a field... lol it's your fault for saying well done lol... I mean it couldn't possibly be my fault could it!! Lol. Last night I had a pizza... (A dominos = medium pepperoni pizza, a portion of chicken strippers combo all to myself) and some biccies. I've been an angel all day - but came home and polished off the rest of the biccies - and now they are gone I'm left searching for more things to eat!! Grrr! Lol.

Fawny - oh brill thanks!! Will definitely bear that in mind! I got my ring online - from weddingringspecialist and was really pleased but he only does gold and platinum. (Which hopefully MrD won't want lol cause it's expensive lol).

PinkPrincess83

Sorry Natalie- all my fault, I accept full responsibilty for your dominos dinner!!:rotfl:

well im going to the harvester for dinner- and my friend gave me a menu with all the calories on- so i dont know whether to take note and be very good or whether to just have whatever I want!!

lovecake

Hi Ladies,

Natalie - Well done on paying off more of the honeymoon! :jWe haven't even thought about ours yet!

Wanchai - I think I mentioned on your other thread - I am having my dress made because I really couldn't see anything I liked in the shops. I thought I would find 'The one' but I didn't and didn't fancy going for the next best thing - especially when having one made is not costing any more. Let me know how you get on with your dressmaker!

Melanie - where are we at on the countdown? :rotfl:

I thought I'd update you all on the engagement shoot we had on Sunday - it was really good fun, the weather was perfect, crisp and cold, but clear blue skies and our photographer was fantastic! We both feel really comfortable with her now and we know what sort of poses and things she'll ask from us on the big day. I think it helped to boost OH's confidence in front of the camera too which is great! So glad that it came as part of her package!

I'll post some pics when she's edited them...

Good luck to everyone in trying to be good for dinner tonight

FutureCooper

33 Fridays!! or 238 days, 13 hours, 1 minute etc til 00.01 on 27 July 2012

FutureCooper

I thought i would put this link on for my button bouquets. I have had to photograph mine in a sturdy bag as its to heavy to stand anywhere. I have not covered either as yet as i am going to make felt handles to line them and make them more comfortable to hold. I will post again when i have the ribbon and lace on:

http://s1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd515/FutureCooper/

I have put together a 70 stem bridal one in creams for the local shop to display but it needs to look fuller i feel, so i am going to use some from mine as i have over 100 and mine is huuuge! I have ordered my business cards which i am really pleased with and now i have to wait upto 21 days!! I want them NOW . . . . its worse than waiting for Xmas!