My mom honoured me by walking me down the aisle. Both of our dresses were custom made by Susan Hart
The Making of My Custom Wedding Dress
It finally happened! After 11 years together my fiancé and I finally tied the knot! And what better of a place to get married than in one of our favourite countries in the world, Italy!
This past September, Adam and I flew to Florence to spend a whirlwind weekend with friends before checking into our wedding villa just outside Siena in Tuscany. Over the course of three days we hosted a welcome pizza party dinner, tied the knot at the beautiful San Galgano Abbey, and hosted a reception, pool party and private dinner at a Michelin Star restaurant in Siena!
Even though our wedding was a dream come true, I have to admit I’m kind of relieved that it’s now over. Wedding planning is a lot of work and often stressful so having my weekends and evenings back to chill and enjoy married life has been amazing!
With that being said there are a few words of wisdom I would like to share with all brides-to-be out there. If you are stressing over finding the perfect dress, don’t! There are other options out there. I personally went the custom wedding dress route and not only ended up with a dress I loved but got it made on a way shorter timeline than required for a dress from a bridal store. The best part, I still managed to be within my budget!
If you’re curious to see what it’s like to get a custom dress made you can check out the video below where I take you behind the scenes of the making of my custom wedding dress!
Wedding Planning and Dress Shopping Timelines
When I started the wedding planning process, I had no idea what the timelines were for ordering your wedding dress. So when my friends asked me at a Christmas party if I had picked my dress yet, I shrugged it off and said ‘my wedding is still 9 months away, I have plenty of time!’ Little did I know, I certainly did not! I quickly learned that most bridal stores in Toronto advise brides-to-be to order their dress a minimum of 8 months in advance (6 months for your dress to come in and an additional 2 for fittings and alterations)! Anything less would require a ‘rush’ order and cost you further money.
Wedding Dress Shopping at Toronto Bridal Stores
With new found anxiety coursing through my veins, I scrambled to make appointments at a few bridal shops in Toronto and coordinate with my bridesmaids. Little did I know, none of it would help. After three Toronto bridal store appointments and trying on over 15 dresses, I still felt anxious. The pressure of having to place an order ASAP coupled with the fact that I didn’t really LOVE anything I tried on only intensified those feelings.
Personally, I hate making important decisions from a place of fear or anxiety. It becomes an automatic no for me. An 8 month timeline felt crazy as well as spending a substantial amount of money on a dress I didn’t love. It just wasn’t going to happen. Thankfully I had other options.
My wedding dress maker Susan Hart helping me with my wedding cape at our second fitting
My Wedding Dress Maker
Enter, Susan Hart! I have known Susan for several years and she’s actually a close family friend. Not only is Susan an incredible dress maker but she also knits, paints, and is an incredible milliner! So after a quick call to Susan, it was decided. I was going to have my wedding dress custom made.
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When I told my mom about by decision to have Susan make my dress, she got so excited! Not only was she happy Susan was making my dress but she wanted Susan to help her with her ‘mother-of-the-bride’ dress as well! Having dresses made together ended up being so special and I loved how it gave us additional bonding time leading up to the wedding.
Our first fitting was spent playing with the design and getting the measurements right. The bridal cape portion of my design didn’t end up translating as imagined and I felt way more covered up in reality. We ended up spending a lot of my portion of the fitting throwing around ideas and collaborating on possible alternatives.
Fabric shopping for my mom’s mother of the bride dress we had custom made by Susan Hart an amazing wedding dress maker in Toronto
Fabric Shopping for My Custom Wedding Dress
A few weeks later we met up with Susan again but this time at Maryan’s fabric on Yonge Street to look through all the luxury fabrics and select the best ones for our designs. The fabric selection process can be a bit overwhelming especially since there are so many beautiful fabrics to choose from but thankfully Susan has so much experience that she was able to help me narrow down which fabric would work best for the type of stiffness and movement I was going for with my design.
After a few days with our newly purchased fabric, Susan called my us back into her studio for our second fittings. This appointment was mostly spent making further adjustments to the fit now that we had a better idea of how the fabric moved and sat against our bodies.
Since I was going for a pastel colour palette and all my bridesmaids were going to be in a different colour dress, my mom decided to follow the theme and opted for a periwinkle blue fabric with a beautiful sheer beading overlay that was just gorgeous!
PICTURES FROM OUR FITTINGS WITH SUSAN HART
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Not only did my mom have one mother of the bride dress made, she had two! I was surprised to see the new dress Susan Hart whipped up for her at one of our last fittings!
A New Custom Mother Of The Bride Dress!
PLOT TWIST: After three fittings and only three weeks remaining until the wedding, my mom and Susan surprised me with an entirely new mother-of-the-bride dress! My mom was having second thoughts about the beading overlay and was worried it was going to be way to heavy to wear under a hot Tuscan sun. Instead she opted for something a little lighter and whimsical that she could wear all night long.
Wedding Shoes & Bridal Accessories
By my second final fitting I had also finally chosen my wedding shoes. Instead of going for something designer and spending a crazy amount of money on bridal shoes I knew would get ruined on the cobble stone and pebble gravel grounds of the abbey, I got Susan to work her appliqué magic on these plain blocky heels I found online at Mango. Not only did she do an incredible job DIYing the heels but she also made me this adorable croissant bridal handbag to match! She also painted Adam and I’s wedding date on the inside as a memento of our special day.
Now I felt ready for my big day!
Oh, and how could I forget. Susan also made me this little party skirt with butterflies appliqued to it which made for the perfect outfit transition into an evening of dancing! She also surprised me with a bridal garter (that also had butterflies appliqued to it) which my mom passed along to me on my wedding day! Thank you Susan!
We designed my wedding dress so that the skirts were removable. This allowed me to change into a shorter ‘party skirt’ for the dancing portion of the reception.
I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look of the making of my custom wedding dress! If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments below, otherwise don’t forget to subscribe as I’ll be back with more content soon! CIAO!
- Soheila
