The Benefits of a Couture Custom Wedding Dress

As with everything in life, many pros and cons go with each decision, and wedding dresses are no exception. To offer a fair and balanced opinion on custom wedding gowns, we wanted to provide pros or benefits to purchasing a custom wedding dress while being transparent about the cons or perceived downsides some brides have found with custom wedding dress shopping. Let's start first with the benefits:

1. The Way A Couture Wedding Dress Fits

It's a feeling that's hard to describe until you experience it firsthand. A custom-made wedding dress, meticulously designed and tailored to your unique body, offers a level of comfort and personalisation that's unmatched in the world of fashion.

You might have bought gowns or items of clothing off the rack or tried on standard-size wedding gowns, but something else will never fit the way your custom wedding dress does if it's made correctly using leading couture sewing techniques.

2. The Time And Effort Involved

If you've ever looked at our made-to-order wedding gowns on our website, you might've seen a 'standard production time' listed. When we make our standard-sized made-to-order gowns, the pattern exists, we get your nearest standard dress size, and our seamstress crafts your gown. It's easy, fast, and straightforward.

Creating a custom wedding dress is a labor of love that requires time and dedication. It begins with in-person fittings at our Brisbane atelier, where we craft a sample version of your dress. Once approved, we meticulously craft your wedding dress, requiring several fittings to ensure it's perfect.

The custom process also requires a unique design to be drawn up, then our in-house pattern maker will craft the pattern for your dress, fabrics will be ordered, and our seamstresses will sew your dress by hand.

3. Unique Design + Fabric Choices

One significant benefit of opting for a custom wedding dress that attracts women like you is the endless options for a unique design. Every aspect of a wedding dress is customisable, so you can take pieces of several gowns you might love and combine the best parts or come up with something new if you want to stand out and be unique.

Along with a unique design, you get the bonus of choosing your fabric rather than just taking what the store gives you. Your wedding dress designer can source an endless sea of luxury bridal fabrics for you to choose from when making your dress.

4. A Brand That Matches Your Aesthetics

It's a common idea that clothes represent who you are, allowing you to showcase pieces of your personality through fashion; wedding gowns are no different. When you're shopping for your wedding dress, especially if it's custom-made, you'll be able to find the right brand or designer that genuinely matches your aesthetics so that you can feel confident in the craftsmanship and vibe of what you're wearing.

5. Conscious & Environmentally Friendly

If crafting a gown that does less harm to the environment matters to you, opting for a custom wedding dress with a specific vision will allow your dress designers to craft it with full knowledge & intention, minimising fabric waste by not having to craft samples of your gown for a store, plus more as it's ordered (as such is the case with an off the rack gown)

What is the downside to a custom wedding dress?

As we mentioned, covering both sides of a coin is essential. We've been through some of the benefits of a custom gown, so let us take a look at some of the drawbacks involved in the custom wedding dress process:

The Time It Takes

It's no secret that custom wedding dresses require a lot of time for a brand to craft them. For example, on average, our seamstresses spend well over one hundred hours on a custom gown. That time frame can triple or even quintuple (or more!) depending on the intricacy of the gown and other factors.

While yes, it won't take YOU that many hours to craft your gown, you will be required to attend several fittings and appointments at our studio (or the brand you're purchasing from) to have fittings, go over fabrics, make changes, and discuss options throughout the process of your gown.

Sometimes Too Many Options Isn't A Good Thing

Too many options can sometimes be a negative if you find it hard to make decisions. If you opt for a custom wedding dress, the sky is the limit. You can have any fabric, craft it in any silhouette, shape it however you want, and still make adjustments. If you need help to make up your mind, we might be twins, but a custom wedding dress may not be ideal.

Geographical Location

There are so many excellent bridal brands worldwide, but choosing a custom wedding dress with your preferred brand may be challenging due to where you're located. If you still wanted to wear the brand, you could buy something from their made-to-order or off-the-rack dress range instead!

Frequently Asked Questions About Custom Wedding Dresses

Is it possible to design your own wedding dress?

Designing your own wedding dress is what a custom wedding dress is. If you have seen several bridal gowns you love but want to mix & match aspects from each one, you can meet with a custom wedding dress designer to review your options. It'll become a creative collaboration, with the designer helping you with the technical aspects of bringing your dream wedding dress to life.

Are custom wedding dresses more expensive?

As with everything, this will depend on the brand or designer you compare things to. Sometimes, you may need to increase your budget for a custom wedding dress. However, suppose you're comparing this to an off-the-rack brand from Europe or America selling gowns for $10,000+. In that case, you'll get something cheaper by buying a custom wedding dress in Brisbane than buying an American or European brand online.

For pricing at Euphorie, we price all projects individually. We're committed to maintaining an ethical pricing structure so that you won't be charged for anything not part of your project. With that in mind, we cannot flat-rate charge you; it would be ethically reprehensible for us from our perspective.

Things that go into deciding the price of your custom wedding dress include;

- How many fittings you will require

- The intricacy of the design

- The fabrics used in your project

- The time spent handcrafting your wedding gown

- Any beads or trimmings that our seamstress might use

How much would a custom wedding dress cost?

The average price of a custom wedding dress can range between $2500 and $6000 or more. At Euphorie, we do things differently because we don't believe in enforcing a 'one-price-fits-all' method for our custom wedding dress costs.

When you come to a custom wedding dress consult with us, we will take you through fabric options, silhouettes of gowns and styles, and things like beads, trimmings, add-ons like gloves & veils, and more. Once you know what you want, we'll sit down with our team and ethically cost out your bridal project (this may mean one or multiple designs).

Different wedding dresses will have other costs; it all depends on fabrics, the time it takes to make the gown, and the types of gowns we'll create for you. So it's only fair that we price accordingly rather than just offering a blanket price and potentially making brides pay more than they get.

If you want to know more, contact our team, and they will walk you through the process.

How long does a custom wedding dress take?

On average, it can range anywhere from 6 months to 18 months, sometimes even longer. At Euphorie, the turnaround time will depend on a handful of factors, such as the type of gown you're after, our ongoing projects, what sort of fabrics we'll use, and the time it will take to construct your wedding gown.

When you contact our team, let them know your wear date and give you all potential options within that time frame if it's under five months.

When do I do my custom wedding dress if I'm trying to lose weight before the wedding?

One of the advantages of a custom wedding dress is that you can carry out the process in certain time frames that work best for both you and the brand. Let's say you've decided to become a Euphorie real bride and are working on losing weight for your wedding (this is a common pre-wedding goal we hear from many brides), but you're worried about your wedding gown being too big or ill-fitted on your special day. What do you do?

The answer is quite simple: first of all, let us know ASAP so we can tailor your bridal journey experience to work best for you. Second, we can lock in the design and fabric and order it initially, but hold off on making your gown. We can then compress your fittings to a shorter period closer to your wedding to maximise the time you'll have in the lead-up!