The Wedding Dresser Studio

Susan and Joan were absolutely incredible to work with! I was gobsmacked when I saw my dress for the first time. I asked Susan to redesign my mother’s 80s wedding dress. I had hoped it would turn out great but I could have never dreamt of what she did. The dress looked timeless and new, but still kept the integrity of the original dress. She truly has a gift!
Including pictures of the dress before and after!

While I am sorry to hear of some of the experiences mentioned below, my experience with Susan and Joan could not be more different. My dress required some strap adjustments and a hem, both of which were well-done. My dress had a really intricate lace hem and I was very protective of who would handle my dress- both Susan and Joan were always very kind and effusive about my entire bridal look and offered great advice on accessorizing. I felt that, especially when talking with other seamstresses, the rate I paid for alterations was reasonable in light of paying a living wage to the folks on Susan’s team.
I also appreciated how they came to myhxome and handled me with care when I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery the week before my wedding (!). Thank you Susan and Joan for handling a gown i love dearly with such care!

Susan and her team are amazing at what they do! When I was planning my wedding, I knew I had my mom’s wedding dress that was hand-sewn by my grandmother, and was interested but not hopeful that I’d be able to resize and restyle it to use for my wedding day. Fortunately, we found the Wedding Dresser studio in Baltimore to bring this vision to life! Susan and her assistant Joan worked with me to envision the dress in a new style and then brought that style to life one session at a time. The final dress was even more beautiful than I anticipated, and it was an incredibly special experience to share with my mom and grandmother. Thank you Susan, Joan, and everyone at the Wedding Dresser for your creativity and hard work!!

EDIT: photos have been added and are from my final fitting. The last photo shows how the dress fit once properly tailored by another shop.
I was going to wait to write this review until after my 9/21/24 wedding, but felt it was imperative that I post sooner rather than later for the benefit of other brides. I will add photos of my dresses after our wedding.
I deeply love and respect small business owners, and understand the weight reviews have, so it pains me to leave this. I brought my dress to Susan and her team at their Baltimore location in mid-July 2024. My dress needed to be hemmed, taken in at the bodice, and straps shortened. I was quoted ~$1400. While expensive, I believe in Susan’s mission of paying her employees a living wage and believed that this price reflected the high quality of their alterations. I also brought Susan a gown to be shortened to tea length, let out, and sleeves removed for my rehearsal dinner. I was quoted ~$1000.
I picked up my wedding gown on Saturday, 9/14 after the prior 3 fittings in which I was expressing concerns with extra fabric in the side bust. In previous fittings Susan and her team attempted to add a dart to correct this problem, which caused the bust line to come to a point. I am grateful for their work to then remove the dart and try another approach to correct the issue extra side bust fabric issue.
When I picked up my wedding gown, the problem of the extra fabric at the side bust was not corrected. Furthermore the cups were added to the dress without appropriately stretching the fabric around the cup, causing a bunching effect of the fabric. I picked up my dress, having paid an extra $100 for an extra fitting (per Susan’s contract), and promptly brought my dress to another seamstress who, luckily, was kind enough to fit me in for a rush appointment less than a week before my wedding day. The bodice fit was easily corrected by this seamstress in one fitting.
My rehearsal dinner dress was provided to me for pickup with a lining layer left raw, which I will now finish at home on my own machine. The horse hair hem of my wedding dress is not snug to the bottom of my hem, as it originally was, and in some locations, the hem doesn’t appear straight. In one of my last fittings, Susan pointed out that the straps of my dress started to turn grey, which she claimed was from handling the dress a lot through alterations. She said I could get the dress cleaned if I wanted, but I declined. I understand how this was possible, but it seems that some measures should be taken to avoid discoloring wedding dresses while working on them.
Susan repeatedly commented on the difficulty of working with designer dresses, and misidentified my dress fabric as crepe (it is silk mikado). I found it troubling that someone with her level of experience made these comments.
I believe Susan was well-intentioned in her efforts to ease my anxiety throughout the process, and truly do appreciate the intention. Multiple times, she insinuated that I was experiencing “bridal psychosis”, meaning that I was picking apart my dress given the pressures of being a bride. I agree - being a bride is stressful, and can lead us to second-guess ourselves. However, this phrase is inappropriate and gaslighting. My dress had serious problems, which another seamstress agreed with and promptly acted on. Furthermore, making light of mental illness in this manner is insulting.
This experience left me more stressed than I have ever been in my life. I hardly slept or ate these last few weeks because in the two weeks before my wedding, I wasn’t sure if my dress could be saved. I had nearby bridal shops holding samples for me, as until finding a new seamstress, I thought I would have to buy a whole new dress again.
Multiple times through my months of working with Susan and her team, I was asked to write a review. I’m deeply sorry it has to be this one. I appreciate the opportunity to work with Susan, Joan, and Joy, and genuinely wish them well and success with future brides’ dresses. Perhaps I was just unlucky.

I was so happy with my experience at the Wedding Dresser. Susan made me truly confident that she would be able to alter my dress that was ordered too small by the bridal studio who fit me. I also really appreciate the help & support of Joan, who was there from the beginning of my alterations to the end. And when I say that dress fit perfectly when The Wedding Dresser was through with it, I mean it fit perfectly! It was so comfortable & the bustle was beautiful. I will forever be grateful for Susan & her team, including her Brooklyn team who helped with alterations.