Real bride case study #2 Measuring for the perfect fit

Caroline Arthur | Posted on March 26, 2018 |

How does it work to have your bridal gown made to measure? Real bride Sarah tells the story of her own wedding dress journey, in #2 of four blogs. Here, she comes to the London bridal boutique of Caroline Arthur, at National Trust property Ham House in Richmond, to be measured for her dress.

“…After my first meeting with Caroline and Sarah at the start of the January, I was booked in for a fittings appointment two months later at the end of March. They try to keep the fitting appointments as close to the date of your wedding as possible so that if you drop two dress sizes or add two stone after comfort eating due to the stress of wedding planning, then hopefully you won’t change shape much after this fitting.

It was a beautiful sunny day when we arrived at the stunning Ham House and Caroline and Sarah were as friendly and smiley to see as ever.

At the fitting appointment it’s a quick in and out after being measured thoroughly for your sizes. I tried on a lace up top so that Caroline could work out the right tightness for the dress around my upper body and she took lots of measurements for things like shoulder width, leg length, hip width etc. It’s a really fun experience as the last time I was fitted for my own dress was for a school play!

It’s a good idea for you to know which underwear you’ll want to wear for the wedding day before this appointment so you can bring it along. The same goes for wedding shoes, so Caroline can measure the proper length of the final dress. I haven’t yet found my underwear and shoes for the day yet though so wore a well fitting bra instead. Caroline helpfully has some shoes with different heel heights you can try on so she can get an idea of final skirt length too.

An amazing perk of having your dress made by Caroline Arthur Bridal is that they very generously pay for a National Trust membership for you and your husband-to-be as a gift. So lovely of them! We were signed up to our membership at the fittings appointment, and can now visit any National Trust property for free, for a year!

The next step is to meet Caroline and Sarah again in another two months, at the end of May to try on the dress – very exciting! And from here tweaks can be added, like the tulle over layer I’m having. I can’t wait!

I also found an image on Pinterest this weekend of a dress worn by Angelina Jolie a while back. It was very similar to the design of my wedding dress, although doesn’t cover as much of her chest as my tulle layer will. I really like the shape of the dress so sent it over to Caroline to see, and asked if it would be possible to replicate that shape skirt on the dress…”

Watch out for the next instalment of Sarah’s made to measure wedding dress journey blog coming soon xx