To hire a dressmaker to make my bridesmaid dresses because I can't find ANY I like!

[ShoesBagsDresses]

I'm getting married early next year, I'm super organised with everything, i have my dress on order and everything else almost ready to just go, go, go.

However I'm starting to get dis-heartened by the fact I can't seem to find any bridesmaid dresses that i like, they all seem - dare i say - tacky or over the top or just not my style at all. I've been to most of my local wedding dress shops and lots of wedding fares and there?s just nothing at any of them!
I'm looking for the classic "mermaid" or "fish tail" type dress with a sweetheart neck line, in (perhaps) a chiffon type material (colour still not decided upon although we have a few options)

Having had no luck so far I'm starting to think about hiring a dressmaker to make my bridesmaid dresses! Now i have no idea if they will be more expensive (i was budgeting around £150 - £200 per dress and I only have 2 dresses to buy)

SO, does anyone know any good bridesmaid dress shops in Kent/South east London or even a dressmaker?

Thanks SBD x

Do they have to be actually bridesmaid dresses? Can you not take the bridesmaids to John Lewis or something and just find some really nice coctail dresses they can wear? Believe me, they will thank you for it.

I did this. I bought the dress pattern, and all the material myself and it cost about half of the price if ready made dresses.
She also did customised both to take into account some body issues one of mine had. And with the left over material made a matching bridesmaid dress for my 2yo neice.
Sadly I'm nowhere near you or I would recommend her.

Thank you for you replies.
QuintessentiallyShallow - I have had a quick nose at a few department stores, only "coast" seemed to have anything I?d remotely deem ok (for my tastes anyway).
Saying that I've actually JUST found a dress I love that seems to fit all my ideas...however its a "dessy one" and looks a bit expensive, and as they don?t give the prices online I'm not sure i should even waste my time travelling to a stockist...has anyone else tried or bought dessy dresses? What did you think of them?

I think you'll struggle to get a dressmaker in kent/south east London to do a dress for that price but happy to be proved wrong.

Fairly sure that dessy dresses will probably be in your budget but I'm not 100% sure of UK prices. You can order them from the states - I used www.netbride.com. I think we paid about $100 for each dress and $50 delivery. I think I had to pay import duty too. The exchange rate at the time made it good value, not sure what the situation now but could be worth checking.

We did go to a UK stockist to try them on - worth doing as they are varying quality. Some really nice, others less so.

I'm not sure if you've seen any of these, although I'm probably sure you have, but I thought the one on the left in the silver shade fitted the 'sweetheart neckline/mermaid dress' description, so I thought I'd point it out to you just incase you hadn't seen! They had a couple of similar mermaid dresses if you scroll through, although I'm not sure if I'm too fond of the silky material, even though I thought it looked nice in the silver.

I love the dresses from Maids to Measure

It's a pity you're so far away as I'm a dressmaker!
Depending on where you've ordered your dress from, you could ask them if they have a dressmaker who works for them-even if you tell a white lie and say it's just so you're organised in case your dress needs alterations

It's £195 per dress, they are lovely, made to fit perfectly and you can have different dresses to suit different shapes all in the same material. Love them!

Ooh, they are pretty LaVitaBellissima did you have them yourself?

No but they are on my list, I've been engaged for 2 years, but starting a new business and having twins has kept us a bit busy

We'll get round to it eventually

I had mines made and it was bargain central

My tip would be to find someone who does dancing (irish seems to be particularly good for this) and ask who their dress-maker is. In my experience, these seamstresses can create miracles!

Don't worry, I am not suggesting you have irish dancing costumes, I am just saying that often they are very talented dress-makers who don't ahve to cost the earth!

I had two bridesmaid dresses made as I knew exactly what I wanted. In fact they sound very similar to what you want! I had floor length, fishtail, sweetheart neckline, halter neck in a gorgeous silk taffeta fabric. I also picked the exact olive green colour that I wanted.

We used www.carolinearthur.com/

She is in Guildford & I would recommend her to anyone. In fact she had made dresses for several family weddings! She works with a "pick and mix" style when creating the dresses, ie you can pick whatever style bottom half and then different top half. So you pick either halter neck, or wide straps, strapless, thin straps etc so the dress is totally how you want it! We actually ending up with a two piece design but looks like a dress when worn together.

She also has so many colours to choose from, so you do get exactly what you want. Though I think she will come in slightly over your budget.

We recently used www.maidstomeasure.com designed our own dresses having exactly what we wanted in the colour and fabric we chose - very affordable (for the big girls not the little ones but they do matching sashes) and the service was second to none!

Have you looked at Dessy? They do an amazing range of styles and they can be ordered in almost any colour you want.
When I got married I picked a colour and fabric type (as different fabric types would look like different colours in the photographs) and let my BMs pick the dresses they wanted that would suit their shape. It all looked co-ordinated and everyone was happy.

Good luck!!