Professional bustle fixer at your service

I was looking through our reviews on Wedding Wire, Project Wedding and the like and kept reading a similar topic beyond the accolades and praises.

she fixed my bustle and throughout the night as I felt it fall, she was right there fixing it as I was dancing, didn't even know she was doing it

was able to repair my bustle twice (thanks for stepping on it, Mom…heehee)

as soon I bustled my dress, someone stepped on it on it and ripped the bustle, so I was there like ok what do i do, I was about to tuck my train in my waist to keep it off the floor and here she comes with a tackle box full of stuff to fix things

Then at a recent meeting I pulled out my wedding album to illustrate to a bride who is an avid dancer (Salsa especially) how trains, albeit beautiful, are generally a catch 22. When Alex left after that meeting, I thought – that would be a great blog post and just as quickly I forgot about it. And then I received a thank you card in the mail from a past bride (I LOVE GETTING THESE!) and and I was reminded again.

I have a great picture of you under my dress fixing my train after it came undone.

I’ll be honest. I am a huge fan of a long train. (this is me)

I love the look of a train – the elegance as it flows behind a bride while they come down the aisle. I get a kick out of watching it billow behind as the doors open to the church and she steps forward down he walk to her groom. And who doesn’t love the picture from behind of that moment. It is beautiful.




But following the ceremony and onto the reception, the train is pt into a bustle. Here is where my issue lies and here is what advice I can give because I have been to hundreds of weddings and repaired hundreds of bustles.

1, Your gown designer or alteration person might suggest or insist that a small bit of the rear of your bustled train should skim the floor. It looks elegant. I myself followed that advice. And they are right. It is elegant. Downright beautiful. And I use myself as an example here. (don't Rob and I look adorable?)


But then it gets stepped on. And I’m not even blaming other guests, You step back ONE time and you will be the guilty party. And as I was a salsa dancer meaning I stepped back every second, well can you see where this is going?


And it got increasingly worse.


And finally frustrated with it, I decided to just put it into KNOTS





So, as elegant as the slight brush of the floor is – I’d recommend not going in that direction.

2. Bustling options are simple. You either are doing a ballroom/overbustle or a French/Tufted/underbustle or a variation of these. The ways to hold up these are either button hooks, anchor hooks or ribbon ties. It goes without saying that ribbon ties are the most secure. They are also the easiest to fix should the bustle come undone. Most times when an overbustle doesn’t work out, I fix the train by transforming it to an underbustle. Given the option of an anchor hook or a button hook, I’d recommend an anchor. For some odd reason, button hooks are in my experience, so much more likely to come undone, even though they really look intrinsically prettier. The key to anchor hooks is to tighten the hook once the bustle is in. Most times these come undone simply because during dancing the contact point jumps off the hook.

3. Finally – give yourself time for a bustle, especially ribbon ties. They will take far longer then you anticipate getting them put together.

And if you hired us for your events. Well rest assured that I'll be there to take care of whatever may happen with it.

Seen it all - Fixing split pants in the men’s room…

I’ve said, time and time again, that in the years I’ve been doing weddings and events, I’ve seen many things. Part of that is being a PART of the many things that happen. Comical circumstances that leave an impression and in turn, generally a fairly good story to tell. So I give you one of my stories, which just so happened to have occurred this past weekend.

During a particularly fun dance set, one of the male guests decided that he’d show the world his ability to do a split. I have to say, being limber enough to do a split in your late 20’s/early 30’s is impressive. Being a guy and doing it made me tap Rob on the shoulder as he was mixing to witness the marvel. After his 3rd attempt something clearly went wrong. His pants were obviously NOT as flexible as he was. After some laughter and requisite pictures with the groom, I made my way over to his girlfriend to offer assistance. Namely, either a sewing kit or a number of safety pins. I do after all pack an ‘emergency kit’ of everything you can possibly imagine.

What happened next is where even more hilarity ensued. His girlfriend claimed “I can’t sew!” and he pleaded with me in his slightly inebriated state to help him fix his pants as he could not possibly do it on his own. Do you see where this is going? I agreed thinking he’d remove the pants in the men’s room, hand them to me where I’d fix them while he waited and then return them. Easy as pie right?

WRONG

On his and his girlfriend’s insistence, I ended up IN the Men’s Room (which was WAY uglier then the ladies room) with him and his girlfriend where he promptly removed his belt and pants in front of me as I stood there staring at the floor. He had managed to tear the pants at the seam from the zipper on the crotch all the way back up to the belt fold. It was quite the tear. I fixed it with safety pins while relentlessly giggling at the conversation between him and his girlfriend and repeating to myself – I can’t believe I’m doing this. And I was stuck doing it in the men’s room as not only was it was the place with the best lighting BUT they wouldn’t let me leave. I was midway done when the groom bursts through the bathroom door followed by a slew of men who had heard that Mr. Torn Pants was in the bathroom with 2 women. And there was the proof as I stood with the girlfriend and him in a dress shirt and boxer briefs! Bathroom party of 3 soon became the party of 20 as everyone crammed in for a photo op as even the photographer had made his way back.

I could not stop laughing. Even funnier to me was the fact that after the photo, one guy turned to me and Mr. Torn Pant’s girlfriend and said “I’m sorry but I can’t wait” and proceeded to make his way over to the urinals to pee!!! I was laughing on the verge of tears while simultaneously being incredibly embarrassed. I finished the fix and was out of there as quick as possible. But that story is definitely a keeper!

The photographer promised to send me the picture.