The Dress

This is a beautiful Portia dress by Jenny Yoo, gorgeous floral lace detailing along the low back, and more lace topped on the train. The fabric is soft and lovely, easy to wear and comfortable. It is a true size six with extremely minimal alterations. Gorgeous, easy french bustle already has been added, a cost of about $500.

As you can see in photos the dress was worn to an outdoor wedding, and even with the mulch there is no visible distress to the dress that I can see (even all the lace on the train is untouched) + it has been dry cleaned to make sure it's as clean as possible. It was only worn for a brief amount of time as I changed into a reception dress after getting tired of walking on mulch in 4 inch platform heels.

I loved wearing this dress - it made me feel beautiful every moment.

I have videos of the whole dress after dry cleaning and a video of how to bustle it (from before the final hem was completed).

Alterations

All alterations were by couture seamstress in the Garment District of Manhattan, so all changes are extremely high quality. Since a lot of these alterations would need to be done anyway, this dress will save you about $800 in alterations. Alterations such as the sleeves, reinforcements, bustle, and hemming (if you're under 5'6).

Necessary alterations: 1) straps shortened to be a normal length (I think they start the straps really long so you can alter it yourself); 2) eyelet closure added to the button area for structure; 3) hemming for my 5'2" frame (+4 inch heels); 4) reenforcement under the train to for a better seam (there's a spot that puckers without this); 5) and of course a gorgeous french bustle - she used simple ties, it's very easy to bustle, looks very elegant (you can still see the floral detailing!), and didn't have any problems with it all night. I have a video of the bustle if you want to see it.

The only unnecessary alteration is at the waist. That was taken in a bit to account for my figure. this could be let out again if you need.

All in all the alterations amounted to close to $1000