bridesmaids dress update

oookay... so that seamstress might have been a dead end again... she's the 2nd one. i'm not as exasperated as i was with the first seamstress. she was charging $120, which was more of a shock to me. this seamstress... well, she came back with $165. it made my heart do that "oh my lord!" for a second. and then i recovered quickly and just was sad. i was really hoping that these dresses would be less than $100. i mean, i did buy the shantung silk already. so i was expecting labor to be much more reasonable. i expressed my frustration to my aunts and they acted quickly. the one who found this lady promptly called her and they had a nice chat and she got her to drop it down to $145. i mean, if you attach the word "custom" and "wedding", it's like they have higher rates for it. she scouted out local tailors and got quotes from them and they came it at $220. of course, she was scouting santa monica, ca cuz she lives in culver city. not exactly the lowest of standards of living over there. so she already sort of cut us a break. it's just that i think it's still a lot for my bridesmaids to pay for. what do you think? is it reasonable? or should i keep looking?

the bridesmaids dresses

finally found a seamstress to make the bridesmaids' dresses. she's a really nice lady who made bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses for 20 years. her husband had passed away 7 months ago and she was very eager to just talk and talk and talk to us. i think she's pretty lonely. so we're both super excited to have each other. it seems we're meant to be because she started having dreams to go back and start sewing. and just when that happened, my aunt called her to see if she was available for me. so she interpreted all that as God's way of telling her to get back to work and continue with her talents. i saw her the wedding gown that she made for her daughter 2 years ago and her embroidery and beadwork were pretty impressive. i'm looking forward to the wedding dresses.

here is the idea board for the dresses. i have yet to take pictures of the overlay, but i'm excited about the overall look of the dress. :)