anne ventresco

Anne is a talented seamstress and genuinely loves what she does! I contacted her more than 8 months before my wedding because I wanted to re-style my wedding dress. I made an appointment to see her, brought my dress, and all the pictures I can find of what I wanted my dress to look like. I had seen a beautiful Vera Wang gown in a bridal magazine (similar to the dress Anne Hathaway wore in "Bride Wars") and I was convinced it was the dress I would compare all the dresses I tried on to...It was perfect! ...only problem was that it costed almost $5k!! Spend $5k on a dress?? It just wasn't me, so I went to Anne hoping for a miracle. And she made that miracle and dream come true! My simple ivory strapless taffeta trumpet gown was turned into a very, very close replica of the Vera Wang dress I wanted. She also took the dress in to make it fit like a glove, removed all the pleating from the bottom of the dress so that it was flat, and added a simple but beautiful bustle and voila...my dream gown for under $1k! When she gave me the price for everything she did to the dress (it was basically re-styled and you couldn't even tell the original from the final product!), I was blown away at how reasonable her rates were! It took a lot of fittings and visits, but it was all worth it in the end. If you want to see her masterpiece, just shoot me an email and I can send pictures :) She truly cares about each and every gown she alters and/or creates. I am sure there are a ton of other seamstresses who are as talented and skilled as she is, but Anne is also sweet and treats you like a guest in her home and not a client who is paying her to do something. I actually felt sad when I went in for my last fitting because I wouldn't get to see her anymore!

Anne is a talented seamstress and genuinely loves what she does! I contacted her more than 8 months before my wedding because I wanted to re-style my wedding dress. I made an appointment to see her, brought my dress, and all the pictures I can find of what I wanted my dress to look like. I had seen a beautiful Vera Wang gown in a bridal magazine (similar to the dress Anne Hathaway wore in "Bride Wars") and I was convinced it was the dress I would compare all the dresses I tried on to...It was perfect! ...only problem was that it costed almost $5k!! Spend $5k on a dress?? It just wasn't me, so I went to Anne hoping for a miracle. And she made that miracle and dream come true!

My simple ivory strapless taffeta trumpet gown was turned into a very, very close replica of the Vera Wang dress I wanted. She also took the dress in to make it fit like a glove, removed all the pleating from the bottom of the dress so that it was flat, and added a simple but beautiful bustle and voila...my dream gown for under $1k! When she gave me the price for everything she did to the dress (it was basically re-styled and you couldn't even tell the original from the final product!), I was blown away at how reasonable her rates were!

It took a lot of fittings and visits, but it was all worth it in the end. If you want to see her masterpiece, just shoot me an email and I can send pictures :) She truly cares about each and every gown she alters and/or creates. I am sure there are a ton of other seamstresses who are as talented and skilled as she is, but Anne is also sweet and treats you like a guest in her home and not a client who is paying her to do something. I actually felt sad when I went in for my last fitting because I wouldn't get to see her anymore!

Anne is amazing. I had found a wedding dress that I loved, but I wanted some alterations made to the basic shape, and I also obviously wanted it fitted to me. Anne collaborated with me on the changes to the shape, and made small incremental changes so that I could try it on along the way to make sure the final look was turning out the way I had envisioned it.
She is super sweet, and also very talented. I can't believe how little she charges to do such wonderful work. I had her alter another dress of mine during the time of the wedding fittings- she did great work on this as well, and would've forgotten to charge me for it had I not reminded her.
I was so happy with the way my dress turned out, and I loved the experience of working with Anne.

Anne did a wonderful job on my wedding gowns. I owe her many thanks!

Anne has a cute studio in her home. When I met her for the first time, I knew she was going to do a great job on my dress. She is highly experienced and very laid back. She helped ease my fears about my dress. I am 5 feet tall so there was a lot of work to be done hemming my dress. We met several times until it was right. This was a laborious job since my dress had a long criss-cross drawsting closure in the back. She pays close attention to detail and noticed that the hip area on my dress was loose for me (something I hadn't picked up on). She tightened this area which made a world of difference on how the dress fit. The under bustle she created was also very beautiful and easy to tie.

I also had an Indian wedding ceremony and asked Anne to hem the skirt on my Indian gown. There was so much embroidery on the bottom of the skirt that it could not be hemmed from below. Anne got very creative and adjusted the skirt from the waist. The end result was excellent. I was very pleased. Thank you, Anne!

Updated:

I too found out about Anne through The Knot's Northern California message board. After trying on many gowns, I found the one I loved but it was way out of my budget. I contacted Anne to see if it was a gown she could make in a reasonable price, and was pleasantly surprised.

It's now two weeks past the wedding and I'm still in awe of the amazing gown and veil Anne made for me. They turned out beautifully, exactly as I had envisioned, and I got tons of compliments. Too bad I can't wear this outfit again!

Anne is really knowledgeable, professional, and affordable. I highly recommend her for both alterations and custom dresses.

Anne was definately my favorite vendor during my wedding planning. She is not only a supremely talented seamstress, but such a joy to be around. She made my dress fit like a dream, tailored my MOH's dress to a tee, and completely redid my BM's dress after she lost over 60lbs! Anne has such a gift, and her love of what she does really shows. My girls and I really looked forward to our meetings with her. You cannot possibly beat her pricing, flexibility or professionalism in the Bay Area. I will recommend her to all my friends getting married in the future. Thank you Anne!

I too found Anne thanks to the Knot. SM23 referred me to her, and she is amazing. I totally agree with other reviews. Her prices are crazy crazy cheap. She could double her prices and still be the best price on alterations out there.

I came in with a used dress (score eBay), that needed the modesty panel moved a bit, and a french bustle instead of an American bustle. I didn't have a garment bag, so that is why it is $60 instead of $50. She did an amazing job, including a long and very detailed direction sheet on how to bustle (because it is more confusing than it looks.. pay attention when she shows you!)But she does her very best to make it easy--with the color coding, safety pins to find the first bustle point, and directions!

Anne was incredibly flexible, understanding and easy to work with. I am keeping her contact info in hopes that she does alteration of non-wedding clothing!

Anne is the best and I would use her again in a second!!!! All of my bridesmaids had their dresses altered by her also and loved her too! She is very knowledgeable, does a fabulous job, and is not overpriced! I had so much work done to my dress that she said it was practically a custom dress, she also made my veil and sash ... and I was shocked at how low the price was! I paid about a quarter of what I would have paid had I gone anywhere else. I went to a different, but reputable seamstress in Oakland before Anne and she was going to charge me about 4 times what Anne charged for the same work!

Aside from the price, I do want to emphasize what a great job Anne does. Everything turned out perfectly. She's also very patient. I had a very indecisive and chatty group and she was always so nice, patient, helpful, and fun! She always seemed like she was having a good time with us!

Thanks Anne!

Anne didn't make my gown, but she did all of the alterations. After realizing my original alteration person wasn't going to work out, I contacted her less than 2 months before the wedding a little bit frantic. She allowed me to come to her studio after work which was a huge bonus for me. Everywhere else I looked would have required me to take precious vacation time off of work. She also does excellent work for a more than reasonable price. She gave me a beautiful French bustle (with color coded buttons to help my family figure it out), and she pinned my bustier into the dress so it wouldn't show. Most importantly, my dress looked incredible. It has a lot of lace and she made sure it was not damaged and did not fray during the alteration process.

Anne is seriously awesome. I got a recommendation for her through theknot.com's northern california message boards, so I decided to check her out. Her prices are inSANE. Anne, you seriously should charge more. Her work is awesome and her attention to detail is fantastic. She altered my dress in the bust, hem, middle, put in a unique and beautiful 5-point bustle (I told Anne, "I didn't even know what a bustle WAS before I met you, and now I get why people care!") and covered buttons up the back--all for $150. I think I had four fittings total. She told me to try the dress on a few weeks before the wedding to make sure it still fits. We'll see!!

The other great thing about Anne is her attention to detail. The bustle buttons/elastic loops were all color coded to make putting it together as simple as possible for my friends and family on the day of. She also even hid some safety pins under the dress, just in case someone needs them!

HIGHLY recommended.