Lucy's Alteration & Dressmaking

Lucy is a sweet woman. She loves to talk and is very personable. My number one complaint is she does not deliver what she says. I had to call her several times b/c she did not follow through with her promise when completing a task with my dress. I told her specifically that I wanted a mantilla veil and although my veil was beautiful, Lucy did not follow what I had asked. And when I asked her to correct it, she never followed through with it. My gown was pretty but a slight imperfection was that the sweetheart line was not precise - if you pay close attention, you will notice it's slightly crooked.

Lucy overall is great at duplicating designer dresses for reasonable prices and this includes unlimited alterations in the total of the making of your gown and veil. But she does tend to not follow in completing what she says she'll do. It can cause a lot of worry for a bride.

Ok, what you guys been waiting for! The BM dresses were chosen by the bridesmaids! They loved Salma Hayek's Oscar dress 2 years ago! They picked a beautiful dress! Lucy made their dresses, sooo beautiful! It truly was a hit. Guys were asking me which one was single! ALL ARE TAKEN! Lucy really captured the elegance of that dress and made it her very own! Those girls worked it! She made matching bags for them also! ( will post pics of that soon) One word : SEXY! They were, and how they felt! My dress, I LOVED IT! She made my dress and veil, I did not want to take it off! My inspiration was the Halle Long, Melissa Sweet Dress! Lucy made that dress just for me! Her work is amazing!!!!! I think I stressed her out! But Lucy I LOVE YOU! You should be a designer! BEAUTIFUL!

$226 for Jessica McClintock dress

Lucy is a very sweet woman that I found through reviews. Her store is located very close to my dad's store so she had the added convenience of being close to me.

It was easy to make an appointment with her, and parking near her store if very easy (I usually park right in front). Her dressing room is a nice size, and she will often help you into your dress (as she says, "don't worry, I've seen it all!").

The alterations cost broke down to:
Hem - $120
Side seams - No charge
Zipper - $35
Victoria bustle $35
Cups - $20
Tax - $16

I had my first fitting on March 17 and my second (final fitting) on March 31 so it's a quick service.

So there are two reasons why I didn't give her an A. I read one review that said she left some marks on the bottom of a dress and failed to notify the bride. I meticulously looked at my dress when I picked it up and didn't notice any marks. However, I did find one long needle that was left near the bottom. No real harm was done but I could have scraped my ankle with it if I didn't find it on time.

Secondly, my dress has a lace bodice that was quite comfortable when I purchased it however there was some extra fabric sticking out. Lucy said she will fix it but it will cause the bodice to be tighter. When I picked up the dress (1.5 months before our Chinese reception), the bodice just seemed a bit too tight. I could breathe, but I couldn't take deep breaths. Being asthmatic, I often get a nervous breakdown if I feel suffocated at all. I mentioned it to Lucy and she told me that the bodice was perfectly altered and if she loosened it, the extra fabric would stick out again. I took it home and didn't think much about it until a few weeks before the reception. Again, I tried on my dress and yes, I could breathe, but I still felt very constrained about taking deep breaths. I called Lucy and she told me to come in that afternoon to take a look. She reassured me again the dress was shaped perfectly, and that she didn't want to loosen the dress or else I wouldn't like how that fabric would stick out. I gave in to her advice, and brought the dress home.

For the Chinese reception, I only wore the dress for half of the time as I wore my Chinese dress for the rest of the time. I have to agree with Lucy that the bodice was so perfectly matched with my body shape that the pictures I took in the dress were absolutely beautiful.

For my American reception 2 months afterwards, I was going to wear the dress for the entire night. The problems started halfway into the dinner when I started feeling a bit suffocated. I pushed it aside and tried to concentrate on entertaining our guests. To make a long story short, by the end of the night, I had to have my sister unzip the dress and let me take a few deep breaths before going back into the reception. Anyone with asthma will tell you that there are a few moments of genuine panic when you realize you can't get enough air into you and that's how I felt.

Looking back, I should have been more forthright in telling Lucy that I needed the dress loosened. I didn't stand up for what I really believed was the best option and I was misguided when she told me how great I looked. And really, it looked so great that I can't be mad at Lucy since she wanted me to look my best. If I had told her how serious I would react if I started to notice I couldn't breathe deeply, I'm sure she would have loosened the dress. This really taught me a lesson to stand up for myself in future situations. I would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone.

I was a BM in an Oct '05 wedding and she had Lucy make our dresses, her wedding gown and her evening dress. She also had Lucy alter her red Chinese dress (cheongsam). The quality of the dresses were good and Lucy was able to duplicate designer dresses to fit our bodies at a reasonable price that included alterations. The evening dress wasn't really what the bride had pictured.

Now the downside. . . The bride picked up the dresses the day before her wedding and didn't check them before she left the store. When she got home and took her dresses out of the garment bag, she was horrified when she saw that all these black marks on her red Chinese dress (this was the dress that Lucy didn't make but she did alterations and pressing). The MOH checked her pink dress and saw that there were the same black marks all along the front center of the dress. (We think it was from the pressing machine). My dress had a couple pen marks but it was minor to the other 2 dresses. The bride tried calling Lucy all afternoon but Lucy was out buying fabrics. The MOB ended up spot cleaning the dresses, taking the chance that they might have water stains.

Maybe had she picked the dresses up earlier and saw what had happened, there might have been more time to fix it.