How does it all work?
We specialise in quality handcrafted couture wedding dresses that are handmade in our Adelaide studio by the best in-house dressmakers. You’ll be given the best styling advice from our head designer Penny, to truly bring your vision to life at an accessible price.
ACCESSIBLE COUTURE IN 4 STEPS
1) Choose Your Silhouette + Customise
Try some of our sample dresses or mix-and-match our ARA modulars to build your wedding dress. Apply different fabrics, laces, accessories and customisation to bring your unique vision to life.
2) Calico Dress Fitting
First fitting in your wedding dress toile, usually in calico or lining fabric, to look at the fit and confirm the style before we cut it!
3) Wedding Dress Fitting
You will finally get the chance to see your dream dress come to life on your body!
4) Final Dress Fitting
Pop the champagne and let’s celebrate your last days as a single lady! Final touches will also be applied to ensure the perfect fit for your big day.
Choose Your Silhouette + Customise
Option to Customise
We believe in giving you options when choosing your wedding dress, but first we need to understand your unique style and vision. Before your appointment, we recommend having inspiration images ready for us to build or use our Dress Builder below to build a dress that you love.
During The Appointment
You’ll have the chance to work with Penny, our head designer, to bring your vision to life by mixing and matching our ARA Modulars on your body. Your private one-on-one appointment with us is 90 minutes long, ensuring you’re not rushed through the journey of finding ‘the one’. Penny will also be there to provide guidance and make recommendations on fabrics, lace options, answer any questions you may have and finalise any further details until you’re ready to say yes to the dress!
Final Notes
We will end the appointment with a 5-minute measuring session and a custom quote. To begin the patternmaking process and secure your spot in our production timeline, we will require a 50% deposit upfront.
Calico Fitting
Your First Look
How exciting! We’ve finalised your silhouette and are close to finalising the fabric and embroidery options for your wedding dress. During your first fit appointment with us, you’ll be trying on a toile of your dress, commonly made in calico (beige cotton) or your lining fabric, and we will be using this time to confirm every detail about your dress before it is cut in its final form.
Changes and Alterations
Think of your calico dress as your opportunity to confirm your dress before it’s made. At this point, major changes to your wedding dress are still possible. You will be shown a final fabric stack up of your dress before you go, as well as seeing a draft placement of any lace or embroidery you have requested on your dress. By the end of this appointment, you should feel confident with the fit and style of your wedding dress.
After This Appointment
Approximately 4 to 6 weeks after your calico fitting, you will be sent progress pictures to approve the lace placement and the overall style of your wedding dress before our next fitting. At this point, we will also require another 25% payment on your dress order.
Additional Calico Fittings
Extra charges may apply if major changes have been requested to your dress silhouette. These extra appointments can cost between $100 and $250 and depend on the complexity of the changes that have been requested.
This cost includes the patternmaking, cutting and sewing costs to create your new silhouette, as well as the time it will take to have our fitting and apply alterations to your pattern before we cut it out in its final fabric.
Wedding Dress Fitting
Before Your Appointment
Kindly have your undergarments and shoes (or similar) ready for this appointment.
We've Been Waiting For This Moment!
This is the appointment that you’ve been waiting for! You will finally get to see yourself in your wedding dress, one that we’ve spent months building, drafting and finalising… Once your dress is on, we will spend this appointment making final adjustments to the fit of your dress. Dress elements like the skirt hem, the fit of your sleeves, the placement of any lace or embroidery we’ve applied will be finalised during this appointment as well.
For your peace of mind, we can offer extra fit appointments for an additional $200 per appointment. These appointments are not necessary but recommended
After The Appointment
We also request that your wedding dress is paid in full before your final fitting with us, and that you do your best to keep your body shape from this appointment until your wedding day to avoid additional alteration costs.
Additional Wedding Dress Fittings
For your peace of mind, we can offer extra fit appointments for an additional $200 per appointment. These appointments are not necessary but recommended if your wedding is more than 3 months away from this appointment date.
Final Dress Fitting
The Countdown Is On!
You are welcome to invite up to 5 of your bestest and closest to this appointment. Bubbly will be popped and ready for all of us to celebrate your last days as a single lady! Feel free to come to this appointment alone if you wish to save the surprise for the big day, the choice is completely up to you!
Final Touches
During this appointment, you can look forward to a curtain reveal of your dress on a mannequin. We’ll clink our glass to all the hard work that’s been put into bringing your dream dress to life before we get you dressed one final time in our showroom. We will spend some time applying final touches to your wedding outfit and making sure that your dress is perfect before we send you off with your custom-made wedding dress.
Before We Send You Off
You bet that we’ll be savouring every last moment with you as our bride and we wish you all the love, hugs and luck we can give you for the big day! We’ll be eager to hear how it all went and be available for any assistance you may need leading up to or after your big day.
We would LOVE for you to tag us in any pictures of your wedding day on social media or please send your favourite from your wedding gallery to brides@araexperience.com for a chance to be featured on our blog.
STILL NOT SURE?
We understand that shopping for your wedding dress can be a daunting and overwhelming process. We also have the following options available for you to ‘test the waters’ before committing to a generous 90 minute appointment with us.
With samples and ARA Modulars available up to size 24, you’ll be sure to find a silhouette that fits your beautiful curvatures. Next step is to play around with accessories, apply different fabrics or laces on top and we can definitely talk about customisations to do with fit; for example, a higher or lower neckline, longer train, thicker straps, full bust support and many more. Book your appointment with us now and we’ll be able to provide stylist advice, make recommendations on the best fabrics and laces to use and finalise any remaining details when you’re ready to say ‘I do’ to your unique wedding dress
You can use our Dress Builder below to get an idea of what is possible with us. Our Dress Builder will give you a basic idea of the silhouettes we can offer. We can apply plenty of customisation on top of this but it is best to book in an appointment with us to discuss these details.
The easiest method is to use our Enquiry button below to send us inspiration pictures and a short description of what you are after. From here, we will be able to send you an accurate quote plus the practicality of your unique design. We then recommend booking in an appointment with us to see your vision come to life on your body using our ARA Modulars.
You can also reach out to us via Facebook or Instagram DM. We can chat about your vision, your ideas and even any concerns you may have with the custom made process. We’re a friendly bunch with only one mission in mind, and that is to help our brides build their dream dress and have it custom made at an accessible price. Get in touch, we don’t bite!