The Dress

From Rue de Seine's website:

"Adara is a romantic, light and playful bustier gown. Carefully placed seams and design lines ensure the most flattering effect on the figure. The boned bodice ensures ample support, so you can comfortably dance the night away. Skirt remains fluid with lightweight lace, as it drapes elegantly from the hip allowing for generous flare and train."

I felt SO beautiful in this stunning, special dress. The lace detail is unique and gorgeous, and its pattern is extremely flattering around the waist and hips. The lining of the dress is an oyster/nude colored silk, and the shell has embroidered lace. There is boning along the sides of the bodice which makes you feel very secure in it, and a professional seamstress added even stronger boning which was great because I never had to worry about it falling down at all. The train is stunning and provides a hint of drama. The dress has a dancing loop which was so fun for our first dance, and a bustle was added so that I could dance the night away freely after that. The dress was only worn once on my wedding day and has since been professionally cleaned and boxed, so it is like new and completely ready to ship. I loved this dress so, so much, and would love to know that it is making another bride feel as amazing on her wedding day as it did for me! After tax, shipping, and alterations, the gown was over $4,000.

Alterations

A professional seamstress with many years of experience working on Rue de Seine gowns performed all alterations, which were:

- Added an American bustle with several tiny hooks that perfectly align to the lace so that they are undetectable when the train is down. She also added small beads on the underside of the lace train so that when you're ready to bustle, you just slide your hand, find the bead the corresponds to the loop, and secure the hook.
- Added stronger boning (this was the seamstress' recommendation since she has so much experience with these gowns). I loved this as it kept the dress up and I never once felt like I had to pull my dress up (which is amazing for a strapless gown).
- Added padded cups to fill out the bustier top. They fit my bra size (in between a B and C cup) and I imagine these are very easy to remove if needed as they are only secured to the inside of the gown.
- Hemmed to my height, which is 5' 6" + 3.5" heels with no platform.
- Taken in slightly at waist and around ribcage to fit securely.