Dress alterations for pregnant bride

I was 5 months when I got married to my ex husband back in 2006 it was a shot gun wedding, ha I had a mermaid dress and wore it but it was so uncomfortable and I had it altered

View Quoted Comment How did you alter it? I’m hoping it won’t be too uncomfortable and maybe I can just wear it loose. I really just don’t want to buy another dress.

I'm currently pregnant and it really depends on how much weight you gain and how the weight is distributed. I know around 12-14 weeks I could no longer fit in my leggings, but I didn't switch to maternity shirts until about 17-18 weeks. Mermaid style dresses tend to be tighter so I'm not sure how much can really done without changing the style of the dress.

A lot of dresses can be pretty easily altered to accommodate a growing belly. However, mermaid dresses tend to be very unforgiving. If I were you, I would put on the dress and stuff the belly with t-shirts or a small throw pillow and see if you think there is a way you could modify the dress to work for you.

View Quoted Comment I did that today and I’m thinking of adding a corset back instead of the zipper to give more room but I don’t know if that’s possible. I don’t mind if the dress style isn’t mermaid anymore. I just don’t want to physically buy another dress.

View Quoted Comment If you are not trying to “hide” the belly, it may be doable. I would definitely take the dress into a bridal seamstress and see what they say. Unfortunately, making significant changes to a dress sometimes leads to the alterations costing as much as buying a new dress. It depends a lot on your dress – the material, if there is lace or beading that would have to be removed and reapplied, if more fabric would need to be purchased, if the entire shape of the dress would have to be reworked, etc. It also depends on how much weight you gain by then, which can be incredibly hard (if not impossible) to accurately predict. I think speaking to a seamstress ASAP is your best bet. The sooner you find out whether altering your dress is a possibility the better!

I worked in bridal for three years- add a corset where the zipper was should definitely be doable, that’s what I would recommend. If your hip measurement stays the same, I wouldn’t even be worried about the fact that it’s mermaid

You may or may not be showing largely by 19 weeks. My easiest alteration to recommend is a corset back. Have the alteration added about 4-5 weeks before your wedding for the closest size, then that way you’ll have a little room for growth the the corset back also.

View Quoted Comment That gives me a sense of relief. I bought my dress at Kleinfeld so I’m being hopeful that they have experience with this. My first fitting is originally scheduled for March 26 but I’m going to call them to let them know to see if I need to change my date. Right now since I’m in the very early stages of pregnancy I’m extremely bloated so that may go down as well but no changes to my hips as of now

Add a tulle skirt to wear over the mermaid dress!! It will hide the bump if that’s what you want for photos. Then take off the skirt later in the evening to reveal the sexy mermaid dress and rock it!!!!

Whether or not the dress can be altered to accomodate your growing baby belly depends a lot on the dress (and your belly). One of the easiest alterations would be to add a corset back so that the dress can be custom fit to your size on the day of your wedding. Pregnancies vary a lot, and there may be weeks where your size hardly changes and then a week where you just "pop" or grow a lot in a short period of time, so it can be really difficult for a seamstress to predict your size with the amount of lead time they typically need to make alterations.

We got married on our original date but postponed our wedding reception and celebration a full year and knew that would impact our baby timeline (we are going to need to postpone again at this point, but have started TTC because I'm already 35 and we just can't wait any longer). My dress is fit-and-flare/mermaid style with a low back and illusion lace bodice, so I wore it for our elopement because I knew it would be difficult to alter for pregnancy. I have been low key looking at alternative dresses in case I do happen to be pregnant and don't fit into my original dress for our redo wedding. I've also been stalking baby bump timeline photos to get an idea of "how big I might be" at any stage of pregnancy. At 19 weeks, you'll likely be showing but not all that big yet, so depending on your dress, particularly the material and how it fits now, you might be able to still wear it with only minor alterations.

View Quoted Comment That’s cute! I don’t mind if my bump shows bc at that point we would’ve already told all our family. We’re actually thinking of doing the gender reveal at the wedding if we know the gender at that time.

View Quoted Comment I’ve tried it on and it still fits for the most part. The zipper can zip up until my bust area. I’m hoping adding a corset will help and I’m also very short so cutting the length will provide a lot of extra fabric if needed. I spoke with the alterations department where I got my dress to tell them I found out I’m pregnant to see if that changes when I need to come in. They seemed pretty confident. My first fitting is March 26 and the wedding is June 5.

View Quoted Comment A gender reveal would be so cute! I actually saw one recently online, where the bride and groom had the color of the inside of their wedding cake indicate the gender of the baby.

View Quoted Comment That’s exactly how we’re thinking of doing it!

View Quoted Comment Love it! It would be super convenient too- you already have all your love ones gathered and you’re already buying a cake. It would prevent you having to get everyone together again and pay for another celebration. Plus, everyone is already excited and in celebratory mode!