The Wedding Poochies!

My fellow bridal bambina and I went on a little tour of alterationistas this past weekend to get some quotes for chopping up our pretty gowns.  It was so fun getting to put on our dresses and share the moment with a friend - when else do you get to both wear white in the same room??

Armed with a bag of marshmallows for nourishment (leftover from the neighbor's Xmas gifts), we hit the streets of Atlanta and priced three different places.  Veryyyy different places.

First up was the place I have always gone to get my stuff hemmed and prettied - European Alterations in Peachtree Battle in Buckhead.  Well.  Until this visit.  Chrissy was up first and got her China-doll on trying to make nice with the seamstress.  Even though we told them we were just getting a quote, they proceeded to pin the crap out of her dress for 20 minutes.  At one point the lady stabbed herself and had to get a replacement pinner so she didn't bleed on the dress.  Then it was my turn - same deal of excessive pinning.  It wasn't until I was shoving the bad boy back into it's home that I saw some lovely smears of blood all up in the underskirt... GROSS.  The lady was quick to say "not it" and offered no help to get her bodily fluids off my gown.  Then they quoted us over $400 each for some simple hemming.  Hmmm.  Not such a good start. 

This is why I brought the mallows...

After a quick run to CVS to buy a Tide stain stick and get out whoever's bleedies off my dress, we were off to Roswell.  And some extra dodo because it was hot up in that piece trying to get into our dresses.  We went to a little place called Irina's Alterations.  She has this seriously thick Russian accent and was the sweetest woman ever.  No pinning, no weird questions, she just sized us up, asked what we needed done and gave us some new prices - less than half of the first place, in fact.  Still had one stop to go.

Off to Lawrenceville!  We stopped at this awesome joint, Local Republic, for lunch and caught up with my bridesmaid Beth!  Seriously, the tapenade-goat cheese-pesto bruschetta is bombzone.

We pulled up to the third place, Dora Baker Bridal Alterations, which was a woman's home and I was immediately suspicious.  It did not look like any kind of professional establishment.  We were so wrong - she was awesome!  She had one room set up for her sewing machine and such and then the room we were in was devoted to the fittings - mirrors on both ends and a little stage and everything.  And this woman didn't ask us what we wanted - she told us what we needed done.  As if we had any clue what to say other than "take it in, make it shorter" anyway.  She pulled, poked, and prodded.  She discussed boning, bra cups, redesigning entire sections, pleating vs. bustling.  It was a lot.  And it was still half the price of the first place.  Clearly sold.

The real reason I personally already adore this lady - she called me poochy.  Poo-chee.  I weigh 100 lbs, I am quite petite by anyone's standards.  But I have certainly gotten poochified in some spots.  I blame the eating out 3x a day and the lackluster jumping jack routines... maybe those mallows...  Whatever the reason for the poochies - that little lady was up front about it and gave me 3 months to fix it.  Loved her.  

Poochies be gone!