Every other order in a tailoring shop can slip by a day. A wedding order cannot. The date was fixed months ago, the hall is booked, the family is travelling, and a blouse that is not ready on the morning of the function is not a late delivery. It is a shop that will not be recommended again.
What makes wedding work difficult is not the stitching. It is that a wedding is never one order. It is eight or twelve garments for six or seven people who are not all in the same city, against a date that will not move, with fabric that usually arrives later than promised.
This is how to plan that work backwards from the function date, what to settle before the first garment is cut, the four things that actually cause late delivery, and how to price and take advances on an order of this size.
The Order Is a Family, Not a Garment
Open one order number for the whole family and list every garment under it, even the ones nobody has confirmed yet. A wedding order that is booked as six separate orders is a wedding order that will lose one of them.
The Certain Ones
The bride's and the groom's own garments, booked first and usually the most work. These set the schedule for everything else, because they need the most trials.
The Likely Ones
Parents, siblings and the immediate family. Usually confirmed within a week of the main order, usually in matching cloth, and usually all needed for the same function.
The Ones Added Late
An aunt who decided in week three, a cousin arriving from abroad ten days before. These arrive with no warning and they are the single biggest cause of a wedding order finishing late. Decide now, in writing, what your cut-off date is for accepting one.
Work Backwards From the Function Date
Do not plan forwards from the day the order is booked. Plan backwards from the function, because that is the only fixed point. This is a workable schedule for a family order of eight to twelve garments.
When | What happens | Why it is there |
|---|
45 days before | Measurements taken, fabric decided, advance collected | Everything downstream waits on this, so it cannot slip |
40 days before | All fabric physically in the shop, counted and checked for length | Short cloth found now is a problem; found at cutting it is a crisis |
35 days before | Cutting starts on the bride's and groom's garments | The heaviest work needs the most recovery time |
25 days before | First trial on the main garments | Early enough that a re-cut is still possible |
20 days before | Cutting starts on family garments | Main garments are past their riskiest stage by now |
12 days before | Second trial on main garments, first trial on family garments | Corrections from trial one are checked here |
6 days before | Final trial, all garments | Last point at which anything can still be altered calmly |
3 days before | Everything finished, pressed, packed and labelled | The buffer that absorbs whatever went wrong |
Function day | Nothing in the shop | If anything is still here on the day, the plan failed a week ago |
The three day buffer at the end is not spare time. It is the part of the plan that makes the rest of it survive a fever, a power cut or a machine that breaks on a Sunday.
The Trial Is the Real Deadline
Shops think of the delivery date as the deadline. It is not. The first trial is, because it is the last point at which a garment can be re-cut rather than altered.
A garment that fails its first trial twenty five days out can be cut again from spare cloth. The same garment failing its trial six days out can only be altered, and some faults cannot be altered at all once the garment is lined and finished.
Which faults those are is worth knowing before you promise anything - the garment alteration guide lists the three that are worth refusing outright.
Book the trials as appointments with names and times, the same as the delivery. A trial that is left as come whenever you can will happen four days before the function, which is exactly the situation the schedule exists to prevent.
One Thing Nobody Plans For: The Bride Is Losing Weight
Most brides lose some weight in the two months before the wedding, and many are actively trying to. A blouse measured forty five days out and stitched to that measurement can be visibly loose on the day.
Handle it openly rather than guessing. Ask at the measurement appointment whether she expects to change. If the answer is yes, plan the final trial six days out as a genuine fitting rather than a formality, and leave a full inch of seam allowance at the side seams and the back of the bodice so it can be taken in without touching the neckline or the armhole.
Never take it in early in anticipation. A garment made smaller than the customer on a guess is a garment that cannot be let out on the morning of the function, and that is the worst possible day to discover it.
Fabric Is the Thing That Actually Runs Late
In most late wedding orders the shop was not slow. The cloth arrived late, or arrived short, or arrived in two dye lots that do not match.
Count and measure every piece the day it arrives, against what each garment needs, and do it with the fabric consumption figures in front of you rather than by eye. Cloth that is half a metre short is a conversation with the family in week two; the same shortage found at the cutting table in week five is a garment that will not be made.
Keep the quantities to hand when the order is booked - the fabric consumption chart has the figures for each garment, and a bordered or one-way cloth always needs more than a plain one.
Check dye lots on the day of arrival as well. Two blouse pieces from different lots look identical folded on a shelf and obviously different in a photograph taken under a hall's lighting.
The Four Things That Cause Late Delivery
1. A Garment Was Added After the Cut-Off
Every wedding order grows. Set a written cut-off, usually twenty days before the function, and after it quote a rush rate rather than saying no. A rush rate is a decision; squeezing it in for free is how everything else slips.
2. The Fabric Was Never Physically Counted
It was promised, it was assumed, and it was half a metre short. Count it on arrival against the consumption figures, not at the cutting table.
3. The Trials Were Not Booked as Appointments
Told to come anytime, families come late. Then a fault that needed a re-cut has to be solved with an alteration, and the result is visible in the photographs.
4. The Heaviest Garment Was Started Last
A sherwani or a bridal lehenga has the most work and the least tolerance for a mistake. Start those first, when there is still time to recover, and leave the simpler garments for the middle of the schedule.
Pricing and Advance on a Family Order
A wedding order ties up your shop for six weeks, so it should be priced as a block and not as a list of individual garments quoted off the top of your head at the counter.
Take an advance that covers your materials and your risk, commonly half at booking. The advance is not only cash flow. It is the thing that makes a family confirm their list rather than keep adding to it, and it makes a cancellation survivable.
Build the quote from a rate card rather than from memory - the rate card guide covers how to put one together.
And price the rush rate deliberately, because late additions are where wedding work quietly loses money - there is more on that in setting tailoring charges without losing money.
What Changes When the Shop Is on CAD
The planning above is the same with chalk or with software. What changes is how much of the six weeks is spent drafting rather than stitching.
On a family order many garments share a fabric and several share a customer. Drafting each one by hand means the same measurements are used three or four times and copied by hand each time, which is three or four chances to write a number down wrong.
From a stored sheet the blouse, the lehenga and the second blouse for the reception all come from one set of measurements, and a corrected measurement after a trial updates every garment that uses it.
The cloth side matters as much on expensive wedding fabric - pattern making software nests the pieces to your actual width and prints or cuts the marker at full size, which is where a short length is saved.
Keeping each family member's sheet findable a year later, for the next wedding in the same family, is its own problem - see the measurement book every shop loses.
The Date Will Not Move, So the Plan Has To Start Early
Wedding work is the most profitable and the most dangerous work a tailoring shop takes. One family that is delighted brings you the next four weddings in their circle. One blouse that is not ready ends that.
Book the family under one order number, plan backwards from the function date, get the fabric counted in the first week, book the trials as appointments, set a written cut-off for late additions and keep three days of buffer at the end. None of that is about stitching, and all of it is what decides whether the stitching gets finished in time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far in advance should wedding orders be booked?
Measurements and fabric about forty five days before the function for a family order of eight to twelve garments. Less than thirty days leaves no room for a re-cut after the first trial, which is the point of having trials at all.
How many trials does a wedding garment need?
Two for the main garments and one for the rest, plus a final trial for everything about six days out. The first trial matters most, because it is the last point at which a garment can be re-cut rather than altered.
What should be done about late additions to a wedding order?
Set a written cut-off, commonly twenty days before the function, and quote a rush rate after it instead of refusing. Squeezing late garments in at the normal rate is what makes the rest of the order slip.
How much advance should be taken on a wedding order?
Enough to cover materials and your risk, commonly half at booking. It also makes the family confirm their list instead of adding to it for the next three weeks.
What if the bride loses weight before the wedding?
Ask at the measurement appointment whether she expects to. If so, leave a full inch of seam allowance at the side and back seams and treat the final trial six days out as a real fitting. Never take a garment in early on a guess.
Run Wedding Orders on One Set of Measurements
Fashion Dot CAD keeps each family member's sheet with the date, the fabric and the ease used, drafts every garment in the order from it, and updates each one when a measurement changes after a trial. See what it costs on the tailoring CAD software price page.
See a Wedding Order Drafted From One Sheet
Bring one family's measurements to a free demo and we will draft the set live, print the patterns full size and show you the markers on your own fabric widths. Book a free demo at a time that suits your shop.