Van Lear was a godsend for my wedding dress! It was altered to fit me like a glove. I could not be happier with my decision to come here. She also added the perfect bustle that transformed my train into a sleek, elegant evening gown.

This was back in 2012. I wanted a dress that was unique and had to parts. The white coat comes off like a jacket and there is another dress underneath. The design was beautiful and everyone was friendly. I still wear this to the Renaissance Festival on nice days. Wanted something I could wear multiple times. Thank you

She was kind, talented and reasonably priced! Super glad I trusted her with my dress. She went out of her way to make sure everything was perfect and for exactly how I wanted.

Lora is truly wonderful with her hand made wedding gowns. I highly recommend her.

They did the best work on my wedding gown. It fit me like a glove and in the lace bodice you couldnt even tell that the lace was cut! They took it in an inch or so and really I was just so pleased. Theyre so nice there and absolutely professionals. Id highly recommend this place for any alterations. Reasonably priced too! Around $200 for the bodice work.

Van Lear was an absolute blessing to find! I was wanting to have my grandma’s and mom’s dress redone so I could be the 3rd generation in it and she made the dream possible. Laura is extremely talented and passionate about what she does. Not only did she draw out what o wanted on paper within 10 minutes of meeting each other she had the dress done quicker than I expected. She was easy to work with and has a great personality. She made sure everything was to my standard. So thankful I found her, and if you are wanting a custom dress or alterations, do yourself a favor and go here! They are flexible with schedules and work hard to meet the deadlines.

Van Lear is an awesome place. Lora is the nicest most caring person I have ever met. She truly is sincere and very dedicated to the wonderful work she does. I would highly recommend.

This might be a long post-but worth reading if youre considering going with Van Lear. I had a rather rare scenario with my wedding dress. I had a change of heart with my dress a month before my wedding date. Luckily I found a new one off the rack that I absolutely loved, but it was about 3 sizes too big. I called Van Lear and they said no problem they could have it altered and ready for my wedding day. She pinned it to fit exactly right and also did a very unique bustle where the dress tied up underneath to make it look like a floor length dress once tied up, which I loved. Fast forward to when I picked my dress back up- we had a couple issues with the placement of my straps. We thought we had a solution figured out, until TWO DAYS before my wedding I (thankfully) tried my dress on with my jewelry to find the straps were too loose and caused my dress to be very loose on my chest. I freaked out for one second and immediately called Van Lear. Without any hesitation they said I could come up right then and they would fix it for me. As I sat there (after hours mind you) she resewed my straps to cross in the back which gave me just the support I needed. I teared up as I was leaving because I was so relieved and she gave me a huge hug. I am so so thankful for her and her assistant. They will truly do anything to make you feel beautiful on your wedding day! Cannot thank them enough.

The owner and her assistant was so warm and welcoming! They help me look beautiful in my wedding dress and gave great advice about my accessories.I didnt feel she tried to up charge me on anything and let me decided what I wanted to do with the alterations.I would go back to her for anything!!

I went to Van Lear for a few modernizations to my mothers wedding gown for my own wedding. Working with her became the most stress inducing aspect of preparing for the wedding. The dress is very sentimentally valuable and she showed little to no regard for this. Coffee was spilled on the skirt while in her care, which she neither tried to remove nor owned up to. Luckily this stain easily came out at home. When I expressed fitting concerns she responded with Well thats not MY fault.

I had a great experience with Lora Van Lear and Van Lear Custom Couture! Lora did an amazing job altering my wedding gown, allowing me to wear the dress of my dreams on my wedding day! She worked with me to ensure the dress fit me perfectly. Part of the alterations required her to do some beading, and it completely matched the original bead work on the gown. No one could tell that any bead work had been added later. I would recommend her for any of your alteration needs, especially those involving wedding gowns! The cost of the alterations was consistent with what I read online to be the average cost of wedding gown alterations.

The sisters that own the store are the sweetest people you can meet. When I had my dress made they involved me from the beginning where they asked what I wanted and started drawing the dress of my dreams through the fabric choices and how the dress presented when worn. Every detail on the dress was placed with care and pride. Couldnt have been a better experience!

Very friendly & professional

Lora is probably the most amazing seamstress I have ever worked with. My wedding dress was a size 10 designer gown and I wear about a negative 0! It was a $2000 dress, so I was nervous about having it altered. She not only got it to fit like a glove, but you would never even know it was altered. She worked with me around my schedule, and talked with me through every little detail. She even helped steer me in a better direction than I would have gone with it...and boy am I glad I listened to her. Stunning work Laura! Truly a one of a kind dress. Thank you!

I hate to leave a negative review but I feel like I need to share the experience I had at Van Lear. Laura is a friendly woman and easy to connect with. She has a very strong personality which can be intimidating, especially for us soft spoken types. She was very persistent with the fabric she thought would look best although it wasn’t what I wanted and didn’t meet my list of needs for care. The dress fittings were fine- she was very flexible around my schedule. After one of my fittings, we decided to alter the sleeves so that I could actually move my arms but she didn’t write it down so upon my return for the next fitting, the sleeves had not been altered and she argued that I never told her about the changes. Frustrating, but mistakes happen. One thing that really sticks out in my mind is when she flat out told me “I only do things once”. So, I took that as a deterrent to speaking up if I saw a flaw. Adding to that, she never once asked me if there was anything I wanted changed or if I was even happy with the dress. The final product brought tears to my eyes; I just wish they were happy tears. They were tears cried when I brought the dress home and realized how utterly bad the dress looked on me. It didn’t look like the sketch and it didn’t do my figure any justice. It had loose fabric hanging on the side of the bust that made my torso look the opposite of what it is, short and frumpy. The thick thread used to sew the delicate fabric wasn’t the proper type of thread, it was more like rope. It pulled at the fabric and left visible holes in the front! I took the dress to a different seamstress who was shocked by the carelessness of the work and described it as disgusting (not my words). I felt like the dress was just rushed through and not given the time or care that it deserved. It cost me an extra $200 to have the dress altered by someone else… Thankfully, the holes were mended, the dress was fixed and ended up looking beautiful. Hopefully, the next person has a better experience than I did but I will not be back.

Lora Van Lear is a true artist. She took the vision I had for my wedding veil and created it from scratch. She also did the alterations on my wedding dress and couldn’t have done a more incredible job. Lastly, and closest to my heart, she made hankies for my mom and dad out of pieces of my mom’s wedding dress. They were absolutely stunning and clearly crafted with love. Working with Lora and Angela was an absolute pleasure, and I looked forward to the time we got to spend together during my appointments. Not only will I be using them for any future alternation needs, but I will be highly advocating that anyone I know in need of alterations pays them a visit.

Very reasonable and accomodating!!

Laura created my wedding dress from a photo I showed her. She did a simply beautiful job! Id recommend her for your wedding or special occassion dress.

You can’t get a more genuine person to help you with your wedding. Does a fabulous job!

I love her she was so kind and i loved my dress would defiantly recommend people go to her She will treat you like family

Very expensive for a regular top alteration and worse it wasnt even altered well. I don’t recommend at all.

Wonderful place to have a custom dress made. I could not be more pleased!