THE MASTER’S GUIDE TO A BEAUTIFUL BUSTLE

The “bustle” is essentially a bit of structural magic. It’s the process of lifting and fastening your wedding dress train so it doesn’t drag on the floor during your reception. Without it, you are essentially a human Roomba, sweeping up cake crumbs and champagne spills all night.

Here is your guide to the most popular bustle styles so you can speak “seamstress” at your next fitting.

The American or Traditional Bustle 

This is the most common and straightforward style that you’ve likely seen at a lot of weddings you’ve attended. The train is lifted and fastened to the outside of the gown using buttons, hooks, or ties.

• The Look: It creates a tiered, cascading effect that flows down from the waist or hips.
• Best For: Gowns with a cathedral-length train or dresses with a lot of detail on the back that you want to keep visible.
• Our thoughts: Keep in mind, there are certain dresses where this truly looks the best, so take the rest of this with a grain of salt. Overall on most dresses traditional bustles are a distraction from most beautiful gowns and not our favorite more attractive look for the second half of your wedding. It’s good to see all of your options before settling on this one! 

The French Bustle 

Instead of lifting the fabric up, the French bustle pulls and pinches the fabric lower on the dress, creating a fold towards the bottom of the skirt.  It uses a system of numbered or color coded ribbons or ties hidden on the inside of the skirt.

• The Look: It creates a fold or “poof” at the back, giving the dress a romantic, Victorian, or vintage feel. 
• Best For: A-line dresses, ballgowns, or gowns made of lighter fabrics like tulle and organza.
• Our thoughts: Typically the lower the French bustle, the better it looks. It is incredibly secure because the weight is distributed across several internal ties. Sometimes on sheer dresses you cannot use ties and a seamstress needs to use buttons and loops or something that hides better. Some dresses look best with a French bustle. 

The Austrian Bustle

This one is less common but according to sources writing about it, “stunningly unique.” It uses a drawstring technique (similar to how Roman shades work) to gather the fabric up the center seam.

• The Look: A ruched, gathered effect that is very sophisticated.
• Best For: Gowns with intricate lace or vertical patterns that you don’t want to break up with a traditional fold.
• Our thoughts: We’ve never done an Austrian bustle, and never seen one. Maybe back in the day these were popular, but unless you’re wedding is Victorian themed, might be best to leave the past in the past.

The Famous Mira Couture Bustle

We don’t want to give all of our secrets away, but this is by far our favorite bustle. It’s magical! It typically calms every bride’s concerns over how her dress will look when it’s bustled. It’s looks as though your train disappeared. We won’t give too many details, but can’t wait to share one of many talented seamstress tricks of the trade with you when you’re a Mira bride!  

• The Look: Stunning!
• Best For: Most gowns. Your consultant and seamstress will be your best guide! 
• Our thoughts: The winning bustle!

Three “Bustle Commandments”

1. Thou shalt have a tutorial: In your final fitting, or before your gown gets shipped to you, make sure the consultant working with you does a Bustle Tutorial. They can show and teach whoever will be doing the bustle that day how to do it, or create an instructional video on how to do it. Every bustle is unique to each dress and so it’s nice to know exactly what you’re looking for and where, how many ties or loops and buttons there are, etc. If your “bustler” is there live, it’s a good opportunity to have them practice. Getting used to making sure the ties “kiss” (meet completely) or their fingers get comfortable looping the loops on the buttons. 
2. Thou shalt do a test run: It’s a great opportunity just to make sure all of the buttons and loops line up, the color coding system all matches, and that it pulls the length up in the back just enough to function. This is how you know before you go to do this on your wedding day that it’s strong and functioning properly. You’ll also know what to expect for how your dress will look when it is bustled up. 
3. Thou shalt have a “safety pin” emergency bustle kit: Even the best bustle can break if someone steps on your dress or it gets pulled.There’s also the case of the bustler on duty having an extra good time and not properly bustling your dress. Although it’s good to have a few people on call and ready to help you bustle, it never hurts to ensure your Bridal Emergency Day of Kit has heavy-duty safety pins or a sewing kit just in case! 

Wit & Wisdom: Of course you love the way your wedding dress looks when the train is down more than how it looks bustled! I would hope so! However, the bustle is meant to be a functional convenient way for you to be able to move around at your reception without having your train get stepped on all night long. The bustle is a good idea to have in your dress in case you want it. There are no hard rules about when you have to bustle your dress. If you really don’t like the idea of bustling your dress, there’s also the option for a wristlet (although more work as you are carrying your train around). You can also leave the train down for as long as you’re comfortable, bustle it when you absolutely feel it necessary and then there’s always the option to change into a second look as the more “party portion” of the celebration begins! It’s your wedding day! Do what feels right for you in the moment!