Weddingbee boards

I'm not sure how helpful this is - as I had my gown ordered through a bridal salon - but I also have a non-standard hollow to hem and it came in exactly the right length (I was pretty impressed, as I was a little skeptical).  However, they did the measurements with the sample dress on, so that the tape follows the contours of the dress.  If your dress hangs pretty flat, that shouldn't be too much of an issue, but if your skirt is poufy at all I think the measurement needs to follow the contours of the crinolines, so you might have to think about how to do that at home.

I think that's one advantage of ordering through a store.  I could have saved about $150 online, as far as I can tell, but the store gives me the bustling for free and I seriously need No Other Alterations, their measuring was so good.  There are lots of posts about how much people have paid for alterations on the gowns they saved so much money buying secondhand or online - often enough to result in no price savings at all.