Yeah, the bustle is an issue. Look at my wedding pics thread if you want an idea on how to do one. The seamstress said there were a couple of ways to do it. My bustle had 6 different buttons, and you had to double loop them for them to hold. The dress is VERY heavy. It wrinkles very easily too. I bought a hand steamer, and put a cheese cloth on top of it (so no big droplets collected) and that worked well. And I was the same way...my hips are bigger, but I was able to step in okay as long as it was zipped all the way down. I ended up wearing a necklace with mine, but didn''t originally want to. My DH gave me a pretty peridot necklace for a wedding present, so I wanted to wear it and it was simple enough that it didn''t compete.
) Do you feel that they are expensive for alterations? I went to Caroline DeVillo''s studio in Bucktown to try some dresses (I loved two, but I don''t know about more than the Fanal and they were more than triple the price of what I would pay for the Fanal, and only for the samples) and Caroline''s assistant said that it is outragous what the boutiques charge and her alterations would be $150-200. Weddings 826 said their most simple alterations usually started at $350.
She did say it would need to be double-hooked or whatever, but I really liked it a lot. I have my next fitting on 8/25, so I''ll let you know how it goes! I can''t believe everything is less than two months away. 
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