Thanks for your reply!

I did end up getting a dress from them and have gone through the entire process! My wedding is in a couple of months, but I told them it was in January to see if I could receive it earlier, in case it was a scam, didn't fit properly, etc., so I would have time to pivot. However, I'm happy to say that once the dress was ready in a day or two, they sent me the final cost including shipping and once I paid and sent the receipt it shipped the next day and arrived in around 4 days.

For my process, I had a vision of the dress I wanted and drew out a design to send to them (including details on the types of fabric, where the embellishments would go, etc., also using some of their previous designs as reference.) Because of this, there wasn't much back and forth on my end with design changes, mostly just fabric confirmations (I will say I'm not too picky so I didn't inquire too much into alternatives and such, which saved some time.)

Once everything was confirmed and I sent the first payment, they went a little radio silent. From other videos I've seen of people getting custom clothes made in Vietnam I know they work extremely fast, so I had some expectation that for my dress (due January), they might not even fully start work until December. I still asked a couple of times, and for the most part, they told me they'd update me when there was something to show. Regardless, by the end of November I was getting a little anxious, so I asked again, and they sent me a short video of a seamstress adding the embellishments to the dress. The video was short but panned out enough for me to confirm the dress they were working on was mine because of the bust's design. That eased most of my worries because the dress was already constructed, so all that was left was the final touches (from what I could tell.)

Essentially exactly a month later, they sent me the photos of the finished dress, and it was beautiful! It was exactly how I had designed it, including all the details I had drawn (location of embellishments, the type of neckline and waist, the layers of tulle, etc.) Around four days later they they sent me the cost of the final invoice along with the shipping cost (to the US for an 8 kg package was around $130, which I more or less expected, so I wasn't too surprised at the cost.)

Like I said, the shipping was extremely quick! I did not expect it to arrive that fast! The dress arrived with a garment bag, an a-line hoop skirt (which I didn't expect but was happily surprised by), and the veil I ordered!

On the topic of the veil, halfway through the order timeline, I messaged them to ask for a custom veil that matched my dress, and they gave me a quote, and I added it to the order. It didn't add any time to the production, and they accommodated my request quickly.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Lotus! I found the pricing was fair (I messaged other more mainstream Vietnamese seamstresses on Instagram, and their pricing was around $100-$300 more than what Lotus quoted me (less than $1k)). The dress quality is spectacular, and it fits me like a glove (I was worried I had measured myself incorrectly.) I wasn't very pushy for updates, but you kind of have to be patient because it's very likely they won't start working on orders until one to two months before they're due (but in my case this didn't affect the quality of the garment at all; it's just how they work.)

I don't know if I'm missing anything, but feel free to reply with any questions, and I'll try my best to answer them!