NOVA McLAREN - by appointment only 28 Thompson Street, Glastonbury, CT 06073

"Olivia is AMAZING!! She made the veil of my dreams for my June 2023 wedding day by embroidering it with the names of those in our lives that have passed on. It truly brought me and my family to tears and was the showpiece of the wedding day. Everyone kept coming over to look at it throughout the night, even after I had taken it off they had to put it on display on chairs. I am a wedding photographer and have worked with Olivia in the past when she had designed a custom gown for one of my brides. I have always admired her work and was thrilled to have her be a part of my wedding day! Thank you Olivia!"

"Olivia did the alterations on my and my wife’s wedding dresses for our wedding in June 2023. We chose her based on a recommendation from a close friend who worked with Olivia a few years prior. Olivia was a pleasure to work with. Her flexibility to schedule appointments and to reschedule when the hecticness of wedding planning got in the way was much appreciated. Her in-home studio was super cute and professional. The second I put my dress on, she clearly knew what she was doing, pinning up my straps and the hem of my dress to be a more appropriate length. She did a great job explaining different options of what she could do, especially with different bustle types. She did say she would send me pictures of different bustle options pinned up before actually implementing… she never did, but I do think the bustle type she chose was the appropriate one for my dress. All the work Olivia did was flawless - when she was done, you couldn’t even see any seams or places that looked manipulated in any way. She also made a custom hair clip for me out of pieces of my mom’s veil, which was a special request. Even though she hadn’t done anything like that before, she did a great job. Unfortunately, when I tried on my dress on the day of my wedding, there were some areas that were too loose (even though I hadn’t lost any weight), like the straps and the bust. Since this was the first time I had a dress altered, it was probably my mistake for not noticing during my last fitting – I do wish Olivia had me do some of those things, but ultimately everything fit well enough to get me through the day. It would have been nice to know even an estimation of the price I would need to pay in advance, but Olivia wasn’t able to share that information since it would depend on how long the alterations took. Fortunately, my dress was a pretty good fit to begin with, so not a lot of alterations were needed, and the price was reasonable."

"I will be forever grateful to Olivia for giving me my dream wedding dress! She is a genius designer, and was just an overall joy to go through this process with. I basically had no clue what style of dress I wanted, and she was able to take my very vague ideas and turn them into something spectacular. She was patient, accommodating, and very responsive. For anyone considering a custom dress, I highly recommend Olivia/Nova McLaren, it will be the best decision you make!"

"There are no words to describe how wonderful my experience with Olivia and NOVA McLaren was. Prior to coming to Olivia, I tired so many dresses and never thought I would wear a dress that I love on my wedding day, but Olivia completely changed that, and I ended up with a dress that I absolutely love! Olivia was such a great pleasure to work with, the whole experience from start to finish was smooth and not once did I have to worry or stress about the dress because I fully trusted Olivia and her work. The dress came out exactly like I imagined it would be and more and not to mention it fit like a glove!! I highly recommend NOVA McLaren and I can't thank Olivia enough for the amazing experience!"

"Olivia is so talented and such an amazing person to work with! She took the time to really understand what I wanted my wedding dress to look like, and designed my dream dress. She was very patient throughout the whole process (I changed my mind a couple of times about some design details) and made sure I was happy with the final product. I can't recommend her highly enough! It might feel easier to buy a "ready to wear" dress, but nothing compares to the feeling of wearing a custom-made wedding dress. It's your big day and you should feel and look amazing. Olivia certainly made sure that I did!"