Atelier · France
Key Takeaways
- You pay nothing at customs. Duties, taxes, and documentation are handled before your dress leaves France.
- Your all-inclusive price is the final price. There are no charges waiting on delivery day.
- We ship by UPS with full tracking and a signature on arrival, typically 3 to 5 days.
- More than 1,000 dresses delivered to date, with zero loss or damage incidents.
- On delivery day, your only task is to sign for the package.
Here is the short answer: you pay nothing at customs. No duties, no surprise fees, no paperwork to chase. We handle every step of bringing your dress from our atelier in France to your door in the United States.
This is one of the most common worries we hear from US brides. Ordering a dress from Europe sounds like it should involve customs forms and unexpected charges. With us, it doesn't. Here's how it actually works, and for the wider picture our complete guide to ordering a custom wedding dress online walks through every stage from first sketch to delivery.
Who Handles Customs and Duties
We do. All of it.
Before your dress leaves France, we prepare every customs document and pay any applicable duties ourselves. Any garment entering the United States can be dutiable, and the rate is set by the declared value of the goods and their country of origin, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection describes for international purchases. Woven bridal gowns fall under Chapter 62 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule published by the U.S. International Trade Commission. We work all of that out and settle it in advance, so the dress arrives in the US already cleared. Nothing is collected from you on arrival.
This is built into how we price. The figure you approve before production is all-inclusive. It covers the dress, the materials, the shipping, and the customs handling. When we say the price is final, we mean it stays final, right through to the moment the box is in your hands.
You will never get a call from a carrier asking for a payment before they release your dress. The Federal Trade Commission warns that a message or call demanding a fee to free a held package is a common scam, and a shipment that is genuinely cleared has no outstanding charge for anyone to collect. That situation simply doesn't happen with our orders, because the duties are already settled when the dress ships.
How Your Dress Travels to You
We ship every dress by UPS. Each shipment includes:
- Full tracking. You receive a tracking number the moment your dress is dispatched, so you can follow it the whole way.
- A signature on delivery. Your dress is never left unattended on a doorstep. Someone signs for it.
- Protective, branded packaging. The dress is prepared to travel safely and arrive in the condition it left the atelier.
From dispatch in France to delivery in the US, transit usually takes 3 to 5 days, the same window we describe in our guide to ordering a wedding dress from a European atelier. We send the dress well ahead of your wedding date, with room to spare, and we never cut delivery close to the day itself. If you are marrying away from home, our destination wedding dress travel guide covers how to plan that timing.
Our Delivery Record
We have completed more than 1,000 orders. Across all of them, we have had zero loss or damage incidents in transit.
That record isn't luck. It comes from shipping with a carrier we trust, packaging each dress to protect its structure and embellishment, and handling the customs paperwork correctly every time. On an ordinary international parcel, a licensed customs broker has to prepare the entry, calculate the duties, and clear the package with CBP, and those duties, taxes, and brokerage fees normally fall to the person receiving the shipment. On our orders that work is ours, done before dispatch. A single error on a customs form can hold a package for days. We don't leave that to chance.
For a garment that took weeks of handwork to build, the delivery is not an afterthought. It is the final stage of the craft, and we treat it that way.
What "All-Inclusive" Actually Covers
When we quote your price, it includes everything needed to get the finished dress to your door:
- The dress itself: design, materials, construction, and embellishment
- Shipping from France to the US
- All customs documentation
- Any import duties or taxes
There is one exception worth naming honestly: if you request a design change after production has already begun, that can affect the cost. That's the only thing that ever moves the price, and it's always your choice, agreed in advance. Customs and shipping are never added later. Our breakdown of what a custom wedding dress costs shows exactly what the all-inclusive figure covers.
What You Do on Delivery Day
Sign for the package. That's the entire list.
You'll have tracked the dress to your door. When UPS arrives, you sign, and the box is yours. There's no customs office to visit, no form to complete, no fee to settle. The first thing you'll do is open it, not reach for your wallet. Delivery is the last step of the Lutien Bridal ordering process, and it is built into the price from the start.
FAQ
Will I have to pay customs or import duties when my dress arrives?
No. We pay all duties and prepare the customs documents before the dress leaves France. Nothing is collected from you on arrival.
Could a carrier hold my dress until I pay a fee?
No. Because duties are settled before shipping, there is no outstanding charge for a carrier to collect. Your dress arrives already cleared.
How long does shipping to the US take?
Usually 3 to 5 days by UPS once the dress is dispatched. We always send it well ahead of your wedding date.
What if my dress is lost or damaged in transit?
Across more than 1,000 deliveries, this has not happened. Every shipment is tracked, signed for, and protectively packaged. If an issue ever arose, we would make it right.
Is shipping included in the price, or added at the end?
Included. Your all-inclusive price covers the dress, shipping, and customs. Nothing related to delivery is added later.
Start with a free sketch consultation and we will walk you through exactly how your finished gown clears customs and reaches your door with nothing left to pay.
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About the author: Vlad Ivanov is the Director of Business Development at Lutien Bridal Atelier in Ansignan, France, home to the design team behind more than 1,000 custom wedding gowns delivered to brides across the US and Europe.
