My wife designed her own. She visualized exactly what she wanted, looked through a ton of bridal mags, cut out the parts from dresses in the mags that matched her mental picture, and created a picture she called "the Bride of Frankenstein because it was pieced together from said clippings. She took it to the seamstress and voila! Awesome wedding dress.
Good for your wife. She's to be commended for her own design. There's something to be said for good ole American ingenuity. Why pay someone like a designer when you can do what she did and have someone make it locally who can do just a good a job or even better than a designer. Her "Bride of Frankenstein" dress sounded beautiful and what a memory she created, huh? Who would have thought you would be telling someone about this on something called the internet years later? :) You sound like a very loving couple. Keep up the good work and we wish you a long and happy life together. :)