I'm finally bringing myself to write this review after several encounters with this place... what takes the cake for today is my wedding dress preservation experience. Though for the record I'll note some of the other annoyances I have with them is they're not always the friendliest, and they are extremely over priced on the most random of things.
Back to my dress preservation experience - I brought in my dress, veil and a brooch bouquet that I hand made a couple months ago and asked that it all be preserved together. The dress was already clean so all it really needed was a steam... at any rate I explained that I wanted my dress to be "steamed and preserved" along with the veil and bouquet that I made. I specifically asked also whether they ship items out for this service and was told they "sometimes" do. They confirmed my request was doable and I left.
Today I picked everything up only to realize (when I arrived back home) the reason it was so inexpensive was that nothing was done except a steam, and then everything loosely placed into a box! I've had a dress preserved before so I'm well aware of what this should look like - I used the "Wedding Dress Preservation Company" the first time, and when I reached out to them this time they pointed me to 4th Avenue as the closest authorized retailer for this service through their company. The box this dress was loosely laid into is not from the "Wedding Dress Preservation Company" - it doesn't have their logo at all, which should have been my first clue. Really, this wouldn't even matter had the job been done right. Several issues with what I got back:
1. NOTHING is secured in the box - I can't stand this up for storage or turn it upside down without the risk of my brooches busting off my bouquet or my dress piling up
2. It is NOT sealed air tight - the whole purpose of getting your dress "preserved" is so it doesn't yellow over the years and to do this it has to be stored in an airtight and sealed box
3. It appears all that was done was my dress and veil were placed into a plastic wardrobe bag and then laid into the box (with the same cardboard bodice I brought the dress in with) - it doesn't even look like any effort was made here
The first time I had a dress preserved they did a beautiful job - they folded my veil very neatly over the dress in a way that looked very elegant - so you could see through the window what was in the box, and everything was very secured.
Needless to say I'm extremely disappointed- no wonder why it was only ~$31... I basically paid for a very large box that I can't even store upright since nothing is secured in the thing! I was expecting this to cost closer to $150, which is what it was the first time.
I did call the store when I discovered the issue and am waiting for a call back from the owner. Hopefully I'll get a better understanding of what happened here and figure out a solution. Stand by for an update. read more