Dream wedding dress nightmare: I found Suzanne after reading through all of her reviews on Yelp and checking out her website. From what I found, it seems that she is a very qualified seamstress with positive customer feedback. Shortly after I got engaged, I knew that I wanted to try and alter my mom's beautiful 80's wedding dress. Not knowing if this was even a possibility, I messaged Suzanne to see if it was reasonable to fix up an older dress to make it look a bit more modern and even more beautiful. She made it seem like this was absolutely something she could take on, so I booked an appointment. At my initial consultation in March, Suzanne made me feel very confident in her abilities. I explained what I hoped to have changed with the dress, and she made suggestions that I loved. The plan was to remove the neck line, tassels, lower the back and add a chiffon skirt. She had me pick out fabric and explained the process for alteration. I brought two of my girlfriends with me and we were all excited to see the transformed dress. She really built up our expectations. In June, I messaged her to request that she also add a layer of blue fabric from my step-mom's wedding dress. She told me it would be no problem. Fast forward to August, it was the day of my next fitting. I had my shoes, veil and bra packed as she had requested. Midway through the day, I received a message from Suzanne cancelling my appointment. She then said that my dress was a project that she was "not sure she could take on" and that I should find another seamstress. I was devastated. I had planned on going to that appointment expecting to see a transformed dress. When I called to clarify, she told me that she didn't have the "focus to spend" altering my dress and that she hadn't even started it yet. I told her I was confused and that she had made it seem like it would be no problem to fix up my dress. In fact, at my initial appointment, she told me it wasn't much more work than she typically puts into altering brand new dresses. Again she suggested that I find another seamstress. When I asked if she had any recommendations, she told me to "google it." That's probably because there are really no other seamstresses in Reno.
So now I am stuck without a wedding dress only 10 weeks before my wedding. I just don't understand why she could not have had the courtesy to let me know that this was a project she couldn't do five months ago. I would have started searching for a new gown instead of having my heart set on wearing my mother's. Now I don't have time to order a new dress, and anyone I have called in Reno can't take on fixing up my mother's dress. I never thought I would be that frantic bride desperately searching for a rack dress right before the wedding. Thankfully there are some bridal shops in Reno that will take me last minute. My mom and bridesmaids won't be able to go dress shopping with me because of the short timeline, and in the time that Suzanne had my dress, my step mom passed away, so I missed any opportunity I could have had with her to go shopping for a new dress.
At the very least, why not give me a bit more notice if she planned on not altering my dress? Cancelling an appointment same day is just tacky and inconsiderate.
I never got an explanation for what really happened, but frankly, I just think that she forgot about my dress, saved it till the last minute and now she doesn't have the time to do it because it is the middle of heavy wedding season. I honestly hope that she didn't sit on my dress for five months knowing that she was never planning to touch it. Good news for you Swoon brides though, because apparently, you are her only priority, and from her other reviews, it seems that she does a wonderful job altering dresses.
If you are a bride like me, and need more than just a simple quick turnaround dress alteration, I suggest you look elsewhere.
My heart is literally crushed over this. read more