This is an update over a year later. My original review is at Bombshell's old site: http://www.yelp.com/biz/bombshell-bridal-boutique-st-clair-shores?hrid=VYgDxe2e1aj8wpDTKT0Ryw. I'd given Bombshell 5 stars because they had a great selection, made me feel welcome, and helped me find my dress.
From there it got... messy. My dress came in late. The sash had a brown stain on it. But the real problem was - the dress was several sizes too small. My measurements hadn't changed, so it wasn't me. Bombshell had just recommended the wrong size for me to purchase. In the end, Bombshell took the dress back and I had to find an entirely new dress with just a few months to go until my wedding. The dress I was able to find that late in the game did not ultimately make me happy. The entire experience was thus disappointing.
How did such a mistake happen? My understanding is that Bombshell ordered me a dress in what we'll call size X; my bust was smaller than X, my hips were larger, so the idea was to meet in the middle. But I learned that dresses don't work that way. You can take a dress in all you want, but you can only take it out so much. And the size Bombshell ordered was in fact SO small on my hips that there was no saving it. There was not enough material to take it out.
Bombshell handled this blunder well for the most part. They instantly saw the error and said they'd make it right. They contacted the dress manufacturer. I was told that if I wanted the dress, they would make me a new one in whatever size I asked for and it would be the very next dress off the line. But at that point my wedding was so soon. What if the dress was late again? Would there be time for alterations after that? I talked to the seamstress I'd be working with and she said there was very little room for error there. Even a few days late and she wouldn't be able to complete the work in time for my wedding.
I also learned that the dress's open back that Bombshell had so confidently assured me would be easy to solve with the right bra was actually a bit of an impossible puzzle. I wear a 36G bra. There is no good, backless bra that comes in 36G. So even if I got the correct-sized dress on time, could the back issue be solved? Why did a dress shop not know this would be such a problem; this is really within their purview. Or did they know it but want to close a sale? Regardless, this added piece meant that even if the dress came in on time, even if the seamstress could fit me in for alterations... what would come of the bra issue?
Like I said, it got messy.
In the end, there were too many IFs. I asked Bombshell to take the dress back. They agreed. We parted ways. I found a new shop. But since it was too late to order a new dress, I shopped from the warehouse (dresses that people had been trying on). This meant I had to find a dress that could be tailored... there was no ordering a new dress in whatever size at that point. I found something I was okay with, but I didn't love it the way I loved the dress I ordered from Bombshell. The style just wasn't me.
Yesterday was our 6-month anniversary, and even now I find that I am still sad about the dress. The dress I bought from Bombshell was *me.* I knew it the second I put it on; I didn't even need to look in the mirror. Those months that the manufacturer was making the dress... I spent those months imagining wearing it. Feeling beautiful in it. Feeling like myself. Before trying it on I hadn't been able to picture myself walking down the aisle, even, but with that dress things somehow came together. It felt amazing.
But then I couldn't wear that dress through no fault of my own; so I feel like I was cheated. I feel like I came SO close... like everything came together when I walked through Bombshell's doors and suddenly this impossible thing - me feeling beautiful in a wedding dress - was possible. But then it all unraveled in a way I couldn't control and couldn't fix.
So how do I rate Bombshell? Is the single star unfair? Should I average the 5 and 1 to make 3? I maintain that Bombshell welcomed me in a way that remains impressive, that they run a gorgeous shop that gives plus-size women the shopping experience they deserve. I maintain that Bombshell was professional from beginning to end. All good things. But I just can't shake the feeling that ultimately a wedding dress shop has a single job: to get you the dress that you choose. And they failed at that for me. read more