Donna Beth Alterations was recommended to me by a friend who was also having her dress altered at the same time. The shop was beautiful and the reviews were great so I said, why not?
When I initially brought in my dress, it was a little snug in the lower hip area. I had originally planned to alter the hem, reattach lace to the hem and a do a bustle, but thought I'd ask about taking out the hips a little to get rid of the bunching/gathering that was occurring in that area. Both the seamstress who was taking my measurements as well as Donna guaranteed me that by taking out the hips, the dress would fall and the bunching would be gone. So I was sold! Was charged $350 for all of these alterations, which seemed reasonable.
I was beyond excited to go back and try on the dress for my second fitting. To my dismay, instead of taking out the lower hips, the seamstress took out the upper hip area, creating A LOT of extra fabric in the stomach area. I'm not exaggerating, I could have been 6+ months pregnant and fit comfortably in this dress. When I pointed this out, I was told that I would want the extra fabric in order to sit comfortably in it. I told the seamstress, as well as Donna, that I wanted the stomach fabric gone and the lower hips taken out, to which they agreed.
When I went back for my 3rd (and final fitting), NOTHING had been changed, it was if they hadn't touched my dress between those two fittings. This final meeting was with Donna. When I expressed my concerns, she kept saying "I've been a professional seamstress for a long time, trust me, you'll want the extra fabric". I also didn't understand why, in the final fitting, the lower hips still had not been taken out. This was one of my original requests, that I paid for. She promised me that when I came to pick up my dress, the day before my wedding, the dress would be perfect.
I ended up going back a few days later because I was panicked. After talking to Donna further, she continued to tell me that I would want the extra fabric in the stomach area, which caused me to lose faith in her ability to listen to my concerns and ultimate decision (I did pay for this service after all).
So guess what happened when I went in the morning before my wedding? You got it, the stomach fabric still had not been altered! She had finally altered the lower hips, so it fit me properly, but the mid section of the dress was hideous, both standing and sitting. This beautiful, form fitting gown, now looked like a baggy sack. I broke down, couldn't stop crying. She agreed to do some more alterations to fix the stomach and asked me to come back by 1 pm. When I came back, the stomach area had been "fixed", but at the expense of the hips...they had taken the hip area back in, causing the dress to be more snug than when I first came in.
So all of that stress for nothing. They messed up by taking the wrong part of the dress out. Never admitted to their error, instead, spent the remainder of my fittings avoiding fixing their error until the final hour (which was a shotty attempt at best). And to top it off, they never did do what they said that would with the lower hips, so my dress bunched and gathered in all of my pictures, a painful reminder of my frustrating and heart breaking experience at Donna Beth Creations. read more