I unfortunately had a really poor experience at Donna's Bridals, so please take my review as a cautionary tale. I went to Donna to shorten the straps on my wedding dress and add a bustle. The bodice of my dress fit perfectly before seeing Donna Bridals. Appt 1 (12/9/25) - consultation. Donna suggested to shorten the straps and bring it in towards the center a little, due to the original strap placement being too far out/wide on my frame. I agreed to the professional's advice. Appt 2 (1/24/26) - the dress no longer fit. The straps could not even go over my shoulders AT ALL. The dress couldn't zip up all the way anymore. I questioned why this was the case if she only shortened the straps - Donna said she wasn't sure and suggested that I gained weight. With it being post-holidays, I naively believed her. Feeling dissociated and upset, I went along with her suggestions for the next appointment (lengthen the strap and let out the sides of the bodice). When I went back home I stepped on the scale, and I was exactly the same weight as before (my weight doesn't easily fluctuate). Either way, it is incredibly unprofessional to suggest that the client's body is the problem. Appt 3 (2/28/26) - The dress still did not fit. Donna still didn't have an answer for me as for why, besides me gaining weight. I do have some experience sewing, and I'm pretty sure the mistake was bringing in the strap placement towards the center, and sewing down the side to blend it with the original seam. This would take away a few centimeters from the bust, hence the dress fitting a lot more tightly. It is unfortunate that she cut off this "excess" fabric, otherwise she could've undone the mistake. She also had the bustle done at this appointment and that was fine. Appt 4 (3/1/26) - She let out the bodice so I could breathe with the dress zipped up all the way, and the straps finally could go over my shoulders. However, the consequence of bringing in the straps towards the center and sewing down the side, pulled the back of the straps towards the front a bit as well. The straps used to lay beautifully flat on my back before any alterations were done, but as you can see in the pics, the back straps began gaping. She suggested to cut the boning and sew darts to fix the gaping on the back straps. I paid more money for her to fix the problems that her work created (they were never problems before I went to her). After a few sleepless nights, I finally realized this situation was poorly handled and I was very uncomfortable with my dress in Donna's possession. The sunken-cost fallacy and my naivety kept me from realizing this sooner. I had an appt a week later and there I asked for my money back, as well as my dress. She went on to explain what she did with the straps of the dress and such, but still could not explain why the dress fit so tightly at Appt 2 and onward, besides suggesting that I've been eating too much. At this point, I was exhausted and just wanted at least some of my money back and my dress. She gave me the money back from the work she did not do yet from Appt 4 and my botched wedding dress. All in all, I paid ~$500 to have my wedding dress ruined. What should have been a straight-forward alteration (shorten the straps, add a bustle) became a convoluted, stressful situation that I wouldn't wish upon any bride. A new problem would arise at every appointment, and I continued to pay out of my pocket (again, my naivety and the sunken-cost fallacy). I ended up getting a new wedding dress that was around the same cost of what I paid Donna, and altered it myself as I couldn't risk it. It is one thing for a professional to make a mistake, take responsibility, and do their best to make it better, but when they instead deny it and blame the client for it, it is very disheartening and manipulative. I am sure other clients have had a great experience all-around with Donna (i.e. all the positive reviews), but unfortunately that really was not the case for me. Nonetheless, I wish Donna all the best. Please take my review as a cautionary tale. read more

See all

Way over priced ! Asking almost $600 to alter 2 prom dresses making the train a little short and making the top a little tighter on 1 that was all ! I took dresses to a cleaners in Monroe NJ a guy named Chris he did a fantastic job and my girls love the dresses after the alteration and charge was $250 total combined for 2 dresses ! Chris is the man over there ! read more

If only there were negative stars. Sigh. Our daughter had such a great idea to take the bodice from my wedding dress and make a cocktail dress for the rehearsal dinner. So sweet! She found Donna's Bridal online and since it was close she went with it. On our first visit she said she could do it and gave us an estimate of $600. I thought that was insane, but since I work I don't have time to sew, and being it was an important project I said ok. She recommended the fabric. We wanted a float skirt to replace the 1989 large rule skirt. From the beginning I suspected we had made the wrong choice, but she reassured us that she was able to do the project. The first warning was that my daughter suggested changing the back of the dress to make it a low cut back. I am not a professional Seamstress, but I pointed out to her that the material was too thick and that it would not sit right on the back when it was done. She said no, no honey, don't worry, it will be fine because I will put a strap here strap there, blah blah blah. I insisted that the material was too thick, but she said that when she cut it, it would lay flat. It did not lay flat, even with straps, see the picture included. But that's not even the worst part. Look at the pictures, look at that skirts. This is after she fixed it because it was even worse than it looks here. At one point, I said thank you very much Donna you've done about $300 worth of work but I think I'm gonna take the dress home and finish it. That was the same night that her estimate one from $600-$1250, which is now freaking insane . I told her that that was unacceptable that I was not happy with the work that she had done, and that I wanted to take the dress home. She basically threw a fit, became pretty aggressive, and she wouldn't let us leave the shop with the dress because she said she had to make her Customer happy. It was so far gone already that I figured I would let her finish the last details and then take it home and fix it. Our daughter never got to wear the dress because nobody could wear that dress. It looks like something from a discount rack at Walmart. Frankly, the skirt is horrible, it senses in all the wrong places, and he is uneven. A totally amateur result. In fairness, I saw some of the dresses in the place that she claims that she made, and they were really beautiful. Why she was not able to do what was really a simple project of replacing a skirt I have no idea. She claims it was a lot of work to take off all the layers of tool, I don't disagree with that, but what about the end result and how horrible the ski skirt came out? I hope that this review will help other people. #1. get a estimate in writing because Donna loves to do magic math that is always to her benefit. #2. If you cannot bring a picture of exactly what you want, I suggest you don't do the work in this establishment. I don't know how much clearer we could've been about a floaty skirt with slight cleats at the waist, but she in the end after it came out completely wrong she claims that Because of all the layers of tool (that have been removed) it wasn't impossible to do. Like I said, I'm not a seamstress, but I do know how to sew and I think she just totally blew the entire project. Anyone with pride would've offered to fix it, get a different fabric, do something to "make the customer happy "as she insisted she wanted to do and didn't let us take the dress with us. #3. Add to the price quote, make sure that you get it in writing and that it's a solid quote. As I said before, she kept changing the numbers which I refused and refused to pay, and in the end she charged me $750 for a dress that I can do absolutely nothing with. The back is ruined, so there was no point in me trying to fix the dress because there's nothing that I could do to that back to make it look pretty. In the end, my daughter bought a cute white dress from Amazon and wore that to the rehearsal dinner. The wedding was in July. We had an amazing time, but to be honest, for both myself, and my daughter this experience was literally just a disgusting waste of time. When we began to have problems with her the night, where I wanted to take the dress with me, we left Donna's and looked at the reviews carefully. Donna had claimed that in her all of her years doing business she had never had a customer complaint, and I said I found that hard to believe. Well, that's not true. There are actually reviews that are similar to our experience and I really wish that I would've taken the time to read the reviews so that we could've at least looked at other options instead of settling for the first option that my daughter picked, but that's all water under the bridge. Read the 1 ans 2 star reviews. Many of the better ones sound like friends. They only have 1-2 reviews and that should have been a dead giveaway. I absolutely do not recommend this service, but if you use it, good luck. PS: she will reap read more

Donna Bridals - Back of dress. No way the thick fabric would lay flat, but she insisted, Ruined a family heirloom and overcharged - Sewing & Alterations Near Me

See all

I got a dress for my Saturday wedding on a Monday and it had a huge bulge in the back zipper. She fit me in to get it checked on Tuesday and we realized my schedule wouldn't allow me to pick up and try on before leaving for the city on Friday so although we certainly paid for it she did a rush job and got it done in 24 hours!!! I was so appreciative that she could get it done in such a short time frame and the dress looked amazing. Thank you! read more

Service was amazing and the work performed was excellent! Highly recommend for any tailoring needs!!

Had a bridesmaid dress altered by Donna. It came out perfectly and she even steamed it for me.

Worst experience I have ever had. Such a rip off, fake reviews. She was so rude. Marked my dress before telling me a price then tried to over charging me for a simple hem when I said "never mind that's too expensive", she got extremely mad and aggressive. Aggressively grabbed my dress and would not let us leave with my dress without washing the chalk mark off in separate room not infront of us ( still need to thoroughly check for damages). Then when she came back said we owed her 35 dollars for spending 5 minute with her after she made us wait 45 minutes from our set appointment. Oh also, it's in a shady house in the basement. Hope this review helps you save your time, because that was a huge waste of mine. read more

We were running tight on the prom timeline; Donna did amazing work and squeezed us into her schedule. My daughter's dress was perfect.

Donna is very personable, but with regards to buissness that is a different story. I bought my dress 5 weeks before my event to her due to being told a few days before that the bridal salon where I originally took it then said they would not work on it because it was not from their store although a few months earlier they quoted 650 to alter the dress.Donna agreed to work on it. Her website has deceptive advertising. When you read through it, it sounds as though there are many people working with her, it is only her. Also she states she has many contacts where she obtains fabric from not true. She had me running around looking for fabric. She asked me to call the designer of the dress and purchase buttons. I did they told me they only sell to stores or shops that work with dresses. Theses things should have been a clear sign for me but literally I felt I had no option and preasurred that my dress needed to be fixed in such short time. I let her know what fabric I wanted on the backof the dress but she chose a jersey fabric because she said it had to stretch. I expressed to her that i didnt like it and was upset but she said this was the fabric I needed to get. When I picked up the dress two days before my event and tried it on at home and let her know I was not happy she actually blamed me that I got it the fabric out of my choice. Yes I purchsed it because she is the expert and told me told. I asked her for a complete quote at the begining to see if it was comparibable to a well known bridal salon that originally quoted me 650 but then said they could not do the alterations because it was not their dress. She said she would charge me as she went along. This should have been another red flag but I put my complete trust in her since she knew I had very little time. A dress that cost me 799 ended costing 1854. The total alterations were 1055. I have asked for a complete receipt of what she did she has never provided. She told me she purchsed sleeves for 245 and I asked her for the receipt for the sleeves from the vendor where she purchsed them and all she provided me was a receipt with her name on it. This was provided after I asked for it two or three times. As well I must have spent 8 hours traveling wasted gas and wear and tear on my car when she should have obtained the fabric since that is what she states in her website. She told me to pick up the dress on Thursday and no need to try on in her shop. I trusted her but I tried it on at home that evening I could not move my arms up the sleeves were puffy like the 90's. The sleeves were orange color. My family was upset. My daughter texted her letting her know she was upset. I texted her as well. She blamed me for the fabric that was used when all I did was purchse what she suggested as the expert although I wanted a different fabric for the back. She did ask that I could come back but she may have to charge me for more alterations. I trully did not want to go back. I was emotionally ditressed because the dress did not fit properly since my event was in two days. Next morning my husband said to see if I could rent a dress or to purchase one for less than 600. Another family member had a friend that recomended a seamestress and she worked wonders on my dress in 14 hours. The front was lovely total change. The sleeves removed and flattened and removed the orange layered fabric. I could move my arms up and she lowered the dress to fit my bust. She tried her best to fix the back which she removed the buttons and put a bustle on it. she said it was to late to change the jersey fabric to satin what I originally wanted. I know Donna will respond and try to contradict me as she has through text messages where she blames me for the fabric and sleeves. please be careful when selecting a seamstress even when your under preasure because of time constraints. Donna was kind to me during all my payments but when I confronted her with how I felt she totally changed her demeanor. But look through her ewebsite see what she states she will do and if she does not quote you a complete price or ask you to buy things which she should be doing since she claims she has many vendors she works with run out of the store. read more