I just completed my rental experience with Hollywood Bridal and wanted to share my positive experience with them. Unfortunately, there are not too many places to rent wedding gowns in the Orange County area but I'm glad that I found Hollywood Bridal. I did visit one other similar shop not very far from Hollywood Bridal, but the latter had more selection.
The process starts with making an appointment, though it seems you can walk-in too. I felt more comfortable having time set aside for me since I was having my mom, sister and soon-to-be MIL meet me there (the shop isn't huge so the person I made the appointment with asked to limit guests to 3) . We were allocated about 1-1.5 hours for me to try on a number of options from their huge catalogs of Morilee and Casablanca gowns. One of the downsides if you're renting is that they only have one or two sizes in each dress; I'm sure if you were purchasing the dress, they'd be able to order a specific size for you. The rental prices of the ones I tried on seemed to range from $550-850, and the price includes a fingertip length veil and alterations (excluding things like adding a bustle). I went through my initial round of choices and didn't find a clear winner, but the shop assistant, Tammy, noticed the style of dresses I seemed to be drawn to, and pulled a few others out for me to try. I fell in love with one of these recommendations, which happened to be new with the tags still on! Though the other dresses I tried on that weren't new still appeared to be clean and kept in very good shape.
From there, you pay the deposit (half the total rental cost) within 6 months of the wedding date, no earlier. I was told to come in for a fitting a month or so before my wedding date. I opted to add a bustle and upgrade to a cathedral veil which added about $100 more to my total cost, but I don't regret it one bit. The veil was stunning (SO many compliments), matched my gown's details perfectly, and was new with tags also! I set a date & time to pick up my final dress and veil 2 days before the wedding (this seemed to be the earliest I could pick up). The only other disappointing aspect of this experience was that the bustle addition hadn't even been started when I came to pick the dress up a few weeks later, and was asked if I could wait 1-1.5 hours for it to be complete. I voiced my frustration since I did have somewhere to be, and the wonderful Tammy offered a fair consolation (after I requested one) for the inconvenience. The bustle took about 45 minutes for the seamstress to complete and Tammy gave clear instructions on how I should advise my bridesmaids to work the bustle when needed. You have 3 days to return the rentals, which I had my sister do since I needed to honeymoon prep, and she relayed to me that the return process was easy.
I highly recommend Hollywood Bridal! Their rental prices are reasonable (dress I rented retails for about 2.5x more - maybe higher even - than I rented it for) and Tammy and the other woman I interacted with (didn't catch her name but she seemed to be the owner/manager) were so helpful and made me feel comfortable throughout the process. read more