I purchased a dress directly from the Ines Di Santo Boutique in Toronto. The design of the dress was gorgeous and Ines Di Santo, the owner, was lovely. Ines Di Santo was kind, well-mannered and talented. However, dealing with her daughter Veronica Di Santo was a nightmare. There seemed to be a severe lack of communication between the store and the factory. All the changes to the dress that I was promised were not relayed to the factory. Veronica Di Santo yelled at me over the phone on many occasions, tried to blame me for their miscommunications, and was rude in person. My dress was not ready until one week before my wedding (very late) and I had to travel from out of town on three occasions, right before the wedding, in order to get the dress fitted and fixed. They were not accommodating to allow me to go for fittings on weekends, I had to go get fitted on weekdays, even though I was coming in from out of town three times. Needless to say, this was an extremely stressful experience and one I wouldn't wish upon any bride. I was in tears every time I had to deal with Veronica and couldn't believe the amount of money I was paying to be treated in such a disrespectful manner.
Even after getting the dress, I had to get a seamstress from back home to fix it. The straps were sewn on unevenly, the padding in the bust was the wrong size, and the bottom of the dress where the layers fell was all tangled up and needed to be tacked. This was completely unacceptable considering that it was a custom-made dress that came with a custom-made dress price. More than anything, the experience of purchasing a dress from the Ines Di Santo store was obscenely stressful and unpleasant. read more