I had my first consultation with Raffaella of Solotu Custom Gowns in St. James a little over a year before my wedding with an image of a gown that I was looking to recreate. I agreed to her high price point as I was lead to believe that the gowns were custom made by Raffaella in house alongside her "team". After months of poor communication and even spans of complete lack of communication for consecutive months unless initiated by me or my mom, I began to worry as my wedding day was approaching and there was still no evidence that a dress even existed, despite being told that it was in production. A month out from my wedding and still no dress, I began to panic and we reached out demanding answers on when the dress would finally be completed. It was then that she admitted that the "team" that she was referring to was actually a manufacturer in Asia where she apparently outsources her gown production to. At this point, she provided pictures of a dress somewhere on another continent that was nowhere close to being completed. She had to have the dress rushed to completion in order to have it arrive in her studio with just under a month until my wedding day. I could never fully appreciate the dress because the whole situation made me so upset. I felt robbed of that beautiful moment of trying on my dress for the first time in front of my mom and being in awe together.
The manufacturers in Asia did a fine job considering their time crunch, but the bustle and finger loop that she attached herself during alterations both snapped off within 2 hours of wearing the dress. She recently reached out asking for pictures of my dress so that she could promote it for her business. I kindly explained that my experience was not one that I was comfortable with encouraging to other brides. She responded with by far the most unprofessional, rude, and out of touch text that completely lacked accountability for her shortcomings and misleadings, while still encouraging me to send her pictures. This review only exists because its become clear to me that she has not taken this experience as an opportunity to learn and grow as a business, and I would feel awful knowing that another woman would spend her time, emotional energy, and money only to be met with an unbelievably stressful situation. read more