It pains me to write this, but as a recent bride, I felt the need to warn the brides to be searching for their perfect dress.
I came in about 3 months before my wedding to find a dress that was either in-stock or could be ordered quickly. Let me preface by saying there were two other dresses I was considering at another local bridal shop, so this purchase was not out of desperation or last-minute planning, we just didn't want to have a long engagement. I wasn't searching for a super specific dress, so I was open to trying on a bunch of styles that would be ready in time.
A style caught my eye right away, an A-Line dress with Swiss dot overlay. So lovely! I tried it on and everyone in my party loved it, and so did I. I tried on a size 12, and am typically a street size 14. Let me also say that I know how bridal sizing typically goes, but in the other two dresses I liked at the other shop from designer Hayley Paige, I was a size 14. Anyway, my mom right away offered to buy the dress, but wanted me to try on the other styles we'd pulled. None of them really worked out, but here's where the odd part came.
The woman helping us insisted she take my measurements OVER the size 20 wedding dress I was wearing. I'm talking a fully padded corset bust, and full skirt with layers and layers of tulle. I didn't think about it at the time and figured she knew what she was doing. I wasn't measured at the other place because I just had tried on dresses that fit (again, size 14).
So we decided to go with the Swiss dot dress. When ordering the dress, she insisted I order a size 20, saying to go off the widest measurements, which is my hips. The size 20 hips measures 50.5", the bust 48", the waist 40". My measurements were taken as followed- 43"bust, 38" waist 49.5" hips. I had recently measured myself and knew those measurements were off but she insisted I should order a size 20. I persisted and said I wanted to order a 16. She gave me a hard time and said she nearly guaranteed I was making a bad decision. I decided to order an 18 because I couldn't argue about it anymore.
Well, what do you know, when I got my dress a few weeks later, I was SWIMMING in it. And before you go thinking I lost all this weight, I actually gained 6 lbs during my trip and kept it in all the way up to the wedding.
I took it to a respected tailor in my town, and she charged me $360 to get it as best as she could, altered the length, the waist and hips, but basically said because such a huge size was ordered, there was only so much she could do without rebuilding the corset which would cost several hundred dollars and we now didn't have time.
So flash to my wedding. The cups were gaping, I felt uncomfortable, half of my pics are unusable because you can see the top half of my breast and the gaping cup.
I wanted to share because I feel this could have been avoided had proper measurements been taken and a proper size ordered. We paid $1450 for the dress, $360 for alterations, and I just want to sell it for whatever I can get for it now. Makes me sad to think about my dress now.
Edited to add that the reason I gave them 2 stars instead of one is that they do have a nice selection of dresses in a wide price range, and the shop is very cute inside. She was also to take us as a walk in several hours after we first walked in. read more