What a terrible experience with the owner, Maria. I purchased my dress back in October. Ann was a fabulous consultant when I bought the dress and many of the consultants there are great. They take time and care with their brides (so I do not want to take away from these great people). There are a few just trying to push a sale, but that is business.
I was told when I purchased the dress that alterations would not exceed $500. They have expert seamstresses who have worked on gowns around the world and that part of the draw of purchasing the dress here is that alterations don't exceed this amount. Well, my dress was ordered 3 sizes too big. I called months in advance saying that this dress would be way too large and I would like to make sure alterations would start as soon as it came in. I received notification on April 5 that my dress was in and made an appointment for 4/25 for my first fitting. When I got there, a different seamstress (not the one that they originally boasted about) started pinning my satin dress all down the sides, front and back. When she realized how big it was and she didn't know what to do, she finally went and got the head seamstress. When she came out, she said "you never pin satin because it leaves holes in the dress" and immediately took out the pins (which now have left small holes in my brand new gown). On top of that, this seamstress said that the way the other seamstress was pinning was completely wrong and would actually not alter the dress correctly where it would change the structure and no longer fall correctly on me.
Then they brought me over the tallied amount for alterations, which were close to $1000! I reminded them that I was told their alterations do not exceed $500.The consultant said she was familiar with what I was told and that the "package" ended. Other brides had the same issue and were duped as well. She felt terrible. We asked to speak with Maria to explain this. Maria refused to come out of the back office to speak with us and made her consultant play messenger. This was never marketed as a limited time package or had a date where this would expire. Maria said there was no way she would honor that price and that the package ended April 1. I was never made aware that the package ended at that date. I asked if emails or notifications were send to brides who purchased dresses months before to notify them of the package end date. There were no emails. I told them how could I have know if my dress didn't even come in until April 5 and my first fitting was April 25th? I even said I would have paid up front had I been told 4/1 was the end date for the "package". This was a scam to get me to purchase the dress there and they reneged on their word to a customer and refused to honor what they promised.
I had high hopes for posting a favorable review after the dress purchase and alteration experience, but this has left me with nothing good to say.