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Dismal
10-28-2000, 10:03 AM
I drove 2 hours from Columbus to visit Cincinnati Bridal and Formal. While they had a good selection, the staff was rude and unhelpful. I will never return to the store and here's why:

I had brought with me several style numbers and pictures of gowns I wanted to try on. They refused to find them on the racks because they said QUOTE: "We don't have the time". This was after I tried to make an appointment, and they refused to give me one since the store is "walk-in only"! So I only got to try on four of the gowns I had asked to see.

But that isn't even the worst part. When I found my dream dress and asked how much...they said $3700. I have seen this dress in two other stores for only $2700! They marked it up by a thousand dollars AND THEN said that was a SALE price, because the store doesn't do the alterations! One more warning...the jewelry, shoes, and veils are just as overpriced as the gowns. I saw my $30 bracelet marked up to $70 (I bought it elsewhere).

Then the saleslady offered to "talk to her boss" to try to get me a lower price...but only if I put 50% down on the spot! (Who has several thousand dollars available on a moment's notice??) When I said that I'd like to think about it first, she lost interest in me immediately. I guess she thought she wasn't going to make a sale. She gave me a frosty fake smile and directed me to the door soon thereafter.

I have been to five other bridal shops, and I haven't experienced anything like that except at Bridal & Formal. I drove all the way out there because I thought it would be a good store (I've seen their ads in both the major magazines). My mistake...but at least it won't be yours too!

bostonbridetobe
09-12-2001, 12:27 PM
They do have a good selection, and I saw several Vera Wangs, Reem Acras, and a Badgley Mishka that I loved. However, as soon as the salesgirl (and she was a girl, probably about 20) found out I wasn't planning on buying that day, she basically stopped helping me. They really push for a $25 "file" that "locks in the price, because the price can go up!" and "I can't promise that I'll remember the dresses that you tried on" (yeah, well I can, so why should I pay $25 for a piece of paper?). I can't verify the price hikes, as I haven't reached that point yet (still trying to find a dress!).

Also, they rip tags and don't tell you who the designer is. Every time I asked, the girl's answer was, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's a Wearkstatt? Maybe it's a Justine McCaffery?" No help. I'm filing a complaint with the FTC about the tag ripping.

Also, watch out for their veils. 20% off $500 is still a lot of money for what really is about $10 worth of material!

Best of luck!

Buckeye Bride
03-31-2003, 03:10 PM
Just another bit of information on Cinci B&F - I went there last week to try on dresses. I showed the girl a picture of the Maggie Sottero "Sarchi", and she told me that the store's owner just commissioned a knock-off of it and she would go find it in the storage room for me.

She brought it out for me to try on, and I noticed the tags were left on it (unlike every other dress in the store). I make a mental note of it - Forever Yours, "Fantasy".

Turns out - the girl was lying - most of their dresses are knock-offs from this Forever Yours company, for which Bridal and Formal is a reseller. These dresses are not unique to their store. As I was looking around later, I noticed that most of the dresses I saw had the "Forever Yours" tags inside it (not really obvious unless you are looking for it).

dkm164
04-30-2003, 09:52 AM
I also want to issue a warning about this shop. My daughter ordered a dress from this company on 10 Jan 03 for a 7 Jun 03 wedding. To get the correct length we paid an extra $100.00 and had her measurements taken. They supposedly called Eden Bridal to see if the dress would be done and we were assured that this wasn't a problem and that the dress would be in last week of Mar or first week of Apr. When I called to check on the dresses status then I was told it would be the 25th of Apr. I was told by this sales person that they had told Eden Bridal that the wedding was 17 May 03 to ensure it got there in time. On 25 Apr 03 I was told it would be the middle of May before the dress came in. That's when I got mad--talked to a manager who told me there was no way that anyone would have told me the end of Mar or first week of Apr because it normally takes 20 weeks or longer to have a dress made the correct length. Guess I just dreamed these dates up. I told him that we had to have time to have the dress bussel fixed and taken in at the waist and he said 2 weeks should be plenty of time. I explained that June is a busy Bridal month and seamstresses needed time to do alterations too--I don't know about Cincinnati Bridal but I don't like being pushed to the wire to get things done. He called Eden Bridal and supposedly put a rush on things and told me the dress would be overnighted as soon as it was done. My bigest beef is tell me the truth from day one and don't act like I'm lying when it's your sales people that have lied from the get go. We had a local dress that fit perfectly that my daughter also liked and would have gone with it if we had been told getting the dress in would be difficult. I asked did I need to get a lawyer or call my credit card company and contest the money put down on the dress. He got nasty and told me he would hang up on me if I mentioned a lawyer. Guess it made them take me a little more serious because lo and behold I got a message last night that the dress was in. We'll pick it up and see what happens from there. Get any dates that these people give you in writing before ordering a dress from them. They are not honest.

wrecka_jerms
06-09-2003, 03:38 PM
Visiting Cinci Bridal and Formal was an education, especially buying the Bridal Bargins book immediately afterwards and reading about all the scams that I was subjected to. I found out about the store after seeing their name listed in every dress ad that I liked. I figured that this would be a reputable store since it was featured in Vera Wang ads. Was I wrong. The service was fast for a weekend and seemed at first very personal. An elderly saleswoman helped us and asked what I was looking for, i said Vera Wang and she would not show me where they were or more than one. I asked to see a Monique L'hullier dress, for which I had an ad for, they were unable to show me that dress, or ANY of her dresses. In fact evey dress I asked for, they didn't have. They were VERY interested in showing me their knock off section. I picked several dresses, okay we ended up with 12-14, and took several back to try on. If you're modest, you won't like the lack of dressing rooms-just one big open room to try on dresses. As time past the salewoman became less cheerful and more impatient. She steered me clear of the dresses I had picked out and had me try on a dress she had selected. It was nice and flattering, nothing special. Suddenly I had multiple saleswomen all around me, fixing my hair, putting on veils and tiaras, shawls, etc. I was now pressured by 5 or so women telling me this was the ONE! That's when I looked that the price tag...$3,900. I didn't pick this out. To make matters worse, when I took off the dress, the tag was gone. Yes they tag rip. I asked why there was no tag and got this amazing answer. "The designers come in here with scissors and remove the tags themselves. They don't want people to know that their $6,000+ dress is being sold so cheap. It's a steal and the designers hate it." No one would tell me who made the dress. Why would you buy a 4,000 dollar dress if you didn't know if it was a cheap knock off or the real thing. The sales staff became rude when it was clear that I would not be buying the dress that day. We paid the $25 fee to have the mystery dress entered into the computer just to get them off our backs so we could leave. I wish the designers knew how shoddy Cinci Bridal and Formal really is.

archymaya
06-12-2003, 04:10 PM
Well, I had the exact opposite experience. I am originally from Cincinnati so I went back home to visit my family and go to Benson Street. I went into several of the shops there and people were mostly friendly and helpful. Bridal and Formal was the last stop of the day and there were no lines lines for the dressing room and I had several salespeople helping me at once. They even pulled out several new dresses for me that had not been put on the racks yet. Then they brought out a dress that was absolutely perfect. It fit perfectly and needed no alterations aside from a bustle. Because my wedding is this October, I was really pushing the time limit to order a dress. Bridal and Formal said they would call the manufacture and if they could not get the dress in time, they would sell me the one I tried on. Well, there was no way to get the dress in, so they sold me the dress I tried on in the store. It is brand new, and has never been tried on by anyone else so there are no smudges, no stains, or rips. In short, I am very happy with my exprience at Bridal and Formal (and really lucky that I am tall and fit perfectly into the size 10 dress they had on hand!)