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View Full Version : Don't Shop at Bride and Belle boutique In Medford MA



Kristines
07-26-2001, 08:35 AM
Hello:

Just wanted to post my story about this store to save you possible problems that I ran into here. In 1997 I got engaged and started to plan my wedding. After searching for a wedding gown I found one I loved by Scazi. Needless to say it was pretty costly so I "shopped" around for the best price. This is how I found this boutique. The didn't have the dress I wanted as a sample however, they were able to order it. There price was $600 less than the other two shops I had been too. I went and ordered the dress in August (my wedding was march 98). This gave me a 8 months before my wedding. I also ordered my five waters and waters bridemaids dresses here, material for my pregnant maid of honors dress and bought my mothers dress here as well. They were "super" nice when all the ordering was taking place as they were adding the dollar signs up in there head i'm sure. I was told my wedding dress would take about 4 months to come in. When the 4 months was over I began calling. I was told another month, not yet, should be here soon. Finally I had to get a little pushy when in the beginning of February my dress was still not in. By this time I had already paid for my dress in full. The owner gave me some song and dance about having her son drive to NY to pick it up. By the time I got it was mid february. I brought with me my friend who wore the same designer gown and her mother who worked in a bridal shop for ever and knows alot about dress. We went over in detail the alterations that needed to happen. The dress needed to be taken in across the back and the shoulders were much to big. My friends mom went over in detail about this process since her daughters dress had needed the same alterations. Time after time I went in for my alterations with little or no changes. The dress was still falling off my shoulders. Instead of altering the dress they put lingerine straps in. This obviously was not working. The seemstress poked herself with a needle and bled on my dress and didn't tell me (my friend noticed this happening). After they finally made the alterations I couldn't life my arms past waist level in the dress and it was too tight across the back and chest. The sewing on the shoulders was terrible. Even I who can't sew could have done a better job.

My wedding was 1 week and 2 days away at this point. In the meantime the material for my friend dress didn't come in until 3 weeks before the wedding. It turns out she took the money back in Sept and didn't order it for months. When we discussed the price for making a dress for my friend prior to ordering the material we were told that it would be around the same price as the other girls. When we finally got the material we were told that because of the short notice and since it would be a custom made dress it would cost $500 to have the dress made. Needless to say we found someone else to make a dress less than 3 weeks before the wedding for less than 1/2 the cost. Back to the wedding dress. I began to panic thinking how would I dance with my 6 foot tall husband when I am only 5 feet 2 inches without lifting my arms. I was told either the dress stays on your shoulders or you lift your arms, you deceide. Also the headpiece they made for me costing $300 was too big for my head. The weekend before my wedding I took out the yellow pages and started to call every person listed under the alterations sections and finally found someone. That monday I went to pick up my dress and had to pay cash for the alterations that they did. All which had to be changed. When I brought my dress to the new shop I was told
1) they had took the dress in two inches too much.
2) they did the alterations on the shoulder incorrect. Instead of removing the sleeve they just pinched the shoulder up making the arm hole too small and making it impossible for me to lift my arms.
3) The veil was way too big and the veiling was made with the cheapest material possible.
4) the bustle would not hold the dress up.
5) the dress was dirty and had footprints on it

It cost me $850.00 to have these things corrected 5 short days before my wedding. When I called the owner of the shop they said they didn't make any mistakes and to bring the dress back and they would fix it. Since they could not be trusted I had to dish out the 850 in order to have a dress that would fit before my wedding. There was nothing else I could do!

Needless to say that not all the mistakes they made could be fixed and you could notice some of the mistakes (like where the dress was let out).

I would never, ever shop here again. Before these issues happend I sent my friend here who also had a terrible experience. Another friend heard from another girl who had an almost idential experience to me.

I took her to small claims court and sued her. She brought her lawer and lied over and over again. Although I won the case I didn't get all the monatary damages that I asked for. However, it was justification for me to know that she had to pay me something and that the judge agreed that she had been in the wrong. I also wrote a complaint to the better business bureau against this shop which went unanswered which gave her a poor rating with this organization.

If I save one person from shopping here this email has done it's job. Buyer please beware!