One of the very first books I bought to help plan my wedding and save money was the Bridal Bargains book. I use it as a reference quite frequently.

So a month ago, I started looking for a wedding dress. Several places were recommended: LaRaine's Boutique, New Natalie's Brides. I first went to LaRaines. Excellent, Excellent. The employees were very knowledgeable, helpful and patient. It's a small shop, but I got a lot of individualized attention.

The same day I head over to New Natalie's brides......there was a big difference in the service. First, I set up an appt using their online service. When I got there, they claimed I didn't have an appt but they "let" me stay and try on dresses anyway. They have a strange rule of allowing you to try on 5 dresses in one visit. The problem w/that is they have over 3000, and I had no idea what style of dress I was looking for. I've heard, repeatedly, that you should just try dresses on because they look different on. Once I found 5 (I got frustrated and just grabbed the first 5 I saw), I began to try the dresses on. Imagine my surprise when the sales associate refused to leave my dressing room. I told her, politely, that I need to get undressed. She said "I know." And she just stood there.....I asked her if she could step out. She said "no." Apparently, this is a "service" they offer their brides. WHATEVER. At any rate, I got over the fact that some strange person was going to watch me undress.

As I tried on the gowns, I found one that I thought I wanted. However, I could not figure out who the designer was. WHY? Because this store purposely rips out all of the tags on their dresses. The sales assoc actually admitted that people would go online to find the same dress cheaper. So I played "dumb" and was able to get the designer out of her. I did find the dress cheaper thru a DBS dealer.

My final straw w/this place was the owner. She's unbelievably abrupt and rude. I could not believe how rude she was. One of my friends who actually bought her dress there said "Yeah she's rude, but that all changes once she gets your money. Then she's really nice." Well she won't get one red cent from me!