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Wow. I bought my dress here, but it's not due until late January so I'm sure it's still being made. But I am trying to figure out exactly how awful it will be for all of us to try to sort things out after this.
And then of course there are all the poor women whose dresses were sitting in the salon waiting for them. I hope that's none of you guys.
my dress was there today as it burned down. It was waiting for alterations, but thank god I have time yet! I feel sorry for the girl that went to pick hers up today for this weekend while it was on fire! It is a very unfortunate event, I just hope they take care of it soon and let us brides know what to do about our dresses.
Oh no!! Good luck to everyone who lost their gowns and have to deal with this headache :(
I bought my dress here as well!! I was told it should take 6-8 months so it should not be close to done yet...but I am still worried. I have no idea how they'll handle all this...sorry to ANYONE who lost their gown. I cannot imagine.
i just found out about the fire.. they're storing my dress until my wedding and i paid it off when it came in a few weeks ago.
i dont know what to do. in panic mode. i emailed them, but who knows when they'll be able to get back to me. i just dont know what to do. if i need to order a new dress from the manufacturer i need to do it soon..... hugs to anyone else in the same predicament. =(
I just saw this on the news. So sorry to the brides with dresses there! I got my dress from them and they were a pain in the ass. Probably a disgruntled bride to be torched the place!
@ms.coffeebean: Oh no, you poor thing. I hope it works out for you :( Keep us posted!
@iRun2004: thanks
@ms.coffeebean: they were holding my dress until the wedding too, bought and paid for 100%. I'm more worried that they did everything by papertrail and not much on the computer, all those dresses and all those records...gone. My friend is also in the same boat as us, and she was hoping that they have a separte storage area for the dresses waiting awhile, but I highly doubt it. Only time will tell I guess, I hope they post something on their website, get back to our emails or something soon! This made my stress free day completely stressful!!!
@blond827: Hopefully they backed up that kind of stuff or had it stored on some server located outside the building...I would like to think that businesses have some kind of contingency in place for if something like this happens! Hope it works out :(
i just saw the abc 7 news video... theres a cellphone video of the fire playing. it looks ridiculous. there is no way our dresses could have survived that fire... =(
my heart is breaking for those girls that are supposed to be getting within the next month or two that may have their dresses there. can you imagine trying to find a dress in less than a month that you love, and in your size?! at least i have some time. i feel horrible for any brides that are getting married soon~
I feel terrible for all the brides that have lost their dress and their weddings are days away. I truly hope that this place offers you a solution and your money back! I have an absolutely horrible experinece at this bridal salon - the worst service I've ever encountered and the owner/manager was awful and rude. So to me, this is sweet justice!
I bought my dress here as well! I found out while I was at work and a patient of mine was watching the news; I about died. At least my wedding is a while away, but I want to know how they are going to handle refunding the money. Good luck to all the other girls out there whose dresses were waiting for them in the salon!
I drove pass Eva's today at 5:30pm. I had to see it for my own eyes. Gone! My wedding is April 15, 2011, and my dress has been stored there since August. I have emailed Eva's, but who knows when they will respond. Hopefully, there is something better in store for all of us.
I am in complete shock. I have no affiliation with this salon. I live in Northwest Indiana and purchased my dress at Elegance. When my dress came in (way before they said it would) I had to pay off the balance within 30 days of arrival. So when I went to pay off and pick up the dress, Elegance told me I had to leave my dress at the store. They said that if I took my dress home it was not able to return back to the store. That means I was not allowed to get alterations from them as I had planned. From the moment they told me that, I had a bad feeling. For this exact reason, a fire. I know a fire can happen anywhere, but I feel much better since it is in my hands.
For this reason I am upset, but I would NEVER wish this upon anyone. For the girls saying that "this is what they get" is absurd!!! Be mindful of the people who have lost their wedding gowns, what if that was you. We are all grown and I don't really think these comments are very considerate for the brides that have ordered their dresses and have no clue what the future is.
For the girls that are affected, I can't imagine what your thinking right now. I hope everything works out for you guys and please keep us updated on what Eva's is going to do for you!!
Iam speechless, My dress was there as well. it came back about 3 weeks ago and I left it there since I have a while before my wedding! I need to hear something soon!
Ladies im gone pray for all of us! 
I am hoping that everyone gets a happy (or at least satisfactory ending). What an awful thing to have happened. Hopefully the owner was well-insured and everyone gets either their dress or money. If you paid with a credit card, I would call the company immediately. Many cards offer purchase protection but there are time limits, etc.
i have been watching the news non-stop and reading anything and everything that I can about the fire. on eva's facebook page and their website, they updated it with the message below:
"There are no words to describe how we feel about today's tragic event, we can not even imagine how you feel. Our main concern is our brides and their gowns. Over the last 45 years we have built excellent relationship's with all of our designers, we are working hand in hand with them to deliver your gowns. We are just as devastated as anyone, as this has been our home for over 30 years. We are grateful for no physical injuries and are saddened by the emotional toll this will have on everyone. We will keep this website updated as we know more information. Sincerely, The family at Eva's Bridals Oak Lawn"
anxiously waiting to hear an update... so i guess all we can do is keep checking their website and hope to heard back from them
I too got my wedding dress and my bridesmaid dresses here. It's ironic because they just left me a message a couple of days ago mentioning it will be ready late January... which is a blessing because it means that my dress wasn't at the store during the fire. I am wondering though what will happen next. Will they be offering me a refund and will I need to search/scramble to find another dress again? I hope we find out more soon.
Wow... I haven't even started dress shopping yet but I coincidentally was just researching salons tonight, and happened to Google "eva's bridal" to look for reviews... and saw the news item. Total shock. I feel so terrible for all you brides who had your dresses there or had ordered them! I hope everything works out quickly.
--Paris House of Bridal is saddened to hear of the fire at Eva's Brida
As a bridal salon that suffered from the same ordeal we understand how devastating this is and the stress the brides are facing. We are now offereing a selection of free bridal gowns to brides affect by the fire, who have a wedding in the next few weeks.We will assist you in makind your wedding a sucess, helping the bride or party member. We will put a 24 hour rush if need be.
Paris House of Bridal 219-874-7786 www.parishouseofbridal.com
I was so sorry to hear about the fire at Eva's. Any bride that can prove that their wedding is in the next few weeks and they were effected by the fire, I would be happy to donate some merchandise to you. I use to have a bridal shop in Oak Lawn. Only in stock merchandise will be donated. I can be reached at Teresa@EverythingBridalForLess.com.
Ugggh My dress was in there too, I just went for alterations on Saturday and they told me they do all their alterations "on site" ... so I'm pretty sure it was still in there. My wedding is in January, but we leave the country the day after Christmas for it... Really hoping they start emailing people back soon... does anyone know what their plan is?
this sucks.
I know when I read a story about it on chicagobreakingnews.com, Eva's put something in the comments section with a phone number to call. It was a 773 number. I just went back to try and find it but can't find the exact story with the comments. So sorry to all of you affected by this. Very happy that no one was injured.
I'm sadden by this news, and would like to help. I have a wedding dress that I bought, but never wore or altered in a size 10 by LaSposa with tag still intact that I would like to give away for free. If anyone is in need, please send me a message. I wish all those affected by this fire better luck. 
@MUI831: Hey. The Eva's that wrote down its phone number both on the wedding bee message boards and on the news story is NOT Eva's of Oak Lawn. It's a different Eva's. The way they wrote their post was incredibly confusing -- which is I why I called.
It is sad to see the customers paying the price AGAIN for the mess-ups of business owners who obviously have no handle on the business they are trying to run. Who knows what the cause of this fire really is. After all this store has a huge history with lawsuits against them from their own relatives who run eva's of orland Park.
I was a customer of this store once, and was mistreated badly, disciminated against and insulted.They did not rip me off because I didnt do any business with them in the end, but their attitudes are flat-out horrid. I went online a few months later to write a bad review about them on yelp with my experience at the store, only to discover that there are many many many other brides out there who complain of the same exact things and have been treated similarly.
I looked them up on BBB but there business is not listed. It is instead listed under Eva's bridal of Illinois that only became accredited in 2010 even though the business has been running for 45years as they claim( apparently there is a huge history why this is so ) .
after I heard of this fire, it was clear to me there is something really fishy about them. Especially that any negative review on them written online is automatically attacked by the owners themselves , they go to the extent of insulting anyone who writes a bad review about them. something was fishy!
so when i heard about the fire I just did a small research on google and came to find on chicagoiplitigation.com that there are lawsuits against them by their relatives who claim that they have stolen over half a million dollars from them ! its clear that before 2002 the owners were running things smoothly and then sam, the owner of oaklawn stole money from the other guy who decided to open his own branch at orland park.
it also states in their court public record that they fail to pay their credit bills on 4 different ocassions which pretty much means that the money you spend at their store doesnt go into purchasing your gown ... it goes into paying their bills.
Who knows what the cause of this fire is, but I feel really horrible for the brides who have to pay the price in the end.
those people are NOT sorry that you lost your dresses. They were NOT sorry when they mistreated me and came right to my face and lied about what happened too. They obviously were not sorry to steal money from their own relatives... why would they be sorry if they screwed up your wedding ?
ugh..its scary to think that this is how the world is running !!
here is the document i found
http://www.chicagoiplitigation.com/Evas%20Op.pdf
and here is an excerpt from it :
"During the same time, Nancy and Eva's began to develop a poor reputation within the industry. Eva's defaulted on several lines of credit...
other than several checks that were returned for insufficient funds, eva's made no attempts to repay the loans"
it also states how they robbed their relative by making them think they are splitting costs on an advertising campaign while in reality oaklawn just make the other relative pay in full.
@sadsam: I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad time, but please note that we are talking about Eva's Bridal of Oak Lawn. The case you attached is regarding Eva's in Orland Park.
I've noticed in Yelp and other places that this confusion is incredibly common. I'm not sure which place you actually bought your dress from, but the case at least is not regarding the place that burned down.
irun2004: you are wrong. If you have read the link I sent you , you will understand!
eva's of oak lawn is the store I am talking about, run by ronia ghussein, sam ghusein and Nancy ghusein ( formerly known as Nancy soweis).
Eva's of orland park is run by said ghusein who is nancy's x husband !
the fight between the two stores is a family fight and the two stores are owned by relatives who have legal disputes between them.
The store i went to was eva's of oak lawn. I never been to orland park.
this gives a full history of the store and how it split into two stores : oak lawn and orland park.
they are owned by the same people who r fighting against each other
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/illinois/ilndce/1:2007cv01668/207440/224/0.pdf
I have been a long time lurker on this site and it is depressing that this is my first post. I ordered my dress from Eva's back in the spring. It came in about 2 months ago, much earlier than anticipated since it was a new design. Since my wedding is not until next October I was nervous to leave it at the shop so long since other women in my family have had salons go bankrupt or destroyed and lost theirs. Everyone acted as though I was crazy to take it home and store it myself and they told me I could not take the dress back for alterations since it was leaving the store. I heard this story on my commute early this morning and it broke my heart. Even though my dress is at home, I actually got emotional for all of the girls that lost theirs. To all of you that have to go through this, my heart goes out to you. Hopefully the local bridal salons will step up to help those that are going through this. My thoughts are with you girls, I know your wedding day will still be beautiful no matter what happens. I also pray for the saleswomen who will most likely be out of work due to this tragedy. In this this economy that is never an easy thing.
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/illinois/ilndce/1:2007cv01668/207440/224/0.pdf
if you read the background in this document you will understand that it is indeed a family fight between members of the same family , half of which are running oak lawn and half of which are running Orland park.
the court date on one of these documents is may 2010 , which means its very recent and ongoing fighting over money.
They are trying to say that they are not associated with eachother but since the 60's its been a family fight over who is robbing who.
It seems that the brides are the least of their concerns.
insurance money will cover their losses. I sympathize with the brides who had their nerves wrecked.
Ok. Calm down. No need to overcrowd the board with this stuff.
I skimmed the original link you sent me and didn't see a reference to Oak Lawn -- but I see what you're talking about in the second link. It may mean bad things about Oak Lawn, but it may not. I'm not sure what it all means but I'm guessing that you don't know the whole story either.
I'm going to bow out of this particular conversation at this point. I did buy my dress at Eva's of Oak Lawn and I'm going to prefer to think well of them because they have treated me very well so far. If it ends up turning out poorly (with appropriate understanding for the fact they just had a fire) I'll go from there.
I am getting my dress from here as well. My wedding is next summer, so my gown was not at the store. I am so sad for the brides who lost their gowns. It is nice to see so many willing to help them.
Watching the news, I saw a hotline number: 630-747-1911
Maybe this will help too...
I bought my dress at Eva's of Oak Lawn and was so sad to hear the news!
If anybody in the Chicagoland area is in need of a dress, I have my authentic Sottero & Midgely SSM5049 available. Color: Diamond White Size: 8 or 10?
I have photos. Dress just needs to be cleaned and minor bustle fix.....one of the ties to hold the french bustle up needs to be re-sewn.
Please PM for more info!!
There was a girl out there who had an Anjolique 1010 on - the news showed her mom holding up a picture of her in the dress on her cell phone. If you're on here, and you have time, I have an unused Anjolique 1010 that I can get you ASAP!!!
NOTE: This may have been the girl who was going to pick it up yesterday, but I got this secondhand from my mom who lives in Naperville. I hope I can help!!!
I'm obviously not affected by this, as I'm recently married (and live in Philly), but I just wanted to say how nice I think it is that there are bees who are stepping up and offering their dresses to the bees who lost theirs in the fire. It's really heartwarming.
irun2004 you seem to be so concerned with who is and isnt affiliated with your store. Are you a bride or do you work with / for eva's ?
okay, can we stop this debate please?
i think this message board started out nice as a place where some of us that have lost our dress in the fire could come together with others in the same situation and find some comfort that we are not alone in all this. And we've been able to hear some kind words of hope for us from others that saw the tragedy on the news.
Regardless of anyone's personal opinion on the bridal salon, the bottom line is, is that a horrible thing happened, and there are hundreds of girls being affected by this, and no matter how you may personally feel about the owners, they lost something too, and its heart-breaking. No one would ever want someone they know lose a business in a fire, or know someone that was forced to get married on their big day, in a dress that was not the one they looked so hard to find and fell in love with. Alot of people have been hurt by this tragic event, and personally, this on-going debate just brings me more anxiety and stress during this ordeal. I'm sure there are some other brides here that feel the same way.
Please put your energy into something else. Like promoting the donations that are happening to help girls still have their dream wedding. I'm one of the lucky ones. I lost my dress in the fire, but my wedding isnt for a few months, so hopefully i can get another one made in time... so my heart is breaking for the girls that are without a dress this month, and next month. can you imagine having a week or two to find a new dress that you absolutely love and in your size?? think about them.
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