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I have heard of them, and I have seen the store in Orland Park, but never actually gone in. It seemed a little sketchy to me, and I prefer smaller bridal salons.
I bought my dress from the one in Glen Ellyn. I disagree that it's sketchy. Just be warned that you're not going to get a lot of personal attention and have people fawn over you the whole time. Depending on the one you go to, they have all of their dresses on racks. You pick out the ones you want to try on and that's pretty much that. The one downtown is a bit nicer and they have nicer gowns. They also run sales every once in awhile. I was able to get $400 off my dress. I'm still waiting to get it in so I can't comment on that process yet.
@MUI831: Thanks for all the info! Are the dresses new, or used?! It just seems unbelievable that some of there dresses are so cheap :P
As far as I'm aware, they do not sell used dresses (unless you count off the rack samples, I guess). I went the Orland Park location to try on dresses and actually ended up finding *the dress* there, and my sales associate was the one who picked it out. I thought the woman I worked with was very attentive and had a good sense of what would work for my body and my taste in fashion. Too bad I ended up buying my dress on ebay for a quarter of the full price :P
I went to their location in Schaumburg with my mom and sister to look for bridesmaid dresses. It was hectic... huge store, tons of people all over the place (I mean, it was a Saturday) and racks and racks of dresses. I can't comment on the bridal dress buying experience because we were there for BM dresses. But basically we were able to go through the racks and pull whatever we wanted, and my sister tried them all on in a tiny room while we waited outside. They cut the tags out of the dresses so we didn't know what brands they were, although the assistant was fairly forthcoming with that info if I asked. One thing that bugged me is they didn't allow pictures (the "designers' rules... BS!).
Main thing that annoys me now is we decided not to go with any of their dresses, but since they still had my email/phone number from the appointment they kept calling and texting me with automated spam announcing their "midnight madness" sales or whatever. It's finally stopped...
@gymdive22: I will 100% agree with you about the text messaging thing. They did finally stop but that was annoying. I've found that most stores don't allow pictures but we were always left alone enough at both locations that we snuck some pictures in.
I purchased my Allure gown there along with 3 bridesmaid dresses.
It was worth it, because the prices were the lowest I could find, and I already knew which dress I wanted. The ladies were kind, but not super helpful. Dresses took a while to come in, but I ordered early!
I would suggest the Oak Lawn location. Call and make an appt. with Layla. She was the best.
I went to the downtown one. It was just OK. I was looking for a dress ASAP, so the quality of the samples was important to me. Some were ripped, etc (even one they had on a mannequin! We had an appointment right when they opened & they were late by 15 minutes. I wasn't super impresssed by the selection, prices or service.
My pet peeve- they wouldn't let me take pics of me in the dress.
As a follow up to my previous post, if you do order from them, LIE, LIE, LIE about your wedding date. Move that sucker up at least a few months. I ordered my dress last Thanksgiving, 11 months in advance, from the one in Glen Ellyn. I was told my dress would be in within 12-16 weeks. April comes and I realize that I hadn't heard from them. I call and leave about 5 messages until I get to talk to someone who tells me that I need to take out the entire month of January b/c of Chinese New Year. None of this was told to me. She said call back in a month. So I did. Again, I left about 5 messages and was told that my dress is on time (clearly not) and I just have to understand that I ordered during the busy season. these two reasons would lead me to believe that my dress would come in at the 16 week period and not 6 months later. I was told it would be in at the end of May. Nope. Then I was told it would be in the first week of June. Nope. Keep in mind, you have to call and leave at least 5 messages to get them to call you back. And I'm not talking over a period of a few days, It would take a few weeks. Every time I'd talk to someone, I would get a condescending tone about how I shouldn't be worried since I wasn't wearing it until Sept (I told them my date was a month earlier than it is). Finally I got it at the end of June. That would be SEVEN months after I ordered it. Keep in mind that if they had told me from the beginning that it would take 7 months, I wouldn't have batted an eye. However, the lack of communication really peeved me. Just thought I'd let you all know.
I would also suggest the Oak Lawn store. My consultant was very nice. I ended up not geting my dress from there, but I did order my bridesmaid dresses from House of Brides.
One thing I would suggest is find a dress you love in the store, get the right size to order, then buy it from houseofbrides.com. The prices are cheaper, like waaaay cheaper.
They generally can't match those online prices in the store. I am ordering my bridesmaid dresses from the 800 number on the website and it's the most painless process thus far.
@kettle: yes we ended up showing her the online price and they had to match it! So, it was ok for us...but yes all bridal shops are fairly sneaky! :)
@chittychittybanebane: wait, Schaumburg or Oak Lawn? Cause if I can order my dress through the store for the online price, I might choose to do that so we can make an event out of trying them on when they arrive. Or maybe I don't want to risk the long shipping time... I don't know what to do! But my girls are giving me their dress money friday so I've got to get it together.
@kettle: Not sure if you ordered your dresses yet, but the Oak Lawn store burned down last year. Unless they reopened I think the Orland store is your only option out south.
Are you a south sider? FI and I live in Beverly. :)
ETA: maybe it was Eva's that burned down.... I just remember a lot of angry/upset brides on 95th St. on the news.
@Ms. Peach: I actually decided I'm getting the dresses from Netbrides.com. House of Brides kept raising their prices and that just wasn't working for us. I got a price quote guarantee from the other store!
I bought my bridesmaids dresses from them online (I live in Australia) and they came in on schedule. Obviously I can't comment on the Chicagoland store, but just wanted to say that the company itself seems legit, and the dresses were brand new originals.
@kettle:Besides Netbrides, Pearl's Place in New Orleans was a really good price for bridesmaid dresses, they will give you a quote over the phone. We actually didn't end up going that route bc we found a decent sale here, but there's prob some information in other posts on WB about Pearl's if you're still looking.
@Sking: Yeah, I checked on them too, but they had the same price as house of brides. I think it's my overly-popular dress.
I ordering my bridesmaid dresses from the one in Schaumburg for one reason. They are open on Sundays. It was the only day of the week I could get all my girls together to try on dresses. The first appointment I had there was fantastic. Linda took excellent care of me and never missed a beat. During my appointment she was also helping another bride with wedding dresses but I never felt neglected.
2nd appointment. I scheduled it with Linda but when I showed up they told me she was not avaiable and they gave me another women. She was so awful. I was helping my girls clamp their dresses.
The sample dresses are in bad shape. Most of the zippers are broken. We ordered our dresses super earlier (July for a March wedding) because of their reputation of dressing not coming in on time.
Please note it does not matter when you order they schedule the dresses to be delivered 1 month before you wedding. This is why you lie. I told them I'm having a January wedding.
When I called and checked on my order this week. I was called back promptly. The message I received indicated the dresses are schedueld to arrive ontime. However, I will belive it when the dresses are actually in.
I've never really had a bad experience at House of Brides, just kinda "meh" experiences. The Schaumburg one has a huge selection, but some of their dresses are beat up! Like, pieces falling off lol. I've had more experience at the one in Aurora because it's closer to me. Their samples are actually in really great condition, but they are a smaller store. My girls all went here to try on Levkoff dresses. We were going to buy from them, but they couldn't match their online price. So I decided I was going to order online. And then I went with Netbride, because it would have been more at houseofbrides.com (being an IL resident, we would have paid IL taxes boo). One of my consultants in Aurora was really nice though, and let us take pictures even though you're not supposed to.
Just an update on my post. Dresses came in when promised. No issues or problems. Remember to lie about your wedding date
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Has anyone heard of them? What are you opinions, have you been to their store?