Weddingbee boards

So I don’t know if anyone has experienced something similar, but I was just so shocked that I thought I would share. Let me know if anyone has been put in a similar situation, and if so what the heck did you do in response?

Starting from the beginning, I went to Katherine’s bridal in Oldtown Alexandria, despite slightly negative reviews on Yelp. I was just kind of experimenting, going store to store when *voila* I found this amazing dress from an independent designer that I absolutely love. I’m not a hesitate-y kind of gal, so I purchased the gown in full (including way expensive alterations) and never looked back. Cue to this weekend, six months after my initial fitting and dress hemming.

When I went in the store with my mom, we were pretty much ignored for about 20 minutes, despite our attempts to get someone’s attention for our 1:00 apt. We were then ushered to the back room where alterations take place. One lady asks me who my sales associate was. I tell her, then she rudely huffs to the other women (who are all idly sitting around chatting), “UGH. She’s not even my bride! Do I HAVE to take her?”

YIKES, what is that? I wasn’t being annoying or anything, I was just standing there! I mean, I may not be your customer, but I’m still the STORE’S customer, right? Maybe you shouldn’t treat me like I’m an unexpected herpe sore? Just sayin’ lol.

After about another 30 minutes of them not being able to find my dress (it’s not like they could have prepared for my appointment since I made it a month in advance, right?), the lady takes it out and NO ALTERATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE. I’m talking nothing. Nada. Zip. No bustle added, no hemming, no taking-in at the bust line: all things they were supposed to do after my last visit in MARCH.

Oh well, I’m not a finicky lady, and miscommunication happens. So what does the seamstress do? She proceeds to put her FINGER IN MY FACE and YELL at me, saying it’s my fault that nothing got done!  Clearly, I was confused. Last time I checked, I didn’t work there? So why was I supposed to do all the work they were supposed to do?

The reason she gave me was that I was supposed to “Call and remind them in August”. Uhmmm, what? I was supposed to remind you to do your job? Huh? Then I look at the ticket from my last appointment. It says “Please call in August to schedule your next fitting”. WHICH I DID. Which was why I was there this weekend for the appointment! But I digress, it actually gets WORSE.

So pissed off seamstress never apologizes, and instead says that have to come back in two weeks. HMMM NO. We drove all the way out there on 495 traffic, we’re getting seen. My mom says as nicely as she can that we’ll just go get some lunch and come back in 2 hours. The lady huffs again but says a begrudging “fine.”

 We come back, the store is now busy. I feel bad, but my appt was 3 hours ago, and we’re def not leaving now! After another 30 min or so of being ignored, a different seamstress finally gets the dress and I get to put it on.

My stomach falls. THE DRESS IS NOW TOO SMALL. They were supposed to take it in at the bust line, but now they’ve taken it in WAAAY TO MUCH, and my breasts are spilling out of the dress! AHHH! (plus, I am now getting the ever-beautiful back fat, something all brides truly dream of ). I’m trying not to freak out, and my old sales associate (whom I love), comes by and says “Oh noo, they took it in too much! Don’t worry, I’ll have a word with them and we’ll fix it”

So I’m standing there, looking stupid and fat, and the bitchy seamstress comes back (cue evil snidely whiplash music). She asks me what’s wrong with the dress, and I say “Oh I think Kathleen (my sales associate) said they took it in a tad too much.”

 The lady then responds by SHOUTING at the top of her lungs “WE DID NOT TAKE IT IN TOO MUCH, YOU GAINED WEIGHT! IT WASN'T US!” in front of the whoooooole store. Yes. Mortified is the right word, bees.

To top it off, she then goes to another seamstress within earshot and tells her “That girl is blaming us because she’s getting fat!”. WTF? I CAN HEAR YOU LADY!!!

 Seriously, bees I was horrified. Though I could always stand to eat healthier and lose some, I have NEVER been called fat. I’m 5’4 and 125 lbs, seriously I have never felt I was in the “overweight” category. But either way, what girl wants to be called fat in front of an entire room of strangers?!

So my gargantuan ass is standing there waiting for the problem to get fixed, and ANOTHER bitchy seamstress walks over and gives me this death look that says “Can’t you see other people are waiting? Move along fuckwit”. Meanwhile, nothing has been done to the dress. My mom sees the look the lady gives us and has had enough. She tells me that we’re leaving and taking the dress with us—with or without alterations.

Now I’m getting changed, and I hear a ruckus outside, involving my mom. We had brought some earrings that I bought from the store at my last appointment, (because of course every bride wants to try on the dress with her purchased accessories!) From outside I hear my mom say “No, we PAID for those earrings last time, they’re ours, look at the receipt!” and my heart falls. Before I have a chance to do anything, bitchy seamstress #1 pulls back the curtain where I am BARE-ASSED NAKED and accuses me of stealing $200 earrings. AGAIN IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. My old sales associate then comes running up, telling the seamstress that she sold those earrings to us last time, and that they were ours—but by then the embarrassment was full-on. I could NOT get out of there faster.

So we leave and I’m not really a crier, but at this point I kind of want to. I laugh it off, saying everyone has a bad experience with bridal fittings, but really, do they? What would you all have done? I can write another bad review on yelp, but truth be told their dress selection is very good and it’s supposed to be a high-end bridal store. I guess once they have your money they don’t care anymore?

So bees, can you share your bad fitting experiences (if you are unfortunate to have any)? Or else, what would you do if you were in my situation? I have already complained to the manager via email (she wasn’t there on the day I had my fitting) but so far have not gotten a response. All I  can say is that this fitting was a great start to my September preparation, lol! :)

Thanks for the great advice, bees! I guess you are all right, I need to start hounding the manager until I get an answer as to why I was treated like last week's lunch. I already told them that we want a refund-- smart cookies that we are *note: sarcasm*, we paid for the whole dress and alterations in full, just to have it out of the way! I guess once they had our money, the alterations team was like "F*ck it, we got what we wanted" haha.

@Keltaena: I've heard Hannelore's is pretty bad too. Alexandria has some bitchy store people.....maybe it's something in the water, lol. I'm so sorry that you had a bad time!

Anyone else have a bad fitting experience? If so please share! And imagine we're all talking this over a large, large glass of wine. :)

Seriously, all. I'm going to post this review so much that it might as well wallpaper my house!

@CrispyRN: I know the reviews are horrible! I looked at them and (*STUPIDLY*) thought "weeeell, maybe they don't really work well with high-maintenance people" of which I'm not. At all. I honestly didn't even plan on buying my dress there, but as I said I found *The* dress there and it was by an indepndent designer--meaning that I couldn't get it somewhere else (I went home and looked online....nothing!)

But honestly the reviews are atrocious! I have no idea how this place stays in business!

*A little more spice to the pie* I didn't write this because my post was so long already, but I actually left some things out!!! When I was waiting for the alterations, I had asked my sales associate if I could try on headpieces/veils WITH FULL INTENTION OF BUYING SOMETHING! She said of course, and went to go procure some, when the seamstress came around the first time, saying that I  actually WASN'T ALLOWED to look at those, AND couldn't I see that they were busy?!?! ugh. So my mom and I went to another store and spent $500+ somewhere else! lol!

In case people didn't know yet, the place is Katherine's bridal in Oldtown Alexandria. They seriously have high-end prices and low-end service!

sorry,  double post!