Weddingbee boards

Wedding dress NIGHTMARE!!! This is the first time I ever write a review but I am compelled to do it because I don't want any bride to go through my poor and painful experience which changed the, otherwise, beautiful, once in a life time experience that could be in getting the wedding dress every bride wants. What happened to me, and if anyone has ever had a similar experience please share it with me, I went to NOVELLA in San Francisco to buy a Pronovias wedding dress and have the necessary alterations. Carol, the seamstress, seemed at first very knowledgable about the work that needed to be done, and after I personally read her reviews at yelp, I thought I could trust her (I as so wrong). When it came time to do the bustle, she simply pinned my dress and asked me if I liked it. I replied yes, it looked very elegant. What I did not know, and I have to say, I have never purchased a wedding dress before...this is my first and once in a life time wedding, is that she actually made a bustle that was permanent. She did not tell me, she did not explain. Me, on the other hand, I thought that bustles were only for the reception, not for the church ceremony when the ideal is to have a long, beautiful train when you walk down the aisle. I remember very clearly when i picked up the dress from NOVELLA and CAROL told me about the four buttons I had to undo to let out the train. Until that day, I thought everything was fine. I was leaving to Switzerland, the place where I had the wedding, in the next two days. I did not undo the bustle because I thought it would have been better to have it "up" for the travel. When I arrived to Switzerland, I discovered that in addition to the buttons, the train of the dress was sawn all over the train permanently (after undoing all the buttons). It had at least 10 to 15 strips of 10 inch long machine sewn stitches sawn by machine to hold the permanent bustle I never asked for. It was a few days before the wedding and there was nothing that I could do at that point. I took it to a seamstress in Switzerland, which charged me more than $100 to take out all the machine sewn stitches that were all over the train. It was horrible, I could not believe someone would ever do that to a wedding dress. It got worst...I discovered that after all the stitches were removed, Carol had also CUT the train of the dress, it was completely asymmetrical. At that point, my heart was broken, I could have not imagined that a dress, which had cost almost $2000, was ruined in such a horrible way. I had no other choice but to wear this mutilated dress for the day of my wedding. I did not want any pictures taken from the back...which was one of my most dreamed features when I first saw the unaltered dress. I felt angry on that day, because of that careless woman, Carol, at Novella. She ruined one of my most precious days and I cannot get it back. I went back after the wedding and confronted her. She denied everything. Even after showing her pictures of the cut up dress, I did not even get an apology from her. She said that the dress came in that way. Shameless!! So my advice to you, is that do not trust this woman. Have everything in writing, every detail, every stitch, every cutting. Otherwise, she will do whatever she pleases with your dress. I only wish I had never gone to that place, it was one of the worst experiences in my life. I even talked to people from other bridal shops and they all agree with me, that what she did was completely unprofessional. So if you plan to buy your dress from there, please be very careful and make sure you know exactly what she will do to your dress, have every detail in writing and make sure you, and the seamstress Carol, are very clear on what she will do to the dress before you sign anything. She ruined my dress and my wedding, but i hope that does not happens to anyone else if you get to read this. Be very cautious and DO NOT TRUST CAROL.

@isteiner:

Thank you for your message! I still feel sad, even after a month of the wedding. I feel that she ruined my day because I felt so angry because I totally panic when I saw the dress. I did not take pictures of the permanent bustle, there were literary so many machine sewn stitches and the only thing I thought was how could I fix this dress, even the seamstress who help me in Switzerland felt sorry for me. I only have a picture of the border of the train that I took recently, as you can see, it has this weird shape now. 

Hi! Thank you for your message!! Your support means the world to me. These people at Novella made me feel as I was just making this up. No apologies, not even any acceptance of the problem...because, of course, they don't want to be held accountable. And again, it shows you cannot trust them, I should have inspected the dress before I took it from the shop, because after that, they basically had nothing to do with anything as they implied. They charged me $300 for the alterations, I told them (when I confronted them after the wedding) I did not want to pay Carol for something she had actually ruined. We are talking about a $1600 dress. Final cost was $1950 with shipping, not to mention how bad I felt on my wedding day.

This is what the salesperson, Katie, wrote to me...again, completely denying the permanent bustle and cutting of the dress:

Thank you! I appreciate very much your comments. If at least they would have admitted their wrong doings, I would have felt better. But the fact that they treated me as if they did nothing wrong (and even one of the salesperson, I did not get her name...a blonde girl who never even saw the dress before to even make an accurate opinion, basically accused me of lying) really makes me feel sad for them. There is nothing I can do to change what happened, but if I can at least make my message be heard by others, and warn other brides about the possible things that can go wrong, simply because trust people thinking they will do a good job, then this alone makes me feel better. I was alone when I went to almost all the fitting for the dress, I wished I would have had someone there with me to have their support. I trusted the seamstress but it turned out, as I have mentioned, it was a big mistake. So for all of you who are getting your wedding dress, even if people think you are too cautious, it doesn't matter, check everything, ask as many questions as your heart desires, once a dress is cut, it is final, once you leave the shop with the dress, they will not take any responsibilities.

By the way, I forgot to mention that after I spoke to the salesperson, Katie, I requested the contact information of the manager or owner. They have no manager, and so far, I have not gotten the information of the owner. Go figure....

Thank you! I appreciate very much your comments. If at least they would have admitted their wrong doings, I would have felt better. But the fact that they treated me as if they did nothing wrong (and even one of the salesperson, I did not get her name...a blonde girl who never even saw the dress before to even make an accurate opinion, basically accused me of lying) really makes me feel sad for them. There is nothing I can do to change what happened, but if I can at least make my message be heard by others, and warn other brides about the possible things that can go wrong, simply because trust people thinking they will do a good job, then this alone makes me feel better. I was alone when I went to almost all the fitting for the dress, I wished I would have had someone there with me to have their support. I trusted the seamstress but it turned out, as I have mentioned, it was a big mistake. So for all of you who are getting your wedding dress, even if people think you are too cautious, it doesn't matter, check everything, ask as many questions as your heart desires, once a dress is cut, it is final, once you leave the shop with the dress, they will not take any responsibilities.

By the way, I forgot to mention that after I spoke to the salesperson, Katie, I requested the contact information of the manager or owner. They have no manager, and so far, I have not gotten the information of the owner. Go figure....

New update! I received news from the owner of the store and he kindly offered to replace my dress with a new one, he also apologized and was very understanding of the situation, he will make sure this does not happen to anyone else again. I will now schedule an appointment at a photo studio to have some pictures taken and, this time, I will definitely get some pictures from the back to show off the beautiful new train!!! Any suggestions of a good place for pictures?

Oooohhhhh!!!!! Thank you for your lovely messages!!!! I seriously cannot wait for my new dress and to get the new pictures...I have to stay positive

I am happy to know you had a good experience

Thank you Ronney! They said it will take 8 to 12 weeks to get the new dress since it needs to be ordered. I do have a picture of the dress prior to the alterations

Thank you!! You are really a sweetheart!! and I completely agree with you...big hug!!!

okay, I will keep you posted...good night!! 

My new dress was ordered today and for the rest, I really don't know. I am just glad I will get a new one and that I will be able to get some pictures. I will post a picture but it's going to take about 3 to 3 1/2 months before I get it.