Best way to get a bridesmaid dress?

pikachiu132

So some of my girls don't live in the city, so when they are here, I"m getting the whole group to go to David's Bridal.  

Should I make an appointment? Does the place have a good enough selection to make a decision or should I plan to drive around to a few places that day? What's been your experience there? Or cheaper to buy off the rack over the internet once we know what we want? 

Littlin

I don't know about David's Bridal specifically, but I would make an appointment wherever you go.  Usually you can find what you want in one place, especially there, since they have so many colour and style collections.

My dresses were from The Dessy Collection, so I had the girls go onto the site and look through the styles and find a few they liked, then we narrowed it down to few that they tried on in the store.  They ended up all liking one dress more than the rest, so although I said they could wear different dresses in the same colour & fabric, they ended up all getting the same one.

If you can, get the girls together, so they know exactly what the dress is going to feel like and look like in person.  You can probably purchase most of the dresses online anyway, but at least you have a chance to try them on first.

naomikb

I haven't been to the Mississauga/Scarborough DB, but I went to the Buffalo DB to check out BM dresses and they were super busy on Saturday, we needed an appointment.  It sounded like if you went on a weeknight though it was much less crazy and easier to drop-in.

It never hurts to make an appointment though - then you are guaranteed a fitting room and a consultant to help you out.

I was disappointed with the selection at DB (and I hear the Canadian stores have less inventory than the US ones) and we picked dresses elsewhere.  Alfred Angelo, Dessy, After Six, etc. are common BM dress lines and are reasonably priced.

Personally I would stay away from ordering over the internet since you never really know what you're getting yourself into and it would be harder to follow up with any mistakes (colour, size, quality) after you receive it.  It's easier to go into a physical store with any issues or alterations you need.

CaylaSummer

My BMs are all different sizes and skintone. So my colour is mint green and brown. I wanted something bright for the summer. I looked at a few dresses and price point as what they had told me what they could afford. From then I picked 3 dresses and sent them pics. Then I found the bridal store that carried the dress. 

I have 5 girls so it was not easy to get them all at the same time as a matter of fact I had to go on 5 different times to the store with each girl to work out with my schedule. They din't have the colour that we wanted for them to try on but at least they all liked they style of he dress. 

If you are going on a weekend I would suggest to make an appointent especially if your girls plan to try on dresses. 

ring_pop

Buying over the internet is not very advantageous for us in Canada. The duties you may have to pay almost makes up for the price difference.

Call ahead and check whether they require appointments. You can also check the store's websites to see if they list their suppliers. Many stores may use the same designers so you'll find similar inventory at these places.

Car&Ry

Here is my experience with David's Bridal Canada (for BM dresses)

THE GOOD: I have one BM who is size 2 and one who is size 20. We were able to find 1 dress that fits the 3 girls even though I had said they could choose other styles, so I think that says a lot! We ended up ordering our dresses at a store in the states (see 'the bad' ) and when I picked them up, we weren't charged any duty at all! So aside from gas $ the dresses were cheaper since the Cdn dollar is higher and prices are lower in the States

THE BAD:  Poorly organized. I went online to the Canadian website and wrote down numbers, but when I got to the store, they had no idea what those numbers were for some reason. Plus, when we found a dress that everyone looked good in and enjoyed, THEN they tell us that its not available in Canada. So that was pretty frustrating. Plus the Canadian store won't order it in for you, you have to call yourself.

THE UGLY: salespeople arguing and bickering in front of you. Kind of embarassing for them in my opinion.

Vera8413

I have to agree that the David's Brida; in Canada has been awful to deal with.  I was offended by them and how rude they were to me as a bride and when I heard the same from my bride's maid's, we called on speaker one last time, and again, AWFUL.  We ordered them across the border and all came in within 2 weeks, and no duty picking up. Score! I'm only 45 minutes from the border but would have driven furthur