I recently got my dress altered by a seamstress that works with the Bridal House of Charleston in Mt Pleasant. While Maneja did fantastic work, she wasn't very speedy or responsive.
I had originally dropped my dress off at the very end of October. She said she would call when she was going to start on it and that I should call her after the first of the year if I hadn't heard from her. The more I looked at my timeline, the more nervous I got as it got to be the middle of December and I hadn't heard anything. So I called and she said that she wasn't going to start on it until after the holidays in case I gained weight.
I told her that I don't usually gain weight over the holidays and had been maintaining my current weight for the past few years. After a call to the bridal shop, they convinced her to start and I was told it would be done Jan 15th. Well Jan 15 came and went, I called a few days later and she said, oh I'm just starting on it! It'll be done Feb 19th. Since this is a sample dress I need to get it cleaned and that takes a good 6-8 weeks. I had told her this originally, but she kept saying it was no big deal. And she still said it was no big deal and then said well I'll try to have it done by Feb 5th, which would get my dress to me about 5 days before the wedding after it was cleaned, no thanks, I don't need that stress.
So I call the bridal shop again and they said okay, she'll have it done on 1-29. Which she did and it fit well enough so it's off to get cleaned. But that was way more stressful and complicated than it needed to be. I wouldn't work with her again if I needed something altered on a deadline. I had dropped it off so early so that it would be done with plenty of time, now I'll hopefully just be squeaking by.