The Wedding Dress: Portland, CT

SB1512

has anyone shopped here?  Their website doesn't list what designers they carry I wanted a better idea of what they have before I made an appiontment to look at dresses

suza104

I was there looking for a Justin Alexander dress...they didn't have that one but a large variety of that brand and others. I didn't get my dress from them but they were amazing. I would definitely recommend trying it out as an option...I went on a Thursday night when it was quieter and the girl (I can't remember her name) was awesome.

[Deleted User]

I agree with PP.  I didn't get my dress there but loved the experience.  They were great to work with and they had a great selection of dresses that were all reasonably priced.  I would recommend making an appointment there!

[Deleted User]

Oh and I know they carry Essence of Australia...I feel like all the ones I loved there were from that designer.  Here's their website:

http://www.essensedesigns.com/essense

stefpet22

I actually got my dress there. The staff is wonderful and really take the time to make you feel special! I got really confused my first visit and had to come back to retry on the dress and within the week of the appointments, they sent me a card just saying it was nice to meet me and that were excited for my next appointment. It made me feel really good. I would totally recommend them to anyone!!

SB1512

Great thanks so much!  I'm definitely putting them on my list!

msciarrino

Ask for Sarah as your consultant! She's wonderful!

MichelleJL

I called the wedding dress to request a fitting and asked if they would be willing to alter a dress that was not purchased from them. I bought my headpiece and my mom bought her mother of the bride dress from them about two weeks prior. They said that they would be willing to alter my dress and i made an appointment for two weeks from then. I tried to call again several times over a week before my appointment to try to make an appointment for my Aunt who was visiting from Florida and didn't receive a call back until one day before my appointment. The woman I spoke to began by telling me that they did not have the time to see my Aunts dress and proceeded to try to talk me out of the appointment that I had waited two weeks and taken a personal day for. I stated that I would like to keep my appointment. 

     When my aunt  (who had not yet seen me in my dress), my mom and I walked in for my appointment the next day, the door a bell rang loudly and we waited….and waited. Finally a woman came out and from the get go was one of the most unpleasant nasty people I have ever met. She offered us no hello or greeting and in a very unfriendly way said "DO YOU HAVE AN APPOINTMENT". I told her I did and she told me to use the fitting room on the right. I came out to tell her the room was full of dresses and i didn't want to damage them by hanging my dress over them. She said "then just go in the other one"… so I did. 

     I was so thrilled to try my dress on again and to show my aunt. I somehow managed to get it on and zipped without any help and came out ready to show my aunt and to be fitted. Before I even made it to the pedestal the woman through her hands in the air and said "I don't know what you expect us to do with that hem but we won't touch it. A cut hem is the hardest to work with it so you'll just have to live with it as is". I was in complete shock and this day went from being one of the happiest to one of the most upsetting. My mom saw i was getting upset and said "don't worry, lets just wait for the seamstress and see what she thinks". The owner had watched the entire thing go on and responded to my mom, actually she is one of the seamstresses. I couldn't believe that the owner would support this treatment and believe it or not it gets worse. The seamstress came out. (My dress was purchased at David's Bridal and the seamstress there told me it should be taken in at the sides.) the bust fit but the hips were about a size too big. The seamstress pinned from the back which caused the fabric to fold at my natural waist. I am a 5'7 size 0 and the whole time the seamstress was tugging at me so hard a was ready to fall over. 

       The first seamstress told me to scrap my dress and start over because this was obviously the wrong size and why would I have bought this size. I explained that the size down was too tight in the bust. She said i should have gotten it anyway and the could have let it out. Every seamstress I have ever spoken to had told me to fit a dress to the largest part of you and fit the rest. My wedding was in two months, I had spent 1000$ on this dress and was almost in tears. I told them again that I was uncomfortable with the folding and the first seamstress said nastily "I don't think there is anything we could do to make her happy". I told them I was very uncomfortable with what had just played out and would not have them do my alterations.

        From there I went to see another local seamstress. I put on my dress and she said I did the right thing buying the size i did she explained that letting out a smaller size would have caused the pleating to have small stitch hole in it and also cause it not to line up evenly. Without any question she pinned it from the sides and said this alteration was very standard, I told her that the wedding dress was going to take it in from the back (which was heavily beaded with lace applique), her exact words were, "Thats called ruining the dress". Please be careful it is clear to me that the wedding dress is a morally unsound business that doesn't care about the feelings or happiness of their customers only about financial gain. I have truly never been treated this way in my entire life.

MichelleJL

I called the wedding dress to request a fitting and asked if they would be willing to alter a dress that was not purchased from them. I bought my headpiece and my mom bought her mother of the bride dress from them about two weeks prior. They said that they would be willing to alter my dress and i made an appointment for two weeks from then. I tried to call again several times over a week before my appointment to try to make an appointment for my Aunt who was visiting from Florida and didn't receive a call back until one day before my appointment. The woman I spoke to began by telling me that they did not have the time to see my Aunts dress and proceeded to try to talk me out of the appointment that I had waited two weeks and taken a personal day for. I stated that I would like to keep my appointment. 

     When my aunt  (who had not yet seen me in my dress), my mom and I walked in for my appointment the next day, the door a bell rang loudly and we waited….and waited. Finally a woman came out and from the get go was one of the most unpleasant nasty people I have ever met. She offered us no hello or greeting and in a very unfriendly way said "DO YOU HAVE AN APPOINTMENT". I told her I did and she told me to use the fitting room on the right. I came out to tell her the room was full of dresses and i didn't want to damage them by hanging my dress over them. She said "then just go in the other one"… so I did. 

     I was so thrilled to try my dress on again and to show my aunt. I somehow managed to get it on and zipped without any help and came out ready to show my aunt and to be fitted. Before I even made it to the pedestal the woman through her hands in the air and said "I don't know what you expect us to do with that hem but we won't touch it. A cut hem is the hardest to work with it so you'll just have to live with it as is". I was in complete shock and this day went from being one of the happiest to one of the most upsetting. My mom saw i was getting upset and said "don't worry, lets just wait for the seamstress and see what she thinks". The owner had watched the entire thing go on and responded to my mom, actually she is one of the seamstresses. I couldn't believe that the owner would support this treatment and believe it or not it gets worse. The seamstress came out. (My dress was purchased at David's Bridal and the seamstress there told me it should be taken in at the sides.) the bust fit but the hips were about a size too big. The seamstress pinned from the back which caused the fabric to fold at my natural waist. I am a 5'7 size 0 and the whole time the seamstress was tugging at me so hard a was ready to fall over. 

       The first seamstress told me to scrap my dress and start over because this was obviously the wrong size and why would I have bought this size. I explained that the size down was too tight in the bust. She said i should have gotten it anyway and the could have let it out. Every seamstress I have ever spoken to had told me to fit a dress to the largest part of you and fit the rest. My wedding was in two months, I had spent 1000$ on this dress and was almost in tears. I told them again that I was uncomfortable with the folding and the first seamstress said nastily "I don't think there is anything we could do to make her happy". I told them I was very uncomfortable with what had just played out and would not have them do my alterations.

        From there I went to see another local seamstress. I put on my dress and she said I did the right thing buying the size i did she explained that letting out a smaller size would have caused the pleating to have small stitch hole in it and also cause it not to line up evenly. Without any question she pinned it from the sides and said this alteration was very standard, I told her that the wedding dress was going to take it in from the back (which was heavily beaded with lace applique), her exact words were, "Thats called ruining the dress". Please be careful it is clear to me that the wedding dress is a morally unsound business that doesn't care about the feelings or happiness of their customers only about financial gain. I have truly never been treated this way in my entire life.