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Adrienne's Bridal - need some advice?

jyllyenjyllyen
First Comment
in New York-New York City
I am a bit distressed about my dress.  I ordered it back in November from Adrienne's Bridal in the LES, and it was supposed to arrive in May.  The last I heard from the store it was scheduled to arrive "in two weeks time", which was up last Friday. 

I searched the store online and came up with hundereds of terrible, scathing, and frankly terrifying reviews of the shop saying that other brides have had their dresses not arrive in time or have been cheated out of the dress they actually ordered.

So, I'm freaking out.  What I would love is to hear from a bride or two who had a GOOD expereince with them.  Help me out here!  I'm quietly coming up with a plan B already, but does anyone have any advice for working with this shop and succesfully getting what you paid for?

Thanks!
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Re: Adrienne's Bridal - need some advice?

  • mcjaysmcjays
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Could you just show up to the store? When is your wedding? It's almost July so I would be freaking out too! Hope everything works out.
    This is sort of an extreme solution but I remember watching local NYC ABC affiliate and some bride ordered a dress and the salon gave her a bum deal -- so she called the news station and had them investigate. The reporter got the bride her money back.
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  • jchow009jchow009
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-york-new-york-city_adriennes-bridal-need-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:114Discussion:328912f7-f0d8-4043-8a04-ee10f19a9227Post:7bb62e66-a40f-42d9-90d8-75f610369782">Re: Adrienne's Bridal - need some advice?</a>:
    [QUOTE]Could you just show up to the store? When is your wedding? It's almost July so I would be freaking out too! Hope everything works out. This is sort of an extreme solution but I remember watching local NYC ABC affiliate and some bride ordered a dress and the salon gave her a bum deal -- so she called the news station and had them investigate. The reporter got the bride her money back.
    Posted by mcjays[/QUOTE]

    I think the store is Adrienne's Brial.  Sorry.

    <a href="http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/counterfeit-designer-wedding-dress-20110421">http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/counterfeit-designer-wedding-dress-20110421</a>
    http://www.thebump.com/profiles/profiles-resources/images/img_check.png
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  • alisonzalisonz member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    You need to call every day until your dress is in. They are notoriously unreponsive and incompetant. You need to be all over them to make sure your dress comes in.

    I also HIGHLY recommend taking it to a different salon for alterations when it does arrive.

    alison + irene | 10-10-10 | Studio 450

    My Big Fat Gay Wedding

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  • metalkpmetalkp
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    I bought my dress from Adrienne's bridal and got married last June. I *wish* I had good news for you, but I too had a horrific experience that was pretty much identical to what all the bad reviews say. The dress was late, they never called me, ignored my messages, and comlpetely gave me the runaround for weeks.

    It finally came in a few weeks before my wedding, only to be completely butchered by their "alterations" dept (which is basically a lady in the basement with a sewing machine who speaks no English). I had to take it to two other tailors, who still weren't able to completely fix it, in my opinion. Things worked out ok in the end, but not completely to my satisfaction. Luckily I was able to relax and enjoy my wedding anyway, but to this day I have a lot of really bad memories of the time leading up to the wedding and a very huge part of that was Adrienne's. It's probably my biggest regret.

    But look, no going back now. You're already in this. You said you have a plan B, so the best advice I can give you is this:

    1. Give yourself a hard deadline of when to enact your plan B
    2. Forget the phone. Walk straight in there and demand answers. Get angry.
    3. If you get the dress, get the heck out of there. There are plenty of other places for alterations. DO NOT use theirs.
    4. If you don't have the dress in your hands by your deadline, be prepared to enact your plan B. I hope it doesn't cost too much but you can hopefully recoup some of your money from Adrienne's later.

    Good luck.
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  • louisianabluelouisianablue member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-york-new-york-city_adriennes-bridal-need-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:114Discussion:328912f7-f0d8-4043-8a04-ee10f19a9227Post:7bb62e66-a40f-42d9-90d8-75f610369782">Re: Adrienne's Bridal - need some advice?</a>:
    [QUOTE]Could you just show up to the store? When is your wedding? It's almost July so I would be freaking out too! Hope everything works out. This is sort of an extreme solution but I remember watching local NYC ABC affiliate and some bride ordered a dress and the salon gave her a bum deal -- so she called the news station and had them investigate. The reporter got the bride her money back.
    Posted by mcjays[/QUOTE]

    The bridal salon in the story was Adrienne's!  I read about it one of the posts.
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  • jyllyenjyllyen
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Thanks ladies!

    I'm going to start hounding them on the phone today.  I spoke to another bridal salon (they have a good reputation and friends have used them before... phew!) about the alterations, so that will be ok.  And, if worse case scenario happens and the dress just doesn't show up, I have asked that same salon if I can buy their sample dress.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

    Ugh... what a mess.
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  • acartwright85acartwright85 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    I really don’t know where to start when writing this review. I am not one to normally write an online review but coming off of my year of wedding planning, I realize now how much I relied on online vendor reviews and wanted to make sure I took the time to voice my experience (good or bad) with each of my vendors. When I first visited Adrienne’s I had already tried on dresses at a salon in TX (where I’m originally from) and was fairly confident I was going to go with a Jim Jhelm dress I fell in love with. After searching out NYC salons that carried Jim Jhelm, so I could try the dress on again, I found Adrienne’s. Also, to my surprise, they were having a trunk sale on Jim Jhelm dresses the following week! 15% off of my dress?! Yes, please! I made the appointment, tried on THE DRESS and a few others and made the purchase on the spot. This was in early February 2011. To place the order they required a 50% deposit, that of which I placed on a credit card. I was told the dress would be ordered and when it came in I could come in for fittings/alterations. Like any other bride, I was confident I would lose 15-20 lbs. before my wedding day and asked if I could come in early August to begin fittings before the big day on August 27th. They said not a problem they would keep the dress there for me until I wanted to come in for fittings.  Between February and August I had been in touch with Adrienne’s regarding another bridesmaid dress I had ordered/had altered, been in touch regarding my bridesmaids dresses for my wedding, etc…we had stayed connected throughout those 6 months so every once in a while I inquired when my bridal dress was going to arrive in the salon and I was curious why I never received a straight answer! Then I became worried. Here we were the last week of July and none of my girls’ bridesmaid dresses were in and my dress wasn’t either! The wedding was in a month and we could not receive a straight answer as to where they were or when we could expect them!  Finally my dress came in the end of the first week of August. I had 2 fittings and it was ready to go the week before my wedding. Concerning the alterations, they really do a phenomenal job- there’s no arguing that fact. They fit my dress just perfectly to my body. They made it known from the beginning that all alterations were to be PAID IN CASH. I thought this was weird, but had brought the $495 in cash with me to my last fitting. Not thinking I would be charged tax on the alterations, I ended up having to go to the ATM to get an extra $40 out. It wasn’t until I left with dress in-hand and was telling my fiancé about this “cash only” policy that he informed me this policy was dirty business. He was floored they were only accepting cash and on top of that charging customers tax when they were clearly not reporting the income to the IRS to begin with… Believe it or not, the fact that it took over 6 months for my dress to come in (without a clear arrival date) and they only accepted cash for alterations was not the part that stressed me out the most about Adrienne’s.  The fact that FOUR of my bridesmaids still did not have their dresses THE WEEK BEFORE my wedding was the real killer! (…and I was getting married out of state!) Two weeks before my wedding I told Mary Ann (the owner) that I needed a clear answer on when the girls should expect their dresses. She told me she was “on it” and that they were “backed up in production at Jim Jhelm” and she had “been on the phone/on hold with them for hours on end…” and she was “going down there herself to pick them up” and the excuses just went on and on.  While at one of my fittings my sister saw a big box of bridesmaid dresses with an email printed and attached to the outside of the box. She quickly scanned the email and noticed it was another bride telling Mary Ann via email, “MY WEDDING IS THIS WEEKEND! I NEED MY DRESSES!!!!” And threatening to turn them into the BBB and getting her $$ back, so CLEARLY this was not the first time they put a bride and her bridal party into this situation. I didn’t get heated with Mary Ann until the week before my wedding and still FOUR of my girls did not have their dresses. (Please note, two of them lived out of state and had to receive them AND get them altered all within a week’s time.) Finally, the Monday the SAME week of my wedding the girls received their dresses that THANKFULLY Mary Ann overnighted to them (on her dime) AND did the 2 girls, who lived locally, alterations for free. Because of all the stress & headache she caused. Literally hands down, this was the most stressful part of my wedding planning. Not only did Adrienne’s stress me out, they also stressed out FIVE of my bridesmaids who had no dresses, not to mention an ALTERED dress at that, in their possession the week of the wedding. (My other 3 bridesmaids ordered their dresses from other salons and received them months before the wedding!)  Now that it’s all said and done, DO NOT USE ADRIENNE’S FOR YOUR BRIDAL VENDOR! The stress caused to myself and my bridesmaids far outweighs the few hundred dollars I saved on my dress (because of the trunk show special).  
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  • kaplank1kaplank1 member
    First Comment
    I'm dying to know- did you get your dress???
    I too ordered my dress from them in December then read the horrible reviews and am hoping for the best- any tips?
    thanks!
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  • LiffleLiffle member
    First Comment
    Unfortunately, I can't say anything positive about Adrienne's Bridal.
    I selected Adrienne's Bridal for bridesmaid dresses for my October 2012 wedding. Based on my experience, I would not recommend Adrienne's to anyone. 
    The woman assisting us during our initial appointment was aloof and ordered the dresses many sizes too large. I can understand ordering a "size up" or to the largest measurement, but 4 of my 5 bridesmaids had to have their dresses COMPLETELY RECONSTRUCTED. They were originally so large that they fell off of their bodies. I paid for all of my bridesmaids' dresses as my gift to them, and certainly disliked having them put in the position where they needed to shell out lots of money for extensive alterations. It completely detracted from the spirit of the gifts. 
    After placing the order, I had a very difficult time getting in touch with a salesperson, by phone and by e-mail, in order to obtain an expected date of delivery. If they even picked up their phone, they would rudely say they were "too busy" to help me and that they would call me back later. They never did. This happened repeatedly. Some of my bridesmaids offered to make phone calls on my behalf, and they reported the same experience.
    When the dresses did arrive, I had the unpleasant experience of trying to schedule an appointment to pick up the dresses (I live in New Jersey). After several attempts, I finally scheduled my pick up. When I arrived at my appointment, the saleswoman seemed surprised to see me and stated that I did not, in fact, have an appointment. She also informed me that she was not sure if my dresses had arrived. When I asked her to look, she found 3 of the dresses and I ended up going through the rack to find the additional 2. At this point, I expressed my dissatisfaction with my experience with Adrienne's. The saleswoman's response was a series of flimsy excuses based on personal reasons. I was not interested in learning more about the personal lives of the saleswomen at Adrienne's, I simply wanted a professional apology. 
    Dealing with Adrienne's was the worst experience of planning my wedding. I urge any bride to look elsewhere for dresses. 
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