Maine

buying a dress???

I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas of where to go dress shopping besides David's Bridal??  I live in Brunswick.

Re: buying a dress???

  • edited December 2011
    I had a friend that went to Andrea's Bridal and loved it!! I'm planning on going there myself in a few months. I have heard many good things about them.
  • edited December 2011
    I went to David's Bridal, so I'm not speaking from much experience here, but if you're interested in a consignment gown, you could try Eco Elegance in Portland. Their selection is relatively small but very nice. There's also Spoil Me in Falmouth, which I've heard is more expensive. People have also seemed to like Madeleine's Daughter in Portsmouth, NH.Good luck!
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  • edited December 2011
    P.S. I checked out your bio, and love your inspirations! We are actually doing a lot of the same stuff! We are doing pink and green for colors, and the bridesmaids dress you have is the dress my MOH will wear (the other girls will wear plain clover dresses). We're also doing paper lanterns and gerber daisies, and I even tagged that invitation as a possibility! Crazy!
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  • edited December 2011
    I got my dress at Patricia Buck Bridal in Augusta. Some of the reviews on Yelp and similar are negative, but I don’t think they are deserved. It’s not a fancy place, and you are not going to be fawned over, so if you go into it thinking it will be like “Say Yes to the Dress”, you’re going to be disappointed. HOWEVER, you also are not paying the mark up for these services. Pat’s selection is amazing – she has tons and tons of dresses, and will help you to find the cut/style you are looking for. Also, she has dresses in every price range, from a couple hundred $ to thousands of dollars.   I called Spoil Me Rotten in Falmouth, but when I told them I didn’t want to go above $1,500-$1,700 on a dress, I was (somewhat rudely) informed that “this was not the place for me.” Maybe the lady I spoke to was having a bad day, but that really put me off. We don’t live in Manhattan! ;-)
  • edited December 2011
    I got my dress at Madelines Daughter in Portsmouth NH and it was totally the "say yes to the dress" experience.  I just got a card in the mail saying they wre having a big sale in November too. 
  • edited December 2011
    I got mine from Camilla's in Arlington, Mass.  It's a bit of a drive, but my mom and I made a day of it and had a really good time.  I totally had a "Say Yes to the Dress" experience there.  They gave me their undivided attention and had a great selection of dresses (at totally reasonable prices, too).  The women there are so nice--the mother of the woman who owns it (she works there, too) pressed my dress herself and drove it all the way up to Falmouth for us.  I cannot say enough good things about their customer service. Or my dress, really, I am totally in love with it.
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  • edited December 2011
    While I'm glad that Gabrielle had such a positive experience at Pat Buck, I DO NOT recommend going there. I went twice and once I was absolutely fawned over to the point where it was a little overwhelming, the second time, they were downright rude, telling me that I should not ask to try on a $2500 gown because it was "too expensive to be tried on if I wasn't serious about purchasing". Also, the store is dirty. Maybe not always, but both times I went the floors were disgusting (surprising since they make you remove your shoes when you come in and wear their gross ratty slippers) and there were serious leaks in the basement with buckets catching the drips and dresses hung around the buckets! Aside from this, they have an F rating with the better business bureau for their refusal to address several serious claims against them in the past 2 years. They also advertise that they are the "largest bridal gown retailer in the state" and when the better business bureau told them that they needed to substantiate that claim by specifying whether they are the largest in square footage or inventory and prove it, they refused to do so. I personally know a woman who brought her dress there to be cleaned after the wedding and it was never seen again, another girl whose dress came in 2 months late and ended up not being the right dress, and 5 people who have gotten bridesmaid or wedding dresses there that have come in in the completely wrong size. I swear they intentionally order the wrong size to force people to spend big $$ on alterations in the shop. Their organizational system consists of boxes of index cards that are written on in PENCIL so when an order comes in wrong, they doctor the client's index card to make it look like the client had given the wrong info. Sorry, I know I went off on a tangent, but I've seen too many people get burned by that store and your wedding day is far far too important to risk using a company with such a poor reputation. If you don't mind poor customer service, they do have a really huge selection of dresses, but my advice would be to get an idea of what you like there and buy the dress elsewhere. I had a positive experience at Andrea's Bridal in Portland, and Madeline's Daughter in Portsmouth. Good luck!
  • edited December 2011
    Actually I'm glad for your tangent Angeliza :) I went to Pat Buck bridal because they are the only Maine retailer of Pronovias gowns, which is the gown designer I wanted to buy from, and driving up there (about 10 minutes from mom's house!) was easier than driving out of state. I talked to Pat on the phone for over 30 minutes about the Pronovias dresses, and she can be curt, which I think a lot of people mistake for a lack of interest. I dunno, maybe I'm weired, but to me, this is a business transaction like any other, not a friendship, and it makes me uncomfortable to be overly flattered (also, I think its fake), so her manner was fine with me. She did let me try on whatever I wanted no matter the price, take pics of everything, and was upfront about prices/styles/etc, which had not been my experience at all trying on dresses at a boutique in CA this summer.  BUT, the BBB info and such is not good. The dress I will buy (haven't ordered it yet, but have it picked out), fit PERFECTLY in one of their standard sizes (no alterations needed, minus needing to be hemmed as I'm kinda short!), so I would really, really HATE if it came in a different/wrong size. Anyhow, I've looked online and Madeline's Daughter also carries the Pronovias line, so I think I'll call them, and if they will match Pat Buck Bridal's price on my gown, I will order from them. I can't knock Pat personally, however, (like with anything else I buy) better safe than sorry.
  • mander33mander33 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Thanks for everything everyone!  I still have plenty of time so I am not going to rush myself into picking one, but I will for sure check out all of these places!MinMin20, I love your dress, looks beautiful on you.  that is too funny about the MOH dress.  It looks like the bridesmaid dress you have is the dress my MOH is leaning towards... LOL
  • edited December 2011
    Thanks!! I love those little cotton strapless dresses, they even have pockets! They are comfortable (I put one on) and look flattering on a lot of shapes, I think. I'm thinking about buying a pink one for the RD!
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  • edited December 2011
    Another dress option: My coworker and I were just talking about Hussey's General Store, known for its sign proclaiming guns, wedding gowns and cold beer!: [url]http://www.husseysgeneralstore.com[/url] Has anyone ever been?? I'm super intrigued!
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  • edited December 2011
    gabrielle, please please please consider ordering from someone other than Pat Buck. For some reason I thought you were the person who posted a few months back that they had found a sample gown there and bought it off the rack with no problems. If you haven't ordered your dress already, definitely talk to Madeline's Daughter. Also, check out Pearl's Place and Netbride. They can often get you steep discounts on designer dresses and they are completely legit operations. The girls on the Dress board rave about both places. I almost used Pearl's Place for my bridesmaid dresses. The only reason I didn't is because 2 of my girls were not able to come up with the money in time. :( It's certainly nice that she let you take pictures and was up front about everything, they weren't at Andrea's, but I didn't really mind that in the end. MinMin, I went to Hussey's! They were so so so nice there! They don't have a huge inventory or selection and they definitely carry some gowns that are really outdated, but they carry the Alfred Angelo line and I found a super cute dress from that line that I almost bought there.
  • edited December 2011
    I am a bit late on this post but I wanted to recommend where I bought my dress and my BMs bought thiers.  Formal Image in Lewiston.  The lady there, Frankie, is awesome! I actually got a bm dress in white and it was perfect! I highly recommend them.  Frankie totally helped us find exactly what we were looking for. 
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