the skinny on boston bridesmaid dress shopping

theresa238 · September 2011

Hello!
Does anyone have experience shopping at the bridesmaid dress shops on Newbury (Flair, L'Elite, Bella Bridal)? I was thinking of making an appointment at one or two of them thinking all three would be excessive. Would you recommend one over the other? Do they carry similiar stock?

Also, I am picking those shops mainly because the location is convenient for my group. Are the dresses more expensive than other locations?

Open to other suggestions too....

kateryan8 · September 2011

I haven't chosen a dress yet but I have been to both L'elite and bella bridemaids.

I had a great experience at L'elite, walked in without an appointment and was helped by Debra and the niece of the owner (can't remember her name), they were both very helpful, Debra was extremely friendly and I am going back this weekend with my mom to look again with Debra and hoefully make some choices.

I went with one of my bridemaids who was in Boston for one day from out of town to bella bridemaids and was so dissapointed with the experience, I was really sad that I wasted some of my precious time I had with my friend to look at dresses there, I wish I could remember the name of the girl who "helped" us but it was just a bad experience. She seemed to have no interest at all in actually helping us and when we told her we were looking to stay around $250 she had a very, very small selection for us to look at. You could here a pin drop on the floor due to the lack of conversation that was going on and the awkward feelings. This was also just after we had a really good experience at Priscilla's which sadly is going out of business. We even liked some of the dresses by two birds at bella but decided if we go with that we will get them somewhere else because of our bad feeling from the appointment.

This week, Thurs-Sat, is the Amsale trunk show at L'elite too so they will have all the dresses, I know they range from $260-$300 for te chiffon because that's what I was looking at, not sure what other brands they have but you could look online too.

Also, the other week I popped into the Betsey Jenny in Newton and they were really friendly, I think they have a store on newbury that carry's some bridesmaids dresses, might be worth looking at while you're down there, not sure on how many labels they carry so I'd check first, I only know butter by nadia.

Good luck!

JBs_Bride · September 2011

My girls ended up liking a Dessy dress at Bella, but ended up buying them from Netbride.com. They received perfect dresses and each saved $100 from the price that Bella was selling them for.

TheSlowskys · September 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_massachusetts-boston_skinny-boston-bridesmaid-dress-shopping?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:89Discussion:ed241800-93f4-4ae6-9ae9-17b4da240abdPost:365c373f-da85-4380-a146-67e326ba14fe">Re: the skinny on boston bridesmaid dress shopping</a>:
[QUOTE]My girls ended up liking a Dessy dress at Bella, but ended up buying them from Netbride.com. They received perfect dresses and each saved $100 from the price that Bella was selling them for.
Posted by JBs_Bride[/QUOTE]

I did this for another wedding I was in. I think it was over $100 that we saved. It's kind of rude in a way, but it was a huge savings.

There wasn't a huge selection, but the dresses they did have were nice.

Karen's MOH · September 2011

We went to L'Elite and Bella. I found our experience at Bella was much nicer-- the girl who helped us was super friendly and nice, helped pick out styles that would flatter different figures, showing us different color options. However, pretty much their entire selection was more than I wanted my BMs to spend ($250+). It was a smaller selection than a lot of bridesmaid stores, but a really nice selection-- no poufy nightmare things. We found dresses we really liked, but just too much (my poor little sister's favorite was over $400!)

L'Elite was just ok to me. They had a pretty standard selection, so if you are lookign to try on a bunch of designers it's a good place to start, but the whole experience was so so. The dressing rooms were small and had no mirror, at least my sister's didnt, so she had to come out into the store to see how anything looked. Still, a good start to get a feel for other designers. I would guess the dresses are marginally more expensive than a similar store in the suburbs, but I didn't price it out.

If you can get out there and like the styles, we had a great time at J Crew in Chestnut Hill. Even without an appointment they let us try on all the BM dresses and had a lot of sizes instead of one sample size. The sales girl was super helpful, but it isn't really T accessible.

soon2bmrs.m-lo · September 2011

I went to Flair to scout out BM dresses after visiting 2 other shops with my girls & having no luck. I went on a Thursday at 6:00 p.m. and was the only customer there. Lyndsay my constultant was awesome, super nice, gave great advice and helped choose some good options. Within 30 minutes I had narrowed it down to 2 options and made an appointment to go back with my girls in a couple weeks. They have a good selection of dresses and although the shop is small you get personalized service without feeling overwhelmed by crowds of girls. The dresses I chose were all around $200. It's definitely worth a visit.....especially on a week day/night.

Hallanole · September 2011

Jumping into this thread.

I wanted to recommend a pretty awesome place. Granted it's in Fall River, but they have a ton of Designers and their prices are reasonable. And the best part, if you have so many dresses say like 5 girls, then their alterations are done there for free. Or if you opt for no alterations, it's something like 20% off.

They have a site too for browsing. It's called Party Dress Express. My girls loved a Mori Lee dress chiffon and it was only $150. That is our 1st contender. Next month we are doing David's Bridal only to see what a mix and match for cheaper budgets will work for the girls. I want to save them money.

courtchace · September 2011

Were checking out Allegria Bridal outside of Boston in Belmont. I have heard nothing but good reviews about this place and it looks really nice. They carry Lazaro, Amsale and other good designers. Im almost positive were going to go with the Amsale dresses, were driving about 45 mins. to check them out.

craftykristen · September 2011

We went all up and down Newbury and picked out the dresses and then ordered them much cheaper online at pearl's place. http://www.pearlsplace.com/

theresa238 · September 2011

thanks for the info ladies!

nantucketirish · September 2011

Netbride and Pearl's Place offer the same dresses online for a much bigger discount. Try them on first locally though!

schettta · October 2011

I ordered my bridemaids's dresses through netbride... give yourself enough time to try on the dresses at the stores then contacted netbride and ask for a quote. I saved over $80 per dress!
Good luck!

the skinny on boston bridesmaid dress shopping

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