I’m just going to put the facts, you can just scroll through and let me know if any of you have had a similar experience. This happened at Marie Gabriel Couture.
Arrived 5 minutes early(1:25pm Saturday November 24th 2018)
1:30-1:45 Kayla, sales associate went over dress ideas with me
1:45-2:10 Looked at dresses
2:10 Taken back to the stage while Kayla pulled dresses
2:20 Kayla and I then began trying on dresses like a well oiled machine. We were efficient and worked well together. We tried on 8 dresses and I was on stage for an average time of 2 minutes. The dresses ranged in how long to get in and out of, the average time was 3 minutes
The owner, Young Colling, was a looming presence the entire time, walking past and whispering things to Kayla every so often while also telling me what I do and don’t look good in in front of all of my group while I’m on stage including telling me, “Cap sleeves definitely don’t look good on you”
2:45, only 25 minutes after I began trying on dresses I found “the one” however none of my party liked it. We decided to take a quick break to discuss what to do
2:50 we stepped outside avoid pressure and to gain clarity. We stepped back in at 2:55 and I had decided that with some alterations I was going to say yes to the dress
3:00 I was back out on stage with my gown. Kayla had everyone close their eyes as she put the veil on me and handed me a bouquet. She had everyone open their eyes and I was so happy- all smiles. Kayla said, is this a yes? I said, “Yes!” Also worth noting the dress was $3,450.00.
3:10 Kayla tells one of the other associates to get the champaigne. The veil was nice but since my dress was champaigne I asked if we could try on some cathedral champagne colored veils
3:15 (55 minutes after I tried on my first dress). As I’m standing up there in my dress with a veil, flowers in my hand and had already said yes as my whole bridal party is sitting in front of me and Kayla is next to me, Young Colling came up to the stage and said, “You have to go! I have a very angry bride! Her appointment was at 3pm! She is very unhappy! I didn’t know you were going to leave and come back! You have to leave now! I glance at my bridal party, all mouths hung open in shock and look back at Young Colling, I stood there, stoic and unmoved. I have dealt with several of these types in my lifetime, in my travels, in work and so I just stood there in my dress waiting to hear what she would say next. Sure enough she continues, I run this business like a restaurant! You come in, you get what you need and you get out. (Which, I’m not sure what type of restaurants she goes to but I’ve seen people stay at least half an hr or more after they’ve paid their bills countless times, that’s a terrible analogy on top of an already horrific situation.) With my head held high and my poker face on, I said, “Firstly, we were stepped out for no longer than 5 minutes and also, no problem, we’ll go and I’ll be purchasing this dress from another salon.”
-It is worth noting that I received 3 confirmations of my 1:30 appointment prior to this day. None of them mentioned a time limit, nothing about 90 minutes. There was nothing at all, just the time to arrive.
-As I head back to the dressing room after being scolded the tears I held back on stage poured down my face the moment we were in the dressing room and Kayla hugged me and kept apologizing on behalf of her boss. Young came to the curtain and she began yelling at Kayla saying, “This is ALL your fault! You knew you had a 3pm! Tell her to come back at 5! She needs to come back at 5!
We all left very quickly and were out of there at 3:20. My bridal party commended me on how I handled the situation and they were all hugging me and apologizing profusely for my experience being ruined.
-At 7:15pm that night I saw that I missed a call from none other than Marie Gabrielle Bridal Salon. I’m sure that after some thinking, Young is missing her 4 grand that I was 10 minutes away from spending.
-My friend said it best, “All she had to do was go to you privately in the room and say that she booked too closely today and apologize and ask you to maybe go grab a bite to eat and come back and you gladly would have.” And that’s the truth.