They opened late this morning. The woman who unlocked the door offered no greeting to me or my maid of honor. However, when we started to look at bridesmaid dresses, she asked if we had an appointment. "Yes," I replied. "I'm a little bit early. My appointment is at 11." Rather curtly, she said, "Then someone will help you at eleven." Ana, however, came up to me shortly after that and had me fill out a form with the usual questions, including the question about budget (my budget was $3,500). I found the perfect dress, or at least, had narrowed it down to two (one was $1500 and the other $1900), and went home, all excited, to tell my mom about it. (I had originally planned to buy two dresses, one for the ceremony and one for the reception, but this, like my budget, wasn't something I was going to just "volunteer".)
Well...I tried to look up the dresses online on the designer's websites, as the lady had us take pictures of the tags and couldn't find it. I was worried so I called the shop to see if they were being discontinued. All they would tell me is, no they aren't being discontinued.
They won't give me the design number so I can show it to her online. Long story short, my mom won't shell out the money without seeing the dress on the designer's website because of the risk of counterfeit gowns. Bummer. Ana was very helpful, and the dresses I fell in love with I would have never picked up off of the rack were it not for her suggestion but for some reason they don't want to tell me what dresses they are so I can show my mom - who by the way was going to pay for my dress as soon as I found "the one".
I'm thinking the reason for the refusal is because I didn't drop cash right then and there at my appointment? Maybe that is their store policy but it sucks and leads one to question whether or not the dresses were actually authentic. Sorry, Ana. I would have loved to help you earn a nice commission on a beautiful gown and veil.