Carine's Bridal Atelier

ly. - Asked to drive over an hour away to the tailor’s house to have the dress fixed - again, TWO days before wedding. - Blamed again for dress not being altered properly. - Charged additional fee for alterations, which were at the fault of Carines. (Without having the courage to tell me in person and following up with a text message. Also, How was this considered an additional alteration when it was not altered properly in the first place?) - Carines initially refused to let me try on my dress before leaving store. (Only with strong push back could I try it on.) Additional Annoyances - Nickeled and dimed each step of the way. - Cannot reach anyone on the phone. - Alterations only available Mid-week 10-4 PM. No flexibility for its customer base of working Washingtonian brides. - Offensive contracts and policies, particularly in regards to weight loss. The McDonalds drive-thru consistently treats me better when purchasing a $5 hamburger than Carines treated me when purchasing my Oscar de la renta wedding gown. This store has a stranglehold on the Washington bridal dress market and it’s lack of incentive to compete shows. I loved my wedding dress, but looking back on the experience and the amount of stress and frustration Carines caused, I would have been much more open to a wider range of designers and geographic locations to have avoided purchasing through Carines. If you you do purchase through Carines, I recommend using American Express so that you are able to dispute inappropriate additional charges that will be slammed on you.

e to hold my dress for a year when our wedding was pushed back due to COVID. The fitting was also a good experience and they made sure we understood what we needed to do. They are also very organized and I felt they were reasonably communicative. I highly recommend this bridal shoppe!

was so helpful in picking out dresses in the styles I said I was interested in, as well as suggesting some silhouettes I never would have expected for myself. We ended up falling in love with a beautiful Lela Rose gown that we purchased that weekend! My original wedding date was supposed to be in August of 2020, but due to COVID we had to postpone. Carine’s was able to store my dress for a small extra fee, and I felt safe knowing the whole time it was in good hands. When it finally did come time to do my fittings, we had a great experience with the alterations team as well. At my last fitting we noticed the bodice of my dress wasn’t laying flat, but we were leaving for my wedding the next day. The team fixed the problem while we waited, and my dress was perfect on my wedding day! Thank you to the team at Carine’s for helping me find the dress of my dreams and for being so great to work with.

, responded promptly and made it happen. Thank you and I am very excited to be getting married in my dream dress!

dazzled number...not what I thought I wanted but this is why you work with experts - and she also made my family and I feel so comfortable as I tried on dresses back in May 2019. Fast forward to a week before the wedding after one date change and they were able to get my dress fitted to perfection. I highly recommend checking out Carine's if you live in or plan to have your wedding in the DC area. Thank you to the whole Carine's team with a special hug to Amber who helped me find my dream dress!

e...sigh) Lhuillier dress. Well worth it, though, since we are both thrilled with her choice. Maribeth and Briana were charming and terrific to work with - looking forward to seeing them for fittings in a few months!

comfortable and enjoyable experience! Five stars is not enough!

y specific dress in mind. Upon finding out that it was not carried in any of the bridal boutiques in the area, Carine requested to borrow it from the designer so that I could try it on. I immediately fell in love and the team at Carine's took care of everything. I am so thankful that they put me in my dream dress! I can't thank Carine and her team enough.

ke friends because I was in there so often! I never once detected even a hint of frustration or annoyance from them. They answered my multiple emails (in which I asked for unbelievably minute details about gowns and veils) promptly and cheerfully. They ordered gowns in for me. They stayed after closing to let me keep the dress on just a few minutes longer. They even helped me FaceTime my mom who lives out of town by holding the phone and walking around the gown, answering her questions. Once I finally made a decision and ordered, the gown arrived within the time frame they gave me and was shipped to my wedding location with no problem. The selection of designers and styles was great and the frequent trunk shows really helped expand my choices. Overall great!

zero business acumen. You can buy Berta at so many other places! Please do yourself a favor and go anywhere else! Berta would be embarrassed to have Carine's Bridal Atelier representing them if they truly knew how the client experience is!

nd to be on the higher end. I am going to check out their sample sale on the 16th and hopefully make my decision soon. FYI all of the gowns will be up to 75% off.

the collection I eventually got a dress from! While the store was small I did not ever feel cramped and I loved almost every dress in the store. The quality of gowns and the staff here way surpassed anywhere else I had been.

r for trying on dresses). They also sell accessories (clutches, earrings, sashes, necklaces, veils). We worked with Briana in the beginning and then we never saw her again. I felt like we had a different person help me every day. They have an in-house tailoring group who are amazing. They do so much work! I think my favorite was that they made a video on how to do the bustle - very important. I felt like a princess and a bride!

y budget. She was honest about what looked good/bad and truly made the entire experience fun! Of the 5 dress locations I had visited, she was the best dress consultant by far! I recommend Carine's to someone who is looking for a stunningly unique gown and that has some wiggle room with their budget, as some of the dresses are pricer than most. Well worth it!

enny Lee guipure lace dress, a designer that I was not familiar with. The bridal consultants were very helpful throughout the process. I highly recommend this boutique for any bride looking for a unique gown.

nt pictures. We received no reimbursement or even sympathy from either vendor. Be very careful when buying a sample sale dress from there.

not sell it seperately. Then I saw the same belt at Carine's and they sold it to me! I ended up finding a sample dress that I loved and looked perfect with the belt, but I had to make a decision on the spot because they couldn't put the sample on hold. The sales associate was so helpful in helping me make a decision and I left that day with the dress! Being a sample we had some issues along the way with the drycleaning and Carine went above and beyond to make sure we were happy with the dress. The alterations were perfect and the dress couldn't have looked more perfect on my wedding day!

I wrote the check they no longer seemed to care about me as a customer. They scheduled my first dress fitting for a month before my wedding. I found this odd as Kleinfelds scheduled me three months out. I mentioned this to them, but they assured me they would do as many fittings as necessary to achieve the look I wanted. Before I bought the dress, I asked the alterations department if they could build in a push-up bra so I would have lift in my dress and not need to wear a bra. For the $600.00 alterations charge, I thought this was a reasonable request and they said no problem. After the first fitting the dress still wasn’t tight and I felt as if the bodice was falling down. Their idea of building in a bra was to add a sew-in pad, like the kind you pull out of a VS bra and of course, they only had two sizes neither one of which worked for my dress. My second fitting was scheduled the Friday before my wedding. I left my first fitting very concerned and emailed the owner a few days later asking to come in early because I was worried about how loose the dress fit. I was told, “all brides are concerned but they are professionals and are confident they can get the dress to fit correctly”. My concerns were brushed aside, again. At my second fitting the dress was loose, the bodice kept falling down and the padding made me look flat chested. Ultimately, I ended up having to wear a push-up bra (which needed to continually be tucked in the entire night), and the dress did not fit correctly. I would never have known the difference if not for my experience with another bridal shop, where I had five alterations and the dress fit like a glove. I hope this post helps other brides from going through the same experience, please, please, please don’t waste your money and sanity, get the dress altered somewhere else.

stuffy), but they did a great job helping me pick the right dress and do alterations and, ultimately, that's all that matters. If you're looking for high quality dresses and service and don't mind a little coldness from the staff, Carine's is a great choice.