This review is long overdue, but shout-out to Olivia and the girls at Lotus Bridal for making my bridal shopping experience SO easy and fun thus far!!!
My first visit to Lotus Bridal actually took place last August. I chose to go here for my ...first ever bridal shopping experience due to the great reviews online and the fact that it doesn't seem as intimidating as some of the bigger bridal boutiques in Manhattan. Right off the bat, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they carry a nice variety of styles and price points despite the boutique's modest size. But the real gems at Lotus are the ladies who work here! They're all super friendly and nice, especially Olivia who was my bridal consultant. We hit it off right away--her positive energy was just so infectious!--and five minutes into the appointment, it was like we'd been friends for ages! Olivia was especially great at listening to what my mom and I had in mind, and she even took into account my in-laws' preference for modest necklines and sleeves (which was no easy feat since my mom scrutinized EVERY dress on their behalf). I tried on maybe 4-5 dresses on that first visit, with Olivia and a couple of the other ladies at Lotus chiming in and making helpful suggestions. And even though I didn't find The One that day, I still had a LOT of fun trying the dresses on because of how sweet, helpful, and all-around AWESOME Olivia was!! I didn't feel pressured at all to decide on a dress right away, and if anything, Olivia was BEYOND helpful in the decision-making process; she took multiple photos of me in each dress so I could go home, regroup, and come back when I was ready!
Sure enough, I ended up finding my dress on my second visit to Lotus!! I was a lot more prepared the second time around and had come with a short list of dresses that I had seen online and wanted to try on. The store was a lot busier on my second visit, but I still felt taken care of by Olivia, who also enlisted Kira's help (there's so much great teamwork among the staff, which I really appreciate as a customer!). My "say yes to the dress" moment was also every bit as wonderful and celebratory as I imagined, so THANK YOU, Lotus Bridal Brooklyn, for helping me find my dream gown!!!
P.S. I wanted to mention that after I found my dress, I made an appointment to browse their selection of bridesmaid dresses. I came in on a weekday afternoon for that and had Annie Q as my consultant. She was TERRIFIC, patiently going through bridesmaid dresses in my budget with me and seeing which ones would work for my theme and color scheme. They had a good range of designers, from WToo to Bill Levkoff. If you bought your dress at Lotus, you get 20% off all other purchases, including bridesmaid dresses, so it's a win-win! (Full disclosure, though: I didn't end up getting my bridesmaid dresses through Lotus, but that's only because most of my girls weren't based in Brooklyn and it would have been a logistical nightmare to try and arrange for them to come in and try on dresses).