First, I will start by saying that during my experience at the atelier, I met Mark himself who was lovely and professional. It is just a shame that his employee, Tammy, had not taken a note from his playbook. The best way to describe my exper...ience is like an adaptation of the scene in Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts walks into a store and is treated like nothing, the store representatives assuming she is not up to their level. I did provide Tammy with my rough, but flexible, budget of $7,000 give or take. She spent the majority of my appointment paying attention to a super model-esq British woman who was in the room next to me, but who had her own shop representative to assist her. She happened to have in her room the Alon Livne gown that initially drew me to Mark Ingram to begin with, and instead of handling that, she tried to discourage me from trying it on and mentioned also that it was outside of my budget. When the dress was finally free for me to try, she tried to tell me that the dress was made exclusively for Mark Ingram, which is a flat out lie. I had been to a boutique in Washington D.C. that confirmed the skirt could be ordered one of two styles, and later confirmed that with a representative from Alon Livne directly. She treated my mom condescendingly, and lacked any warmth that you would expect from a seasoned "professional" in the field. This treatment continued when I was in touch after the appointment to have additional information about the gowns I tried on, because all she had done was draw a rough sketch of them with the designer name, so in my decision making process, I couldn't even look them up to give it more thought. It was like pulling teeth to get any additional information. I was practically begging to spend money with her. I was so turned off and discouraged by the interaction, that I ended up purchasing a gown in Washington D.C. and spent $12,000 because of how comfortable I was in the boutique environment and with the service I received. Ironically, this boutique owner is good friends with Mark Ingram, so you know the caliber of shop is parallel. But at the end of the day you are only as good as your "manager". The experience was truly a shame.