I should have known better! I was a bridal consultant for three years so I am very familiar with the industry. This made finding a gown very difficult. Things many brides wouldn’t care about (or even notice) were deal breakers for me, but I did...n’t have the budget my taste would allow. I must have tried on 100+ gowns! When I finally found Pronovias Formentera, I seriously debated upping my budget because I just loved it. I decided to keep looking and see if I could find something cheaper. When I went to Monica’s, I told them about the dress I liked and they said they had a sample in my size and color that they were selling. I got the dress of my dreams for half price and was very happy with it. If I had just taken the gown home and never looked back, they would have gotten an A in my review.
Unfortunately, I still needed alterations. I looked into getting alterations on the island because Monica’s is in Brooklyn and I didn’t want to schlep that far if I didn’t have to. Many of the salons on the island refused to alter gowns from other stores and those that would wanted a tremendous amount of money for it. So in the end, I had to go back to Monica’s (which still had a $400 cap). The girls that worked at the salon were, for the most part, obnoxious and ineffectual. Out of my three appointments, two of them were never written down. The first time they actually said I would have to reschedule, but I threw a fit because I had just driven two hours in rush hour traffic to get there. My sales consultant was the worst of them all. As I said, I was a bridal consultant, I understand wanting to go home early if you can. But I would NEVER give a bride an attitude if I couldn’t.
All of the attitude and money would have been worth it if they had done a good job with the alterations! Admittedly, I brought them a $25 shrug from Forever 21 to alter and they did a good job with it (I changed the neckline, hemmed it shorter, took up the arms and got rid of the shoulder pads). But my gown was way too long. I told the seamstress that after she hemmed it the first time. She said “I don’t like when you see the bride’s feet”. Frankly, I don’t care what SHE likes, this is MY wedding! I told her to make it shorter, which she begrudgingly did. At the final I said it was still too long and she told me she would have to charge me more to hem it again. Now if I had said I liked the length at first then changed my mind, yes she would have had a right to charge me twice. But I told her from the beginning I wanted it shorter and she refused. So I didn’t pay to have a second hem and I fell during my hora, twice. My bridal attendant had to keep pinning the dress up because I kept slipping. There is no excuse for that.
In addition, I told the seamstress the kind of bustle I wanted and she pinned it that way. When I got to my next appointment and tried it on, the bustle was a different style. When I asked about it she said “I didn’t like the other bustle so I did it this way”. What? Again, it’s my dress I don’t care what she likes! And the kicker was that she didn’t even call me to see if I was okay with her changing styles without even seeing it, she just went ahead and did it.
To top it off, they refused to steam the train because “it will just get wrinkled anyway”. I told them there may be a few wrinkles but not the way it is now, having never been steamed. Again they told me they would only steam the train if I wanted to pay them more. Ridiculous! I had