Like other reviews, mine is in two parts. The first, reviewing my shopping experience, and the second, alterations.
Dress shopping: I had gone to several stores in search of my wedding dress, and my experience at PV was the best, bar none. ... Other stores only let me try on a maximum of 6 dresses and were not helpful with suggesting styles. At PV, I worked with Anita and was just incredible. I had a dress style and designer in mind, but became incredibly discouraged when it wasn’t “the one.” She made several suggestions and I love the wedding dress I purchased (which is nothing like the style I had in mind!). I absolutely recommend going to PV for wedding dress shopping needs (but be sure to make an appointment!).
Alterations: My alterations experience at PV was nothing short of a nightmare. For my first alteration appointment, I needed the bodice taken in, the hemline brought up, a bustle made, and I also asked for my straight neckline to be made into a sweetheart. The woman put in a couple of pins on the outside of the hemline, pinned the bodice, put one pin in for the sweetheart neckline, and then pinned where the bustle should go, and I was out the door in 30 minutes. The ladies at PV pushed for an appointment in two weeks, but I live out of town, so I scheduled four weeks out. When I came into Houston for my second fitting, I received a call asking to push my appointment back at minimum a few hours (they asked for the next day, even though they had said it would be finished in two weeks) because the dress was not finished yet. When we arrived for a later appointment at PV, I tried the dress on to find several problems.
1. The hemline was only hemmed in the front, not on the sides. (My new tailor showed me that the hem was adjacently uneven in areas by 2-3 inches)
2. The bustle did not hang well and the dress flopped. (When we took the dress to my new tailor, we found 3 buttons for the bustle, which hung unevenly, and PV only showed us one)
3. The neckline was not a sweetheart – it was a scoop and it was incredibly uneven. When comparing sides, the middle of the left bust was actually two inches lower than the right! When I mentioned this to the woman working with us, she actually asked if I had scoliosis, because otherwise she couldn’t imagine why it looked uneven.
Regardless, the only thing done correctly was the bodice. To add insult to injury, when they said they would fix our concerns, I asked if I could come in again to try on the dress and make sure it was done correctly, they said “no, you only try it on twice for alterations, otherwise your dress will get dirty.” Which is ridiculous, because that is what spot cleaning is for.
Bottom line: absolutely go to them to look for the wedding gown of your dreams. When you have an appointment, they will give you all of the personal attention that you need. However, when your dress comes in, please take it elsewhere for alterations.