I visited CC's in December of 2014 to shop for a mother-of-the-bride dress. The building is a gorgeous, historic St. Pete building that has the potential to be amazing. The location is decent & there is ample parking. With the way St. Petersbur...g is turning into a wonderful, hip place to visit & shop, this place has the potential to be the Kleinfelds of the Tampa Bay....well, it's not.
I walked in with my two daughters & was greeted, half-heartedly by a woman at the reception area. She asked what we were looking for & when the wedding date was. When she was told it was ten months away, she practically rolled her eyes when she said, "well, you have time". Then, she waved us into the mother-of-the-bride room & told us "if you're looking for something more youthful you can look at the bridesmaid dresses".
I am a young-ish mother of the bride (mid 40's) & besides there being a very, very small selection, it was mostly matronly, taffeta-jacket, grandmother-of-the-bride stuff.
Not one person came along to help us. We went through the entire room ourselves & found one dress I was willing to try on. We then went across the reception area to the bridesmaid section, which was full of plain-Jane, mostly the same dresses in various colors. Someone came along to "help", yet we pulled every dress ourselves & she helped me try on one dress by clipping the back shut. My daughter had to help me the rest of the time while the employee walked around & put away other dresses.
Incidentally, all but one of the dresses I tried on was very, very small. I am about a size 6 & couldn't zip up most of the dresses. It's a lot easier to imagine what a dress might look like if it's too large & clipped up to show what it will look like. Why would they choose 2's & 4's for sample dresses??
In the end, we left without finding a dress, but more importantly without having the warm feeling & real "experience" other stores gave us. I realize we weren't their only customers, but it was a very special time with my daughters & other stores made us feel like ours was the only wedding on their schedule.
This place could be amazing if it were a little better organized, decorated & managed. They've got the space, they've got an amazing building & with proper management, customer service & advertising they could be THE place to go for dresses.
Athena's Bridal in Clearwater gave us the "wow" experience & they'll be getting my money.