Dress shopping

View quoted message Oof that is soooo typical. I'm sorry you had to deal with that too. Yeah, I'll be very happy when I dont have to deal with them anymore.

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That sounds awful Robyn! Awful and not surprising. They seem to have a very "old school" way of working which I'm sure is fine for some brides, but I personally don't like that whatsoever.

Like you, I was also brought to the back "sales" section of the store when I told them my budget, where they proceeded to show me dresses exclusively over-budget. They didn't have what I was looking for. Mona Richie was helping me herself and was honestly giving it a good shot to try to find what I was looking for, but overall it was disappointing. I was also VERY close to purchasing a dress and having it altered to become what I wanted, so I told Mona that I would come back tomorrow, and asked her what her hours were. She said that she'd be there until close (6pm) and that I didn't need to call ahead. So I needed to wait for my sister to get home from work before I could go back, and we ended up going there the next day at around 5:30pm. WELL, the sales woman (some very old lady) told us that Mona had left for the day and gave me a hard time about not calling. She went on and on before finally showing us to the dresses upstairs where my sister and I had to get the dress ourselves and try it on again. It was honestly just so off-putting that I couldn't imagine having to deal with them for my entire bridal dress experience.

I hope your alterations went well!

I started my dress shopping in February and I started with Kleinfeld. My appointment was an hour and 15 minutes I think. I realized after I could’ve gone to another shop also.

on my second go, I did 2 shops in one day and I think that’s the sweet spot.

I dont know about anyone else but getting in and out of dresses was exhausting! I needed a nap 😂

I think bringing 3 people with you is perfect! Any more people and you’ll have lots of different opinions.

i went to Kleinfeld, Mona Richie and Amanda-Lina’s. I only recommend Kleinfeld and Amanda-Lina’s BUT Kleinfeld is over-priced. My dress was a lot cheaper at Amanda-Lina’s than it was at Kleinfeld.

best of luck dress shopping!! it’s a fun experience

Thanks guys. We will definitely do two stores in one day. I am just bringing my mom and aunt so keeping opinions limited lol I’ll be open to the sales associates suggestions as well although I do know what style I want

I went to two places and that was enough for one day! The most I would recommend is three places. The appointments were an hour long. I had looked online for dresses first to get an idea of style.
I would also recommend trying on any dresses they recommend (within reason) because you never know what it will look like on!

I would say to book two places and an hour at each place plus travel time and give a little extra because busier on weekends for traffic. I had a preference of dresses but everything I showed to in laws thought I shouldn't wear anything but skin tight dress, which ended up buying and I hate it.

Go with people who won't pressure you, who will let you buy what you want, who let you say if you like it before they decide to tell you what they think. I know people who have went alone or just one person because others opinions too much.

I went with my mom and my wedding party- it was overwhelming for me as it drove me crazy people said their opinions before I even said my own.

View quoted message I just want to tell as many future brides as possible so no one else has a similar experience. It should be a wonderful memory!

Thanks ladies you’ve given me great tips!!

View quoted message I’m so sorry.. That is a terrible experience! I definitely won’t be going there!!

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Oh no! What was your experience with them? For me it's been one thing after another.

When I made my first appointment, the saleswoman (Nicolina), got really angry with me when after trying on 2 dresses I didn't know what "style" I wanted, and also laughed in my face when I told her my budget. She made a show of bringing us to the sale section, then just left my appointment halfway through when I guess she thought she wasn't going to make a sale. My MOH had to clip me in to all of the dresses after that. When I bought the dress that I pulled off the rack myself, she was really negative, made more comments about my budget (even though I went over by about $1000).

Then when I went back for my last fitting, they were an hour late for my appointment, and none of the changes they promised to make had been made, it was basically the same dress as it was on the rack - I had asked for the neckline to be raised significantly.

I have another fitting on Friday and if I don't like the dress I'm going to seriously consider my options. As it is, I really don't like it.

View quoted message That’s terrible to hear! What happened? I have my own reasons for not liking them (and not getting my dress from them too).

Give yourself enough time so you are not stressing! I was only supposed to spend an hour and a half at my appointment and ended up spending 3 hours there.
You don’t want to be rushing through the appointment. I would say maybe do one in the morning and one in the afternoon to give yourself time to get to each location.

Just a thought - I wouldn't tell them you are only looking unless this is your strategy to begin with. I just worry that someone won't take your interests seriously.

I bought and ordered my dress in May and it came in by October (of the same year). Me and my bridal party spent I think about 2 hours at that one location trying on dresses and I ended up buying the first one I had tried on that day.

There are quite a few stores in Woodbridge, so you could probably visit 3 or 4 in a day. Keep in mind that stores often want brides to make appointments before visiting. I only visited 3, all of them on Steeles in Woodbridge, but I can say emphatically that I do not recommend Mona Ritchie, where I got my dress. Every time I go for a fitting there I get closer to wearing a white addidas track suit down the aisle.

I say to go if you can get all of the people you would want to go with to go with you! Just know that you may fall in love with one and you will want certain people to be there with you for that moment.

It may make it less overwhelming to go now while you have over a year and won't (for the most part) be told that the dress takes longer than you have to order it - some I saw took over a year.

I would say that the time you need at each store is completely dependant on how big the store is. I went to a small little shop and it took about an hour to try on maybe 10 dresses at most!! Time fly's when you're having fun!