My negative review of Adrienne's Bridal Salon

Ahh so do we do negative reviews anymore? Well I will do mine since I think they are essential to helping others. Brides helping Brides. ?


Ever since I met FI I had dreamed about going to the bridal salon in his town. It is a beautiful Victorian house. I went there I think within the first week of our engagement. Since that is now about 2 years ago I had forgotten my experience and went there again with Mom.
Sunday night, we found the dress I posted and put a deposit down on it. While we were shopping, the owner, Maryanne was never mean but not exactly the sweetest woman in the world -we will call it cordial. On Monday at work, I called and tried to get the style # so I could get a picture of it off the web. They refused to even give me the name of the company! Luckily it still had the hanging straps so I remembered that it was Montage. It was then that I remembered why I wouldn’t order from them. When I shopped for a wedding dress they did the same thing, wouldn’t tell me the manufacturer or any info at all about the dress and had actually ripped out the labels. Anyway, they told me when mom comes in for the fitting, she can find out then.
So I researched it all day because I knew something was wrong that they were being so secretive. I called Mon Cheri headquarters and they told me it was the stores discretion and wouldn’t help either. So I called their UK company and they were so helpful. So sweet and emailed me the style # and even sent me the catalog picture of it. From the catalog I found at that the bridal salon, Adrienne’s had LIED to me. There were actually THREE colors to choose from. I then called Paradise Bridal in Patchogue to check on the price they quoted me at Adrienne’s. It was around the same price so I figured it was ok. Then I contacted a New Jersey store and the price was $200.cheaper!
Immediately I called Adrienne’s to cancel the dress order. They said I would have to call back and speak to the owner, Maryanne, she wasn’t in that day. (Monday)
So Tuesday I call back and supposedly she’s not in all day either. So I talk to another store manager who starts telling me how I can get credit towards a new dress etc. This is exactly one business day later. All of a sudden, Maryanne, Who is NOT supposed to be in that day, picks up the phone and tells me that I am completely wrong, the dress has already been ordered, but they found out I was right about the color so I can still change the color of the dress or get a new different dress. There was no way they would return the deposit. How come I can get a new dress or change the color if supposedly the DRESS was already ordered? Why can’t they give the deposit back since it had only been one day? We are going to have to fight it through the credit card company.
People may say that the store has been in business for 50 years so it has to be doing something right. I think what people forget it the STORE can be in business for a century, that doesn’t mean it has the SAME owners. Maryanne isn’t even 50 years old so there is no way she could have been running the salon for that long.

Sorry to hear of your experiences.

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wouldn’t tell me the manufacturer or any info at all about the dress and had actually ripped out the labels.

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I walked out of any salon that cut out labels or refused to tell me manufacturer names. I don't care what their reasoning is, I think it's shady business.

Sorry you had that experience. I bought my dress there and had a great experience... but then again, I found a dress I loved and bought it- did no research, no price comparison, nothing- so who knows if I got ripped off....

Also- most bridal boutiques do not tell you the manufacturer of the dress- which is so wrong.

I COMPLETELY understand and know how annoying that can be when dealing with a salon. I'm so sorry you guys have to go through all of this!
For similar reasons I will no longer be a customer at SUGARPLUM in Lynbrook.

I have had MaryEllen at my home before. She drove to my parents home in Bethpage to drop of a dress that her alteration ladies completely screwed up and took numerous attempts to fix. Also a good friend of mine had lipstick from the seamstress added to her dress during a fiting there.
I dislike them very much, there are alot of problems with the store if you do a search.

Cheryl, that sucks you don't like SugarPlum.. I've been going their since I was 16 for Prom Dresses and Ball Dresses and my mom's dress.. (especially since St. A's sold our names to them!) they cut the tags but I have always gotten excellent service from them so I have delt with it and always had unique dresses. For us they made it easy since you could buy off the rack and I'm small sizes and my mom is a large size and they had her dress size too!

Don't get me wrong, I myself have bought a dress at SugarPlum as well, and their stuff IS beautiful and unique...
but don't lie about your stuff! My mom fell in love with a dress and was told it was a 'SugarPlum Original' and she had to buy it on the spot, or it was going to be gone forever. To make a long story short-- I was PO'ed BEYOND BELIEF when I was looking on the Jovani website and found the 'SP Original' dress!

I got a BM dress for a wedding I was in @2 years ago at Adrienne's...I hated that store. They were rude and obnoxious...I vowed that I would never buy antyhing from there again.

As for your deposit...you should be able to call your credit card company and dispute the charges. Also...how much did you leave for a DP? Was it half? Not that it matters...but you should get your money back from these people. Good luck.

Wow that is horrible. Thanks for the true review.


P.S. Just because some places dont do good by one person doesnt mean they wont do good by someone else.

Oh no! I got my girls dresses there!

oh don't worry! You just have to keep up on them! I am sure your girls dresses will be fine, just feel better that you know to watch them.

I also went there for BM dresses before...
I found them to be rude with a huge attitude when I went BM dress shopping there one day, then I went back a different time with my MOH and they were really nice and helpful. It just depends who you hit I think.

I had a bad experience there as well when I was looking for my dress they were soo rude and UNHELPFUL. I said there was no way I was spending a $1000+ in there!

YOur mothers dress looks great though!

ETA my MOH got her wedding gown there and had no problem so for those of you who did order from there rest easy I am sure you will be fine!

Thanks for the honest review! I'll stay away from Adrienne's.

By the way, ripping out labels and failing to tell you the name of the manufacturer of the dress is ILLEGAL and a violation of Federal Trade Commission Law. I refuse to do business with any shop that has such shady business practices. You might want to tell them that you will file a complaint with the FTC and the Better Business Bureau if they do not refund your deposit immediately. Good Luck!

My mom just told me they left a VERY nasty message about them adding on a cancelation fee on top of not refunding the deposit when she informed them that she will be taking it up with the credit card company.

Why would they even want to deal with a customer who is going to be nothing but unhappy??? Is it worth the 275.?

They just keeping making it worse instead of better! talk about bad business practices!

I am so sorry you had to deal with that! I have a mixed review. I didn't have a problem with the salespeople at all, I thought they were so nice and friendly so I bought my gown, veil, headpiece and my BM's gowns there. They even matched the price of my gown to Burton's which was $150 cheaper otherwise I never would have bought it there. Well, 2 of the Bm dresses came in with stains on them. My sister had ordered a dress that was way too big for her b/c she thought she was going to be pg but ended up not & the seamstress did do a great job taking the dress in so I have to give them props for that.

However, the last 2 weeks before my wedding, I had to go there so many times for my own gown, it was really annoying and inconvenient. It was as if everytime I went back, the seamstress had not done any of the alterations. They ended up firing her & then a different seamstress fixed my dress & did a fantastic job but it went right down to the wire & definitely caused me unnecessary stress.

To show you how dumb they are they had various problems with that seamstress. The women would tailor the dress how she felt it should look and no one else.
For a ball gown of mine she told me she would leave me plenty of room so I could wear it again in a few years. I told her no, its a military ball I need it to fit right in a month and 1/2. 5 fittings later I had maryanne at my home dropping off the dress it fit correctly but the seamstres had my hem uneven and used black thread on a red dress. Also, we were very pissed to be driving back and forth that many time for minor alterations which is why maryann delievered it to us, but Maryanne was also 2 hours late to my home and I was catching my flight that evenining because the ball was in Philly.
I was also a bridesmaids in a friends wedding at the same time who was spending tons of money there so we felt we should have been accomodated better. The bride ended up with lipstick on her dress during her fitting and the MOH's dress was ordered 2 sizes to small (she didn't gain weight) and Maryanne offered to get more fabric to add to it for no cost and when it was added it looked like patchwork and looked like crap. We were all disappointed especially since I was engaged at the time and she knew I still needed a dress shop..

Well anyways that women should have been fired in May of 02 and I'm sorry she was still there for your dresses Mich! We were told that it was the luck of the draw if you got a good seamstress or this other women (I don't recall her name, but she is a patient at my mom's office) and to me that answer was not good enough especially since they had many complaints on her.

OMG - my mom and i went there and they thought their SH*T didn't stink. they were so snobby and were going to charge me over 500 for a french bustle!!!
dont like them one bit either!

I had a negative experience with Adrienne's Bridal Salon in Islip as well. If you do a search you may still find it. I didn't have a problem with my dress per say but had a lot of problems with my bridesmaid dresses. Such a problem that I had a fight with Marianne the owner the day before my wedding because I refused to have one of my bridesmaids pay for horrible alterations that were not done on time.
I will never go there again to purchase anything and of the 8 weddings that I have to go to next year, I made sure to tell each of the brides of the bad experience I had with them.

I know Marianne has owned that place for a while (my sister got her dress from Adrienne's before they moved into the victorian house and Marianne ran the place back then which was 8 yrs ago)and I think the place is run by a family so even if she didn't run it 50 yrs ago it still in the same family hand's.
Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble with them but the truth is it will only hurt them in the long run because look at it this way. She may think she put something over on me but the truth of the matter is that of the eight weddings I have to go to next year, some of the brides were thinking of shopping there for dresses and when they heard my experience they changed their minds. *8 brides with approximately 8-10 bm in each wedding party is a lot of dresses that Adrienne's will miss out on and that's only for 2004 weddings. They will either go out of business eventually or wise up and treat their customers a little better.
Good luck!