Rant/Rave

Okay so background is that my MOH lives in Florida and is going to UF to be a pharmacist (go Amy!) so she was home this month between rotations and we decided we'd go bridesmaids dress shopping just to get an idea since I had no idea what I wanted. We knew it was early, but whatever, we werent buying anything today. Our moms came with us. Our first stop... David's Bridal.

RANT: David's Bridal, Lake Grove. So I made an appointment online on Monday for our appointment today (Saturday). When we got there, we were told to look around, pull any dresses we wanted to try on, and the consultant would be right with us. She came over about 10 minutes later in a frenzy, hurried us to a dressing room and disappeared. Didn't ask if we found what we were looking for, nothing. So my MOH tries on a bunch of dresses that didn't look great on her, but we hadn't found any in my color I wanted (Iris- a light lavender). The consultant finally shows her face again and asks if we need anything. I tell her we're looking for a dress with one shoulder possibly and also, something in Iris so I can see what it looks like against her skin at least. She came back twice with nothing asking how we were doing!! She apologized, and said she was taking care of another bride getting married in two weeks (basically, she knew she was making commission of that bride and not off me today since my wedding is two years away, so she gave all her attention to the other bride). She brought an Iris dress that was a size 24 (MOH is a size 8) and in Satin, when I'm looking at chiffon. I found a short dress in Chiffon in my color myself and she was like 'Oh you found one!' Yeah, no thanks to you! She gave me her card in the end and said 'I'd love to help you again when you come back!' The word 'again' implies you helped me at all today. Waste of time and the dresses were dirty and not of great quality. None of them looked good on my MOH who is a normal sized woman. Everything just laid so wrong, and was so unflattering. I wanted to go there to keep costs down for my girls, but I was so turned off.

MOH's mom suggested we run over to Macy's in the Smithaven mall, two minutes away to Demetrios.

RAVE: Macy's Bridal Salon by Demetrios. So we went, without an appointment, and were met with a consultant right away who started a room for us and stayed with us THE WHOLE TIME, helping MOH in and out of dresses and giving helpful (but not pushy) suggestions. I fell in love with two Bill Levkoff dresses, and while the prices were high, you definitely get what you pay for. Just the selection was so much better there. Our consultant was knowledgeable, friendly, and not at all pushy. It was an amazing experience after the first one. And while I don't think I'd purchase from there since the price was so high, I'll definitely be keeping my radar out for 20% off sales, since I'd love to give them my business.

I was treated 1000% better in a place where I had no appointment and walked right in than in a place where I made an appointment! Extremely disappointed in David's :( But love that we found dresses that fit right and looked good! :)

While I didn't have a bad experience at that David's, they were fairly unattentive. However, that's what we were looking for at the time and I liked being able to wander and just pick whatever I wanted - everyone's style of shopping is different, I guess! However, she never promised to get me dresses and then completely forget! That's annoying.

I do agree about the Macy's bridal salon though! They were great! We found my BM dresses there too!

I found my wedding gown at Macy's Bridal Salon in Lake Grove and I also got my bridesmaid dresses there! I dealt with Anna the whole time and she was lovely! They had a great service. The only bad part is they are expensive, but worth it. I don't think they cap their alterations though.
I originally went looking at David's bridal in lake grove and I found their quality and service to be very poor.

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Posted by Rc5087

The 20% off coupon - is that friends and family or something else? Credit card holders or in the newspaper?

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She said they don't advertise it so I'm not sure when it is. They do a trunk show which is 15% off everything and that's once a month. Then once in a blue moon she said they do 20% off and she said she'd let me know when they're doing it, so I'll keep everyone on this site posted!

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Posted by rcotter90

I've heard Burton's has Bill Levkoff's seriously discounted as well, so I'll probably call over there. I REALLY want to see the color before buying but I guess what I want isn't a stock thing. I saw the swatch, but you never know what it'll look like on. We'll see. Plenty of time!

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We ordered the bridesmaids from Burton's. It's been... well... an experience. Order early, and tell them that your wedding is earlier than it really is, you'll save yourself a lot of heartache.

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Posted by rcotter90

I've heard Burton's has Bill Levkoff's seriously discounted as well, so I'll probably call over there. I REALLY want to see the color before buying but I guess what I want isn't a stock thing. I saw the swatch, but you never know what it'll look like on. We'll see. Plenty of time!

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I know that Bridal Suite in Centereach DEFINITELY has the light lilac from BL in chiffon to try on in a BUNCH of dresses. I ordered 5 different dresses but in black.. but all my girls ended up trying on the dress in the lilac and deep purple. Very pretty in person and on different skin tones!

I think the dresses from David's are really poor quality-- and the prices are not so cheap! I'm doing a long dress, and their dresses were around $169-$179. We did go there to at least see how the dresses stacked up, but they didn't get anywhere close to the quality of other brands. I think the short dresses are a much better deal there!

The Bill Levkoff dress we picked after trying on at RK Bridal ended up being $140 at Netbride.com (which I highly recommend-- I've used them for other weddings). I think it's a good idea to go to a store and try on the dress you want and THEN shop around for prices. I found buying online was so much easier, especially when you have bridesmaids in different locations. Your MOH is probably not going to want to get her alterations done in NY, even with an $85 cap. The first time I was in a wedding we bought the dresses in LI even though I lived in the city (and other girls lived elsewhere). I kept going back to the store for fittings, even though each time it was like $20 round trip to take the train. I had to go 3 times b/c they screwed up, which was like an additional $60. I wish I would've just gotten them done at a tailor by my apartment!