Bay Bridal Boutique

Reviews 3

SH

Shannon Sorenson

I was recently a bridesmaid for a friends wedding and ordered my bridesmaid dress here after she decided this was where she was going to purchase her own gown. Donna, the owner, was consistently rude and unprofessional. The dresses were delivered behind schedule (right before the Cherry Festival), which I do understand was not Donnas fault, but she consistently criticized us for scheduling our appointments and fittings so close to the wedding. During the week of the Cherry festival, I personally tried making an appointment on more than one occassion, only to find that they had changed their hours last-minute to accomodate the festivities. In other words, they closed early. A lot. And despite technology playing such a huge role in todays economy, the only way they had to communicate their new hours was a sign on their door. (They never updated their website, and they didnt have an answering machine or automatic message to inform customers of changes.) At one point, one of the employees said that she would schedule me in, but requested that I call five or ten minutes in advance to ensure that they were still open. I live fourty-five minutes away. What, exactly, was the point of scheduling an appointment, then? I obviously told her never-mind. One of the bridesmaids was actually unable to locate her dress. Donna managed to deflect responsibility for its misplacement onto every person but herself, frequently saying, “Well so-and-so must have it.” When she was corrected and informed that so-and-so did not, indeed, have it, she moved onto a different person. Despite the bridesmaid herself calling and being unable to find the dress at their shop, I was, apparently, the first to bring the missing dress to Donnas attention. She lectured me that they had not lost a dress in twenty-five-years and, at one point, had the audacity to tell the Maid of Honor that I had been calling and making up stories and lies. My own dress didnt fit; when I ordered it, Donna had ordered my exact measurements for my bust and given me extra room around my waist, despite the fact that it was a free-flowing dress and my bust was the only thing that really mattered. I ended up having to have it altered in the bust and chest, and having its hem raised. For my final fitting, despite having scheduled an appointment, I tried it on in their dress closet because the other fitting rooms were taken and I was pressed for time. Later that day, I tried it on again at home, and the hem didnt appear to be hemmed where it was supposed to be (the seamstress, who was nice enough, had left one of her marking pins in it) and the dress dragged on the floor. Once I had picked up my dress and had it in my hands, I told Donna how unprofessional I though she was and that the Maid of Honor had relayed what she said and that I didnt appreciate being called a liar. She said the maid of honor was lying and that she NEVER said that, but even if she had, I was the one that had lied about the dress being lost and caused a panic. She said that the bride, the bridesmaid in question, and the bridesmaids mother had ALWAYS known where the dress was—it had yet to be shipped—which I knew was not the case. I said that I believed the Maid of Honor because she had no reason to lie to me, and restated how unprofessional and rude she had been to me, on the phone, and in person. Her response? Something along the lines of, “Okay, have a nice day, dear.” Not once had she apologized, and again, she managed to deflect the blame onto every other person. There was more that I had wanted to say, but obviously she was unwilling to apologize or take any responsibility, and I had already paid for and recieved my dress, so what was the point? I would not, under any circumstances, recommend this bridal shop to another person, no matter the occasion.

CO

Coral Dalley

I first brought my wedding dress to a local seamstress (Sandra) who told me that she basically wouldnt make any alterations to my dress because of the extensive work that needed to be done. So, at that point I thought Id just order a new dress, I had only spent $100.00 on it, and would just sell it. But I called around first, just to make sure nothing could be done. When I got a hold of Bay Bridal I was told to bring it in, that their prices are a lot lower than Sandras, by at least half. So, feeling hopeful, I brought my dress to Bay Bridal, and the seamstress (Jennifer) said she could do "everything" I wanted her to do, "no problem". She told me it would cost $100.00 to do everything. So, I met with her a couple of weeks later, she hadnt done everything she said she was going to do, had barely done anything at all, and then went ahead and made an alteration to the the sleeves, something she said she would wait to make until we talked a little more about it. Then she said it was going to cost another $50.00 to finish what I wanted done, and she seemed to give me a lot of attitude, too. Further more, my dress stank! It smelled so bad, like cigarettes and garbage, which really upset me more than anything. By the way, she never ended up do everything she said she would do to my dress, the chest area was still WAY too big. About half way through this process she started to say it was "too hard to make alterations to this dress" even though she told me should could do everything, and what really gets me, had the opportunity after she first brought it home and took a closer look at it to just tell me it couldnt be done. But, I couldnt deal with Jennifer anymore, so $285.00 later, I ordered a new dress, and Im taking it to Sandra this time. Ive heard from every bridal shop, aside from Bay Bridal, that shes the best seamstress in town. Also, all of the positive reviews here are obviously written by Bay Bridal, as they are definitely NOT professional, or really that nice even. These people arent to be trusted. Any bridal shop that allows their seamstress to smoke around someones wedding dress should be put out of business. And, Donna (the owner) is a long-time acquaintance of my mother, so had this just been a bad experience I probably wouldnt say anything, but this is the stuff a brides nightmares are made of. Dont waste your time or money here.

A

A Private User

My mother had the worst expierence here. When she got her dress she stopped in for alterrations. The woman rushed her and wasnt very friendly. She pinned the dress too tight and then when the pins had come out she mentioned it to the woman and she said it was fine. When she went back there she was scheduled with 3 other people and had to try her dress on in a closet. The dress was too tight. She had to ask for someone to let her in an actual fitting room. The seamstress was nice, which was the only good thing. She offered to take the dress out but that would cost more money,so in the end it was decided to move the hooks and see if that helps. When paying for the alterations, since the owner was busy with the other three people, the seamstress took the money (which she said she does not normally do). My Mom said that she wanted to be paid in full because my sister was going to pick it up since she lives in Traverse City and my Mom does not. When my sister went to pick it up, the owner told her she owed $10 (for pressing-Igot my dress pressed for free at Petosky Bridal). My sister was upset about this and the owner was rude to her. My Mom called the owner to complain about her rudeness and she was kinda rude to my Mom on the phone. Instead of appologizing that my Mom had a bad experience, the owner was snappy, saying we get good ratings, if anything your daughter was rude to me, I have three good seamstresses here and none of them would have treated you that way, blah blah blah. Whatever happened to customer service. Whatever happened to satisfying a customer. My Mom felt like it was one big production line with no real personal service.