Ava Clara Couture Bridal

Category:	Bridal Shop
Address:	401 N Great Neck Rd #119, Virginia Beach, VA 23454, USA
Phone:	+1 757-962-1466
Site:	avaclarabridal.com
Rating:	4.1
Working:	Closed 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM Closed

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 4

Adam V

My sister, who is an officer in the United States military and a veteran of the Iraq conflict, called me crying about their lousy service and horrific customer service. She ordered her dream wedding dress from Ava Clara in August for a Memorial Day weekend wedding. After not hearing from the bridal shop for months, she called repeatedly to check on the status of her dress. After the bridal shop not returning her calls, she was finally told that the dress may not be available until March or April (despite being told the order would take 8-12 weeks and despite the need for alterations). After still not getting real answers from the bridal shop, she finally took to the internet to warn other brides-to-be about Ava Claras lousy customer service. She finally got a call back -- and threats from the owner. Not only did he refuse to apologize, he threatened (1) to cancel her order only a few months away from the wedding, which would have made it very hard and more expensive to find a dress and have any alterations done; and (2) despite the fact that everything she said was truthful and accurate, he threatened to sue her for slander/libel/defamation of character. (As a practicing attorney, I can assure him that his suit would be frivolous and thrown out of court in about twenty seconds with the bridal shop being forced to pay her attorneys fees.) She finally got her dress, but it took way longer than it should have -- and caused needless stress to the already stressful experience of getting married. Further, as she is in the military and was in the process of transferring duty stations, it caused additional stress because despite her ordering the dress with plenty of time before her move, the dress was not ready or available until after she moved several hundred miles away. Despite the bridal shop owner knowing that she would be transferring duty stations, he made no effort to make the situation easier on her -- and further said that if he shipped it to her, or had a friend/family member pick up the dress, there would be no returning the dress if there were any defects/flaws. No bride should ever be treated in the manner in which my sister was treated. Clearly, Ava Clara made a mistake -- and rather than admitting and fixing the mistake, they made it worse by threatening her and trying to make it seem like it was her fault. My recommendation: stay away. No bride should be forced to go through what my sister did.

Adrianna F

As a bride, I strongly urge others to approach Ava Clara with caution. And heres why. Ava Clara has a small collection of beautiful gowns, but our experience with their customer service was ATROCIOUS. Please be mindful of this if you decide to go here for your wedding dress - I dont want any bride having to experience what my family and I have! PLEASE - all brides out there- if you come here, make sure that all your details are correct with them (double check!), that the information they need is in their system, and that you know who is responsible for your dress. My family and I experienced several miscommunications/problems with Ava Clara employees, ranging from small mistakes to rather large ones. Throughout the process we found their customer service to be horrible. I think one of the largest mistakes we had with them was concerning my veil. When my mother tried to surprise me by purchasing my veil, Ava Clara ruined this surprise by calling me and asking me to pay for the veil. My mother was devastated - Ava Claras poor note-taking and miscommunication ruined a moment for her that can never be repeated. They repeated the EXACT same mistake a few months later when they called me to pick up the veil, rather than calling my mother. They then proceeded to ask me for my mothers name and contact information so they could call her. I was disgusted - I am not even sure if they had her information on file to begin with! To our knowledge, we paid full price for the veil and we were offered no compensation for their repeated mistakes. Frankly, I think its embarrassing that this is how Ava Clara treats their customers. I cannot recommend this shop to anyone. I love my dress and veil - theyre terrific quality and I feel beautiful in them. But Im upset they came from Ava Clara - I wish I had gotten them from somewhere else. Maybe then I wouldnt have such negative memories associated with items Im supposed to wear on the happiest day of my life.

Lauren Gabor

As a soon-to-be bride, I know when it comes to dresses that they can take a while to process and deliver, mainly due to their custom nature. Because of this, my mother, sister and I went out several weeks ago looking for the perfect gown for my June 2016 wedding. After varying degrees of service and professionalism from other hilltop-area vendors, we were THRILLED with our last appointment of the day at Ava Clara. Our sales associate Julia was the kindest and most knowledgeable person we worked with all day. She greeted me by name when we came in, had done prior research on the types of dresses I had pinned to my wedding board on Pinterest, and pulled several dresses (including THE ONE) she thought I would like. While I was trying dresses on, she helped me get into all of them and gave honest opinions about the fit and style. Originally I walked out of the store empty handed, but only got about halfway to the car before my mom and I decided that Julias pull really was THE dress for our June 2016 Chrysler Museum wedding. A couple of weeks after my purchase of the gown a bridesmaid and I went back to the store and were able to work with Julia again to try and figure out what style of dress my maids will be in. It was so helpful to be able to work with Julia again because she already knew my personality and let us pull and try anything we wanted. Consistency is key. I look forward to communication in the coming months with updates on my gown and would HIGHLY recommend this bridal boutique to anyone in need of their own.

kelly taylor

I have been searching for a while now for a place to get my wedding dress cleaned and preserved. After speaking with 2 different employees on separate visits I finally decided to bring my wedding dress in to get it cleaned and preserved. On both visits I had told the woman I had a Winnie Couture dress and it was silk. When I got there I was asking questions about their process and shipping methods and had asked about what type of box they were going to put it in to ship it, as I didnt want it to get damaged and wanted to make sure that it would be covered just in case it was damaged in transit (I dont think thats too much to ask). The woman up front went to the back to show me a box that it would ship in. I was so excited that my beautiful wedding dress was finally going to be preserved and cleaned. After 5 minutes the women comes back out and says the owner had been listening to our conversation and feels like my dress was too much liability and couldnt take it. Apparently me doing my due diligence made them decide it wasnt worth their time. THEN they told me we dont deal with silk dresses after the first two times I told them my dress was silk! Minus wasting my time on multiple visits and 45 minutes tonight it would have been nice if the owner could come out and tell me herself. Awful customer service. Apparently they care more about themselves than they do the customers.