Horrors of Fashion

My wedding planning has been almost completely stress-free. I'm a pretty laid back bride, in my opinion. My bridesmaids keep asking me about what shoes, what jewelry, nail polish, etc, that I want them to wear or do. My answer is always whatever you want or is most comfortable. I just want everyone to have a great time! Unfortunately, one thing that should have been super easy, turned into a ridiculous all-day process.

I purchased my dress at House of Fashion in Sacramento, because I didn't want to have to cart a dress back and forth from San Diego and worry about having it pressed here (EG). I bought the dress in December, and when they were measuring me, the woman was saying aloud the measurements and I knew I was not that big. So I told her I wanted her to measure me again. She did, and didn't repeat the measurements aloud this time.

When I can back for my first fitting in June, the dress was way too big. The dress needed to be taken it in 3 inches. They kept asking me if I'd lost weight; the answer was no. I wish I had, but that wasn't the case. Then I wanted them to change the dress to a sweetheart neckline. They said they would make those alterations first, and then at the next fitting do the bustle and hem. I left there unhappy, because they made us pay to alter the dress from their mistakes.

The second time back at the shop, the neckline looked terrible and the seamstress said she would redo it. They also pinned for the bustle and hem. It was another unhappy day at House of Fashion.

I went in on Tuesday to what I hoped would be a fast appointment where I would trying on the dress, and then take it home. We arrived at 10:45am and the first round of trying on the dress was horrible. The neck line was completely off-center. There was also a gaping hole in the back of the dress where the corset came together (because they ordered a size too large). So they told us to come back in a half hour. When we came back and tried the dress on again, the neckline was just as bad as before, maybe worse. And there were other issues.

We went through the process again, and this time the seamstress and manager were arguing over the top of me on how to do the alterations. I was so frustrated, I just wanted to get the heck out of there.

They didn't end up getting the dress perfect, but I'm over it. It's just one day, and most people wouldn't notice the difference. I'm just upset we had to pay so much in alterations, that we really shouldn't have. A lot of people asked, "did the give you a discount on the price?" Nope. But they were acting like they did us a huge favor by pressing my veil for free.

Unfortunately, I've heard that this has happened to a lot of people. If you are getting married, do NOT get your dress at House of Fashion.....unless you have lots of time and money to waste with their staff!

Here's a pic of the neckline, that took them from 10:45am - 2pm to fix! Plus three previous fittings!