Bridal Salons

If there is one thing I have realized over the last 2 months of dress shopping, the recession has not hit the bridal salon (or so you would think!) I have never felt so disrespected in the retail world as I do when wedding gown shopping.
I have been IGNORED so many times it is not even funny. I really am starting to think these salons do not want my business OR my money.

David's Bridal: The standard. Oh they want my business alright..they want to force a bride into the quickest sale possible..are you KIDDING ME? The 2 times I have been there they tried to pressure me into buying any dress I put on, claiming every one was "the one" on me. I knew it wasn't. They just wanted me to THINK it was. Great sales technique(not really) I find this disrespectful.

Now there is one salon I went to today that is pretty big in the Chicago area, I was NOT going to say their name but to avoid other brides feeling what I did..
Evas Bridal(Orland Park)

Yesterday I got a call from a sale rep stating that this weekend only, all dresses would be 30% off. I said "Well that's great but I can not make any purchases until late November" The sales rep then told me that it was OK and if I did find a dress, that a $50.00 deposit would guarantee me to still get the 30% off at the time of purchase. Well, good deal. I made a list of about 20 dresses and went to my appointment. I guess 11am was to early for my crab ass sales associate. I handed her my list and started telling her what I was looking for..she wasn't very interested. I then went in the dress room with her to look. This is not their normal procedure but their computers were down so she could not search for my dress numbers. I got a few dresses and put them in my room. All was OK with that area, then she told me that they had NONE of the dresses on my list. Bummer! I guess the ones I picked were from the fall collection. That's OK. The rep then gets a book that has one of the dresses I had written down. She said to me
"Is this one of the dresses?"
My reply...yes it is!
She then said
Nahhhh, this wont work for you, it wont look good on you (and so on)

WHAT?!!
Since when is THIS how a business is run? I was in shock she even said this to me! Whose decision is it anyways? Last I checked it was mine. I was completely hurt by her statement. Maybe she was trying to do me good by being what she felt was "honest". Lets face it, no bride wants to hear she wont look good in something until she has it on herself..and it is her own opinion.

I can go on forever with these type of posts. I went to one salon and since I didn't have an appointment they let me wander around the store like a freckin idiot lost in a sea of dresses (House of Brides in Orland Park) I got NO service at all. I had to put on dresses and hold them on myself because no one was around to help clip my dress. Yeah, never going back there again.
That actually happened at a few salons in my area.
I can not believe that in a recession where salons are closing after 30 years like Donna K Bridal in Tinley Park, that they can treat people this way! Do we not matter? Is our money not good enough for you? Do I not look wealthy so I do not get you time? Is it because my ring is not on my finger (that's another post)
I am tired of dress shopping because of all the awful service I have gotten at almost every salon I have gone to. I do not even want to dress shop anymore.

*On a side note, I am saddened that Donna K is shutting down. I got the BEST service at this salon*