David’s Bridal

This was my first experience with ANY David’s location and if they’re all this awful I will gladly never return to their stores.
Visit 1: A friend & I were trying on bridesmaids dresses and the woman helping us disappeared for well over 20 minutes. We tried finding other staff members without much luck so we awkwardly stood around, tried to find dresses, but our sizes were missing — and basically just waited for someone to show up.
Phone Call: After I purchased my dress (a few days later) I got a call from David’s. The woman congratulated me on my wedding and began to ramble about their dresses, I politely (very confused) interrupted and clarified that she meant to contact me, then explained that I purchased a bridesmaids dress but am definitely not getting married. Instead of apologizing and moving on she tried to offer me a discount on a wedding dress, I politely said I didn’t need one then she got a bit argumentative saying that I signed up for this call and yadda yadda — it was weird.
Visit 2: I needed alterations done to the dress I purchased, nothing huge, just pulling up a strap. So, when the dress came into the store, I went in for an «alterations appointment». I’ve had dresses fitted before, the seamstress usually asks what you think should be altered and politely points out their opinions too since they’re — you know — the professional. I get the dress on and the girl was like, what do you think needs to be altered? I explained it and she was pretty much like yeah if that’s what you think, then okay. I asked what she thought and she just kept saying — ‘It’s whatever you want done.’ instead of helping. After pinning the strap she priced out how much it would be and mentioned that sometimes when they do this they take in the strap too much and it pinches on the arm, but promptly told me that’d cost me extra if they did that and I needed it fixed again (basically, if they mess it up, you pay to have it re-​fixed). Oh well, I needed the strap fixed, I paid and left.
Visit 3: When I arrived to try on the dress after alterations, a while had gone by and I’ve been doing well with my lifestyle changes and lost a bit of weight. The strap fit fine enough, but I asked the alterations employee (this time a male) if he thought it would be possible to bring in the waist a bit. He, as the girl did, responded with basically ‘It’s whatever you want.’ I know nothing about sewing and honestly wanted a professional opinion which he clearly couldn’t give and the cost for them to take it in was astronomical. He concluded by saying the dress looked ‘fine’ the way it was.
Frustrated, I left and went to a local seamstress who immediately said it needed to be taken in (finally, I was able to get a real opinion). She was able to take in the dress, but noted to me that when David’s altered it originally, they royally effed up the inside of the dress (she almost wasn’t going to be able to alter it for me it was apparently such a crappy job they did). So, clearly, their professionalism shows in the final product and in the fitting appointments.
Regardless, David’s is overpriced and the service you get in the store looking at dresses is far from professional and if you need something altered, take it to a professional seamstress (you’ll get a price that is much more fair, David’s overcharged massively for what they did).

I am not nor have I ever intended to be a bride, let alone one seeking a traditional wedding. That said, I never rule out options. I knew that David’s Bridal pretty much sucked based on my experience as a bridesmaid in the past, but when my now-​husband and I planned to elope, I checked out the accessories here.
I was initially given an odd look for entering but a woman did guide me to veils and headpieces when I asked. Holy shit, I cannot believe the prices on the tacky acetate veils and bedazzled tiaras. I settled on a rhinestone headband on heavy clearance at $ 20 and a purse I didn’t even intend to use in the wedding. Got both home and they were shit. Headband was missing beads and stones and the purse strap was broken.
I took both in for return/​exchange (and luckily found a cool vintage fascinator with birdcage veil at Cherry Canary thereafter). I wanted to exchange the purse because it was super cute but the headband had to go. They did allow me to return it but not without giving me a less-​than-​friendly «we usually don’t do returns» spiel first. I got another purse, which may or may not hold up.
Basically, this low-​star review is for the «what the hell are you doing here?» stares I got when entering both times and the «I’ll do it this ONE TIME» BS when I asked to return something. I get it, you usually schedule appointments and don’t expect walk-​ins. But would it kill you to smile and gush when someone enters on the off chance they want to buy your crappy dresses? No, it would not.

I visited the salon in 2014. I still cannot believe the experience I had. I’d never tried on a bridal gown before, and if you don’t have a close female relative or best friend who has gone through the whole wedding process already, preferably recently, the wedding world – and it is indeed its own weird, insulated world – can be really, really bewildering. If you don’t know that there’s an unspoken rule, you assume you’d do what you normally do. Therefore, I thought «oh, hey, a wedding dress store, I’ll need a pretty dress» and went in the door.
Let me stress that at no point did anyone say I needed an appointment; let me also stress that the store was by no means crowded with customers that day: there were about four or five associates there, plus myself and one other woman.
The associates all acted odd, but they said of course I could look around and try on. I wandered around for a while. Four were standing over by a counter, talking and ignoring me; I finally went up and asked (I literally had to interrupt them) if I could try on a particular dress. A woman who seemed to be a manager asked which one it was; she very much treated me with a thin layer of overly polite just barely covering a vast sea of massively, massively annoyed.
For a bit of reference, I’d been dealing for a while with a medical condition that caused me to gain weight rapidly and be unable to exercise without a lot of pain. I’d gained close to 50 pounds; in our image-​focused culture it’s difficult, and had done a number on my self esteem.
The manager told me she didn’t know if the dress would come in a size large enough and said if I waited she would «go check the back». Shortly she returned and told me that as she expected, it would be too tight in the hips. She made a really big fuss about how she wasn’t sure they’d have anything at all in my size and she’d have to check the back and see what she could find, etc. She got a tape measure and made a big show of measuring me and disappeared, coming back with a dress, and telling me she had managed to find one in my size.
Basically, during the whole exchange she made a whole lot of not-​so-​subtle digs about my weight. She handed me off to an associate in the fitting room and disappeared for most of the rest of the experience.
I have nothing bad to say about the fitting room associate, she was nice; but she was also helping the store’s other customer by herself. (It may not have been the job of the gossiping associates up front to help in the fitting rooms, but as a customer you don’t know that and it seems unprofessional.) But she helped me into the dress anyways – which promptly slid right off me. I told her that I understood this was one of the only dresses I could fit in. She seemed confused and said, «Actually, we have a lot of things you can try on.» She kindly got a tape measure and re-​measured me; the manager had fit me in about a size 26, and the associate had fit me in about a size 18.
I tried on a size 18 and it fit, but by that point I was pretty much done. I had been there a long time, most of which was waiting, and I wasn’t feeling great about myself after having had my insecurities repeatedly pointed out. The associate helped me out of the dress, and basically found a really nice way of telling me that I should have made an appointment.
In other words, instead of just telling me when I walked in the door that I needed an appointment, most of the employees chose to attempt to chase me off by being rude, ignoring me, and/​or making passive-​aggressive comments about my weight – basically wasting two hours of all of our time. This is not a middle school, this is a business; I was still a potential customer, whether or not I had an appointment, and if they had communicated with me they could have set up a time for me to come back and possibly still made a sale, which I would have been totally OK with. Overall it was VERY unprofessional and I was upset when I left.
I have since been told by several others that although the quality of service varies from store to store and there are some brides who have decent experiences, dealing with David’s Bridal is generally more of a headache than anything. Having since looked more into the dresses they carry I’ve realized that their lower-​priced styles are for the most part really generic; and the ones I liked were actually close to or in the typical bridal store price range for my area. In most cases I highly suggest skipping David’s Bridal. Call some local bridal salons and ask what sizes and lines they carry and what their price ranges are; that’s exactly what I did and it worked out great!