The Bridal Bar

The Bridal seems like a good place to start once you have decided your date and budget, however I had decided on neither. I’m doing the DIY bride thing and having a small wedding with a small amount of guest and no formalities so I was way over my head here. Even though I wasn’t able to pick any vendors from this visit the consultant was extremely friendly and didn’t act as if I was wasting her time. She did suggest the Beverly Garland which we checked out and are still looking into, gave me a bunch of free wedding magazines and offered advice on a few subjects I hadn’t even thought about yet.
Now…if you are planning a large or normal wedding in LA this is the place to go. They are familiar with all the vendors and help you avoid the hassle of finding everything on your own.

Newbie bride here: this is my first ever wedding related review (I anticipate one of many more to come).
I had no idea what to expect at a bridal «consulting» place, especially in West Hollywood near Beverly Hills. Free? I was skeptical. But I booked an appointment anyway. My first inkling that this was going to be a surreal experience was when the staff member I met with was also named Pauline. She turned out to be really sweet and incredibly helpful — asking me a series of questions to help me better formulate my wedding «outline.» Truthfully, I was a major blank slate and had no idea where to start. Even though I’m from the Bay Area, I wasn’t even sure of the location — Nor Cal or So Cal.
Pauline 2(the other one) raised her eyebrows «Do you have a ‘Here Comes the Guide’?»
Pauline 1(me): «No. What’s that?»
Pauline 2 presses a gigantic book the size of an encyclopedia into my hands. «This is your wedding venue bible. Everyone HAS to start with one of these.»
About an hour later, I had my hands full with the «Guide» (basically, a CA resource filled with all researched wedding venues and relevant information) and a pink bag crammed with wedding magazines, business cards, and demo CDs. Everything was free!
I’m surprised not many folks have reviewed or know about this place. As Pauline (2) put it, the Bridal Bar is a «wedding library» — full of well-​researched referrals, resources, binders full of ideas, and helpful assistants on hand to answer your questions from point A — Z. It’s also likely to be the trendiest and girliest «library» in existence — a cute intimate space with trendy white leather couches, bright pink décor splashed on the walls, and shelves filled with colorful favors.
They aren’t paid by commission, but rather a nominal fee from the participants they choose to work with. No fee on your end, or obligations to go with any of the vendors they suggest. With countless of options for a bride-​to-​be, it was nice having things packaged for me. At the very least, it gave me a starting point. A wonderful place to start for the easily overwhelmed bride (& groom).
Did I already mention that it was all free?

This place is great. Everything is FREE and they are very helpful. We were able to check out tons of invitations in person, which was great, and look through the work of several photography vendors. And, of course, all the free stuff was awesome: bridal mags & a copy of here comes the guide, etc.
This is a nice place to start your wedding planning, it’s not overwhelming at all and cozy and they seem gentle when you’re obviously clueless about where to start.

I had high expectations from the reviews I’ve read here, but alas, this store was not helpful for me at all. I drove in the rain to find the place completely empty. Except that the sales person was on the phone and was too busy to engage with me. She held her call and asked me to sign up my infos and told me that she will call me back to make an appointment for me to come back. She didn’t even invite me to look around the store. Just asked me to come back after I drove all the way out to West Hollywood. Well well. Talk about hospitality. None here. A completely empty store! And she could not help me?! I entered my information while she went back to her phone meeting, and it has been four days and no phone call! Guess she wasn’t interested in my business.

(my girliest/​gayest review ever)
If you’re like us, and have no clue how to plan a wedding, go here!
We dropped in today and the girl there was so nice and helpful. She asked us lots of questions and helped guide us in how to plan. All the services here are 100% free and we even got some freshly leftover cake from a tasting.
After about an hour in the store, we left with a 3″ thick book, summarizing every place to have a wedding in southern California, a few bridal magazines, and a much better feeling on what to do next. The girl there encouraged us to come back as many times as we needed to help plan and hire all the needed people. Bridal Bar is a must for confused couples =]

Wow was this place kick ass for a bridezilla to be like me! My maid of honor and I went down there yesterday and couldn’t believe how knowledgable the staff was. It’s this tiny little boutique just north of Santa Monica in West Hollywood.
If you are trying to plan a wedding, this is the place to start. I’m recently engaged and have had many awful referrals (costco flowers!!! puhlease!). It’s my wedding for crying out loud and I want some thing chic and classy. Well, the Bridal Bar will refer you to fabulous vendors in the So Cal area (from Santa Barbara to OC) and have samples of all of their work. The lady who helped us knew everything about just about everyone. And she gave us candid reviews on what she’s heard from other brides so you absolutely know what you’re dealing with when it comes to these vendors.
I would have given them 5 stars if the lady helping us were a little more polished when we were there — in appearance only. I’m not snooty by any means, but a t-​shirt, sweats, and Ugg boots are a little casual for me when it comes to customer service.
But when we left she gave us all kinds of bridal crack — wedding magazines and books! I’ve seen these same things at B&N and she gave us like $ 40 worth of stuff for free. I did not expect that at all. Maybe she was feeling extra generous for us.
This place is the absolute best place to start when you are planning your wedding. I could not believe all the info you got for FREE! I thought for sure they would hit us up for some sort of donation or something, but they must make their money from the vendors they refer. And hear me vendors «This place is getting you clients!».
I would make an appointment. I have a feeling they will be getting busy.