Blush Bridal Boutique

I recently heard about blush for dress alterations and thought I’d give the boutique a chance with my $ 500 prom dress. The seamstress was kind and cared a lot about my personal preferences for the dress at my first appointment. My second appointment, though, was not as pleasant. I arrived a few minutes early to my 5oclock appointment and at first did not worry the seamstress wasn’t even there yet. I waited for 30 minutes before another worker told me they were not able to get in contact with the seamstress (whom I had an appointment with!) and that it would be best that I reschedule. My prom was in four days. Neither I not my mother was happy about the time press and damper that put on our schedules. I gave 3 stars only because the price of $ 115 for the alterations was very good for everything I had done.

I recently attended a bridal show at Stonewall Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia. Blush was a dress vendor at the event. My daughter-​in-​law and I waited patiently for the representative to speak with us. We watched for some minutes while she was engaged in speaking with another bride. Then we approached the table hoping to get the representative’s attention as well as look at her sample and her display. She didn’t so much as glance at us to acknowledge our arrival. The display wasn’t especially good so there wasn’t much to peruse. After more than 5 minutes of patient waiting, we decided to look at the entertainment and cake vendors in the vicinity. When we circled back a few minutes later, the table was unattended. We decided to wait. We stood there for perhaps as long as 10 minutes and the vendor never reappeared.
I appreciate good service and prefer to patronize small, independent businesses. Typically, they are more concerned with good service and creating a good reputation than the larger chain stores where prices and selection might be better. Since designing a custom gown was the goal, using a local business with a good seamstress was the best possible choice. However, it seemed like a poor business decision to have only one representative at their booth during a bridal show held in a small, local wedding venue. So, I decided to investigate reviews of this business and see if they were worth seeking out at their shop in nearby Haymarket. The reviews were astoundingly bad, except for the talent of a seamstress, who, much to the surprise of some patrons, actually knew how to make a gown fit perfectly. That’s what a seamstress does, ladies. She takes a dreadful design that’s poorly made by some sweatshop in China and makes it drape, swirl, and hug your curves like it was made for you, because it was made (or remade) just for you.
A good seamstress with some design savvy can make you the gown of your dreams in a few weeks not a few months and for hundreds of dollars, not thousands of dollars. I have a friend who has been making custom wedding gowns for decades and they are some of the most beautiful gowns you could imagine. She’s duplicated the design of a bridesmaids gown and with matching fabric from the original vendor made a gown for my 11 year old daughter to be a junior bridesmaid in her cousin’s wedding. It’s a long ways home to Manchester, Michigan, but Nancy Bihlmeyer’s work is worth the trip. Sorry Blush, but I’ll be hiring Nancy to sew up some magic for me.
I gave Blush two stars because the dress on display was one of a kind, though not to my or probably most people’s taste; and it’s just possible some assistant bailed at the last minute and the representative had to go solo at the bridal show leaving prospective clients unattended.

I am not sure why they bother accepting appointments when they clearly will take care of walk-​ins before helping you. The woman that greeted me paid attention to me for a max of 2 minutes while I was there — she grabbed a few dresses for me to try on and then left me to put them on by myself. She returned about 15 minutes later to apologize and say that she got too busy because they «all of a sudden had a bunch of people walk in». Um… what about my appointment?
Thank goodness I brought a girl friend with me who was able to help me get the dresses on and off. The woman — maybe the owner or boss because other staff kept asking her questions — never followed-​up with me nor did she apologize or say bye when I passed her to leave.
This place is small and does not have a very big selection. Dresses range from 1,100 — 5K and they didn’t have much of the style that I was looking for. Mainly ball gowns and a-​line. For being a small boutique, you would think they would be more appreciative of your business. This was not worth the long drive to Haymarket.

Back in 2008 I believe, I was new to the area and this was one of the close bridal boutiques. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but I definitely wanted my wedding gown to look gorgeous and not basic. I had a good experience here with the service and they had an amazing seamstress on site that did magic on my gown.

Worst. Experience. Ever. Do not go to this shop. They ordered my wedding gown in the WRONG color after being adamant about WANTING A SPECIFIC COLOR. Maureen (the store owner) was bright red, embarrassed and never apologized for the error her staff made. She wasn’t giving me any options, that were helpful, in getting me the correct color dress in time. She wanted me to risk not having a wedding gown a week before walking down the aisle. I asked for a refund and she threw the contract card at me about signing for what it said on the paper that was ordered. No sympathy to the fact that it was my WEDDING GOWN. Awful customer service. I wish I would have known about this place before even beginning to deal with them. Do yourself a favor and go to a place where it’s worth your money. This whole in the wall was a nightmare and no bride should ever have to deal with their mess.

I was torn between two and three stars. This shop has relocated and is now near the cupcake place on Washington street. The store is very small, but they have a lot of dresses. The dresses are crammed in there making it very difficult to see what they have. All of the sample dresses seemed very old and worn; not anything anyone would buy off of the rack. We did not have an appointment and was looking for mother of the bride and maid of honor dresses. Customer service was ok, nothing great. Dress prices were very expensive. We found the same exact dress at another bridal store for $ 100 less and they couldn’t really give an ball park on what alterations would cost. Plus they were telling us that everything takes 4 – 6 months to come in. We were not buying bridal and it was still the case. Overall I gave this place a 2 because of the condition of the store and lack of knowledge the consultant had. We did not purchase a dress from here.

I had a wonderful experience at Blush – RIGHT up until after I purchased the dress. Then, it was as if all customer service went out the window. In late March, the dress arrived. Blush told me the lace I’d purchased for my sleeves (ordered with the dress way back in September) would probably not arrive in time because of «issues shipping from China.» I suspect they just didn’t place the order at all until I reminded them. It also turned out to be an extra charge, which they did not indicate to me when I purchased the dress.
They also promised to rush ship me the dress and that it would get to me in three business days, tops, which did not happen: it took two weeks total to ship from Virginia to Boston, so clearly they did not prioritize the shipment like they said they would. They were very difficult to deal with when I called and asked about the status and when I would expect to receive it. It’s such a shame, because they were lovely in person and couldn’t have been nicer – when they wanted my money.

This update is about my AMAZING alteration service from Patti. She is truly a master at her craft. By the time she was done my dress fit like it was made just for me. She is a absolute joy to work with and really accommodates your schedule. Even if you do not buy your dress here (which you should because they treat you like royalty) you should come to Patti for your alterations. You will be in good hands and this will be one thing you won’t have any worries about leading up to your wedding! Thanks so much Patti!

Have you ever been at a checkout and the cashiers are talking to each other and not even acknowledging you? Well, that’s what’s going on here, not very professional and they don’t even acknowledge you when they push past you. An excuse me or eye contact would be nice.

I found my wedding dress here last year! They have a wonderful selection of dresses and very helpful sales associates. Any issues I had with my dress were taken care of promptly by the owner. Patty did my alterations at Blush and she was amazing! She’s super friendly and an excellent seamstress. I highly recommend Blush to anyone getting married in the NOVA area!

I got married almost a year ago now, and just realized I forgot to update my post regarding fittings. I had a fantastic experience with their seamstress. My dress needed a decent amount of work — taken in and up, and it had ruffles and beading on the bodice so it was not the most easy dress to work with, I’m sure. I met with the seamstress a total of 3 times — once for my initial fitting, the second time to see how the alterations had gone and what else needed to be tweaked, and the third time to pick it up and make sure nothing else needed to be done with it. She was a delight to work with, and got everything absolutely perfect. She also did not mind at all when I asked her to show me the different ways of bustling the dress 2 or 3 times EACH. My dress literally fit like a glove on the day of my wedding, and I was thrilled with it. The rest of the staff was always very friendly as well. Great experience with this store, I would definitely recommend it. One thing to note — the seamstress requires payment in cash.

They definitely have some cute stuff and if you are wearing one of their dresses to an even they will guarantee that they will not sell the same dress to someone else going to that event (e.g. school prom.)

I just got married in May and had a less than pleasant experience at this boutique. I originally chose this place because it was close to home and had a decent selection of dresses. My first visit was fine… nothing spectacular, but they were helpful enough, so I felt comfortable purchasing a dress and veil and scheduling my fittings.
That’s about where any semblance of pleasant went right out the window.
The owner forgot to order my veil and when the sales girl called to ask her about it she said that I never ordered one. The girl then told her that she was looking at the notes and it definitely said that I did. Then they couldn’t find the one I wanted, and had to alter a different veil to look like the original… all based on my memory of it, as they had no idea what I was talking about. It wasn’t even ready until almost the time of the wedding, and every time I would call the owner about it, she wouldn’t return my phone calls. No apology. I ended up not even wearing it.
The fittings were a NIGHTMARE. They were always running late. My first fitting she ran almost an hour and a half behind, and when I finally got my turn, she went between me and someone’s bridesmaid. I definitely didn’t get the treatment you would expect to get from dropping a few Gs on a dress and having made an appointment months ago. I will say the seamstress is VERY good, and my dress fit me perfectly and looked amazing… that’s the only reason I gave it 3 stars.
Oh, and at the end of it all the owner did offer an apology for any inconvenience and didn’t charge me for a piece of wedding jewelry I was going to purchase. It was a nice gesture, but too little too late.

My friend decided to have a short engagement so naturally that meant dress shopping ASAP. I was honored to be her bridesmaid so I went along on her journey for a dress. After coming from David’s Bridal where our sales rep was pretty much useless, going to Blush Bridal was a breath of fresh air. The shop is cute and the girl we had our appointment with was more than willing to help. Once she had an idea what my friend was looking for, she pulled a bunch of dresses from the racks and brought them to the dressing room, something we had a hard time getting our DB associate to help us with. Then our girl actually helped my friend into the dress, as she should have. She knew how to correctly clip the dresses so that we could see how the dresses would actually fit. She knew exactly where a dress would pull and how going up or down a size would alter the look of the dress.
Once we found my friend’s dream dress, her sister and I went on a venture for our bridesmaid dresses. What I liked about this store is that there was such a huge selection of bridesmaid dresses. If you wanted to be sassy you had plenty of options. If you wanted to be a school marm you could do that as well. As soon as we found the perfect dress for the both of us, finding out what options we had for colors was easy.
Overall, I had a great time here. I felt like the sales associate gave us a lot of attention and worked with us (well, the bride) with whatever she needed. She was very knowledgeable and helped us out through the entire process. She didn’t leave our side once.

I am getting married in October and had the fortune to find this great bridal boutique! I live in Alexandria and Gainesville is quite a hike for me but this place is worth it! They carry designers that no other boutique in the area has and the owner Maureen is extremely knowledgeable! I have never shopped for wedding dresses before and had NO idea what to look for and Maureen took the time to explain different styles and was quick to recommend others who could help me complete my wedding day look. I won’t reveal what dress I ultimately picked as my fiancé is also a «yelper» but I trust that once it comes in my positive experience with Blush will continue. Highly recommend!