Manhattan Bridal

Manhattan Bridal is now Manhattan Wedding Center (under new management) and it seems like they have improved drastically. Helen in particular is really great, and provided excellent service for my wedding. I wrote a more fullsome review under Manhattan Wedding Center.

As a bride to be you don’t need anymore stress in your life!!! Well… Manhattan Bridal really helped me reduce my stress level… I just bought a beautiful Mori Lee wedding dress from them and a Erica Koesler veil. I got a great deal from them and was extremely satisfied with their customer service. They even threw in a free bustle for me. I would highly recommend this wedding studio. It’s also beautifully renovated and located in a convenient location in downtown Manahattan right by the train station. (Grand St. Train Station)

It’s now called Manhattan Wedding Center and it’s
TERRIBLE!!!
Promise one thing, then do another. My fiancée was supposed to rent her dress from them, but was told not to look and decide on one until January/​February when the new year designs were in. She was also told that ALL alterations were free and that alterations could be made to any dress (even if it’s rented). When January came around, the woman we worked with was off in China for 2 months and we were told that we could not make a lot of alterations (since it’s a rented dress). So we ended up not getting her dress there.
In our initial meeting, we specifically requested a certain one of their photographers and were told that we would have him. Our second payment was due in February, but no one bothered to reach out to us the whole time. WE had to call them this week to see what was going on. They «didn’t know if we were still interested» and THEN told us that now our photographer would be in China for 2 months and can’t do our wedding!
They claim the misunderstanding is because the place changed ownership (Carol sold it). But this is not how you run a business at all.
Poor organization, poor service, poor English!
Don’t bother trying to save money by going to them. NOT WORTH IT!

Do not go here. Although they had a decent selection of dresses, everything is great until you’ve paid. They sold my fiancé’s wedding dress without telling her. After asking around, I found out they did this before to my cousin on her wedding day! After my cousin complained and freaked out about not getting her dress, they sabotaged her wedding. They ruined the wedding video and flower bouquets. Avoid this place at all cost.

Photography session went well. Anthony the video/​photographer did a good job and the employees were very helpful. They have a great selection of wedding dresses at affordable prices as well. The dress rentals also are worth considering.

Not a fan, this place is too teenie for them to squeeze 4 appointments in at once, but that’s what they did when I came. It was my first time lookign at wedding dresses and I was super excited. We got there, both of the employees were super frazzled and made me feel like I was ruining their days. Um yea… So the girl pulled my card and didn’t have any of the dresses I requested trying on listed, As another customer had mentioned, I also gave them my dress information and when I got there, they had no record of anything except my name and appointment. That’s frustrating because the woman made it a point to say «What style and what dresses are you looking for??» I told her and she said I was all set. They didn’t pull a lot of dresses I was looking for, they were busy helping other brides since there were 4 brides and only 2 employees so I didn’t get any extra attention. I am not a diva, but for your frist time trying on dresses, you think it’s goign to be a lot more personal and it wasn’t… I would NEVER go back there. I have since bought my gown from another boutique and they were very nice and friendly. If you’re in the area, try New York Lace in Taunton (But comparison shop the price if you love a dress from there, they tried to charge me an extra $ 500 for my actual wedding dress than I ended up paying after going some place else!), and try Chryssie’s bridal in Canton. They are great. Their wedding dress area doens’t have a lot of palces for your guests to sit, so beware of that, but for a bride, they have plenty of room in the back to relax and try stuff on :)

I was helping a friend wedding dress shop and she wanted to start out at Manhattan Bridal. My friend has a very petite frame, so we thought that shopping in Chinatown, where smaller sizes were the norm, would be much easier than trying somewhere else. In addition, she preferred to rent, and Manhattan Bridal offered great dresses for rent.
My friend told the assistant her preferences and she pulled out three dresses. One was one that my friend had seen on the site, but they didn’t have her size. She tried it on anyway, but it was dissapointing that Manhattan Bridal didn’t offer it in more sizes. My friend ultimately chose another dress that fit better, a qi pao, and a selection for her mother. Overall the pricing was very reasonable for rentals, with the exception of a new gown which they wanted half the retail price just to rent.
I liked the selection that the assistants brought out, but they can be a little snippy if you want to try on more than 5 things. Our sales rep actually passed us off to another sales girl during my friend’s session because she had another client walk in. Don’t expect to be pampered and definitely have an idea of what you want before you walk in.
Good for you if you speak fluent Cantonese. Also, the pricing is very flexible if you mention that you’d like them to do your engagement or wedding photos. We had an appointment, but if you don’t go during a busy time, I think they’re open to walk ins.

I’m probably only giving it 3 stars because i found my wedding dress here (but did not order it from here)
I was looking for a specific Maggie Sottero dress so i put up with some of the annoyance — ie, them having a ton of dresses listed, but when i asked what they had, them only actually having about 2 in stock…
They then asked what size i am and would only even tell me what dresses they had in my size… As maggie dresses often have a corset in the back, i’d tried on dresses in a 10 size range, so i dont know what their reluctance was, but whatever.
They had one dress that i really wanted to try on, so i figured i’d head down. since i was going, i picked one or two others off of the list and figured i’d try those as well.
When i got there, they didnt have my list and didnt have one of the 3 dresses i was there to try on, but as it turned out, one of my ‘well, i’m going, i might as well try something else on too’ ended up being my dress…
but this really only worked for me as i’m a control freak — they never gave me any suggestions or brought me anything else… Had i been looking for a bridal consultant, i would have had trouble here.
The people were all nice and let me do whatever i wanted (as long as it wasnt take pictures — i still dont understand that — with the internet, we all know what dress we are trying on — why all the secrecy?), though it does unnerve me when people are talking about me in a language i dont understand — i actually find it quite off-​putting…
In the end, i ordered a dress i’d found here from somewhere else mostly due to the fact that reviews for this place didnt go back very far and i was concerned with how stable of a business they were (who wants to be the one in the papers crying over her barricaded dress when a store went under?)
bottom line — go if they have what you want. go somewhere else if you want the whole ‘bridal experience’ (–ick!)

** DRESS REVIEW **
I’d say for a first wedding dress trying on experience, this one was very straightforward. No frills.
FIVE DRESS MAXIMUM.
I was a bit disappointed, for when I called and made an appointment, I was supposed to list styles I liked. When I got there, they had no record of the conversation, and I hadn’t brought my list with me. They had a catalog to look through, but they were missing more than half of the styles I liked.
This was a very in and out experience. Irene was a gentler version of militant, but, in a way, the no frills experience was helpful in figuring out quickly a style that did or did not work. Her partner, Nancy, was more of a cheerleader; if Nancy hadn’t been there, I would have felt even more awkward about the experience.
The dresses were on the more worn-​out side of bridal stores, but not any worse than the other places on that end of the spectrum.
This is a very in-​and-​out experience. I think if I could do this over, I would have come ONLY if they had a specific dress I had been hunting down — and could guarantee they had it in the their store to try.

I was a member of a bridal party that rented gowns from Manhattan Bridal.
They were extremely disorganized. They ordered the wrong color, and when I was called in for my «final fitting», the nervous groom asked me to make sure I had an appointment with them, so I called to try to make one, and was told curtly that I should just ‘call when I’m in the neighborhood’ and ‘come by’.
I called ahead because I had to go by the shop after work and would only be able to arrive 30 minutes before closing. They said that was fine.
When I arrived, the staff was surprised to see me and seemed annoyed that I was there so late, as they were helping other customers.
They told me I would have to wait. I sat down to do so and noticed that several of the staff were standing together near me, looking at me, giggling and speaking in Chinese. I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable, as the only overweight, white woman in the shop.
As this was the second fitting, I had expected the hem alterations to be complete — they were not. They hadn’t even started on them. The first fitting they had the wrong color so this was the first time I was trying on the «real» dress — several days before the wedding.
They never asked me my size — they eyeballed me and then provided me a dress that was 2 sizes larger than what I normally wear. They didn’t attempt to ensure that it fit me correctly.
When she «fitted» my dress, the woman rather bluntly told me I should «keep my back turned so no one can see». (The dress was strapless and corseted, and not very flattering for my body type, particularly in back.) They seemed reluctant to do much to help me fit the bodice, and only measured the length to take up later. As this was several days before the wedding, I would not have the opportunity to come back for a second ‘final fitting’.
When I received the dress, the other groomsmaid and bridesmaid dresses fit to their busts; mine did not. It was large and had rather obscene gaps across my chest. Throughout the wedding day, I had to continually have other members of the party help me restring the corset top to keep my ample bosom from falling out. This would easily have been solved if they had tried to fit me properly and altered the bodice to fit my proportions. They seemed not to know what to do with a larger body type.
The whole experience was rather humiliating and I would not recommend this bridal shop to any woman with curves, a bust, a sense of dignity, etc.

Manhattan Bridal is a good place to go if you’re looking for a one-​stop shop for wedding services and/​or are shopping for a gown but don’t know where to start. It’s not as glam as some of the 5^th Ave salons, but not as unwieldy as a place like RK Bridal either. Come in, have a chat, and they’ll make some nice suggestions. Good = I didn’t have an appt, but they were able to squeeze me in. Bad = they made me wait until some other walk-​in was done even though I’d arrived first. Also, Carol (the owner?) is a pretty smarmy barracuda who tried to sell me a gown I didn’t completely love and make it sound like I was getting an amazing deal (except it wasn’t). Their prices were otherwise fine, but I’m turned off by sycophants. (3.5 stars)

I first went to Manhattan Bridal with my sister who was visiting from WI for the week. She was looking for a specific wedding gown from Maggie Sottero and called Manhattan Bridal and asked if they had it. They did not, but they were more than happy to order it for her in her size (for a small fee of course) so she could try it on. It arrived in a few days, and she was able to try it on. She ended up buying the dress, and they took the fee that she had paid to have them order it off of the regular price of the dress.
I was very impressed with their service, so I went back to have my bridesmaid dress hemmed and have cups put in. They were very professional about it, and I knew that they would do an excellent job on the alterations.
The women who work there are so helpful and really know their wedding dresses. I will definitely go back and get any wedding things I need done there.
I love the feel of the bridal shop as well. It is not very big, so you have to make an appointment, but it is cute.

My experience here was not good. First, the staff was not pleasant. When I asked to see the portfolio or previous examples of their photographers’ work, they denied me the request and verbally guaranteed their skills and talent (which means nothing). I said that as a designer, I wouldn’t hire a photographer without seeing their work first. One staff member then said, «If you’re a designer then you should design your own wedding gown.» I couldn’t believe she just said that to a potential client! I pushed that aside and went to try on dresses. The woman helping me at first did not even close the door (not even slightly) to the dressing room (which resembled a closet). They were consulting with other couples in the same general area as the fitting area and I really don’t need another person’s fiancé looking me up and down as I change. I had to ask the woman to close the door of the fitting room when she was helping me. I didn’t really care for their style of wedding gowns. I only liked one of them, but the prices offered by Carol the owner made it not worth it for me to rent or buy a gown. You’d fare better at David’s Bridal with price and service.

I stumbled upon this shop while looking for the Tofu Guy. There is a big awning above the grocery store on the corner that says something like «wedding superstore» or «bridal center» or something of that nature. Big faded awning. I am searching for a Kua, the original Cantonese wedding gown, so this seems like a place that would carry such things.
You walk upstairs to the shop, and there’s a buzzing when you open the door — I thought I had set off the alarm and that the shop was already closed since it was about 7 pm already, so I started to leave, but then I saw a girl poke her head out the door and it turns out they were open after all.
I asked if they had Kua, to which she immediately asked when I needed it (standard procedure for renting such things), and I said I wanted one to purchase, and how much did they run? The answer is yes, they have them to purchase for $ 600. Wow, pretty good. They are brand new too. She took one out for me (they have both beaded and gold/​silver embroidery styles), and while I wasn’t stunned by it’s beauty, it was nice and I could see $ 600 being completely reasonable. And they’ll order a size if they don’t have it already.
I asked what the fabric was, to which she said «satin.»
I rephrased, «what fiber?»
«Satin.»
“Silk, polyester, nylon? Satin is not a fiber, it’s a weave.”
«Uhh» goes to check with the more senior staff…“yeah silk” okay I’m not sure I believe it’s silk, especially for $ 600. But that’s okay. $ 600 is a great deal for a brand new Kua, with silver and gold embroidery and it has the puffy designs as well. Nice.
I notice they carry Maggie Sottero dresses, among other designers, on the racks too. This is not your average ghetto Chinese bridal shop. Pretty nice. I take their card and go on my way, very happy with myself for finding a place to get a Kua with nothing really complicated, wrong, or excessively expensive about it. I’ll bet they can do mail order too.