Brides House and Formals

I am sad to report that I have not had a positive experience with the Bride’s House. I live in northern VA, but visited this place because my sister lives near it, and found a beautiful dress on sale for the weekend only in February. Our first experience with Becky was wonderful. She was very patient and helpful, and I felt the service was personal but professional. The dressing room was charming, and I felt the place had a good selection of pretty dresses. However, originally I one-​starred this place because my experience after that declined more every time I went. It took five separate fittings to get my dress right. Even though people knew I was driving four hours for these fittings and I called in advance to check the progress, every time I arrived things were not done that had been discussed at precious appointments. One time, because no one took notes on our appointment, I went and NOTHING had been done from the time before. I had to have the same fitting appointment twice. Although all the women working there are very sweet, no efforts were made to compensate for these inconveniences other than empty apologies every time. Finally, the owner met with us and made an action plan for compensating portions of the alterations. I moved the one-​star to a two-​star because she did TRY to make things a little better. I liked her, but I was still put out by having to drive back and forth, burning up gas money and time I did not have to spare!
I am not a girly girl and all in all do not care about wedding details. I am not someone to get upset like this over a dress. What made me upset is that the alterations were expensive and the process was never ending. If you can find a dress here without getting alterations done here, by all means. However, I was disappointed with the whole situation and I don’t know that I’d go back because of it. :(

I would not recommend Brides House and Formals to anyone after my experience with them. I purchased a Bridesmaid dress and was given a bill with my balance after paying half. When I went to pick the dress up, they added more fees, supposedly a «rush fee» when I ordered the dress 5 months before the event. There was no mention of this when I first ordered the dress, and like I said, they gave me a final invoice with no mention of the fee either. No one even contacted me to let me know they were adding to my already agreed upon bill; they just waited to surprise me when I picked it up. When I showed them my original bill, they still refused to accommodate, knowing that I either could forfeit what I had already paid and not be in the wedding, or pay for it with the additional charges. Will not be shopping there in the future and will not recommend to anyone needing formal wear.