Dearly Bridal — Attraction in Hastings

If you are thinking about going anywhere else, here are a bunch of reasons to only go here & not to a huge retail store. First of all, it is a local small business- already huge. I made a 1 hour appointment from 1pm-2pm today. Raegan R. was the one helping me out (She was amazing btw) I told her my budget was $400 or less, my fiance & I were the only ones paying for the wedding, so we really needed this budget, it was strict & a huge deal breaker on any dress. Raegan told me that all of the dresses were under $2,000, so of course, I felt heartbroken at first- but it was my very first time ever trying on dresses in my life, so I figured worst case scenario, I would try them on & find out what I did & did not like for our next appointment at David's Bridal on 28th street. She let my whole party pick out dresses to try on (5+ total) All of the dresses that I tried on were so beautiful & such high quality. All of the beading & lace were intact & the fabric on them all felt so high quality, that I could see why you get what you pay for here. Just so beautiful. I told her what I liked & what I did not like on each dress & she ended up going & picking out even more within those guidelines & what she thought I would be looking for. She zipped me up & made sure I was confident enough to show my party before opening the curtain & talked to me one on one in the curtain first before showing anyone else & made sure I felt beautiful. It was then that I found THE dress. I have never felt more beautiful in a dress in my life, I cried. It already fit like a glove, which was a huge bonus (I am a plus-sized bride, so I was not super confident going in.) I couldn't imagine anything else other than that dress. It was $1,299 way out of budget, so of course- my heart was shattered & I thought, there is no way I will ever be able to get that dress. Raegan, being the amazing person she is assured me that we were going to make it work. She went to the register & came back & told me that since it had already fit, she could sell it to me as a sample dress & take the one that they had in the store home with me today for $499- still a little out of budge, but a HUGE steal that I could not pass up. I did not have that money with me, but they offered payment plans, which was so helpful. Fast forward, we were walking out of the appointment with the dress still in mind, Raegan wrote down all of the info about the dress, gave me her personal number to text her if I wanted her to save it for me. (Also as a side note, the dress was called Mona, which is my cat's name so it was even more of a done deal lol) we had one other appointment today at David's Bridal at 4:30, so I thought we could get lunch in between the appointments, but when I looked at my clock it was now 2:43 (our appointment was a 1 hour block from 1-2pm) not once did Raegan or any of the other girls rush us or remind us of this time slot, they didn't push anything on us or make us feel like we were an inconvenience. I was shocked. We made our way up to David's Bridal a little early since we wouldn't have time to eat in between & would just get lunch after that one. (which was fine) David's Bridal started our appointment early, cool. I told them the budget & that I had just tried on the most beautiful dress in the world. Quickly, my consultant obviously lost interest in me. She did not care about anything after that. She showed me the minimal rack where I could pick things out, none of which could hold a flame to any of the dresses I tried on at Dearly Bridal. She let us pick out 1.. ONE.. dress to try on. The others were her picks, she went to grab them & came back in less than 2 minutes. I tried each of them on there, each one either had a tear or the beading was coming off or it was just nothing I would ever choose to wear. All of them were 3x more expensive than the quote that Raegan gave me. After the second dress, she kept saying "your hour is almost up." I felt so rushed and upset, I hated every second of it. Finally I got home, quickly texted Raegan & bought my dream...

Dearly Loved offers lovely used and some discounted new bridal gowns, and sometimes other formal gowns. Although I did not end up finding my wedding dress here, I truly appreciate the service they are providing to local brides. Not every bride can or wants to spend 5000 on a dress!! I enjoyed all my visits to Dearly Loved, their customer service is superb.

I first visited back when they were in the Lowell location in the spring of 2020, and made a true bridal appointment. The staff were so helpful pulling dresses and making the time fun. This was during the height of the early pandemic, mind you, so fun was hard to come by. It was so refreshing to be around someone who really seemed to care about me and my wedding. I did buy some wedding day accessories there, shoes and garter- both reasonably priced and cute!! At that time they seemed to have an emphasis on bridal gowns priced under $500, and even quite a few simple and/or vintage dresses in the $100-$200 range. What a wonderful option for the community this was.

After they moved I visited the new location in Middleville in the spring of 2021 looking for a bridesmaid dress, and although they had far fewer to choose from than when they were in Lowell, I did find one I loved and bought it! The bridesmaids dress was a minty green, and just perfect for the day. While I was there I was surprised to see that the low end price of their bridal gowns seemed to have increased to about $600 or higher. Yes, they were lovely gowns. However, I was sad to see they seemed to be phasing out the true "bargain bin" options - and thus closing their doors to the brides who truly cannot afford to spend even $500 on a dress they'll only wear for one day. I believe every bride should feel special and beautiful on her wedding day, and that still can be accomplished on a shoestring budget if you know where to look- but it looks like Dearly Loved is not going to be one of those places. My last visit was a year ago, so what the prices are like right now, in the midst of inflation, I don't know. In their earlier days their goal was to have all their gowns priced under $1000. I hope this is still a part of the Dearly Loved's mission!

If you have over $600 to spend on a wedding dress this is a great place to look for beautiful gowns, with small town charm and friendliness. If you are on an even tighter budget, this may be a disappointing...

Well, first of all, there should have been a worker there to help every single person with an appointment. Before we even walked in, a young girl stated she changed her appointment. However, her name wasn't on the list for our time slot. They let her go in anyway, which was a nice thing to do. Upon going in, because there was an extra person, they gave her my dressing room, so I was shoved off to the back in a space that isn't even realistic to try on a dress. Then, because there was an extra person, my helper did not help what's so ever. We had to ask for help, after so long of struggling to do it ourselves. Once we had to ask for help, she came to assist, where we then asked for dresses in my size. She proceeded to tell me, "We don't have any in your size; we sold out this morning." Ummmm, excuse me?????? You scheduled these appointments, you had us fill out a survey, and didn't give a courtesy email or call that you didn't have a single dress in my size???!?!??! Wow! For someone who drove almost 3 hours to get there, that was incredibly disappointing. Not to mention....what is a dollar dress day when you legitimately have only 1 rack with 6 dresses on it? And then have the audacity to tell me when trying to purchase a dollar is for serious brides only." If you were trying to help serious people find a dress for their big day you have just cost them tons of gas to get there for absolutely horrible service and nothing to leave with. I must say, the ladies at the front check out were kind and did their part, in fact when the so called "helper " flew up to the front to say only serious brides get to buy these, the other workers mouths hit the floor. It's such a shame. For a first experience looking for a dress for my big day, you have really set the bar low. I would not...