Marie Gabriel Couture Bridal — Attraction in Indianapolis

To give an accurate review of our experience at Marie Gabriel Couture, is very challenging. Our experience was one of pure elation with our original visit, experience and purchase of my daughter’s gown- during a trunk sale. However…. When the dress arrived, it turned very sour. My daughter: 6’1”, her fiancé is 6’7”: the ONE my daughter told them when filling out the paperwork: “I’ve always struggled with finding items long enough, and can’t wait to wear heels on my wedding day” (Tall girls will understand) so just to make sure- we paid an extra $250.00 for extra length! My daughters, and I were ecstatic, (purchased this in July for a May 26th wedding)- now we wait, thankful to have this checked off our list. My daughter received the call that her dress was in, and she came in for the fitting, and immediately noticed the dress was short, and the sleeves were very short. The stylist tried convincing her it was a perfect fit, and when my daughter brought to her attention that it seemed short, (she was wearing a 2 1/2” heel), she went to get Young: who immediately told my daughter- “oh, the dress is too short- you’ll have to wear flats!” My daughter left feeling so deflated, stressed, and honestly was made to feel like it was all in her head- after all, she is told over and over by young “I wish all dresses fit our brides as well” ( I was not there to defend her or how the dress was obviously ordered too small) My daughter came home, sent me pictures, and trying to hold back tears so not to appear ungrateful, and then I was furious. I emailed Young that night, expressing my frustration over her experience, and that obviously the dress was too short, the sleeves were too short, and the solution offered of “ you’ll have to wear flats” was not only rude, but an unacceptable option based on a mistake in not measuring my daughters height, (and adding ENOUGH length to accommodate a 2 1/2” heel) and ARM length. I told her that I would be making the 7 hour trip to discuss an acceptable option based on their mistake:

1. reorder the correct size with correct length- we still had 5 1/2 months before the wedding
2. give us our money back or credit in their store
3. remake the sleeves **our compromise was to wear flats- but fix the sleeves We showed up for our appointment, convinced that Young would do whatever possible to make it right based on her follow-up conversation with my daughter and telling her not to worry “we’re here for you” And although Young was extremely positive and professional, doing whatever she could to convince my daughter, that the dress was perfect, and she could take out extra in the dress to drop the length. Secondly, the sleeves were not fitting and she tried to convince us that they were- And that my daughter was “insecure” and “all she needed was tape to hold the sleeves in place on her shoulders- and maybe we could let a little bit of the without at the cuff which would “drop it a little bit”. Wow: I’ve literally heard of people ghosting someone, but never experienced it before my very eyes. She literally did what she could to convince us that what we were seeing before our eyes was not actually true. One thing was for certain she was not going to refund our money or give us credit at her store no matter what, and she was not going to acknowledge what we were seeing because that would admit fault! 😂😂 I told Young before I left that the solution she thought was acceptable was not necessarily acceptable in my opinion, and that I would need to talk with my daughter privately to see how she felt. We left feeling bullied into doing it the way Young wanted us to do it and when we got to the car and were able to process what the heck just happened, It made us furious all over again. We googled another bridal store in Indianapolis and thought if we can find a dress there, then that was our answer. (Thank you to “Gretchen’s Bridal Gallery”) I in turn, replied to Young to tell her that I would be riding a bad review, and I was very disappointed in my experience. Read the reviews before...

Arrived 5 minutes early(1:25pm Saturday November 24th 2018)

1:30-1:45 Kayla, sales associate went over dress ideas with me

1:45-2:10 Looked at dresses

2:10 Taken back to the stage while Kayla pulled dresses

2:20 Kayla and I then began trying on dresses like a well oiled machine. We were efficient and worked well together. We tried on 8 dresses and I was on stage for an average time of 2 minutes. The dresses ranged in how long to get in and out of, the average time was 3 minutes

The owner, Young Colling, was a looming presence the entire time, walking past and whispering things to Kayla every so often while also telling me what I do and don’t look good in in front of all of my group while I’m on stage including telling me, “Cap sleeves definitely don’t look good on you”

2:45, only 25 minutes after I began trying on dresses I found “the one” however none of my party liked it. We decided to take a quick break to discuss what to do

2:50 we stepped outside avoid pressure and to gain clarity. We stepped back in at 2:55 and I had decided that with some alterations I was going to say yes to the dress

3:00 I was back out on stage with my gown. Kayla had everyone close their eyes as she put the veil on me and handed me a bouquet. She had everyone open their eyes and I was so happy- all smiles. Kayla said, is this a yes? I said, “Yes!” Also worth noting the dress was $3,450.00.

3:10 Kayla tells one of the other associates to get the champaigne. The veil was nice but since my dress was champaigne I asked if we could try on some cathedral champagne colored veils

3:15 (55 minutes after I tried on my first dress). As I’m standing up there in my dress with a veil, flowers in my hand and had already said yes as my whole bridal party is sitting in front of me and Kayla is next to me, Young Colling came up to the stage and said, “You have to go! I have a very angry bride! Her appointment was at 3pm! She is very unhappy! I didn’t know you were going to leave and come back! You have to leave now! I glance at my bridal party, all mouths hung open in shock and look back at Young Colling, I stood there, stoic and unmoved. I have dealt with several of these types in my lifetime, in my travels, in work and so I just stood there in my dress waiting to hear what she would say next. Sure enough she continues, I run this business like a restaurant! You come in, you get what you need and you get out. (Which, I’m not sure what type of restaurants she goes to but I’ve seen people stay at least half an hr or more after they’ve paid their bills countless times, that’s a terrible analogy on top of an already horrific situation.) With my head held high and my poker face on, I said, “Firstly, we were stepped out for no longer than 5 minutes and also, no problem, we’ll go and I’ll be purchasing this dress from another salon.”

-It is worth noting that I received 3 confirmations of my 1:30 appointment prior to this day. None of them mentioned a time limit, nothing about 90 minutes. There was nothing at all, just the time to arrive.

-As I head back to the dressing room after being scolded the tears I held back on stage poured down my face the moment we were in the dressing room and Kayla hugged me and kept apologizing on behalf of her boss. Young came to the curtain and she began yelling at Kayla saying, “This is ALL your fault! You knew you had a 3pm! Tell her to come back at 5! She needs to come back at 5!

We all left very quickly and were out of there at 3:20. My bridal party commended me on how I handled the situation and they were all hugging me and apologizing profusely for my experience being ruined.

-At 7:15pm that night I saw that I missed a call from none other than Marie Gabrielle Bridal Salon. I’m sure that after some thinking, Young is missing her 4 grand that I was 10 minutes away from spending.

-My friend said it best, “All she had to do was go to you privately in the room and say that she booked too closely today and apologize and ask you to maybe go grab a bite to eat and come back and you gladly...

I loved the store and enjoyed working with my stylist very much. It was a great experience, and I did end up finding the dress that I love. I tried it on Sunday, let it marinate in my mind, and then came back again Wednesday to try it on and then buy it. My only gripe (and I hate to do this but it's left me feeling awful the past couple of days) is that I'm pretty positive the dress was quoted at 2750 since I specified my comfortable budget was $2500. It was the first dress I tried on Sunday, and I fell in love with it - I remember hearing, "it is Slightly out of your budget, it's 2750, if that's okay with you." I decided to still consider the dress as an option because I really liked it. The second dress was pretty good, but not quite as amazing as that first one, so I asked the price of that second dress, which was 2450. I remember making a mental note about it and even making a small comment with my stylist that the difference between that second dress and the first wasn't too much off considering how much more connected I felt with the first dress. Towards the end of the appointment, she generously offered a 5% discount, valid only by the end of that day, on the dress which again I made a mental note in my head that it definitely was more in my budget because that brought it closer to ~$2600, and again my budget was $2500. I decided, since it was still slightly out of budget, to let the decision sit for a bit to see if I could find another dress that I loved at another store for a bit less. I ended up not finding another dress at a different store, and when I came back Wednesday to buy it, I was told the same dress was $2990. I was extremely confused and asked my stylist, "I thought you said it was $2750 the other day," and she said I must have confused it with another dress price. In reality, there were only 3 dress prices discussed that day: $2750 for the first dress, $2450 for the second, $3190 or so for some other dress which I knew was way out of budget. So given that these were the only prices that I vividly remember us discussing, I don't believe I remembered incorrectly. It is unfortunate because I do love the dress a lot and I did enjoy my stylist, but the pricing discrepancy between the two days really threw me off. I would have loved to give this place 5 stars if it wasn't for the...