House of Brides Couture — Attraction in Lombard

Why I’m giving this place 2 stars is bc my dress itself was beautiful. My experience w/ the alterations and receiving my dress was an actual nightmare. I came to look for my dress in June 2024. And returned a month later with family. I felt pressured to put down a deposit on a dress I wasn’t 100% about, when I told them I was still going to shop around. I URGE ANYONE IN THE SAME SITUATION DONT FEEL PRESSURED AND LOOK AROUND!!! They at least did let me change to a different dress in February 2025. I had been having 2nd thoughts about the 1st. I did ask if at this point there was enough time for it to arrive for my July wedding. Since we were supposed to get married abroad. The date they had down was July 15. I did notify in March that the date would be August 15. BIG MISTAKE. They assured me it would be here by May/June. May came and nothing. I did reach out multiple times and was told it would be here June. I waited and mid June, I did call and was told that it would actually be coming that week. Long story short- every week I called it was the following week that it would arrive. The lady on the phone, Maria assured me that even if it arrived the week of the wedding, alterations would turn out fine. This went on for a month until I went in person upset that I kept being told it would be here every week, but the week never arrived. My concern was there would not be enough time to complete alterations and was told they should be started 4 to 6 weeks out. She said that the seamstress has worked overnights to complete and it would be fine. That’s concerning. They’re overworking the seamstress and prob why alterations might not be coming out well on for those other negative reviews. It finally arrived 3 weeks prior. I immediately went to start alterations, I had previously said that I wanted to add sleeves and blusher veil, and it seemed like this was new to the seamstress. She was open to doing this, however. I went back a total of about 4 times for alterations, up to the week before my wedding and was surprised that I was not able to take my dress home yet nor had the alterations been finished. I was still trying on a dress that was being held together by pins. I finally went in the day before my wedding to ensure that everything had fit correctly. My biggest issue was the chest area and I let them know this from the beginning. The dress that was ordered for me was about 5 sizes larger than my normal dress size. Which I understand this is common among wedding dresses and given I have larger hips. It had to be taken in ALOT at the waist area but with this, the chest should have also been taken in. I asked to at least have extra padding put in just to have some support. But I truly felt like that should have been taken in. I later found out that the alterations with the bustling should’ve been done without my heels and they never once told me to take them off for this. I did request for the sleeves to be attached by snaps and not stitched on since I wanted to remove them. I paid extra for this and the cupping so you would think that it would turn out well and to my liking. Unfortunately no. But I took my dress home that night since my wedding was the next day. I also noticed a lot of the beading would fall off when touched and prob due to alterations, but there should have been something done about ensuring nothing was falling off. Long story short, my dress was EXPENSIVE, way too big in my chest still w/ no support, way too long I was tripping all night, there were open stitches! and BLUE marks still on my dress! straps way too long my MOH had to try sewing me into my dress. I told the shop I would pay the balance after seeing the alterations to ensure they were done right and they refused and demanded it before that and said they would be done just fine. THEY ARE LIARS. and I see now why they wanted the money upfront. My advice? If you come here to get a dress and fall in love with one, buy the dress and get the alterations done somewhere else. This was a horrible experience and ruined my wedding and...

So if I could go back and not use this shop I would. First of all our saleswomen was nice and helpful he name was Araceli she was probably the only positive person in this encounter. So the dress I really liked had stains on it and was discontinued, they offered to steam the dress but any deep stains on the dress would have to be removed by me (this dress is over $1000 and if I’m spending that much money I shouldn’t have to clean stains out of a new dress). I went with another dress and paid $1000 cash to order it. I looked at the dresses for my bridesmaids and they were all very pricey and decided to go with another store that had pretty much the same dresses but for $100 less. This was just me choosing to be more cost efficient for my bridesmaids. So about a week after ordering is when the harassing phone calls started. Automated calls and text messages about sales. Several a week. I had to call twice to get them to stop these messages. This really makes me angry because when I put my number down, it was go pick up my dress not be harassed and solicited sales. I even asked for this not to happen when signing up! So once they stopped, I let it go no issues. So today I get a message from them telling me that my dress is in and they stated I owe more then what my receipt says I owe and tell me it is CASH ONLY! I called in to ask what I need to do and verify that I can put this on my card and the lady on the phone was probably having a bad day because she basically yelled at me saying I should have known it was cash only pickup and “oh well that’s our store policy.” If I knew this I wouldn’t have put the $1000 in cash to begin with! I would have put that portion on my card! Nobody told me this when I purchased my dress! This is not written on the receipt! I verified with the three people I was with that this was not mentioned! So now I have to pay cash that I wasn’t expecting to use which is an inconvenience at this point. I am also curious to find out when I pick up my dress why they are charging me more. My receipt says a different number. (Taxes, shipping and alterations were all included, what are they adding on?) so overall I appreciated our sales lady but this company is not client friendly, tried to sell stained dresses without cleaning them, harasses you with sales calls and messages, doesn’t disclose “cash only” policy and tries to change fees after you already paid. I wouldn’t recommend this company as a whole to anyone after these experiences. -Kelly H I am editing because the response from the store: I went to pick up my dress, the extra charge was for a bag to keep it in which I didn’t ask for. I also looked adamantly for the signage that says that the customer has to pay cash for their final payment, there was no sign anywhere in sight. The receipt said nothing about it, the associate said nothing about it (confirmed by the 4 people I was with), and there are no signs at all in the store about saying this policy. The associate suggested my dress was purchased before new ownership (which would mean the policy wasn’t in place) and that they refuse to honor the policy that was in effect WHEN I PURCHASED MY DRESS! I refuse to have them alter the dress for $400+ after reading the reviews on other sites (which I suggest you do). I have found a place to do it for $150 and it was ready in a week! As stated before, this company is under new ownership and is not customer friendly. I would suggest looking on other sites for reviews since these people all received money off their dress to leave a review...

No option to leave 0 stars, so I had to leave 1. My sister bought her wedding dress from this store 9 years ago and recommended I give them a try to. So I did! I tried on a dress and thought I really liked it, so I said "yes to the dress" and put down a deposit of $150. I called the following morning and asked them if I could get a refund because I had knots in my stomach as that dress was nothing like the one I actually wanted and I would have to basically reconstruct the entire thing. I felt horrible that I changed my mind, but it just wasn't the dress for me. They told me no, they could not refund me, but I could have a store credit to get something else. I was fine with that because I knew I could order my sister's maid of honor dress from there! I mentioned to them that I would be calling back in December after she had her baby to set up an arrangement for her to try dresses on. They said sure, no problem! Once December rolled around, I called to use my credit and they told me "there's no way for you to get a maid of honor dress for your sister in two months time, it's just not possible". I found that hard to believe as the website says "2-8 weeks RUSH delivery" as an option to order a dress. After calling to speak with the manager (Jennifer) three times and them telling me she was too busy every time, they blocked my number. Mind you, I was very kind and was just trying to see what my options were. My sister reached out to Jennifer directly via email (they had built a relationship when my sister ordered her wedding dress from House of Brides 9 years ago) and Jennifer sent her a photo of my sister's "ONLY OPTION"... a floor model dress that looked like it had been run over with a car 4 times and was about 6 sizes too big! She said that's all she could do for my sister with the $150 deposit I put down. I don't know what kind of scam artist shop this place is, but that is just BAD business! My sister kindly said "I will just have my sister come in to get a veil from you guys with her credit and I hope you unblock her phone number". Sure enough, after my sister called her out on blocking me, they unblocked my number. I came in (without an appointment) to get my veil and did not mention who I was when I walked in. I picked out the veil I wanted and walked up to the counter with it. Once I told them who I was they looked like a couple of deer in headlights! I came unannounced because I did not want them hiding the only good veils they had. That's how much of a scam shop I consider this place to be! After I bought my veil, I took a look at the MANY dresses my sister could have bought off the rack directly from their store, either $150 or LESS. I couldn't believe how beautiful some of these dresses were compared to the garbage they told me sister to get. NEVER will I recommend anyone to go to this place. I have had AMAZING people being a part of my big day. All of my vendors are helpful, kind, sweet, reasonable, and honest. This experience with House of Brides, however, is something I won't ever forget and I will forever give them bad feedback if anyone ever asks me about them. If I could give negative stars, I would. You tried to rob me of my money, but you didn't win. Sorry! So glad I never have to deal...