Vows Bridal — Attraction in Watertown

PLUS SIZE BRIDES BEWARE (Size 18+). Awful, absolutely the worst shopping experience of my life. I made an appointment in advance for a Thursday evening. I had read that Saturdays are their busiest times so I wanted to get in on a night where I could have a more attentive dress attendant and not feel so rushed. Let me start off by saying that I am a street size 16/18. So I knew in advance that I would be shopping in the plus size dresses for wedding dresses. Their website features plus size dresses and also says that they have options for plus size brides. When I set up my appointment through their online portal I specifically made a note in their form saying that I was a plus size bride looking for plus size dresses.

We get to the store for our 6:45 appointment and we were introduced to a woman who was going to be our attendant. She showed us to the plus size racks. To my disappointment, there are three, maybe four racks for plus size brides and the dresses are older vintage-y styles and all sort of look the same. There isn't a lot of variety. I brought my iPad with me with pictures of dress examples that I had taken from THEIR website to show the attendant and she waved away my iPad and told me those dresses weren't available. I tried to explain if they weren't available that was fine-but that it was the style/color/fit of the dress that appealed to me. I did tell her up front that I DO NOT like Trumpet style dresses. And guess what- she pulled Trumpet dresses for me to try on. When I voiced that I didn't want to try them on she told me to try them anyways just in case. So here I am, a plus sized bride, trying to cram myself into a narrow dress style that wont go on because it's too small and I'm starting to get very frustrated. There was one dress she pulled that I could fit into- but I didn't like it at all- it was a trumpet- but I didn't like how it fell on my waistline and I didn't like the color or the bling and sparkles on the bust. I told her I was going to take it off because it wasn't the one.

I put on my regular clothes and asked her if there were more dresses she could pull and she said no-that because of my size I didn't really have many options! Seriously? I was so hurt and humiliated. I told her I wanted to look at the racks myself. Within two minutes of looking around in their plus size options I found a sweet heart neckline/Aline dress in MY SIZE to try on. I pulled it off the rack and she took it from me and said, "Oh I forgot about this gown. But honey it's gorgeous and you're going to love it. Let's go put it on!". So I'm frustrated but I put the gown on. And, of course, it fits. And it looks...fine. Not special. Not spectacular. Not wonderful. Not awe inspiring. Just fine. And the attendant wouldn't leave me alone. She kept saying "It's gorgeous! It looks so nice on you! Look how beautiful you look!". I was very offended. Her attitude was like, "There is this ONE dress that she sort of likes. So I'm going to try to make her feel beautiful so she'll buy it and leave!" She knew we were close to walking out of the store and she tried to pull out all the stops. She brought belts in and out to dress the dress up and down to give me an idea. Offered to swap out the plain belt the dress came with for a more expensive belt for free. She offered me a free veil if I bought the dress today. And she also offered to order me free fabric so that I could have sleeves made for the dress since I didn't want a strapless dress.

Basically in tears, I left. We thanked her for her time, even though it had been a miserable appointment, and told her we were going to go to another bridal salon. She asked where. And when we told her, she said their dresses may not be as good quality as theirs. We went to Marry &Tux in New Hampshire and the experience was magical and perfect. My wedding dress is beautiful- and was much cheaper than any of the dresses the VOWS attendant put me in.

To other plus sized brides: I hope you know that you're absolutely beautiful and you deserve the perfect dress...

This is hard to write because I actually love my dress that I got from Vows, but I don't feel like I got any sort of deal, oppositely I feel like I got completely screwed financially. And no one cared that I got screwed either.

I went to Vows SPECIFICALLY for their discounted dresses. I told the bridal consultant that I was looking to spend no more than $1,300 on my dress. She grabbed a huge variety, and I ended up falling completely in love with with a $1,750 lace sweetheart, mermaid gown. One of the reasons I fell head over heals was because it fit me like a glove! The only difference which I knew I would have to have done regardless of any dress was the length because I am only 5'1". I was amazed to find out that the dress was a size 8 ... generally I am a size 4/6. I had heard that dresses run big, so figured an 8 was not that crazy. When they took my measurements, they said they were going to order a size 6 to which I said wouldn't be smart because the 8 fit me perfectly ... not big or small, literally perfect. To order a size 6 would be going smaller ... you can take fabric away if it is too big, but you can't add fabric if it too small. They didn't even hesitate and said the 8 was fine to order as well.

Three months later, I am watching "I Found The Gown" on TLC. And to my amazement, someone on the show tries on my exact dress. Usually with Vows, what you see is what you get. However, I happened to pick a dress that came on a rack that you could order from. So as I watched the show, a girl walks out of the changing room and in my EXACT dress, to which her bridal consultant says "This dress retails for $1,750 but we are selling it for $750!" My jaw dropped. I was completely caught off guard and hurt that I was charged an EXTRA $1,000!!!

The next day, I called and asked to speak with a manager. As I explained to the manager that this was really quite awkward to confront, and that I was hurt somewhat that I was ripped off, she cut me off basically and made it very clear that she could not have cared less. She told me that on the show they tried to sell her the "crap" floor model, and because I ordered from the rack, I had a custom dress for me. Instead, I needed to come in and pay $990 for the remaining balance because my dress had just come in. Even being the case that they were going to sell her that version, I was never offered the floor model. I am paying for most of my wedding myself, and I could have used the extra $1,000. And the worst part: at NO point did she even bother to say SORRY or SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION. There was ZERO compassion. She didn't care at all, not one bit. I was stunned and angry.

To make matters worse, I grabbed my dress that week and just bit the bullet and paid the balance, verified that they ordered the right size and left as quickly as possible. A few weeks later I brought my dress to the woman doing my alterations. As I put the dress on, in the SAME size I tried on in the store, the dress practically fell off my body. It was EASILY 2 sizes too big. It was horrible. I can say honestly that I lost ZERO weight between then and when I ordered the dress, so I know it was not my body. Oh, and the best part? The quote for my dress to be completely redone: $600!

If you don't care about the risk of being ripped off, then Vows is a great place to go. If you care about being cost effective and being treated with compassion, Vows is...

I had an extremely poor experience all around at Vows and definitely don't recommend. Wedding dress shopping should be a customized and memorable experience, but the only thing memorable was the bad customer service I received. On the shopping day, it felt extremely rushed, although I did decide on a dress at the end (though could have kept looking). When my time was up with the stylist, I felt as though I was being pushed out the door. But it was a busy day, and I understand they had to keep things moving. Fast forward to a few months later, my dress came in. I called to set up a pickup on a weekend day, as I am not local and live 3+ hours away. I simply wanted to try the dress on at pickup to see if it fit -- however, I was told I couldn't come until February if I wanted to try it on during a weekend day. Come on, this doesn't take more than 10 minutes, I thought to myself. I was frustrated and explained, again, that I'm not local and really need a weekend day. There was zero flexibility. I finally determined I'd have to take a day off from work if I wanted this dress before Feb. Fast forward again, I had a flight into Boston incoming on a Friday. I made the appointment at Vows for that afternoon to pick up/try on the dress. As it usually goes, the flight was delayed and I was cutting it close to get to Vows before they closed at 5:30. This whole time I was communicating with them, calling to say I was going to be late and/or there at the last minute. They were totally unwilling to stay open even a minute later for me to pick up my dress, even after I reminded them (again) I lived hours away. I called them when I was 0.1 miles away, stating I was stuck at a red light. The time was 5:27. They told me it was too late, they close at 5:30 no exceptions, and if I happened to get there, I would not be able to try on. I was very upset. When I got there at 5:29, the door was still unlocked thankfully, and they reluctantly let me try it on, however, the woman helping was clearly annoyed that she had to stay 4 minutes late. I thanked her for letting me try it on, stated how thankful I was for her time, apologized for being late, and also stated that I would have been disappointed if I had to drive home empty handed. The reply I got from that was "this will teach you to schedule these types of appointments on days that you travel, won't it." Totally unneeded and I was clearly just their biggest inconvenience of the day. Very very disappointed with the service I received and should have gone to a small shop in...