Élan Formals & Boutique LLC — Local services in Andalusia

If I could give one star, I definitely would. My daughter has never been "prom dress shopping", so this was a special event for her. We drove 2+ hours to Elan, and we were greeted as we entered the store. Everything else from that point was terrible. My daughter tried on several gowns and the salesgirl held the train on each dress as I took a photo of my daughter in it - never one time did she ever ask us not to take photos of the gowns. After my daughter had tried on about 4-5 dresses, one of the other salesgirls commented "we don't really like for y'all to take photos of the tags", to which I said I was sorry and we stopped taking photos of the tags on the gowns. I was unsure why, but I assume it is because their gowns are marked up well over retail. After my daughter tried on 1-2 more gowns, an older lady walked over to us and very rudely yelled at my daughter if she was taking pictures she would have to delete all of them before leaving the store. She also said "I know two of my girls have already told you to stop taking pictures". This is untrue, as the only person who had previously said anything was the salesgirl (not ours) that said not to take photos of the tags. I could see my daughter was very visibly upset, so we said thank you and left the store. They lost my business forever, as well as everyone I know that I can tell about our experience. My daughter commented when we left that she never wants to go prom dress shopping ever again, so I am really upset that these incredibly rude girls have ruined this experience for...

My daughter and I have had the pleasure of shopping at Elan formals with the fabulous Edmondson ladies for almost a decade. They’ve always gone above and beyond to dress us in the most fabulous way. They’ve also done hair and make up for many events. We’ve always felt at home and like one of the family when shopping for formal wear or every day attire. I hope you take the time to make the short drive to see all the choices they have available. You will truly be amazed. As for the person who so cowardly wrote such a negative review MONTHS after Ms. Cathy’s passing, you have no class. Even if every word of what you said were true, as a highly doubt since it was months later, your timing is ruthless and unnecessary. I have personally seen Ms. Cathy deal with the most difficult people, and make everyone effort to dress them in the finest dress that compliments and flatters their age and body style. That was her gift and her passion. I pray that anyone reading this considers the timing of your posting and therefore considers you the most ruthless of people. Shop Elans formals for all your pageant needs as well as everyday attire and gifts for someone special...

No negative stars, so I chose one. The negative reviews are NOT false and are NOT lies. First visit, got highly reprimanded because we did not like the dress the store picked for my daughter. The owner became extremely defensive because we didn’t really like the dress she chose. Extremely rude. Made the mistake of a second visit a year or so later, just to look because there are not many pageant stores close by, and both children who were looking for dresses were screamed and yelled at by owner because they couldn’t find anything like they wanted and one of them mentioned to the other maybe they could check The Clothes Tree in Birmingham. Owner and daughter went nuts because how dare my daughter mention another store in their store….they just kept screaming and yelling. Girls left crying. WILL NEVER GIVE THIS STORE ANY OF MY MONEY!! I will NOT respond to owner’s reply if there is one. Drive hours to another store if you have to. The trauma to your children is...