Amanda Ritchey Bridal Loft — Local services in Annapolis

I hate leaving bad reviews but I am hoping this will help another bride avoid the stress this shop created for me. In addition to what others have said, great selection of dresses but customer service needs serious improvement. Kai is great & the reason I’m leaving 2 stars vs 1. But the professionalism is severely lacking here & the whole experience was incredibly stressful. My first appt we had the pushy saleswoman others have addressed in the comments & I called the next day after buying the dress (they hadn’t even placed the order yet) to see if we could cancel. They reluctantly gave store credit- but I found another dress that I loved & I was grateful. When I went for my second dress fitting & the dress didn’t fit correctly (3 days before I needed it for wedding/first time even trying on the dress with custom sleeves) we were met with some attitude from the seamstress, even though she had cancelled my earlier appt I had a week prior with her…. one sleeve was significantly tighter than the other causing it to look lopsided. In addition, getting an appt with her was super stressful. It took constant reminders, texts sent with no responses, ect. to get on the schedule and it was all very last minute & stressful. I think she is very overworked & that’s not fair to her, but they shouldn’t be giving her more than she can handle/telling customers she can do all of these things when she doesn’t have the time. Also when we went for the second appt and the sleeves weren’t on yet she said to us “they’ll be sewn on right?” & we told her “nope, we want them to be detachable” we never discussed them being sewn on but she seemed surprised and a bit concerned with that. They also reassured me before buying the dress that they could add additional boning into the dress for more support (as this was one of my biggest concerns since I have a large bust), & then later on said they couldn’t do that. LUCKILY that was not an issue because I had enough support without it, but not sure why you’d say you could before buying then switch. We specifically asked about this & had a discussion about it with seamstress via phone before buying the dress. My mom & I also had to take off work for the last minute appt & we were made to feel like an imposition, though we were the ones working around her with 2 days left before needing to leave for the wedding. She left herself with no time & then acted like it was our fault… She did what she could last minute with loosening the sleeve though she wasn’t happy about it (she had to stay up the night before to do it) so that was appreciated, but why leave it all last minute & make us feel bad about it? I could’ve easily met with her much earlier- I got the dress in 2023 for an Oct 2024 wedding. And I even tried to meet with her sooner but she wouldn’t. The dress was also way too long & was impossible for me to walk in it without tripping. I had to have my planner pin the bottom on my wedding day so I could actually walk/ dance which made for some interesting photos. We were rushed in & out the door at the last fitting she squeezed us in for, so there was no time left for any fixes. We made it work because we had to, but the entire experience with this store left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth (me, my mom, mother in law, sister, ect.). My issue isn’t even the mistakes (because it happens & you deal with it) but the attitude & having 0 time left for adjustments needed was really unfortunate. The bride should have a fitting with full dress done much sooner than 3 days before the wedding.. for this reason. Management also does not seem to care about your experience- my mom complained and was told they’d call her back weeks ago but she never received a call. Planning a wedding is stressful enough as is, so you don’t want to have to go through all of this additional stress on top of everything else. As a plus sized girlie it is harder to find shops, but there are still plenty of other options.

It is what it is at this point, but I wanted to give my honest feedback in hopes it may help...

Horrible customer service. Be warned this place does not know how to communicate.

I went in with my bridesmaids in February to pick out bridesmaid dresses. I have 3 bridesmaids. Only 2 of them where with me because my third lives in NC. And I told the consultant that from the beginning and that she will probably order her dress from somewhere near her home. But she says let’s write her info down anyway. I’m like ok no harm in them have her written down. So we find some dresses that we loved. The consultant said you have some time your bridesmaids can each call and order their dress within the next few weeks. Ok great. My two bridesmaids do that. One pays for her dress in FULL. The other puts a deposit down and then calls to confirm that the dress has been ordered. They say yes it will be about 3 months. Ok fast forward to mid July. Have not heard anything out of this salon. So my bridesmaid calls to check on the status of her dress. They say we can’t find the file we will give you a call back. So they call me later that day. And they tell me that they never ordered my bridesmaid dresses because my third bridesmaid didn’t call in with her information. So I tell them well because she ordered it somewhere else which I said might happen. Well they respond with they had no idea and saying I never told them that and their policy is to order the dresses all together. I’m sorry but NO ONE once said that to me or my other bridesmaid when we were there. And that is about the dumbest thing. And please do not give me a dye lot excuse because I work with dye lot issues all the time with my job and that is BS. As long as the dresses are ordered close together there should not be a major dye lot issue that is that noticeable. And if that is their policy then part of that policy should be checking in with the bride after the two bridesmaids called and paid and the one doesn’t. Instead of taking my bridesmaids money and never ordering the dresses. And here is the real kicker they can’t get the dresses I want in time now so I have to find something else less then 2 months before my wedding during a national shortage of everything. I work in customer service and this situation was handled so poorly. Thank god my bridesmaids actually called to check on the status of their dress because if not I would have never gotten a phone call and it would be August or September and I would be even more stressed out. I hope that this never happens to another bride or her bridesmaids. And that this salon learns how to better communicate with their customers. Because the way that I was talked to yesterday was appalling, having some sales woman basically say there is nothing they can do but give my girls a refund and that I should have called then sooner. BS. You should have reached out to me months ago to check in. And you never did. You should have just apologized and taken full responsibility for your mistake instead of implying that this is anybody’s fault but your own. And you shouldn’t have lied to my bridesmaid saying you ordered her dress and never did. And my bridesmaids should have each gotten a phone call right way with an apology and a full refund which still hasn’t happened. Work on your communication so you don’t ruin someone else’s wedding. I have my flowers, napkins, and accessories all planned around these dresses that I now...

Let me start by saying.. I used to recommend this place to EVERYONE. I have spent a lot of money here between my wedding dress, my bridesmaids dresses, and the friends who I referred here for their wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses, and so on. The last time I came for my best friend's wedding for a bridesmaid dress. I was newly pregnant, at 6 weeks. We arrived for our appointment only to be told it was not on file but luckily Ann, the seamstress, was in and could assist us. I took Ann to the side (only the bride knew I was pregnant) to let her know my situation and that I would be 37 weeks at the time of the wedding and I needed help finding a correct size and style. I trusted her when she picked a style that I loved and I trusted her in the sizing. When the dress came, I was around 24 weeks maybe. The dress that was supposed to fit me at 37 weeks didn't fit my stomach area already and I wasn't even close to the day!! It was SUPER tight, no give at all in the dress. I called and made an appointment to meet the owner / seamstress to see what they could do. The day of the appointment only Ann was available, as the owner had to leave for an emergency. Ann's solution was to come back 3 weeks for the wedding and she would figure out some way to get it to fit.. Leaving me no back up plan if this did not work out wit no time at all to come up a second option. I took the dress to another seamstress who I use frequently for a second opinion and was told that there was no way this would fit, there was no material to work with. I had to spend money on a different style by the same designer that I found online and it fits perfectly and has stretch (if only the seamstress chose this dress originally).. Now, the bride is being called by the place and being told that the owner knew nothing about this issue (I had an appt so I am not sure how this is true), or any of the other bridesmaids issues (2 other bridesmaids dresses came back smaller than they were supposed to be!) and that she can't do anything to help me at all. It wasn't the dress or size or their fault.. Unfortunately, I don't agree because I have stayed pretty small this pregnancy and should have fit into this dress just fine ... and thank God I have found another option. But I am out a lot of money when I could really use it. The dress they chose for me was almost $250. I would like a refund on the dress that they chose for me but I am being told there is nothing that they can do and I can sell it on a wedding website. Bottom line is, I will not recommend this place going forward, as I don't appreciate the way they handled this situation. I trusted them and ended up getting screwed completely.

IF YOU ARE PREGNANT, THE BRIDE WAS SPECIFICALLY TOLD 6 months after the fact THAT they DO NOT consider their dresses maternity and sizing up the standard 3 sizes does not mean it will fit. They are not responsible for these dresses fitting. I was not informed of this at the...