Ve'Lace Bridal — Local services in Bellingham

I called 10 stores before finding Ve’Lace. Shadia was beyond wonderful from 1st phone call to try-on to ordering & receiving my dress. She was able to get the exact dress I was searching for within weeks of 1st phone call. Placed order in November & dress arrived in Jan.

My issue is not w/ Shadia or her team. They were beyond wonderful & fantastic. The seamstress working with the store is where my issues lie. 1st appt. was w/ the seamstress on 5/13. We pinned & discussed what needed to be done. I left my dress with them, paid for alterations & made 2nd fitting for 6/24, (ended up needing to reschedule to 7/1, the team was very understanding.) The seamstress was in possession of my dress for over a month. I expected not all, but most of the alterations to be done. 2nd appt. came & I was dismayed. It didn’t seem like she did anything. Pins for the bustle were still on there, hem hadn’t been done, sleeves were not attached/altered. I asked what she did since the last appointment & she said she did the straps, had sewed in the small modesty piece. I was disappointed but tried to be understanding. I know it's a busy bridal season. I reiterated my wedding was 26 days away & I really needed this done or very close to done (read as very minor things if absolutely needed) at final fitting. Made 3rd/Final appt. for 7/15. I was nervous but was assured by the seamstress everything would be done or close to done. The week of the 15th arrives & I get a call asking if I could change my appt. to earlier in the day, unfortunately I could not due to an appt. w/ my Venue and was told my appt. would be kept. 7/15 rolls around and I start heading over to Ve'Lace for my appt. I get a call saying the seamstress would not be able to come in, and they asked if I could reschedule to the next afternoon. Which was not possible due to my work schedule. I was irritated at this point, now 12 days from my wedding. Made the appt. for the morning of July 16. I took my maid of honor with me. I put my dress on & to my horror, my dream dress was a WRECK. The hem was crooked, the sleeve attachments were not staying on (supposed to be detachable, we used snaps to do this) I know its a wedding dress and you can’t be all crazy with your arms, but when I can’t move my arms a single inch w/o the snaps detaching that's a pretty decent problem when the wedding is 12 days away. The bodice had a piece that looked ripped up and not sewn back down. I was DEVASTATED. I sobbed in the car after going back & forth w/ the seamstress about what was wrong. I’m not joking when I say it looked like she waited until the very last minute to make my alterations. At this point I & my MOH no longer trusted the seamstress to fix/alter anything etc. Which is really upsetting b/c I paid almost 1k for alterations & I didn’t even recognize my dress. We agreed for her to put a running stitch into the sleeves & I would be taking home the dress that day. MOH & I planned to bring it to a separate seamstress to see what could be done to at least make it feel like my dream dress again. MOH spoke to Shadia who was very understanding and told my MOH she would speak to the seamstress and see what could be done about some sort of partial refund (which we then learned apparently the seamstress does not actually work for the store, she just works with them. Wish I had known prior to my 1st Appt). Shadia went out of her way to try & make things better for me, graciously gifting me a jewelry piece as my “something new”, but I just had no faith in the seamstress. I did take my dress to a separate seamstress, who fixed everything the way I had asked for, within a week of my wedding. She charged pennies compared to the cost of what I paid the seamstress at Ve’Lace. She said that she wasn’t sure what the other seamstress did b/c the hem was not even done properly. Very upsetting after almost 1k in alterations & I still had to pay extra for someone else to do it properly. (No refund to date) Would 100% buy here again, & encourage you to do the same. But please use someone else for...

Update: *Adding photos so you guys can decide for yourselves. & Apparently (her response) she is accusing me of lying about having the dress fixed LOL- yes the photos are at home because I took the dress home, to the tailor, and back home. Laughable.

I wish I had read the reviews about alterations here sooner & I feel like I should let other brides know about my experience, especially if they are on a tight. I bought it 9 months prior to my wedding and 4 fittings. (Dress $2800) I had just given birth a few weeks prior so myself, my mom & MOH told the staff many times I would be losing a lot of weight and they said it will be NO problem, they will alter it perfectly. They persuaded us into buying the dress in a size that is 4x my normal size. At my second fitting, I had lost about 25-30 lbs. I was then told since I lost so much weight already my alterations are going to be $1,700 dollars (yes, A LOT $) because it’s so much work for them. I agreed to it because I love the dress, already bought the dress and had total faith in them to make it perfect. My 3rd fitting, the dress was pinned perfectly. It looked amazing & I was so excited for the final product. she scheduled my final fitting for 5 days before I leave for my wedding. (She has known the week I leave for at least 5 months now). I arrive to my final fitting and I had lost a little more weight but not much (1-2lbs) and the dress was huge on top. It looked NOTHING like how she had it pinned at my previous fitting. I asked what to do about this and she said since we’re on a time crunch (that she created) I need to use boob tape. This dress is so loose, that shouldn’t have even been an option. I left, thought more about it and texted her a bit later being VERY nice explaining how I was under the impression it would be a tight fit and was wondering if there’s anything we can please do before I leave. She then sent me a series of texts telling me I’m wrong and that she knows for a fact the dress fits me right and told me what she personally likes about the fit. I was appalled, as it’s my wedding dress and it only matters how I feel about the fit. I was expecting her to offer to take another look and maybe a little empathy. She then told me if I want it done I need to drive to Fall River (1 hr from me, when the store I’ve been going to is 5 minutes from me) I told her I do not have time for that I’m extremely busy preparing and she’s known I’m leaving in 4 days for months now. After I explained how upset I was AGAIN (expecting it to be tight fitting, not wanting to wear boob tape after I paid so much for the “perfect” alterations, my concerns about the tape peeling in 90 degree Florida heat, asking me to drive to Fall River) she replied & stated she didn’t like my tone with her and that I’m insulting her team (which I did not do one time). Also stating its “by no means our fault you continuously lose weight.” She then told me she’ll alter it at the Bellingham location for AN ADDITIONAL FEE. At this point I was done. I told her I’m not paying her anymore money I just paid $1,700 dollars and asked her for my dress back multiple times. Once I was determined to get my dress (after asking 5 times) she backtracked saying she’ll fix it for free by Monday (it’s now Friday, and the text exchange began Thursday afternoon, same day as my fitting). This immediately put me off - the fact that she tried to money grab me one last time because I was in desperation (or so she thought). Then, could suddenly do it for free when she realized I was actually going elsewhere. When I picked up my dress she asked me to sign a form saying they offered to fix my dress for free. I’m assuming that’s so they don’t have to give any type of refund-which I didn’t expect from them anyways since she says she did nothing wrong. Thankfully, I was able to alter my dress the day I picked up - it’s perfect just in time. I told her this & sent before and after photos to show the major difference & her reply was that tailor must not have as many clients as her since it was...

NOT A "BIG GIRL' FRIENDLY BRIDAL SHOP. I was with a bridal party looking for a wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses. Out of the 5 bridesmaids I am the larger of the group. It was exceptionally stressful when we were set to try on bridesmaid dresses and I noticed that there weren't larger sizes. The woman who helped our party very loudly said "Oh honey we don't have anything over a size 10, but let's see what we can do. We can just drape it over you to get an idea". It was very embarrassing as she kept making loud comments that they just didn't have a size big enough for me. Honestly, I am not that big, my normal dress sizes are usually 12-14. After choosing a style of dress, the associate measured me 3 times informing me that they had a new size chart and I was an 18! I ordered my dress and left the shop and cried. Never in my life have I been made to feel so horrible. They called me to let me know that my dress was ready. I live in Florida so I asked them to mail me the dress. They gave me the name of 2 places near me in Florida to take my dress for alterations. After I received the dress I went to try it on and I couldn't zip up the dress. When I called Ve'Lace Bridal and informed them that I tried the dress on but was unable to zip it up all the way. The associate I spoke to asked me "Did you gain weight?" I informed her that I did not in fact gain weight. She stated that I needed to take the dress to one of the places that they recommended and have them take a look at the dress, take pictures, and email Ve'Lace. I asked if it was possible that the dress was made incorrectly, as the chest area was EXTREMELY large but the other area seemed so much smaller. The associate said NO. When I went to my appointment I informed the seamstress that I couldn't zip the dress up. I went into the dressing room and when I came out the seamstress went to try to zip it for me and she had a hard time. When she tried again and she was NOT forceful. The zipper pulled away from the fabric. She informed me that the zipper was not put into the dress very well and the zipper was a very flimsy. She stated that she would need to replace the zipper at a cost of 48.15. In her opinion Ve'Lace should cover the cost of the zipper. I went home and emailed a picture of the broken zipper and a copy of the invoice for the zipper. The email that I received was so rude. The associate who responded (didn't leave a name just signed it Ve'Lace Bridal) stated that it was very convenient that the dress shop blamed it on the manufacturing of the dress versus her work. The dress shop had not even done any alterations, I was in the dressing room and she was helping me zip it up. Ve'Lace Bridal stated that "There is no way after a dress is altered to tell why it broke. If there was something wrong with it we would have caught this at inspection when the dress came in." AGAIN I replied to that email stating that the seamstress had done nothing to the dress, I paid her for the UPCOMING alterations and fixing the zipper, but was waiting for Ve'Lace Bridal before I gave her the go ahead to start the alterations. I received another lovely response "A zipper can break if it is forced or too tight. Because she worked on the gown and it was worn we cannot offer any type of refund. This is our store policy. We apologize but have to be fair with all customers and this just isn't something we are responsible for or offer." AGAIN, the Ve'Lace associate did not feel the need to thoroughly read my email regarding the fact that the dress HAD NOT HAD ANY ALTERATIONS DONE. Ve'Lace Bridal didn't even entertain the fact that maybe when the dress came in either someone didn't try the zipper or didn't think twice that the zipper was a little tough to zip up. No person is perfect, people make mistakes, things slip through the cracks. I was not asking for the full total of what the alterations would cost, just the 48.15 for the replacement...