Arlene's Bridal Salon — Local services in Bloomfield

I really wish I read some of the reviews before coming to this place for a bridesmaid dress. Regardless of the fact that our party's dresses had to be ordered here, I feel like had I known, I would have gone in with thicker skin.

The appearance of this place didn't quite bother me, though others are right in saying that it's the size of a closet, with hardly any (dressing) room to try on a floor-length gown. What did bother me was the professionalism of this place & their ordering/sizing system.

We got measured for our dresses and the woman sizing me didn't let me know the size afterwards. I stupidly trusted them and waited until the dress came in to see that she had ordered me a size 10... I'm not the world's thinnest, but I wear a pants size two and most of my dresses are sized two to four. Thinking it could have been a mistake, I asked another bridesmaid in our group (about my size, but shorter) what size she had gotten -- an eight. I was assured that these dresses run "pretty small", but when I got my dress, it looked like an oversized sleeping bag, made for someone whose nearing seven feet tall.

The next time I was in the bridal salon, I noticed a beautiful young woman (probably a teenager) getting her bridesmaid dress. After getting measured (unlike me), she asked what size was being ordered, because she usually takes a double-zero, however orders a zero to take in where necessary (and yes, she was very thin). The woman attending to her was quick to quiet her and said that because of her height (maybe 5'6?), she had to order her a size four to make sure the torso fit correctly since she was tall and thin. Bullshit. They ordered her a four so that they could squeeze another $60 out of her for alterations.

When a member of our group called to make alterations, the woman answering the phone was very rude and snippy. Since the dresses did have to be altered, she moved forward with trying to book an appointment regardless, figuring the alterations would be even more expensive elsewhere. The woman barked that the dress would take six to eight weeks to alter (even though the wedding was in seven weeks). It's truly inconvenient that they only do alteration appointments on Sundays & Mondays -- especially when they seemingly take so long to make alterations, but that isn't as bothersome as the way this salon treats its customers.

After picking up my dress, I went to a family seamstress to have my dress altered. When I put it on, the seamstress LAUGHED. I was hugging the dress against my body pleading for her to make it work. She took in over two and a half inches on each side, over four inches from the bottom, and I will have to go again for a second fitting (keep in mind this is a bridesmaid dress -- not a wedding gown!). I'm disappointed because had they sized me correctly from the start, I wouldn't be spending an arm and leg to have my dress more-or-less remade. More than that, I'd probably have actually trusted them to make my alterations.

I'm truly disappointed in Arlene's and had high hopes, but at least I know now to not come back, and hopefully this review is helpful to someone whose considering them or has to order from them...

I am writing this message on behalf of my fiancée who recently had the most abusive retail experience that I have ever heard of in my life.

Just to preface this story….I am the type of person who ONLY writes RAVE reviews or no reviews. The reason for this is that I believe most businesses have “off” days and if my personal experience is not ideal, I do not want to see the business suffer because of a poor review.

That said, I feel the strong obligation to share this experience because justice has to be served and Arlene’s Bridal does not deserve to be in business.

Although this is very unfortunate, my fiancée and I were forced to cancel our wedding because she became ill. This is obviously the last thing in the world that we wanted to happen. Even with this being the case, we paid Arlene Bridal in full for the wedding dress ($1,000’s) and when my fiancée went to pick up the dress, the owner, Debra (one of the worst people that owns a business) immediately pulled her staff into the back room to plot a strategy against my fiancée (my fiancée was able to see them in the back room talking about her). Just to be clear, the other bridesmaids did not have the opportunity YET to pay the $35-$40 for the balance of their dresses, which they would have OR we would have if necessary.

The owner, Debra, went on to hold our wedding dress hostage unless we paid the balance for our bridesmaids. Understand, we had no problem paying for the dresses, but she demanded CASH and my fiancée did not have this amount of money on her. She proceeded by diagnosing my fiancées medical condition (she said the most horrific things) and called the police so that now my fiancée had a report filed.

Debra is the absolute scum of the earth when it comes to running a business. We eventually went back to the store and paid the balance for our bridesmaids because she was threatening a lawsuit for $35/person and we would never have our bridesmaids have to experience this hostility. This was never a money issue and we would have happily paid the tab, but when Debra began to abuse my fiancée with her words, false diagnosis, and then called the police; this put us over the edge.

We proceeded by doing research and realize that Arlene’s Bridal has the absolute worst reviews and Debra (THE HORRIFIC OWNER) has been called out in almost all of the feedback. If we only knew this before we made the decision to give her money.

My hope is that you read this review before you get involved with Arlene’s Bridals. There are other stories of the police getting involved, Debra printing Yelp reviews and pinning it to Bridesmaids dresses in retaliation for a bad review (aka THE TRUTH), and the list continues. Stay far away. There are plenty of other stores in the local area who actually care about their customers and both Debra and her staff both said, “You can’t please everyone.”

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If I could leave zero stars I would! I went to Arlene’s with my daughter for a wedding dress this past May. My daughter is not getting married until October of 2025. Our first place dress shopping since my daughter got engaged in April. We were very excited being that this was her first time ever going. The shop was very dated, but that’s beside the point.

We were very open minded and although the lady who was there by herself was helping multiple customers,, she was kind enough.

Long story short my daughter finds a princess dress off the sales rack at a great price. I asked the lady, could I put a deposit down on dress and if she decides on another dress here or somewhere else, could I put the deposit towards something else? She replied absolutely. I was thinking, well I still need a dress or I could get accessories or my husband will need a tux so we could use it towards that. Well, a month goes by and yes my daughter finds a dress elsewhere. I eventually call Arlene’s back to tell them that my daughter got another dress. I said, could I use the deposit towards something else? She was kind of short with me and said well the person you have to speak to isn’t here call back next week. I probably called back like a week or two later and lady was like no, you can’t use deposit towards anything, too much time went by. (a period of approximately 2 months) She proceeds to get very loud with me and says sarcastically, like I’m a child, well this is a lesson to be learned, don’t put a deposit down unless you’re absolutely sure!! I said excuse me there’s no reason to be rude and nasty. I said I was told that I would be able to use the deposit towards something else. She’s like well now we can’t sell the dress or some nonsense like that. I was like what do you mean the dress was just put on hold, why can’t you put it back on the rack?? That makes absolutely no sense what so ever!! She proceeded to be rude and I was like, well you basically just stole my deposit and I still need to get a dress and accessories, you just lost my business, I will never recommend anyone to this place!! Terrible way to conduct business!!

We ended going to a beautiful bridal shop in Englewood the way you should be treated when you’re going wedding dress shopping for the first time!! The name is Jaehee Bridal in Englewood. I’m happy to say she got her dream...