Bella Bianca Bridal Couture — Local services in Chicago

Avoid at all costs!!! The sales team at both locations are relatively helpful & easy to work with but that’s where the positivity ends. The alterations team & owners are beyond a nightmare. I encourage all brides to do a deep scrub of Reddit posts because you’ll see that posts there are drastically different than all the 5 star Google reviews.

It’s difficult to recap everything briefly but essentially, the alterations team ruined my dress & the owners gaslit me when I tried to address it with them versus trying to resolve things.

Lubia (my alterations person) told me she would make me a veil since I had trouble finding what I wanted. She said this 1 month prior to my wedding date & then 3 days prior to leaving for my destination wedding she told me she could no longer make my veil as retaliation for me not liking the way she had been altering my dress. Any bride knows you can’t find a veil with 3 days notice unless you want something basic. This ruined my entire dream of being able to embroider my veil with hummingbirds to honor my grandma and uncle who had passed as I no longer had a veil let alone time. Lubia ripped my illusion back & this was not addressed until my final fitting when I brought family with me to see the dress. Lubia attempted to say that was there because it was a sample dress. I had to prove with photos from the day I purchased the dress that the rip was not present. So she had to come in and redo the entire back on her day off, which probably also contributed to her being upset & not making my veil. Raychel (the salon manager) agreed that my bust did not look good the way that Lubia had altered it yet, when I emailed ownership regarding it she denied this. I did purchase a sample dress, so there are definately challenges with that however it doesn’t excuse poor alterations. Lubia glued lace on my bust that mimicked a 5 year olds crafting skills. The lace overlapped poorly and was not fully sewn down. Also, I had requested my bust to have more coverage and I wanted it to be as seamless as possible. Instead, Lubia cheaply added material on top of the bust & even literally put two different pads which made my bust look like it had an indentation. She refused to fix it the way I wanted as it would have taken too much time and effort even though it was what I had requested at the start of my appointments. I requested my entire dress to be lined so it wouldn’t be see through. The dress was lined everywhere but the bust & they refused to line it when I saw this as they said no one would notice. The boning in the dress was very loose & warped so I requested it to be replaced & tact down. None of this was done. The boning was loose and wavy upon pick up and it continued to stab me on my wedding day as well as anyone that hugged me. The boning was literally popping out of my dress so I had to pull it out eventually. It also was extremely warped so it looked like I had rolls under my bust & it made my midsection seem much larger than it was. I continually told Lubia and Raychel that my dress was too looose in the midsection. I have a very curvy figure with drastic differences between my bust/waist/hips. The dress had about 2 inches between my skin and my waist. Lubia refused to make the dress more fitted as it would have made the back too tight. This is just poor alterations skills. My back looked sausaged & my front was loose.

When I addressed all these issues with the owners, they accused me of losing drastic amounts of weight, being dishonest and having expectations that were too high. I literally proved to them that I had actually gained weight/was swollen in the week between pickup and wedding day & proof of the alterations issues with time/location stamped photos from pickup that were taken in front of staff. I hate looking at any wedding photos because of my dress - esp after spending over 5 figures on a dress and alterations. The owners will respond by saying they were limited with time and the sample dress but you can discern if thats valid by looking at the...

I wanted to love my experience at Bella Bianca Bridal Couture as much as I love my wedding dress, but unfortunately, the entire experience left me feeling disappointed.

From the start, I felt a lack of transparency around pricing. Despite providing a clear budget, I was encouraged to try on a dress that was above my price range without being informed of the cost upfront. I ultimately fell in love with the dress, which was $2,800/56% over my budget. While I appreciate the discounts offered towards the end of the appointment, I should never have been put in the position of trying on a dress that far outside my budget without knowing the price beforehand.

When I hesitated to commit to buying the dress during the appointment and informed the stylist that I needed more time to think it over, she repeatedly insisted that the designer discount would only be available that day. The pressure to make an immediate purchase due to the looming expiration of the discount felt rushed and manipulative. She also questioned why I wouldn’t want to say yes to “my dress” in front of my loved ones and celebrate with them. This made me feel uncomfortable, as if my decision-making process and personal comfort were secondary to making the sale.

Upon purchasing my dress, I signed a detailed payment agreement outlining that I was required to pay the full balance within 10 days of the dress’s arrival. However, the way this policy is enforced feels unreasonable. Bella Bianca requires full payment regardless of their availability for a gown viewing appointment, and since they only schedule viewings Tuesday through Friday, weekends and holidays count toward the 10-day window—even if they are closed for holidays or are fully booked. If you fail to pay within the specified time, you’re charged $100 per week for storage. As a result, I was forced to pay the remaining balance before even having the opportunity to see my dress, which was frustrating given the significant financial commitment involved.

To make matters worse, when I went in for my gown viewing appointment, I was told there was no appointment on file, despite confirming it when I had come in to pay the balance of my dress the week prior. The situation quickly became uncomfortable and awkward as the receptionist didn’t initially offer to help or reassure me that someone would be available. It wasn’t until my original stylist popped up, mentioned she wasn’t busy, and offered to prepare a room for me, leaving me to wonder what would have happened if she hadn’t been available.

While I love my dress, the experience fell short of my expectations from start to finish—most brides dream about finding and picking out their wedding dress from a young age and this experience was extremely disappointing. The lack of transparency around pricing, the high-pressure sales tactics, and rigid payment policies made the process more stressful than it needed to be.

Every bride deserves an experience where she feels at ease, genuinely supported, and confident in her choices and unfortunately, I didn’t feel that...

One year ago in early December, my newly engaged youngest daughter and I took a weekend 'girls trip' to Chicago to see the Christmas sights and do a little Christmas shopping. I had researched Bridal Couture in the downtown Chicago area before our trip, and surprised my daughter when we were there, with an prearranged appointment at Bella Bianca to kick off the wedding planning/dress shopping that stretched out ahead of us ... NEVER intending to actually purchase one that day. You can probably imagine how this story ends ... From the moment we walked in to Bella Bianca Bridals we were completely mesmerized. The ambiance was ultra elegant but not imposing or too fussy. The staff was highly knowledgeable, patient, helpful, professional and, kind, and most importantly for us, FUN! Their selection of stunning dresses and designers was truly remarkable and offered an impressive range of prices. My daughter has always been a very decisive, 'trusts her instincts' kind of girl and after trying on about 6 dresses of varying styles and vibes, she walked out of the fitting room in a stunning Ann Barge princess gown and veil that we knew instantly was 'the one' and paid our deposit that very day ... with no other dress shopping necessary, and we have never questioned or looked back on the decision. Our wonderful, awesome, funny, HANDSOME Bella Bianca associate Jim COULD NOT have made the entire process more enjoyable and seamless for us. I momentarily questioned my sanity, being from Atlanta ... which offers a huge variety of wedding gown shops for us to have visited, as well as the logistics of ordering the gown long distance and not from Atlanta where the logistics would seemingly be less confusing, BUT, from pricing to payments, to ensuring a timely delivery and taking countless (and surely some 'annoying') phone calls and questions from us throughout the next 9 or 10 months, Jim and the entire staff at Bella Bianca were enormously helpful and gave us much peace of mind. In the fall of this year, as the wedding and winter approached in Atlanta, we made a VERY last minute decision to add removable long sleeves to the stunning strapless gown, and so had to rely on Bella Bianca to order the extra lace that would be required for the task. They were incredibly reassuring that they could help out, and jumped right to the matters and hand and got the lace to our seamstress in ample time. On that blustery (later, champagne soaked) morning in Chicago a little over a year ago, I very quickly realized we were in good hands and we'd made exactly the right choice in walking into Bella Bianca Bridals that day! Thanks to everybody at Bella Bianca Bridals and...