Bridal Boutique — Local services in Des Moines

My first appointment in June of 2021 with Jess was absolutely fantastic and following that I have worked with Bella and Emily (I believe her name is) to pay for my dress and for my initial try on once it came in.

Once they took my money, the level of service decreased tremendously. I attempted to set up a Saturday appointment 6 weeks in advance for bridesmaid dresses. First no reply regarding it, they wrote down my information then said they would “double check and get back to me”. The following week nobody had replied so I went in to pick up my dress. I was told by another woman there that they don’t do that but if it was not busy they could attempt to squeeze me in. Fine, whatever not a big deal. I was told they would reach out leading up to that Saturday to confirm if they could sneak us in or not. What do you know??? Nobody ever called. Went ahead and went to Schaffer’s for our bridesmaid appointment and they were more than happy to accommodate us.

Yesterday I had an appointment that I made a few weeks ago for 12:30 PM – 2PM with 3 guests. We arrived at 12:30 promptly and waited outside for 5 minutes as they had to handle another party that arrived at 12:30. Once we arrived in the room we were informed that we had to wait for our consultant to finish up with another bride and it would be just a few minutes. She was with that bride until 1:05 PM. That was 1/3rd of my appointment. During that time I could have been trying on my dress that I OWN that is in their possession. They are so concerned about you taking photos in dresses that they literally have someone with you every second. I was in to purchase a second dress and try on my dress and was assured that my dress would be pulled and ready when we got there. NOPE. Then had to wait another 5 minutes for her to find my dress. I had about 40 minutes to pull new dresses and try them on. I had two styles that were recommended to me that could be altered shorter and we pulled a lot of one style. We got to the end and finally I realized that I liked the other style. This was at 1:55PM. I was then told numerous times that they have a lot of other appointments and a full day and my appointment was ended without me being able to try on any additional dresses.

I completely understand being busy, I even understand wanting to work longer with a client that was buying vs someone who was coming in to try on their already purchased dress, however I made it very clear I was after a second dress and ready to spend my money. The fact that I lost ½ my appointment time and was barely told more than ‘sorry we are busy, it’s a full day’ etc. It was rude, disgusting and made me feel like I was less important since I had already purchased my initial dress. The consultant also wanted to bring up buying our bridesmaid dresses there because we get a discount… yeah, we know, we tried. All 3 of my guests had never seen my dress before and were shocked at the level of customer service we received. One even asked why I wasn’t taking my dress right then and there home with me. They had other brides arriving for their 2 pm appointment and I wasn’t going to cause a scene.

Overall I am exhausted with the lack of customer service and the way that I was made feel yesterday. There was not a moment of them trying to make up the fact that they literally wasted 35-45 minutes of my time while we just sat there doing… nothing. I fell in love with a dress there yesterday and was fully willing to purchase a dress until I encountered this whole mess. They still have my first dress in their possession since I still have a ways until my wedding but I will be bringing it home as soon as I am able and finding a different seamstress to work with. Very disappointing and very...

BUYER BEWARE. I ordered a bridesmaid dress for my friend's wedding over the phone because I no longer live in Des Moines. Once I provided all of the measurements Bridal Boutique said they needed, the representative ordering for me determined that because my bust size fell into their size 2-4 range, my waist was in their size 6 range, and my hips in their size 8 range, we should order a size 6 dress (middle ground, right?). Assuming that she knew what she was doing and knowing I would probably have to get it tailored a little anyway, I agreed. She also convinced me that because of my height, I should pay extra to have length added on to the dress. Again, assuming that she's done this enough times to know what she's talking about, I said okay.

The size 6 dress arrived and it won't even stay up on my body, it's so big. And with the extra length, it's a good 3 inches past my toes. In trying to figure out what happened with my order and being told that because my measurements placed me all over the board size-wise and that the representative went with her best guess by ordering me a size 6 based on my WAIST measurements, I realized that the style of dress I ordered doesn't even need a waist or hip measurement because it's ONLY fitted at the bust and underbust. I called to see if there was any way I could have the dress altered for free or returned because they ignored the style of dress and ordered a size way too big for me and I was told that because all dresses are custom built, the dress was non-returnable. I anticipated this, of course, and now I get to go spend a fortune at a tailor basically having the dress re-constructed to take it in EVERYWHERE and to remove the extra length that I was talked into purchasing. Thank you Bridal Boutique! ❤️

And I know size charts vary with shops, but I just think it's funny that a size 6 David's Bridal gown I recently wore for another friend's wedding fits me perfectly everywhere (didn't have to have it tailored AT ALL and by the way, that dress was about a third of the price I paid Bridal Boutique for the exact same if not lesser quality of dress) and again, I couldn't get this dress to even stay on my body, it was slipping off of me so badly. If I ever stand up for a wedding and have to order a dress over the phone again (which I completely understand comes with its own likelihood of error already, but I put my trust in the shop thinking they knew best!), now I know to look out for myself and double check what measurements the shop might actually need for the dress I'm interested in ordering (aka, do their job for them a little). Lesson learned! 😉👌👗

Bottom Line: How can you say you're custom-building a nonrefundable dress when you just give the manufacturer a general size to go off of and the actual measurements of the customer's body...

I would like to use this space to comment on your response to my brides review.

Overall the tuxes did fit, but the experience to get to that point was far from exceptional.

First off, there was a nightmare of a situation where one of our groomsman was told his suit was already paid for, and it was not. They contacted me to handle this which we settled on a discounted rate, although I still feel that suit should have been comped, especially with the amount of money we spent with their business. This was not our only payment issue….

The biggest concern I had was with their lack of coordinated communication. None of their employees were on the same page. About 5 days before the wedding I was told all of our suits were in and ready for pickup. I asked my best man to grab most of the suits only to be told my fathers was not ready yet. I then called them back to find out “we are sorry it’s ready we confused him with another wedding party, and also we can’t give it to him bc we don’t have a card on file for his suit.” Mind you I had already supplied my credit card weeks before stating “Please use this card for any remaining deposits or payments needed”. Clearly this was not clear enough. Lastly, when my bride went to pick up her dress before I arrived in iowa for the wedding, she was informed my suit wasn’t paid for yet, and thus they charged her mother for it. Again I stated via email to have all remaining suits charged to my card!!!! Then I had to give them my card again just to take my dads suit home with me because they couldn’t find my card number on file. Also, my bride, her mother, and my card numbers were all already on file or were supposed to be from previous purchases. Again terrible organization.

Personally it was pathetic how many issues there were with payment and understanding simple directions. They told me on the phone “sorry, we have a lot of weddings right now it’s hard to keep things straight.” Mind you they keep track of everything for cc info etc using google sheets!!!! So unsafe and I have already cancelled my card number for my own safety. I know for a fact that they use sheets for this as I watched the employee open this on their computer.

Lastly, We found out when swapping a different pair of shoes for one groomsman (we were told we had to do it. They wouldn’t do it for us)that the warehouse was right down the street. And they rent the suits cheaper there! Save yourself money and hassle and just go straight to the source.

We deeply regret using bridal boutique for our wedding and hope this saves others from future hassles. I don’t enjoy writing reviews like this. But this was simply triggered from them not taking ownership to how they treated us from my...