Always Elegant Bridal and More — Local services in Flemington

Our experience here was really upsetting. A bride has a lot of stress on her with wedding planning and this place was number one on our s* list. I'm the M.O.H and I never leave reviews for places. I'm not the type of person to tattle on a place.... but with all the stress they put on our bride, i have to be on here, to warn other brides.

I can actually put this into a list. Because we had that many issues with them

Problem #1: "A difficult bride" The bridal party lives in different states, so getting everyone here to find a dress is challenging, but, the girls are awesome and everyone came together. We tried on a bunch of dresses, laughing and having fun, because we all actually get along as bridesmaids. And when our bride couldn't pick one because, let's be real here, she was overwhelmed, the store called her "a difficult bride". I understand that they get a lot of people in there and it can be frustrating, but don't call someone who is clearly overwhelmed a "difficult" anything. And don't do it to the side where you think the customer can't here you. Because we did hear you.

Problem #2: The Bridesmaids Dresses We did find a dress. The perfect dress. The bride was thrilled and we all got measured and ordered them in our size. We then paid for them and were told that they would call us when the dress was in. Cards were charged. About a month later, we get a call that the dress we ordered, doesn't actually come in the color we need it in. The color was coral, which is part of the brides color scheme. Now, things happen. We understand. BUT, when you refuse to give us a refund for a dress we bought that you can't provide, that's another story. We all had to come back to Jersey and try on new dresses so we didn't lose our money. But the bride had midterms and couldn't be there. We had to skype her in. And clearly, she was very upset because what a nightmare. You want things to be perfect and they really just ruined it. We did find another dress, but it wasn't the same and it was basically something we "settled" for. Oh and it also costed more money and no discount was offered.

Problem #3: Unanswered phone calls As you can imagine, we were a little skeptical, after being called names, having our order messed up and and felt really cheated. So, I called them several times and left several messages for them to call me back as i had a few question. Three messages to be exact. Not once did they call me back.

Problem #4: The fitting and lack of The bride eventually called them and made an appointment for her fitting. 9am on a Saturday. She gave me a call and we showed up 9am. COURSE THE STORE WAS CLOSED! Apparently it didn't open until 11... but our appointment was at 9.... The nice man next door said that they wouldn't schedule an appointment before 11 but when we had called, they said 9. And it was the morning of a 5K so all of flemington was shutdown and we literally had to walk over a mile just to get there. When 11 came around, two other bridesmaids had joined us because, let's face it.... we really don't like these people at this point, and we got the bride in her dress. We found out the bridesmaids dresses were in, which we were not notified about...

Problem#5: Alterations Can you believe it? We are actually on problem #5?! So, we get our bride in there, finally, and they start alterations, even though we told them that we were going elsewhere.... the plan was to literally take all the dresses and get away form them. It was just too much stress. But they put a few pins in her dress... AND THEN MADE HER PAY $85 FOR A FITING THAT SHE NEVER HAD!!!!!!!!!!! IN CASH!!!!!!! I'm assuming because they have had this problem before (after reading other reviews) and people who paid with card probably canceled the payment. But here's the kicker, because with this place there always is, the bride didn't have 85... she had 90. They didn't even give her the $5 back.

So to sum up. Don't go here brides, save...

What can I say about my experience at ALWAYS ELEGANT BRIDAL to convey what happened to my family yesterday.

Let's just say buying a wedding-related dress is always stressful. Of course so when you are the bide, but ESPECIALLY when you are in the bridal party and not the actual bride.

The bridal party is forced to spend $200+ on a silly looking gown (you get a nice, sentimental one), that they wouldn't be caught on the street wearing again!. That, in itself, puts the party member at a disadvantage from the get-go. So what do you expect when you visit these bridal stores trying to find your size in that lime green stunner? HELP!

This is a true HTG story: The mother-of-the-bride, my sister-in-law, our little daughters (so looking forward to trying on dresses) all visited Elegant Brida yesterday. It's a little shop on Main street that LOOKS LIKE it is a respite from the madness.

We had called the afternoon previous to our visit, three times, and left messages that we would be in the next morning to see their junior bridesmaid dresses but we had a particular model in mind. The owner of the shop, Rafaela, I believe, did not return our calls. We were initially only able to receive a response via email, but finally, after numerous attempts, she finally called back.

Rafaela told us when she called that we could certainly come to the shop but we shouldn't expect to try anything on until we basically swore on the lives of our children that we would actually BUY from the shop. We explained, "How can we buy the dress until we see it on our children?" After much back-and-forth, she agreed to let our us come in, after driving the 45 minutes to arrive, and try on the dresses.

We left early in the morning to make our appointment on-time. As soon as we arrived, Rafaela had her posse of employees, and the dress we were looking (in a plastic bag) waiting for us near the entrance. We walked into her shop excited to see our little girls all dressed up. What we experienced was another story.

Rafaela informed us that. miraculously, in the late night hours, the dress we wanted to try on had been sold and we were not only not allowed to try in on, but even touch it. When we then asked the size of the dress to get an idea of possible fit, she refused to tell us. Then we asked the price of the dress. She wasn't sure. We kindly asked, since the dress we wanted to try on had been sold somewhere near midnight, that we would like to try on something comparable to get an idea of the girl's sizes.

Her answer was "No." She said, in full view of all the junior bridesmaid dresses in the store, that she had absolutely nothing for us to try on. "But," we explained, "We drove 40 minutes to get here and you told us last night we could try on the dresses." She curtly said, "Sorry, you can't" and refused to even take the bridal dress out of the plastic covering for us to look at.

After some back-and-forth, we asked the simple question -- "If you knew the dress was sold, why didn't you call us back to alert us not to make the trip?" No response but a sideways look.

Listen bridal shop owners, buying a $250 dress that your kid is only going to wear once is taxing on a mom. The absolute last thing we want is to bullied out of the store buy the owner. I have NEVER been so offended in my life. We left the shop in shock at the utter selfishness and uncaring attitude of this woman and I vowed to document our experience on google to save others the distress that we experienced.

So wedding party moms and attendees, listen closely. If you go to Elegant Bridal, expect to be treated like you are diseased, and penniless, of which we are neither. But it really doesn't matter, does it. Even if we were, we should have been shown a modicum of respect. We weren't.

SAVE YOURSELF YOUR HUMILITY AND THE PLEASURE OF NOT MEETING RAFAELA AND ELEGANT BRIDAL. YOU WILL THANK ME...

Always Elegant Bridal & More Does Not Deserve even one Star in My opinion. My daughter was recently a bridesmaid in a wedding and purchased her dress from this shop. She unfortunately chose to have her alterations done there too. There was No communication with my daughter as to the actual cost for the alterations, since they are considered "optional"; until the bomb was dropped on her. The cost of the alterations was well over half of what the dress originally cost! The topper was that this business now only wants cash for they are afraid that a "young" women may not be trustworthy enough to write a check or pay with a credit card. When My daughter and I went in to speak with the owner of the shop she was less then helpful. Very Poor customer service. I Would Never Recommend This Business...