Here Comes the Bride Bridal Boutique — Local services in Glendale Heights

BEWARE

I ordered my wedding dress from this bridal store in January with a rush order, expecting things to be handled with care and attention given the short timeline. After waiting three months, I finally picked up my dress on April 17th—just five weeks before my wedding.

When I went to try it on, I was devastated! The dress did not fit—it couldn't even zip/button all the way up. When the staff finally forced it closed, it was so unbelievably uncomfortable that I was in tears. I immediately regretted my decision to order from here, but with so little time left before my wedding, I felt stuck and heartbroken.

To make matters worse, the manager only offered to alter the bust area in the back for free, even though they knew I had a seamstress already scheduled and would be meeting her later that evening. Since they wanted me to come back the next day first thing in the morning to see their seamstress, this would have required me to cancel my appointment with my seamstress that night and move things around. At this point, the absolute last thing I wanted to do was go back to that bridal store since I had been let down and no longer trusted them. When I was remeasured at the bridal store, my bust measurement hadn’t changed—it was exactly the same as when I originally ordered the dress. She just apologized, showed me the measurement chart and claimed that I was the “perfect fit” for a size 2. That told me the issue wasn’t with me—it was with the dress and how it was ordered or constructed.

Feeling defeated, I left the store with my dress to rush off to my hair and makeup trial. Immediately after that, I rushed over to my seamstress. She reassured me that she would be able to work her magic, but was heartbroken by my devastation. This was a brand new dress that I paid more than I originally felt comfortable doing and now it needed modifications for me to be able to fit into it.

After the initial heartbreak of picking up a wedding dress that didn’t fit and my seamstress working her magic I went back to the bridal store hoping to speak with the manager and find a way to make things right.

Instead, I was met with excuses and backpedaling. The manager told me that my waist was a half inch larger than when I ordered the dress, and claimed that somehow this minor difference caused the bust to be an inch and a half too small—which made no sense. It was clear to me that the issue was with the dress sizing, not my body, but she continued to blame me. She also insisted that she had offered to help take the dress out when I first picked it up—something that was never said. Not once during that appointment was that offer made. To hear her claim that now felt dismissive and dishonest.

While money does not fix everything, a refund to some degree would have at least covered the extra alterations that now needed to be completed and helped with the copious amount of stress I was feeling with my wedding now four weeks away. I have been in tears every day since picking up my dress and no longer love it the way I did when I ordered it. Unfortunately, the manager was not helpful and/or willing to make the matter right.

Instead of accountability or real support, I left feeling even more frustrated and disrespected. The entire experience has been incredibly disappointing during what should be one of the happiest times of my life. This was the most stressful and emotional part of my wedding planning. Brides deserve...

I went here a few months ago with my bridesmaids to look at bridesmaids dresses from the allure collection. HCtB had a good selection and almost had all the dresses my girls wanted to look at.

I picked HCtB because they had the best reviews of the stores in a 20-30 minute drive from my apartment and seemed to have a nice selection, which was great for three out of my seven bridesmaids since one lives right next door to me and the other 30 minutes north. It seemed like at least two of the girls were going to go to whatever store I took them to out of convenience.

We had two appointments and I was up-front with them that I didn't believe all my bridesmaids would be ordering dresses from them; three live out of state, one is from the city and then the other three live in a 20-30 minute radius. I felt bad for potentially wasting their time, but we needed a store to try dresses on and for my girls that are super close wanted to get dresses closer to home, I'd rather them go here than two other local stores that are known for awful service and a few other issues. The three that live nearby did not do that due to the service we received on Sunday. (See second appointment.)

First appointment: We worked with Samantha on our first visit and she was great, helped the girls with the dresses and fitting into them (which was hard for one of them because she’s on the bustier side.) Wasn't too pushy about the dresses (I was worried the store was going to be) or about having to get them from them that day and mostly had me sold on the fact that with their alterations they add cups into the dresses so the girls don't have to worry too much about bras. They were only a little short when one of my maids asked for the numbers of the dresses she tried on. She's located in Ohio and barely has vacation days to come and visit, as well as attend the two weddings she is in next year. Also, she's extremely worried/anxious about the cost of the dresses, especially since the one dress she decided was at the top of her list was $180-ish. Otherwise, it was very painless and we felt we left on a good note besides the asking for the number.

Second appointment: I come in the next day with three other girls, they marked me down for 2, when I said 2-3 due to one still being up in the air because she had her wisdom teeth removed on Friday. I guess they were pretty busy at this time and only had the tailoring room for the girls to try on dresses. We all kind of crammed into it, because it might have been a little awkward waiting outside of the room. We were "checked-up" on, were helped fitted one time and they asked how we were doing of course we said fine because we felt like we were a burden. Two of my maids who also worked retail and were just applaud by the customer service they received. (One is a stylist for a higher-end chain fashion store and said she’d never be so off putting to her customers even if it was a bad day for her.) This was the day that I came in with the girls that lived closet to the store.

We ended up ordering majority of the dresses (except one, which was my friend from Ohio) from the store I’m getting my wedding dress from, because even when I tried on dresses for my friend’s wedding the store never withheld the dress numbers from me (nor were they miffed about it) and if they didn’t have a dress but had something similar would offer that as an option to try on to get an idea how the...

Please double check everything before signing paperwork and paying the deposit for the dress.

I had a great wedding shopping experience in January. My family flew into Chicago and we started at Here Comes The Bride. We were suppose to go to 3 other bridal shops, but we all fell in love with a dress at this store. We paid the deposit and they said the dress would be ready in 5-6 months. The dress was ready end of May so beginning of June, I drove 9 hours round trip to the shop to try my dress on. It was the wrong size. It was SO BIG. It was actually 2-3 sizes up from my actually size. I was ordered the size of the sample size dress that I tried on in January which was too big and held with clasps. At the June appointment, after we learned that the original stylist ordered me the wrong dress, I was given the option to order a different size in the same dress. The only problem was that my size was not going to be available in time for my wedding. I was recommended to order the size below my size. For context, I am a size 20 in wedding dresses. Staff encouraged me to order an 18. I tried on a size 18 from the same dress brand in a different dress and ultimately ordered the size 18. I did another 9-hour trip the following back and came back when the size 18 came in. At this point, it’s the middle of July and I get married in 2.5 months. The size 18 was terrible. It was not flattering. It fit in the waist, but my chest was hanging over and exposed. In between my crying and silent panic attacks and waiting for the in house seamstress to try and let out the sides of the dress, I spent around 4 hours in the shop. Ultimately the size 18 did not work and I had to go home with the size 24 or go home with no dress at all. I spent over 18 hours to drive to the bridal shop on two separate occasions and hundreds of dollars on gas and hotel stays. Here Comes The Bridal only offered me $200 off. I get married in less than 2 weeks and I still don’t know if this dress is going to work for my wedding day. I chose the dress for its elegance and intricate honing but to take in nearly 3 sizes too small could alter the boning of the bodice. My January bridal appointment was great, but the following two appointments after were very disappointing. I understand mistakes happen, but being a plus size bride is hard enough. The mistake made was inexcusable and negligent. The wrong size was ordered. The wrong notes were taken. I was only offered $200 off after driving 18 hours and spending much more than $200 to come to the shop twice. Overall, please review all the paperwork before you end up wasting 6 months of your bridal life waiting for the wrong size dress to come in. Make sure you know the sample dress you try on, make sure you know what your actual size is, and make sure you double check that all the paperwork and information is accurate. I wouldn’t wish this anxiety and uncertainly and money and time wasted on any bride, let alone a plus...