Classic Bride bridal studio + cb boutique . — Local services in Huntersville

I had high hopes for Classic Bride, but my experience didn’t live up to expectations — especially considering we booked the appointment a month in advance.

The night before our 2pm appointment, we received a message around 9pm saying they needed to cancel due to “unforeseen staffing issues.” Since I’m not local and couldn’t reschedule, it was frustrating. Had WE cancelled on them, we would’ve been charged $15. While there’s a $15 appointment fee (refundable if canceled more than 24 hours in advance), I appreciated that they eventually found someone to keep our original time. That said, my name wasn’t on the welcome board with the other brides, which made it feel like the appointment had been thrown together last-minute.

Ahead of the visit, we sent several inspiration photos of dresses from their website and were told those styles were available — but when we arrived, only one of them was actually in stock.

The try-on area felt cramped and dimly lit, and there wasn’t even a platform to stand on, which made it hard to get a good sense of how the dresses looked. Many of the gowns I tried on had broken zippers. A large portion of the selection featured designs from their in-house label, Maegan Kelly, but the quality and variety didn’t meet my expectations.

The associate who worked with us was kind, but not especially helpful throughout the appointment, so my mom had to assist me quite a bit with zipping/unzipping/hanging dresses.

Of all the bridal shops I visited, this one fell short in terms of organization, selection, and overall experience. If you're local, you might have more flexibility — but if you're coming from out of town and hoping for a smooth, well-prepared appointment, I'd recommend exploring other...

I am extremely disappointed in how Classic Bride is choosing to handle my situation and I believe it’s only right to make other brides aware so no one else has to go what I went through on my wedding day. The manufacturer says I was sized wrong and also said that a bra or supportive undergarments were needed with my dress and that was never communicated to me- I was told by the store no bra was needed for this dress. They also mentioned that the clip in support it has is not how you’re supposed to be sized and I was.

There were 3 separate issues with the dress (no hook, a random stain, and then the dress boning basically becoming undone after 10 minutes of wearing this dress. It is completely inappropriate for a bride to experience this on her big day. My alterations only hemmed my dress and added the belt, absolutely nothing else was done so this is the store and Eddy K’s responsibility as I bought my dress through them. The way this dress wore was uncomfortable and made me self conscious the whole day and I had no other option. I would hate for this to happen to any other bride who gets this same dress.

I tried to be patient, kind, and understanding despite my frustration and all my photos being ruined, but no one is willing to help. Beware. All blame is being put on others instead of taking responsibility for the poor experience and clear issues here.

Note: Eddy K Joyce is the gown. First two pics are wedding day and last two were taken a week before. I spent $1400 on something that’s supposed to last a lifetime and be passed down- that has now been taken away from me.

Also included photo of...

Classic Bride & Formals was the first appointment I had on my list to start my wedding dress hunt while my sister and family were in town for Thanksgiving. Phaedra welcomed me and showed us to our room. We had the ENTIRE place to ourselves. We were given a little basket with pins to pin any dresses that we wanted to try on. (A real life "Pinterest board" - so cute!) I tried on a TON of dresses and Phaedra was right there the entire time, helping me put on dresses, clipping them for me, hanging them back on, starting a pile and categorizing them with which ones I liked best. When we had worked our way through the stack that we pulled, she asked if she could pull a few other dresses that matched what I was looking for because I wasn't 100% sold on the ones we had picked. She came back with a dress that we all fell in love with.

Not only did I cancel all of my other appointments, but Phaedra picked my dream dress, a dress that I never would've even tried on if she hadn't stepped in and selected it. She was kind, accommodating, super helpful, but not the slightest bit pushy or forceful (not to mention she is GORGEOUS and Mrs. North Carolina!) Thank you so much Phaedra and Classic Bride & Formals for making my dream dress a reality.

If you're starting your dress search, do yourself a favor and give this quaint little shop right in downtown...