Charlotte's Bridal & Formal Wear — Local services in La Crosse

Edit and update to my original review: Emily has been extremely helpful, kind and working very quickly to help us get the correct garments for our guys, including overnighting items and hemming pants on site for us. She's been our saving grace in making sure that everything goes smoothly for our wedding that's quickly approaching. Thank you Emily!

Original: If you’re looking for a wedding dress, you might have a good time here. If you’re looking for anything for menswear, especially groomsmen, just try elsewhere if you want to avoid a massive headache.

Pros: good selection of dresses making an appointment is easy staff is friendly for the most part found the perfect groomsmen suits

Cons: I’m not even sure where to start, but the process of getting the suits for our groomsmen has been nothing short of a nightmare from start to finish. At our initial appointment, Emily was knowledgeable and friendly. We picked out styles, gave contact information and then we were on our way. We were informed (because most of our wedding party is long distance), that our groomsmen could just call to place their order and that was that. Not long after, one of our groomsmen told us that he’s tried twice to call but they don’t have our information.

Both my fiancé and I tried calling after this to get it sorted out, and the staff consistently told us they couldn’t find our file. At one point, after a month or two, I was informed we had not “finalized styles”, even though we went home with a packet of information and the styles we selected. I’m also not sure why we were allowed to leave and being told we’re good to go if our order wasn’t finalized, but that’s another matter.

Eventually, after much difficulty every time we called, we were able to get the order placed for all the suits. We knew it would be a waiting game seeing as one of our groomsmen ordered quite late and have no issue with that. Supply chain issues are not able to be controlled by the business. However, time goes by and we call to check on our order. Again, they don’t know who we are, but alas they find our file.

We are very quickly informed that my fiancé cannot pick up the suits without prior written consent from the other groomsmen. This does make some sense, but we were not informed of this or told about this once prior to this instance. Our groomsmen are long distance and cannot pick up the suits themselves which was discussed in our original appointment. This written consent was not part of the process we were told about. After some discussion, they did let us pick them up. We were relieved and waiting on the final suit.

I placed a call today inquiring about the status of the final suit. The staff member luckily found our file without issue and informed us that another party had picked up both suits. After some digging with both of my fiancés parents, apparently Charlotte’s sent two suits for one groomsmen so that he can send one back (we were not informed of this) and called someone else to arrange a pick up.

Meanwhile, we’re waiting, wondering where this suit is and getting ready to overnight it. I did not know until today that it had been picked up and by another party. This felt particularly bad as it also went against the “written consent” policy we were previously told.

Overall, the experience getting groomsmen suits has been extremely frustrating at every corner. We’ve consistently been told contradicting policies and information from staff as well as kept out of the loop. We received one email about the status of the suits that also included the promise of a follow up (that I never got). While the suits we picked out are exactly what we wanted, I wouldn’t go through this again as it has added an extreme amount of unnecessary stress.

I also found my wedding dress here and that experience was overall fine. My stylist was very pleasant to me, remembered information about me and asked about my dress when I came in to pick up the suits. That felt nice, but I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone come here...

HORRIBLE! I usually never do reviews but I would hate to see someone else especially a bride have to go through something like I did. The staff has no knowledge of the dresses they work with! I was in my friends wedding and called in my measurements. I am also getting married so I gave her the exact measurements my bridal designer gave me. Now of course I know that all designers run different however, When you understand the design of the dress you are working with you don't make mistakes like they did. I'd like to mention that most of the 12 girls in the wedding party all had to make major alterations as did I. The bride was not happy with their "knowledgeable and friendly" staff. As if planning a wedding isn't stressful enough! The girl I worked with told me that the designer runs small and that my hips were running between two sizes both bigger than my normal size. Now everything else was running at a normal size. So would't common sense tell you that if the dress is loose and flowy on the bottom you wouldn't be concerned with the hip measurement. I also told her that since I am getting married myself I have been working at loosing weight as all brides do. I told her that I would be smaller than the initial measurements. She insisted even when I argued against it to get a size 16! I have never been even close to a 16. My wedding dress is a 12 and its getting taken in. But after he explanations about the designer I thought I would trust her word since she was supposedly a professional. Clearly she she was lacking the competency to understand the dress design she was working with. When I got the dress it was HUGE. The only reason it even stayed up was because of the straps. Now I am stuck with 120$ worth of alterations!!! I called the shop to see if there was something they could do. Reimburse me for the bodice part of the alterations ($55). Their owner Kathy totally strung me along for a week acting like she was going to help out in some way. She had me call around to make sure I didn't get a high estimate. I called her back 3-4 times and got no answer or response. Then 4 days later she calls and says she left her phone at work all week (yea I'm sure). Then she tells me she will call me back Monday and see what they can do. She calls me on Monday and tells me there is nothing they can do and thanks for their business. She was snotty and fake the whole conversation. I would strongly urge you to take your business elsewhere. I would never trust them with dress ordering for any occasion. I am so thankful this wasn't my wedding dress experience. Horrible just Horrible. If there was an option for 0 out of 5 stars that would be a more...

If I could recommend 0 stars I would. I went in to get a dress that I am wearing as a bridesmaid dress for a wedding. I scheduled a time to come to be fitted, and came in at that scheduled time. It took them about 10 minutes to get to me, and then they briefly took my sizes. It literally took them maybe a minute to do the sizes. I was never offered the opportunity to try on the actual dress. She told me I was between two sizes, and asked if I wanted to go up or down in size. That didn't make sense to me, because I don't know who would choose to go down from the size that they are. I chose up, and thought if anything, this dress was going to be too big for me, and that I would have to be taking it in a little. They had me sign a contract which stated they had measured me, which was correct, but I figured they were measuring me correctly. They handed me a receipt, and a copy of the contract, but never put the carbon copy of the one I actually signed with the reciept.... how convenient on their part. I got the dress back, and was shocked and stressed to find out it was way too small in the rib cage area and waist, after I've lost 15 pounds since they measured me! The entire wedding party had dresses that are too small. The owner, Kathy, was EXTREMELY rude when they were called about the matter, and said it would be a waste of time to come down there to have them retake my measurements to make sure they didn't mess up, because she had a contract that "saved" them, and she didn't have to do anything. I was also told that these dresses are all aimed at fitting "6 foot model like type figures" so short girls have bigger problems with any dresses. Talk about rude and condescending! Almost 300 dollars later, without any help from them, and it has been a nightmare trying to have the dress refit and done by a seamstress. I highly disagree with the way the people that own this establishment run their business. I would not recommend them to anyone. I know I will never again step foot in there for any type of business...