Serendipity Bridal And Events — Local services in La Plata

When I got engaged, we were eager to go dress shopping. We picked Serendipity as our first stop to get ideas because it’s local and had an endless range of options. The experience was luxe and so special. And, I ended up saying yes to the dress! I was encouraged to try on as many dresses as I could, as many different styles as I could at my appointment which made me feel heard and supported! The first visit was a 5 star.

So, we order the dress and it comes in! They call me to let me know that I can come try on my beautiful dress! I scheduled an appointment and the second experience was not so nice for me. We were being taken care of by an employee who seemed to not know what she was doing which made the experience not feel as luxe as the first time. My first impression of seeing my dress was odd because it seemed different and we couldn’t put our finger on it… it was the dress but without the magic… It was also extremely wrinkly. I wouldn’t expect it to be perfect but it was just not it. We ended up not saying anything about it (which we should have so please do so!). We hurried out because we felt more like an inconvenience than a customer who paid $2,000 on a wedding dress. Our second experience was excused with being low staffed. I would rate our second experience as 2 stars.

Luckily, my mom went into damage control. She called them to see if it was possible that the material could’ve been changed in the process or something. We weren’t sure where the issue. My mom even came back to the store to take a look at the sample.

After that we just decided to scheduled another appointment to come back with the dress to compare to the sample I tried on and with the owners as well. As the bride, I was very hesitant, I was scared my experience would be even more anxiety inducing. We came in and were greeted so nicely by everyone. The owner even gave me a hug, LOL. First we compared the two. It was indeed the right dress but there was definitely something slightly off about it. So, they offered to give it a a slight steam to see if it brought that shininess out that the sample had. As soon as she brought it out, we were like “YEP! Now THAT’s the dress we bought.” I tried it on again and it was everything and more. The owners really made up for the second appointment we had that epically failed, lol. They were educating me on how the dress was fitting and what would need to be done with it. They told how it would need to be taken in in certain spots and not others. They informed me that the seamstress could fix the flow of the dress since the person who makes these, makes them on mannequins and not on human bodies. Which I would’ve never realized. They made sure I was happy with it before we left and really cared that the dress was exactly what we bought and envisioned. The third appointment was a 5-star.

I just hope they learned from my experience and make a change so no other bride has to feel the way that I did. It made me sad, anxious and I genuinely thought that was being screwed over. They made up for it for me, so that’s why I am giving an overall 4 star.

I shouldn’t have had that 2nd appointment be so horrible. But, I’m so grateful and happy they did what they could to make it up to me. 🤍

[I tried to keep it quick and simple, sorry if...

The staff at Serendipity is beyond amazing and they have so many beautiful dresses to choose from. My stylist was Marissa and I can't say enough how much I enjoyed working with her. It was like she was one of my friends helping me. Very kind, personable and we shared so many laughs during the process. It was definitely a fun experience. She even welcomed me with a nice picture of my fiance and I in my dressing room and entrance. I was blown away at the kind gesture. I showed Marrisa my vision for my wedding dress and she had the perfect dress picked for me. I said yes to the dress because of Marissa. It was such a great experience. I highly recommend Serendipity.

Edit: This is in no way against Marissa. She was the absolute best. I was so happy with my dress initially but hated it on my wedding day. When I initially picked my dress, I was advised by the owner that custom measurements would be best so that the dress could be tailored to my shape. In my opinion, the only thing I needed was a bigger built in bra, but I listened to the expert and went with a custom dress. Went for my first fitting after the dress arrived and it was at least two sizes too big. The dress was literally falling off of me. How could this be possible with custom measurements? I'm not sure if this was a ploy to get me to spend more money or if they really just screwed up my measurements. The seamstress took my measurements again and the dress needed to be takin in 6 inches. I asked for the dress to be takin in as much as possible considering how big it was. Went for my second fitting after alterations, and the dress was still too lose in the waist and bust. I was not happy and asked for it to be taken in more. Of course I was advised that no additional alterations could be done without ruining the dress. I honestly think she just didn't want to do it. By this time, I had spent $$$ in alterations and had less than 1 week before I left town for my wedding. The day of my wedding, the bust area was so big and had no support. My breast were sagging and bouncing around with every movement. The weight of my breast was literally causing the material to fold over. That's how lose it was. This ruined my day. I didn't want to dance or take pictures. I was so self conscious of how I looked in my dress. I couldn't enjoy the moment. I could cry every time I look at my pictures. It was horrible to say the least. I was promised that my dress would be altered by the best but I regret not going somewhere else. I'm sad that I cannot get this day back.

Below are pictures. The first pictures are of my initially try on in the bridal shop. Also, the day I said yes to the dress. The dress fit perfectly fine except the built in bra cup was too small. No cleavage and my tattoo is barely exposed. I thought this was a nice classy dress and therefore I purchased it. The last two pictures are on my wedding day. The bust area was extremely big and did not support my breast. My entire chest is exposed, all of my cleavage is out and you can see my tattoo fully. This was not the look I wanted. The alterations were done horribly wrong. Two different looks in the same dress. How after spending hundres of dollars in alterations? I'm not sure if I would still recommend this bridal shop. At least not...

I should have wrote this review a long time ago but just thinking about my experience was too much. I visited in 2018 and was helped by Dorothy, I pray she is no longer working there.

I was super excited to come to your shop since I’ve seen some beautiful dresses bought there. But I left feeling awful about myself. I am fully aware I am plus size and that the dresses wouldn’t look the same on me. I emailed before my appointment to make sure I could try on plus size dresses. I was assured that I could try some on. I was able to try on a few dresses, but the lady who helped me continued to remind me that I’m not the “normal size” bride and that the dresses wouldn’t look the same on me as they did on someone who is smaller. I was already well aware of this, so I did not need to be reminded. She wouldn’t even let me out of the dressing room in some of the dresses and told me it was because she thought they looked bad on me. I wasn’t aware that I needed her approval to like a dress or show them to my family and friends I brought with me. She also made a joke when I told her I was also looking to try on dresses at David’s bridal saying “good luck” and they won’t have things for me to try on, after she found out I was going somewhere else she seemed bothered by me being there. I also asked to try on different silhouettes so I can see what they look like for myself and she told me that not all of them would look good, so I wasn’t able to try on what I wanted even though they had ones in my size. She was just really worried about me just getting measured for a dress I couldn’t even try on. I was clear that I will not buy a dress that I couldn’t try on. She asked me if I wanted to set up an appointment for next weekend, I told her I would call if I wanted to come in, which wasn’t happening since I was obviously offended by her comments. At that point she didn’t thank us for coming in and was worried about putting the dresses back for the next appointment so we just left.

I didn’t say anything to my family and friends when we were there and I wanted to cry every time she left the dressing room. I told everyone what happened at lunch since I didn’t want confrontation at the store. I prepared myself that day for the challenges of finding a dress at my size so I suppressed my feelings. But I can’t stop replaying the morning in my head and the feeling that I don’t deserve to feel comfortable and beautiful in a dress. I know I’m not the perfect size, I’ve been dealing with health issues for the past few years that caused me to gain weight. So it’s a sensitive subject. But I still deserve to feel beautiful in a dress, I’m more than a commission paycheck, and I hope nobody else has the horrible experience I did.

It’s sad to look back now, 5 years later. One of the dresses I tried on was “the dress” I wanted it so bad and still love the pictures of me in it. But I bought a dress I didn’t like as much somewhere else because the person took the time to help me and...