Special Occasions By Paulette — Local services in Ladue

If there were negative stars, they would be off the charts. By far the worst customer service experience I've ever had in my life. My mother and I were treated like Julia Roberts from Pretty Woman - mind you we were both dressed very appropriately. A lady, I believe to be the owner, stopped us as soon as we entered the store and practically cornered us from looking at any merchandise while she asked us a ton of questions about "what we were doing here." I explained I was looking for a little black dress to wear in my sister's wedding as the maid of honor. She immediately stopped me and repeatedly explained that she "doesn't have anything for me here because it is all very expensive," yet she didn't even bother to ask me what my budget was. She continually insinuated that I could not afford a dress there. Not to mention, there was a perfect little black dress hanging on a rack that would have been perfect and was in fact in my price range, but after the way we were treated I refuse to support a business like that. The way she talked to us was very condescending and extremely rude.

Before coming to the store, I had called several times before to get more information on a selection of short black dresses. My calls were never returned and the one time someone actually answered my call, the woman was extremely rude and said she "didn't have time to answer my questions."

Also, while in the store the woman that was interrogating us another red flag occurred for me.... a mother and her daughter came in to shop for prom dresses. The woman we were speaking with interrupted me while I was talking to give the new shoppers who entered a hug despite the fact I had just overheard her say to another customer that she was sick and couldn't give them a hug because she didn't feel well, but yet because this particular family that went to a certain high school she gladly extended her welcome to them.

I've never been treated so poorly from a store before in my life. I'm so glad I did not purchase a dress here and give...

I went in with my sister in law today and the older short lady was extremely rude. We were looking for a basic prom dress to possibly use for a bridesmaid dress. This lady looked at us and said "well we have a $100 section in the back you could look at", as if we can't afford their other prices. While she was explaining the dresses to my sister in law, I was speaking to someone else and we were laughing and this lady very rudely asked what was so funny. Once we looked at the dresses and didn't see the correct color, we were going to go look at all the dresses in the main area where this lady very rudely told my sister in law "well we don't have your size anyways" strictly from just looking at her and not even knowing her size. This lady is very disrespectful, judgemental, unprofessional, and doesn't need to be working with the public acting like that!! Would NOT recommend this business to ANYONE!!...

Due to some unavoidable situations, I had waited late to order a dress for my daughter's wedding, and was having trouble finding something I liked that I was still able to get in time. One of the people at the bridal shop where we bought my daughter's dress suggested I try Special Occasions. I called and spoke with Paulette and she made an appointment to open early and work with me the next morning. I really didn't have much hope since I had looked all over St. Louis without much luck. When we walked in she told me she would take care of me, and she really delivered. She took a few minutes to see some things I liked and sent me to the dressing room. She took over from there. I REALLY appreciated her HONEST opinions on how things looked - what was flattering and what was not. I ended up with the perfect dress. I will definitely recommend her to anyone looking for that...