Formally Yours, Inc. — Local services in Lilburn

I bought my wedding dress from "F-You" (like my nickname?) because they offered me a store credit of 20% of the cost of the dress. Huge mistake.

Huge.

The girls that work there could care less about you or your wedding dress. They are all 12 years old and I'm positive that the owner, Cathy, recruited them from her daughter's cheerleading squad. And Cathy: she's a treat made of sunshine and rainbows............

Three of my 7 bridesmaids that bought their dresses here were told the wrong size. Two girls that normally wear size 6s were told to order 14s. The tops of the dresses were on their ribs when they tried them on, and they had to take them elsewhere to get them re-made. The third bridesmaid couldn't get the last 3 inches zipped up, because they had altered it too small. She took it to another tailor and they had to do microscopic dress surgery to find extra fabric so that it would fit.

As if that wasn't bad enough, they messed up my wedding gown. I won't be tacky and tell you how much I spent on the dress, but I will tell you that when I told them my budget, the girl said, "Oh we only have a couple of dresses that are at that high of a price, so don't worry!" It's probably not a good business tactic to mess up your priciest dresses.

When I came for the final fitting, we were so consumed with getting the bustle right, that we didn't realize it was almost 2 inches too long. I tried it on again the next week because I just felt like something looked strange in the final fitting photos. Well, I was right. The trumpet-style gown was stacking up on the bottom, so it wasn't doing the fluid flare that it was supposed to do. As soon as they opened the following day, I was on the phone with Cathy. She told me to bring it in after work. This was the Friday before my wedding. I left work early, but got stuck in traffic and I wasn't going to make it by closing time. So I called Cathy, and she said, "Just bring it on Monday. Our alterations person is out for the weekend." I was dumbfounded that the OWNER of this shop wasn't willing to stay open late to right a mistake that they made.

So I went on Monday and Cathy was there in her gym clothes. She says, very condescendingly, "Look! I'm here, JUST. FOR. YOU." As if I was putting her out. After I tried on the dress, they failed to see the mistake and didn't even apologize. I asked, "How can you not see that it's too long? The lace on the bottom of the dress is LYING ON THE FLOOR." She responded as a kindergarten teacher speaks to a 5 year old with the wrong answer: " Honey, if you say it's too long, then it is, and we are going to fix it." No apology, and no, "yes, you are absolutely right, we messed up."

I picked up my dress two days before my wedding. I could not be happier to be done with those people. Go somewhere else. But if you do make the mistake of ordering your dress from here, be sure to ask them to "jack you up." They just LOVE...

We purchased our bridesmaids dresses from Formally Yours for my sisters wedding and I was very disappointed. When we got there for our scheduled appointment we were not greeted very kindly. We were taken to the bridesmaid dresses and were given a teenager to help us pick a dress out. The two bridesmaid were a bigger size than most of the sample dresses that they had so it was hard to determine what would look nice on our body type and we were told we would have to do the best we could to get the dresses on. It would have helped if we had a more experienced person that kind of knew what dress type would work best. When we finally picked a dress after trying on what seemed like every dress they had and then came time to pick he color. They didn't have anything that would show us what shade of red the dress would be in the material that it came in. We also didn't know that there would be no back to the dress as we told the girl helping us that we would need to be able to wear a bra with it. Since the dress didn't fit the way it was supposed to on us we didn't realize this. We go to pay for the dresses and I was told to order a dress size that was 3 sizes bigger than my dress size. I told them that it was three sizes different and they just said that is what the book says to order based on the measurements that they took. Since I haven't ordered a bridesmaid dress before I assumed that they knew what they were talking about and went ahead and placed the order. We were not told how long it would take to get the dresses in but it would be in time for the wedding. We got the dresses almost a month before the wedding which isn't much time when you have to get your dress altered. I was almost in tears when I got my dress because it didn't fit at all. I used Bella to alter my dress and it wasn't the best job. The first time I tried the dress on for Bella it was at the Formally Yours store and I heard the gasp from the FY employee at the front desk. I had to meet with her multiple times and the last time I was in her shop for the final fitting she wasn't even there. Her sister and a few other ladies were there and had her on the phone. They told her that the dress fit like a glove. It did not. It was still big on me and the part that I had her add on the back so that I could wear a bra looked terrible. I had to take it that day because it was to close to the wedding date to have any more alterations done on the dress. I paid more for alteration than I did for the actual dress. If I had just gone ahead and ordered that size I normally wear it would have fit fine. Be careful when they recommend the size to order. I would not use Bella for...

Formally Yours was the 3rd or 4th place I went when searching for my Wedding dress. I was surprised by their huge selection and variety of dresses. Cathy was the first one to greet us at the door, and after a brief conversation on my preferences, she said "I have the perfect dress for you." Well, after looking around, and trying on all the dresses that I had picked out - I had one dress left, the one Cathy had picked out. And sure enough, I put on this dress and knew this was THE Dress! I was amazed that she was able to take one look at me, ask a few questions, and pick out the perfect wedding dress!

With that being said, I would recommend that you take a look around Formally Yours! However, from my experience, I would suggest that you ONLY deal with Cathy! You'll be wasting your time with the other girls. They will tell you what they THINK you want to hear, the customer service is poor, and they have NO idea how to run a business.

Lastly, I would STRONGLY recommend that you STAY AWAY from the alterations at Formally Yours. I would have rated this place at least 4 stars based on my interactions with Cathy, however, my alterations experience, does not even earn 1 star! If you need anything more than a hem, their alterations lady will completely ruin your dress! DO NOT LET HER TOUCH YOUR DRESS!! I purchased my dress in plenty of time for alterations, and after going back 4 times for fittings, I was completely disappointed and in tears because it look absolutely terrible! It was no longer the dress that I had fallen in love with!! I had to take the dress after the last fitting because I had scheduled bridal portraits scheduled. My bridal portraits were a complete waste, because you could tell that the dress was too big, didn't fit right, my boobs looked lumpy (from where she did come tacky alterations to make the cups smaller). Terrible! It was a nightmare!

So, 2 weeks before my wedding, thanks to Cathy (Charlotte and none of the other ladies helped the situation) - she offered to let me take the floor sample of my dress (1 size smaller) to my NEW alterations lady (Dora Baker). Dora was absolutely appalled by the alterations from the lady at Formally Yours, which were done to my original dress. So, Dora started on alterations on the NEW dress, which she was able to fix perfectly! However, it was nerve racking because it wasn't ready until the morning before my wedding! And, as if you don't spend enough MONEY already when you're paying for a Wedding - I had to pay for alterations TWICE, because I will have you know there was no offer made for a refund on the first round of horrible...