Velvet Bride — Local services in Missoula

I am not a person to post negative reviews about a local business, but I did have a pretty unbelievably negative experience here and wanted to share so that hopefully no one else goes through it.

When I was shopping for a dress I went to velvet bride and tried on only four dresses- I noticed the bridal consultant was clearly not super interested or engaged which is ok, I was there for the dresses. She sized me after I chose a dress and stated I was a size 2. She assured me she was good at her job / had sized me properly. I insisted I was not such a small size and asked to be sized again, and she told me she was good at her job and I trusted her because I hadn’t ever been actually sized for a dress until this point. She ordered the dress in the size she insisted I was after sizing me again. It arrived and BARELY zipped. It was petited/short bodice it looked almost nothing like the dress I had tried on due to being such an inappropriately small size for me. The consultant insisted she had never had this problem before with this dress, insinuated it was somehow my body that was the problem. I had lost weight since initially trying on the the dress and additionally have struggled on and off with anorexia so this was an especially uncomfortable moment because I consider myself healthy but very trim now, and had not felt that badly about myself since college.

I was at a loss and although she did order a new dress in a (correctly large enough size to be altered to fit me)size 8 (!) and it did arrive on time, I still had a pretty profoundly negative experience. I would not recommend this shop to anyone who cares about the experience of purchasing the dress. I am genuinely shocked that this happened and if I hadn’t been dress shopping many months in advance, I would have not received the new dress in time. Please consider my honest review before trusting velvet bride with your once in a lifetime experience. If you needed encouragement to go to a different...

Short review: Not a good experience/selection/staff help at all - Go to the Last Best Bridal Shop instead (They are AMAZING there and extremely helpful and have beautiful dresses) Longer review: The experience: I came with a friend who's getting married and she was so excited to visit the Velvet Bride . With the appointment she booked, there would be champagne and dresses and all the fun that comes with the experience. When we got there, however, there was only one young woman working who seemed like this was the very last thing she wanted to be doing. She greeted the bride but didn't acknowledge her three friends with her. There was water and champagne on a table with one cup beside it and none was offered to any of us. We finally just asked if we could have some and she said, "Oh, yeah, sure!" So we served ourselves and the bride. The selection: This place does have newer styles, but a very small collection and more on the pricey side as well. When my friend would ask questions about the dresses, the woman would initially respond very hesitantly, as if to say, "Don't get your hopes up, that probably can't happen, but I'll check to see..." She wasn't helpful at all. As we were there, we couldn't wait to leave and try to find another option in Missoula (we felt like unwelcome guests where the host couldn't wait for us to leave). When we found another shop online, we went to the Last Best Bridal Shop, and the contrast between the two shops couldn't have been stronger - Overall experience and selection and staff help were 110x better than the Velvet Bride. I'd skip the Velvet Bride altogether...

This was the first place I went to, and while the woman was very friendly, she didn't seem like she wanted to help me at all. I told her I love ball gowns, but was open to trying other things, and my budget was under $1,000 though I was again open to going higher if I found the one and these both seemed to make her uninterested in helping me. I ended up going to another store and getting a dress for over my budget that wasn't a ball gown because the woman there told me I should try other things. If you want business, maybe you should push a new bride to trying other items besides what she has in her mind from her prom. She also never offered anything to drink, and I was only in the store for fifteen minutes of the hour that is part of the appointment. I really felt like I was being pushed out...