Exquisite Bride — Local services in Murrysville

The experience here was not worth the stress it brought. At the start, everyone was super excited and helpful while myself, my bridesmaids, my mom, and MIL were there looking for a dress. The 2nd dress I tried on was the one. It was perfect, but I wanted sleeves on my dress so they said they could have it customized to add sleeves. I went on December 2nd and this is when I purchased my dress. I was told that I would have my dress the first week of June. Fast forward: the first week of June is here, no dress. So I waited until the end of the 2nd week of June to call for an update. They had no information for me other than “it should be here.” So I called at least once a week for 6 weeks with NOTHING. At this point it’s August and I’m getting nervous, knowing my dress would need alterations and my wedding was in October. I kept being told that DJ needed to speak with someone from Casa Blanca because they have an agreement where only DJ can speak with them. (I tried to talk to them and this is factual, they wouldn’t give me any information on the dress I purchased). I called the Exquisite Bride time and time again asking if DJ had the chance to call yet and eas continuously told no, that he hadn’t called. Here’s the reason I’m giving 2 stars instead of 1 star. I receive a call from Jenn Marinelli who is the one of the children of the founders of the Exquisite Bride (also DJ’s sister). What a gem Jenn is! She told me that she was visiting the Murrysville location when she saw my card and realized I was not having a great time so she made it her own mission to help me find my dress. She told me that my dress had been sitting at a FedEx sorting facility for a few weeks and she went herself to pick it up. She was willing to drive this dress to OHIO where my parents live to drop it off to me, but luckily I live in Pittsburgh. Jenn met me at home and dropped my dress off to me! I finally had my dress! Thanks Jenn! It only took one person to truly care to find my dress. Jenn told me that she would have someone at the shop mail me a garment bag for the dress so for a few weeks I had my beautiful, expensive, wedding dress in two garbage bags stapled together. I called 2 weeks later asking about the garment bag and they said they never put it in the mail but I could come pick one up. My finance (now husband) went to get one while I was at an alteration appointment and they told him they were all out of garment bags… At a bridal shop? I had a friend help me try on my dress for the first time and it was hanging off my body. It was so big on me and I was very upset about the way it looked on me. I took my dress elsewhere to have it altered because I no longer trusted the Exquisite Bride and I was told they ordered the dress 3 sizes too big for me. My MIL also had trouble with her dress, they ordered it way too big for her and when she tried it on, they brushed her off saying it “just needed a nip here and a tuck there.” When she took it to another bridal shop, she was told it would cost more in alterations than the dress itself. She wrote a review for 1 star and DJ called her asking her to take it down. DJ also asked her why she didn’t say anything when she tried the dress on. My MIL explained that she did and it was brushed off. DJ negotiated with her saying that if she would take her review down, he would make it right for her and order a dress in the right size. She did, and she got a dress that actually fit. While she was there, my dress had still been missing at that point, so she asked about it. DJ told her that my dress was “stuck in Ukraine.” We explained that to the other bridal shop and they told us that was a lie, and that Casa Blanca was based out of California. That was DJs way of covering up the fact that they couldn’t find my dress instead of just telling us it was missing. Again, my dress was beautiful thanks to the other bridal shop who did the alterations, but it was absolutely not worth the stress and headache I received from the Exquisite Bride. I would recommend looking elsewhere...

I’m not one to post negative reviews, but in order to save other brides from making the same mistake I did... I’ll start off by saying I found Exquisite Bride by going to a bridal show. Lynda literally undressed a mannequin in the middle of the show just so I could try on my dream dress. I didn’t end up with THAT dress, but for her to do that for me was beyond expectation. I LOVE Lynda and the rest of the bridal shop team. The issue I had was with the seamstress that they recommended me to, who does work in the basement of the shop. When I first met her, and up until the last fitting, I had no issues with her at all. She is as sweet as can be. But her time management is AWFUL. I was supposed to have my final fitting on the Tuesday before my wedding, and when I was getting ready to leave work to make the hour long trip there, she called me and told me it wasn’t ready yet and wouldn’t be until maybe 4pm maybe later. I took a deep breath and said okay, let’s just reschedule for the same time tomorrow. She agreed and told me she would see me the next day. Wednesday comes and I leave work, pick my mom who works from home, drive an hour there, just to pull into the parking lot and her to call me and tell me that it’s still not ready. I told her we were in the parking lot and she told us to come in. My mom was furious and I had no words. I’m more understanding out of the two of us so I just said, okay, when will it be done? And she told me she would drop it off at my mom’s house at 8:30am the next morning (Thursday before my wedding), but she would have to stay up ALL NIGHT to get it done. Trying to make us feel bad for her? I took another deep breath and said okay, sounds great and I let it go. Next day comes, again it is now Thursday before my Saturday wedding, and I had to drive 45 minutes to my moms house in the morning to make it there at 8:30 to meet Ruth there to get my gown. I pull in to my mom’s at 8:30. No sign of Ruth. 9am comes- nothing. 9:30- nothing. Okay- maybe I’ll call her. I called her number and she doesn’t answer. Okay- maybe she’s on her way? It gets to 10:05 and I get a call. “I’m so sorry I slept in I know, I’m so exhausted, I’ll have it done by this afternoon” I say okay. 5pm rolls around and I call her again asking when I will get my dress. She tells me it’s not ready yet, maybe by 8pm. At this point my stepdad gets involved and just says we will GO get the dress, we don’t even care if it’s done at this point. We drove up to the shop and picked it up at 9pm that night. I didn't try it on because I was so exhausted and so fed up, I didn't want to be there longer than I had to, and I did NOT want her doing anything else to my dress. When we were leaving, we saw a car with two other women in it and they also didn’t look very happy. End of the story is— my mom and I both missed out on hours of work, and in turn money, and she created 100 times more stress, not to mention a lot of loss of sleep, a few days before my wedding. She also did not hem it enough-- to where I was tripping on it the entire night. She did not put the clasp in the back like she told my mom she would, and she didn’t put a liner on the straps like she said, so my straps were bothering me all night to the point where my shoulders were red. So, again. I’m not one to write bad reviews, but Exquisite Bride team— this is NOT okay. Broken promises on broken promises and a lack of accountability for poor service. PLEASE, something needs to be done about this, especially after reading a bunch of other recent reviews. I'm not the only one, but I really hope I'm the last...

Thanks...

On September 1st 2018 I was married at Disalvos station to my boyfriend of 9 years. I had the perfect venue, the perfect decor and flowers, the perfect man, and what I thought was going to be the perfect dress; here's where it all goes south.

Let's back up a bit though to give you the full experience I had with Exquisite Bride. I purchased my dress from wonderfully helpful sales women in February of that year. The dress itself needed some major alterations to fit me however I was assured that given the purchase time of the dress (8 months out from my actual wedding) the alterations would not be a problem. Then began the fittings, we're in what I believe to be May now. I was once again assured that even though there was major work to be done their professional seamstress who was "top notch" could handle it. So we went with it. We went back again a month later, there wasn't as much work done to the dress as we had hoped but it was only June. July again we went back for what was supposed to be my 2nd to last fitting and this dress is no where near done but we had about 2 months an extra fitting and it'll be fine.... Here we now, 2 weeks before the wedding and its not done, not even close. I'm beginning to get a bit worried. Aain we're reassured it will be perfect. I go back for my final fitting a week later and she has done nothing on it. Let me repeat that for you, one week out from my wedding and it is not even close to done. At this point I am worried, I am crying, and I am beginning to question ever having alterations done here. 3 days later, 4 days before my wedding, ee go back and it's still not done. I'm fitted and told that since I will be decorating the day before my wedding I could have someone else pick it up for me. anyone who has ever had to decorate their own venue will tell you the day before your wedding is chaos. I'm PROMISED it will fit like a glove. Assuredly so. Promise promise promise. Everything will be perfect.

We're now at September 1st. I put the dress on, and the boning in the dress looks like a shark fin. Amidst everyone's panic my amazing photographer who does minor alterations had to cut and sew out the boning of the back of my dress. Crises averted let's move on right? Wrong. Before my ceremony the haphazard stitching on the side of the bodice of my dress begins to rip, the applique is falling off left and right, but I have to walk down the isle so we dress tape it. I get through the ceremony only for it to rip more as I'm breathing. Now here's the fun part, by the time the reception has started I can no longer wear my perfect wedding dress, and my husband had to leave our reception to go to the hotel and get my rehearsal dinner dress.

Wedding day ruined.

I contact the store, I am furious and sad and crushed. The guarantees and promises were straight lies. It took me until the end of October to finally get assurance that I will receive a total refund on alterations and a free dress repair. I have called the store 6 times since then over the past 9 months, I never get a call back. They have my dress and it is still not finished and I am done.

Be smart. Do not go through what I am still going through, get your alterations done outside...