Wedding Atelier — Local services in New York

DO NOT BOOK HERE!!! Please go read the 1 star reviews before wasting you time. I am disgusted with this company and how they prey on people for the cancellation fee. It looks like what happened to me has happened to several others.

I emailed the Atelier 21 hours in advance of my appointment asking if it would be possible to cancel without being charged the $50 fee (their policy is 24 hours in advance, so of course I will admit this was my fault, hence why I emailed them to ask instead of just cancelling).

I did not hear back so I called the following morning and advised I had found my main ceremony dress, but I didn't want to be charged $50 for nothing so I would still come in at my appointment time to look for a 2nd look dress, but if they would waive the fee I would cancel (I was honestly just exhausted and I could have purchased a 2nd look dress, but I was anticipating more time to think about what I wanted for one, not a big deal though! I would have gone in and just changed what I was looking for there). The woman I spoke to, Alisa, stated that she would call me back and let me know and we could proceed.

I cannot state this enough: Alisa said she would call me back and we could figure it out from there

I did not get a call back. Instead I got an email less than 5 minutes later that I would be charged $50 and my appointment was cancelled. Immediately I called back saying I didn't want to cancel the appointment nor did I say to cancel it because I would come at 4:30 to look for a second look dress, and asked why I didn't get a call. She said it was too late, that I already found my dress and they cancelled the appointment. Quite frankly, I could have just gone in and wasted their time but I thought calling and letting them know was the right thing to do. I regret ever telling them I found my dress because they took it quite personally and were nothing but nasty about it.

Whoever I spoke with the second time around is easily the nastiest person I've ever spoken to in my life. She was immediately yelling at me that I already found my dress and didn't abide by the policy. Her tone was honestly terrifying and I cannot fathom how someone in a customer service facing job would find that acceptable. I tried explaining to her that I never wanted to cancel if I was going to be charged, and I was waiting for a call back. But she would not let me get a single word in. My fiancé's jaw was on the floor the whole time she was speaking and I just got secondhand embarrassment for the girl the way she spoke.

I would really reconsider before going here and giving your business to a place that would make shopping for a wedding dress such an icky experience. I feel grossed out by the whole thing. American Express has already blocked the merchant and disputed the charge but I wanted to tell other people to beware.

Other great places to look up where the experience and business aren't slimy:

Kleinfeld (I didn't get my dress here but they were super nice, listened to what I wanted, and made the experience fun) -Lela Rose (could not speak more highly about Emma Rose there!) Amsale (they run a little late but the attendants are all really nice) The One Bridal (BK) Spina Bridal Lovely Bride All Who Wander Atelier (in Caldwell, NJ, but a gorgeous salon and worth the trip) Mark Ingram Atelier (amazing experience here!)

I have never written a review I don't think, and I hope this helps other brides avoid the gross pushy salespeople mentality of these shops. All the places I listed above never made me feel like they were selling me something, they were truly interested in what I liked and didn't like on my body and didn't at all come off like it was about "the sale." I've had several friends tell me that Wedding Atelier is very pushy and made them feel uncomfortable and I wish I listened to their advice before booking this appointment and being subjected to their...

I am an out of town (3 hours away) bride getting married this May 2024. I came to this shop last spring and had a pleasant experience during one of their trunk shows, purchased a dress and was told ahead of time the dresses would be made based on the wedding date timeline, so mine wouldn’t be ready until a couple months right before my date. Great, I would come pick it up and then do alterations locally near me.

Was expecting maybe to get some updates along the way, and didn’t but figured they’re busy I’ll just call once we’re getting closer. So I call maybe 3 months out from May and get a pretty generic response from the receptionist that when it’s ready you’ll get a call but we don’t have any updates. I’m waiting and waiting, okay now we’re at the two month mark in March. So I call again and now the receptionist tells me oh it’s almost here you should get an email from the bridal consultant you work with. Okay I’m waiting again, no email, also did check my spam, and nothing. So I call again and they tell me okay you should directly email your bridal consultant who won’t be here until the end of the week btw. I ask do you have any idea if the dress is even there and they keep saying nope you have to directly talk to your bridal consultant.. You would think in this day and age there would be some shared records they could look at to indicate if a dress has arrived. Anyway so finally I get a response from my bridal consultant that the dress did indeed arrive last week and that usually she calls also because she’s had the issue of their emails going to spam…but she admits she was too busy and forgot… okay fine so I pay my balance online and call to schedule pick up, because I live hours away and I work a M-F job… so weekends really only work. Then I’m told my dress is actually over at the new location which is NOT open on weekends… so she’s like let me speak to my manager and I’ll let you know later today if we can figure something out. I get an email at the end of the day saying the manager refuses to schedule my pick up because my payment is still pending and to call back Monday. Now their email about payment specifically says to screenshot the receipt, which I did and sent, and they still refused to schedule my pick up. I am now beyond the 2 month mark to my wedding, I still need to have it altered near me, and now I have to figure out some time to actually still travel to get my dress.

When I call back Monday morning same run around, the receptionist doesn’t normally schedule pickups, I’m told to again email my bridal consultant who is not in the office as well as cc the manager. Still no response by late afternoon. At that point I need to escalate so when I call again they finally put me on the phone with someone who can do scheduling. However again told that they don’t do weekend pickups. I have to explain my entire situation and after talking to their manager they finally get me a Saturday pick up date.

Bottom line communication has been atrocious. Relying on email when your bridal consultants seem to know it has a tendency to go to spam, and when some of your bridal consultants are not in the shop throughout the week is ridiculous. This has been the most stressful part of my wedding planning. Had I known there would be so much delay I would never have gotten my dress here. You would think there would be more consideration for out of town brides but that was clearly not the case. I directly left a review for them on their website privately a month ago and have not had anyone reach out to me. This review will probably get buried underneath all their other 5 star reviews but just wanted to give a warning to any out of...

I purchased a custom Suzanne Neville gown from Wedding Atelier in early February for my wedding in early September. The shopping experience was fine/average and the sales representative was helpful and kept within my budget. I was told the dress would arrive in early July to allow for three fittings and was encouraged to place the order in February ASAP. In May, I went in to try on veils and my stylist said SN dresses had been arriving early and mine would come in end of June. Weeks went by with 0 communication and after the first week of July (the original expected delivery date) I reached out and was told on July 8, "it will arrive in just a few more days." I followed up a few more times and was told "it's coming" with no specific information. Finally, on July 29 I told them I needed to know if and when it was coming because my wedding was one month away. I was prepared to shop for another dress because the lack of information and communication was concerning. They gave me a firm date for Monday August 2 and we set up my first fitting for August 4. I asked if they could reduce the remaining balance for the dress or offer a discount on alterations due to the inconvenience (they also gave me a hard time about overnight shipping to my home even though the dress delay was their fault). The "management" wouldn't allow that. After many requests and after being pawned off to the owner’s assistant (on her very first day) I finally received an email (no phone call ever) from the salon owner, Carrie. She took absolutely no ownership over the situation, blamed her stylist, blamed her seamstress, and blamed the designer’s team. She attempted to explain away the delay as a production issue in an insulting manor as if I don’t read the news or know about recent developments with Covid-19. The problem is not even that the dress was a month late. It’s that they overpromised and underdelivered on with 0 communication or follow up. I was kept completely in the dark for one of the most important and expensive pieces of clothing I’ll ever buy. Throughout this process, I've been really respectful and mindful that COVID-19 causes delays. However, timing expectations were set time and time again unrealistically by the salon and stylist and the lack of compassion or customer service from management is astounding. I went elsewhere for alterations even after the stylist threatened I wouldn’t be able to find someone to alter my specific designer (such a lie). Wedding atelier has a "flat rate" of over $900 for alterations and I went to Alteration Specialists on UES who did it for significantly cheaper and much higher quality. I found a veil elsewhere too (Wedding Atelier’s own line of veils will cost you upwards of $350 for basic ones and they have 0 drop veils available). They have lost roughly $1300 of business from me personally. Also, I'm the first of my friends to get married and my two future sister-in-laws are recently engaged and shopping for gowns themselves. I have told them and all my friends about the negative experience and recommended going elsewhere for dresses and alterations. Planning a wedding is a stressful, emotional, and difficult experience and you should not have to worry if or when your very expensive gown is arriving. I do not recommend giving this salon your business. They don’t care at all about their customers and the communication between Carrie the salon owner and the stylists is appalling. I wish I bought my gown from Mark Ingraham, Wedding Salon of Manhasset, or literally anywhere else in the...