Bridal & Formal — Local services in Reading

I picked coming here to buy my dress based off of the Google Maps reviews and I made the right decision! Kathleen S. turned what I was dreading would be an exhausting chore into a painless, fun experience. I went in with a strict max of $2K budget (including alterations & accessories) and a six month timeframe. Before we started, she clearly expressed which designers to avoid due to their higher prices and/or longer turnaround times— and I never felt pressured by pushy sales techniques that I heard some boutiques foist on their customers. I showed her my Pinterest board and she picked a few for me to try out based on that (and also picked a few other cuts just to give me a feel for them) and we picked out a few. She was super profesional in helping me change in and out of dresses, knew the perfect questions to ask to get the right feedback to guide me into or back to a better dress— and even though I knew my group and I probably required an ungodly amount of patience, she never batted an eye. When I fell in love with a dress that I wished had a little more bling on the top, she took me to a magical room filled with shiny accessories and showed me different ways I could alter it or accessorize with it… and it gave me exactly what I needed to say yes to the dress! I left with THE perfect belt, headband, and veil— as well as the cutest tea-length gown that felt really, really me. I never would’ve even picked it for myself, so I am incredibly grateful for Kathleen’s help! The other ladies at the store were absolutely wonderful as well and they all helped to create such a warm and exciting space. I really appreciated how incredibly thorough they were with the check out process, too; involving me in double checking the item number and color for everything I ordered to make sure the right things showed up for me on time. Very helpful, knowledgeable, andprofessional business. I see why the have so many wonderful reviews— they are AMAZING at what they do! You will find your dress here!

Side note: I really appreciated how Kathleen walked slower for my mom when she was leading us around the store. My mom has mobility issues and struggles with keeping up with people— it’s the little things! Thanks for the...

Bridal & Formal was my second appointment when searching for my wedding dress, and I was so excited for it as my mom found her wedding dress there (thirty years ago!). I had asked only her to come with me to make it more of a “special” experience because I’m very close with my mom, and I’m her first daughter to get married.

We’re able to joke about our experience now, but neither of us found it funny at the time. Sandra was my consultant, and my appointment abruptly started fairly poorly when the response to my preferred price range was a chuckle and “Don’t expect to find much at all for that.” I expressed that I was open to trying on a variety of styles as I had just started my search—which seemed to be the wrong answer. Sandra’s demeanor for the majority of my appointment was short and cold after our initial chat. I did my best to express what I liked & didn’t like during the first pull of dresses to help give some better direction, but it felt as if because I didn’t come in 100% sure on my vision or 100% certain that I’d be purchasing that day that I was almost a nuisance.

About halfway through the second pull of dresses is when I noticed that they were mostly double the cost of the top of my preferred price range. Which I found frustrating only because there was zero mention that they were above the range that I gave. My mom even asked me at one point if I wanted to call it a day and get out of there because we both felt somewhat uncomfortable. This continued until I tried on “the dress”, and her entire demeanor changed for the better briefly—the dress was $900 more than the top of my range, but I seriously considered going above my budget until she became very pushy and then seemingly frustrated with me for taking about four minutes to mull it over.

I have experience working in sales myself, and I can understand the aggravation with “exclusive window shoppers” especially in the bridal industry, but this was a disappointing experience as a bride & as a customer. Truly a polar opposite experience compared to the other shops that I went to.

However, to end on a positive note—I did buy “the dress” that I had tried on at Cincinnati Bridal & Formal, just...

I barely ever write reviews, but this place is just really awful in the way they operate and I want to warn people. The size ordered was multiple sizes too big, so big that it was gaping to where my chest was visible without me actively holding it up - I could literally fit a small child into the front of the gown - and the manager pretty much gaslit us into saying that that’s how it should be. There were a lot of people around so I felt pressured to just give in. Alterations (if they can be done) are being quoted at $2000-$2500, the dress was already very expensive. The multiple seamstresses I’ve shown the dress to have been shocked at how big it is and why it was ordered so large. I also was pressured into buying a $400 veil after only trying on two veils. I asked for the veil to be shortened and was told what I wanted wouldn’t look good, so I settled for a longer length for a veil I’m not even sold on. It was very high pressure and I felt like they really didn’t care what happened to us once we left the shop, they just wanted us out of there. Unfortunately this is now the biggest stressor of my entire wedding because I don’t know if it’s going to be able to be altered to fit right. Lucretia was very gaslight-y when it came to all this, which sucks because I had really put my trust in her and thought she had my best interest in mind :( They also didn’t even let us take a pic in front of the “I said yes to the dress” wall. It was like an after thought, we had to ask them to get a picture so they let me hold a small sign in a random part of the store. I felt like we weren’t a priority and it all felt very high pressure. All of the lower reviews are shoved to the bottom of Google so make sure to check, some of them mirror mine. I regret going here, we’re out a solid chunk of our budget and like I said, I may have to find a totally different dress at the last minute. It’s just not right they way they treat their customers. The manager brushed us off big time. Just be aware if you are going here, it’s really high pressure, their policies are predatory, and if something is wrong with the dress, they will not...