Marchele's Bridal Boutique — Local services in Reno

Brides!! WARNING with this shop, I wish I would have had a warning.

This was my experience: I found a dress I loved but it was tight fitting around the hips, creating wrinkles in the mid section. Michelle said she would order a size bigger and it would fit better and promised it wouldn't have the wrinkles. I ordered my dress in late March and she said it would arrive early July. When I went to my first fitting in early July, the dress fit exactly the same as the first time. My intuition told me it was the same dress I tried on in March but I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt. She said she would have to cut the outer lace to give me space around the hips to sit and walk. I went in two other times to get measured, and have the dress cut and fabric added. On one occasion I asked her if she ordered the bigger size and she said yeah then proceeded to re-measure my hips and stated that I gained two inches in the hips in front of other customers. By the last fitting, 2 days before my wedding, the wrinkles weren't gone, the dress had been cut and shaped different and at one point she said that she just didn't know what to do. Keep in mind, every fitting she was so sure and tossed promise after promise. I trusted her but after the final fitting my dress still had the wrinkles. I offered an idea of putting a belt to help tuck in some fabric, thus removing some wrinkles. She pulled out a bunch of old looking belts from her stash and it helped. I was happy for a moment that we found a solution but overall a dress that was supposed to be $1840 ended up costing me $2710. I was overcharged on the final payment. Everytime I paid, Michelle had trouble sorting through 'the books.' The belt alone cost $200 and she charged me $450 plus tax for the alterations, which I've attached pictures to show the work. All the fittings and alterations were just weeks before the wedding. I overheard her saying to someone that she does them two weeks before the wedding, which my best friend experienced the same back and forth situation with the alterations just days before her wedding. Personally, I don't think brides should go through this much stress just before when they have a bunch of other things to worry about. At the end, I felt I was cornered into keeping this dress, I felt I paid way too much for the overall quality...

I can't say enough good things about Michelle and her team here at Marchele's! I will admit I was hesitant to go look at dresses at this shop due to it's location and their not super up to date advertisement, but boy was I wrong!! They have a WONDERFUL selection of Bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, and suit rentals! I happen to be a HUGE fan of lace and their selection of lace gowns trumped every other bridal store that I visited here in Reno and in California. I'm not a super large girl by any means, but I have curves and a booty. I was trying on dresses in the 14-16 size range. And I'm sure many of you regularly sized brides feel my pain that, we didn't fit in some of the "sample sizes". I was told time after time, just imagine it fitting perfectly on your body as they held it up to me. Sorry, I wasn't about to spend that kind of money on something I had to only "imagine" on me. I ran into the same issue at Marchele's with the dress I just knew was the one, but I couldn't fit into it. The seamstress actually cut the sample dress down the seam for me and fit me into the dress! That was all I need to be able to say yes to the dress!! I bought that dress and all of my bridesmaid dresses AND rented all of the suits from Marchele's as well! Michelle gave us discounts for purchasing all of our dresses and tux's through her AND she did all of my alterations and my bridesmaid alterations in house. My dress and every dress we had alterations for came out beautifully!! I will say she does wait until only a month out before starting the alterations which can be nerve wracking for the bride. But the alterations were perfect and I fit like a glove into my dress! I can't say enough good things about Michelle and her group of ladies! They definitely delivered and made my day that much...

I cannot gush about this store and the owner enough. The dress was gorgeous on the hanger, and then when I went for my first dress fitting I hated how I looked in it. The dress was glorious, but I was so frazzled with wedding planning, that I could not accept I looked like that in the dress I chose and was feeling overwhelmed. Instead of simply sending me on my way as this was the dress I chose and purchased, Michelle sat down with me and talked about what options were available to me this close to the wedding and then she coordinated a slew of alterations to the dress in one day to make me happy. I cannot thank her enough for her support and the beautiful work she did to the dress in order to make me feel more comfortable and beautiful in it. Any bride can attest, it doesn’t matter how you look in it, but how you feel you look in it, and despite the self-doubt, I am so happy with the outcome for the dress. In fact, looking at our wedding photos, I am more certain than ever that I chose the...