GAUTIER formal dresses, Bridal, quinceañera and prom — Local services in San Antonio

I want to share my experience so future brides know what they are walking into.

I went to Gautier Dresses to order my dream Olivia Bottega gown for my September wedding. At first, the staff seemed kind and the try-on experience was enjoyable. Unfortunately, everything after that was unprofessional, careless, and deeply stressful.

I ordered my dress in ivory, but the shop incorrectly listed coral on my invoice. They claimed they also texted the designer that I wanted ivory, but as any professional should know, designers fulfill orders based on the official invoice, not casual text messages. The shop failed to double-check their own paperwork, failed to notify me of the mistake, and allowed me to pay off the full amount for the dress without ever informing me of the problem.

I only learned about this error the day my dress arrived, just 14 days before my wedding. At that point, it was too late to fix it. I had purchased expensive navy blue shoes to match my ivory gown—completely useless for coral. Instead of taking responsibility, Gautier staff tried to push the blame entirely on the designer. That is unacceptable. A professional bridal boutique should know how to correctly fill out an order form, read sizing tags, and measure properly. Mistakes happen, but failing to own them and failing to inform the bride immediately is inexcusable.

To make matters worse, their “solution” was to suggest I drive 4 hours back to their store to try on off-the-rack dresses. If I wanted an off-the-rack dress, I would have bought one to begin with—not a custom designer gown. The lack of accountability and disregard for my time and stress was shocking.

The only person who showed professionalism in this ordeal was Anastasia, the owner of Olivia Bottega, who reached out personally and took full responsibility for her side of the situation. Gautier, meanwhile, spent their time pointing fingers and refusing to admit fault. In the end, I did receive a refund, but only because there was no other option—they ruined my original order and left me without a dress weeks before my wedding. The refund doesn’t erase the anxiety, stress, and heartbreak they caused me.

Brides deserve better. If Gautier had owned up to their mistake early on, contacted me immediately, and handled this with honesty, my review would be different. But they didn’t. Their lack of professionalism nearly cost me my wedding dress altogether.

I do not recommend this shop to any bride, especially if you are on a timeline or ordering a custom gown. They are not equipped to handle orders with the accuracy, responsibility, or integrity that a bridal business requires.

Reply to Gautier Dresses response to my original review:

Wow. I can’t believe you thought publicly responding this way would be good for your business. By doing so, you’ve chosen to discredit me and make it seem like I’m a liar — which I am absolutely not. How dare you still refuse to take accountability for ruining my wedding day?

My contract was with you, not the designer. I paid you, not the designer. That makes you responsible to me. Hiding behind the designer doesn’t change that. You also never contacted me about how you’ve known for weeks that my dress was made in coral and not in ivory like I ordered…Why was I not contacted by you? I was told the day I was supposed to go pick it up which was 14 days before my wedding that it came in coral! Which I didn’t have time to fix it. I gave you credit for giving me a full refund as you should have, but to lie about what happened isn’t ever going to be okay with me.

You’re twisting the facts.The gown was not “produced in ivory instead of white.” It was produced in coral a completely different color than what I ordered. I ordered ivory, not white, and you know that. The order form to the designer clearly says “coral”. I will be adding screenshots of the coral dress and the order form that says coral. A bridal shop should be able to do this correctly.

And let’s be clear: YOU DID NOT facilitate any communication between me and the designer. I had to...

As a bride to be, trying on wedding gowns is so important and special.I thought it would be a moment my family and I would always cherish but that is the OPPOSITE of what me (bride to be) and my family & friends experienced.

This place was referred to me by someone who was very trusted. I immediately hopped on Gautier’s website when I got the referral and checked out their selection of gowns. I found several that were beautiful. So I was confident I’d find the dress here.

A few days prior to my appointment, a female employee called to ask me how many people I would bring stating I could not bring more than 6 people. Already with a tone that was NOT warm or accommodating to my needs/experience. Then I asked very clearly if they have all of my dresses from my “wish list” (which you can create once you also create a login to their website) the female said “yes, we will pull three dresses out from your wishlist.” The entire phone call was short, not friendly, not personal, just as if I was another sale for them.

But I proceeded because she confirmed I would get to try on my dresses.

Upon arrival to Gautier with my family from out of state AND country, the doors were locked so we stood outside under the awning as it rained. Waited ten minutes for them to open the door and no one addressed us until we stood there for a few minutes (already so awkward).

Then my dress attendant comes out and takes us back to the fitting room. It was such a strange and impersonal welcome. She was kind but she also told me I only had one hour to try on dresses (rushing me as it felt from the get go).

I told her it shouldn’t be a problem since I had my wish list. She had ZERO clue about my wish list. Then tells me they did not have ANY of my dresses.

My entire group and I looked at each other with shock, anger, sadness and most of all major disappointment. My wish list was the only reason I went there.

The girl didn’t seem to be phased by the incredibly misleading information I had received. She and one other girl rushed to get as many dresses that were similar to my wish list but nothing at all was the same. Just rushing and not making me feel better for how bad I felt.

Long story short I was rushed into a decision that I did not want to make. A HUGE mistake on my end but I said yes to a dress that was NOT my dream. The girl told me several times it was final sale. I proceeded.

I realized that I made a HUGE mistake a few days later and had been trying for MONTHS to get in touch with the owner, Grace. She ignored every message from the person who referred me to her. I understand it’s final sale BUT due to my experience and timeliness in trying to reach out, I thought something would be worked out.

TWO months after trying to get a response/acknowledgement from someone, I sent a text stating that I would not stop reaching out until someone reached out to me.

I got a call from the attendant who helped me and not ONCE did she apologized for 1. ignoring me for two months and 2. The terrible experience I had with her UNTIL I brought it to her attention that STILL nobody has acknowledged my situation.

To this day I have not heard from the owner as I had told the attendant, I’d be expecting a call from her. Former customers told me that Grace usually responds. NOTHING.

I took a major loss it is what it is. My biggest reason for this long post is to tell fellow brides: please do not rush it. Make sure your wish list is available. Do not be misled by this store’s website. Go look at several places. Try on allllll the dresses and don’t feel bad about it. Don’t let the attendants rush you. Ask alllll the questions before your fitting. Make it YOUR DREAM DAY. You WILL NOT receive that experience here.

I ended up finding my dream dress at Olivia Grace and that experience confirmed, THAT is how a bride to be should be treated. With patience, kindness, warmth, interest in the bride’s needs, welcoming the bride and her bridal party and most of all honesty.

I’m attaching a photo of the ridiculous...

Never EVER SHOP HERE! I am a single mother who works incredibly hard for my money and came to this dress shop for a prom dress that my only daughter begged for. My ex said he would pay for her whole prom,makeup, nails, hair, shoes, and of course, her dream prom dress. I took off work to take her to shop at this supposed luxury dress shop, against my ex's advice to go to a place like Windsor or Macy's. But to me, my daughter deserved the best. This was THE ABSOLUTE WORST DECISION OF MY LIFE ! DO NOT, AND I MEAN (IF YOU LOVE YOUR DAUGHTER) DO NOT GO TO THIS STORE FOR A DRESS IF IT MATTERS OR IF THE OCCATION IS OF ANY IMPORTANCE TO HER OR YOU!!!!!!!!!!! Let me tell you what these people did to my daughter! Keep reading if you care about your daughter at all!!!!! So, my only daughter was asked to prom by a boy. She's in 11th grade, so this was an enormous deal to us. As I already stated. I'm a single mom who works so incredibly hard for my money. But I love my daughter more than life itself, so I agreed to take her to this supposed " luxury" dress shop. The gowns looked beautiful at first sight. I saw some snags and loose strings here and there, some broken straps that THEY SWORE were easily repairable. I figured they could repair them, because this is what they do, right? NO! Not only did I pay over $630 for a dress, which is was not prepared to pay, but when I saw my daughters beautiful eyes begging me to purchase this dress, how could I say no? So I handed her my debt card and it was a done deal....but then they charged me an "expidited alteration fee" 2 weeks before prom which was DOUBLE the price of the usual alteration fee to assure the dress would be ready by prom (4/20/25) I paid, no questions asked. As a single mom who literally would die for my daughter, I wanted the best for her, first time ever formal event. They gave us a receipt for this "expidited" alteration to be picked up on 4/16/25. Today is that date. The prom is in 3 days! They called us TODAY to tell us that the dress is destroyed beyond repair. My daughter is tiny, she's not fat, she could fit in a size 2, possibly a size zero. But we picked a size 4. So we're not talking about a fat girl who stretched out a dress. Then, mind you..3 days before prom they only offered a ridiculous compensation of 20% off of a new dress, after they had charged us close to $800 (including "expidited alteration" fees) and after her date had already bought (thankfully not from Gaultier) a matching tuxedo and after THEY DESTROYED THIS DRESS IN THE 2 WEEKS THEY HAD POSSESION OF THE DRESS THAT I ALREADY PAID FOR! I (again a single mom who bleeds to pay my bills) was so furious that they could do this, as they only began this "expidited" and way overpriced alteration fee TODAY!!! BUT WE BOUGHT THIS DRESS 2 WEEKS AGO!! ITS 4/16/25!!! PROM IS 3 DAYS AWAY, AND THEY JUST TODAY DECIDED to do the alteration TODAY, THE DAY WE WERE DUE TO PICK IT UP!!!??? They pinned the dress 2 weeks ago. They should have seen the flaws that were not fixable then, but they didn't care! All they cared about was taking my money. They did refund my money. I FOUND OUT AT 4PM TODAY. That's when they told us!!! I had to leave work early. Got in a huge fight with them when they only offered a 20% discount for a new dress. Got my refund, but they still kept the tip and tax, and by the time we were done no stores were open. My daughter is devastated. She already has told her date she can't go to prom. It's 11:50 pm that I am writing this review, 4/16/25, after sitting with my daughter who has been crying for hours. The shoulder of my shirt is actually soaking wet from my baby's tears because I have been rocking her to sleep,( like when she literally was an actual baby) if you read this review and still buy your daughter a dress from this store, you don't care about your daughter at all. This place is a 100% scam! -0000 out of 10!!!!! I would NEVER RECOMMEND THIS SHOP! KEEP AN EYE OUT ON TICKTOK, I FILMED THE...