Violets Bridal & Formal — Local services in Tontitown

My experience at Violets was NOT what a bride hopes for when go shopping for their wedding dress! My situation was a little different, it was super last minute I didn’t have an appt and was not looking for a traditional wedding dress. BUT with that being said, when I showed up there was nobody else (customer wise) there. 3 ladies at the front counter when I walked in. One somewhat greeted me and asked what I was looking for & so I said “well we are getting married at the eclipse in Russellville for the mass wedding they have going on..he’s doing black and for myself I wanted to try and find a bright yellow dress!” the one person who ever spoke to me didn’t say much at all. No smile, no congrats, no that’s exciting NOTHING. She just said, “oh” stood up pointed towards the back and said “all our dresses are divided by texture & you’re welcome to look around” In my head I was like wait….what??? But I went ahead and walked back by myself (my fiance was with me and went to the restroom) I looked around, alone…& never ever once saw any dresses that were probably over a size 10 to be honest. Maybe a handful at the most. But verrrry few and far between! Never once did ANYONE come and try to help me ever. Made me super uncomfortable to say at the least. Finally after looking around for a few and realizing clearly they weren’t going to have anything in my size & the way I was treated just wasn’t cool, so we decided to leave. But the way these 3 made me feel was completely unacceptable. I’m a size 14, & although maybe they knew from the get go they had nothing I was looking for, it should have been handled completely different! They could have told me instead of making me feel the way they did. I have a 16 year old who will be going to prom next year, and the place was super cool even had a special room in the back the for girls to try dresses on together but after my personal experience, we will drive to OKC/Tulsa before going back there! & if you have a child going to prom that’s not a tiny size, don’t bother going here or your child will feel like complete crap when leaving! (I’m grown I can handle it) but if this experience would have been for my kid I probably would have told them what I thought! Don’t make ANYONE ever feel like you think your better than them....

If I could give this place no stars I would. I have NEVER been treated so poorly or talked to so poorly by the owner of the establishment. She actually told me she didn’t need or want new business. I will go somewhere that has an owner that acts like an adult not a toddler. You stated your policy was every where I was simply telling you it wasn’t and that it would be very helpful if you changed your google photo to reflect your policy. I don’t see that as being rude or negative it was good advice after I drove so far to shop there. Not every one goes to social media to research stores before they shop. I did not speak to you or your employee poorly. You my friend could use some anger management if me asking you a few questions puts you out to the point that you loose your cool with a customer...... I also see you did take my advice and update your google to reflect your policy like I mentioned it even says you updated it 24 hours ago so just after we spoke I’m sure that will be appreciated. It would have been nice to see it before I drove so far and would have been nice if you would have taken my advice with out lashing out like a child because I pointed out your flaws. This was not for my daughter it was for me, I was not yelling I heard her say that she could see me but she had already been so rude I didn’t want to come in. She also stated that you could not put appointments only on google which I see you figured out that you could I was literally trying to help you and was not yelling at all. When I said she had been rude to me she lost if very unprofessional. Even in the worst case ( which this wasn’t even close) there is never justification for a customer service based business to talk to someone like that. Expecting a customer to read every review to find out your information is absurd I have a photo I’d be happy to share that says you just updated it to state appointments only 24 hours ago... again just after we spoke. You also stated on the phone you didn’t have the ability to list by appointment only on your google just the hours which was a lie because you have listed it now. If you want to preach kindness you should try practicing it. Posted the photo on your Facebook and above showing you...

Generally disappointing. I had shopped at their original store years ago and had a good experience, this time was very different. My main two complaints are size inclusivity and accidentally buying a damaged dress.

I asked ahead of time if they carried my size (10-14 in bridal depending on style and a 8-10 in normal sizes) in the styles I was interested in. They said they did and I booked an appointment. Once I got there I was told to look around which, to me, defeats the purpose of having a dedicated sales person following me around. I would hope that the sales people would have some sort of database to look up dresses so they could help pull them. The sheer quantity is overwhelming especially since most dresses on the rack were not close to my size. Of the 12 styles that I had seen on their website and wanted to try on, only 1 had a dress in a size that I could try on (and that didn't even fit, they had a 12 I needed a 10). After giving up on the dresses I had come to see my sales person and I wandered around pulling every size 10+ that was appropriate for a wedding guest (I did have to be a little picky on color to not clash with the bride's color scheme). All in all there were 2 dresses that I could try on out of their hundreds of dresses. I was very disappointed.

I did appreciate that they let me buy the one that fit off the rack since their ordering times are apparently 3+ months and the wedding was in 6 weeks. The dress I ended up buying had the seams falling out badly (likely from it being their biggest size so everyone who was a size 10+ was trying it on). However, I did tell the sales person and they said they would have the dress repaired before I brought it home. I was grateful to just have SOMETHING to wear to this wedding. I got a call a week later that the dress was ready to pick up. I picked it up in a torrential rain storm like 5min before they closed so I didnt check the repairs... BIG mistake. When I got it home it was completely unrepaired. It has just sat at their office for a week and then they handed it over to me. I am not excited to have paid $200 for a dress that as already so...