Gee June Presents: The Fitting Room, Bridal Alterations — Local services in Town of Skaneateles

Where do I even begin? To say I’m disappointed with my experience at Gee June Bridal would be an understatement. I visited the shop in February 2024, shortly after booking my wedding venue for late October. I thought I had plenty of time to find my dream dress. I did find a dress I loved and was told by Layne that I would need to contact her in July or August 2024 for my first fitting. No problem, I thought.

When I tried on the dress, it was in pieces, which was fine. We booked additional fittings in September and later that month, but the dress wasn’t progressing. I was going in for almost weekly fittings, but the dress was still not ready. At one of these appointments, Layne finally cut the dress to my length, but the lace at the bottom remained pinned for weeks leading up to the wedding. Since I lived two hours away, Layne offered to come to my house for fittings the week before my wedding, which I appreciated. She mentioned being behind schedule due to issues with another bride in Boston, which I understood.

However, the communication from her was consistently poor. On the Tuesday before my wedding, I waited for Layne to come, only for her to text me hours later saying she would come the following Wednesday. I waited for an hour until I called her, and she claimed she left me a voicemail, but I never received one. I did receive scam voicemails that same day, so it wasn’t an issue with my phone. I offered to come early to the shop that weekend, but Layne insisted on coming to my Airbnb the night before the wedding at 6 p.m. She still told me that there were things left to fix. We agreed she would come back at 2 p.m. the next day to finalize everything. She showed up 15 minutes late, awkwardly waited for me to finish getting ready, and insisted on helping me put on the dress, though I had no request for this.

She also offered to show my sister how to bustle the dress, but never did. Layne followed me and my sister to the venue, bringing my veil with her. I never asked for this, and I didn’t know this was an extra service. When we arrived at the venue, she was still holding my veil. During the ceremony, she was still there, even though I never requested her presence. Later, during family photos, she suddenly exclaimed, “Oh no, we forgot your veil.” At that point, I was too relaxed to care. She later offered to refund me, though she said it would be at the end of the year because her books were closed. The dress was busseled, but it came undone several times throughout the night, and Layne left before dinner.

Throughout this process, my mother-in-law attended almost every appointment for emotional support, while my estranged mother never came. Layne never once asked about my mom or seemed interested in my situation. At every appointment, Layne complained about other brides and her delays. Despite understanding the challenges of running a business, I was very stressed, and my mother-in-law took it upon herself to address the issues in a letter to Layne after the wedding. Layne responded by threatening to sue my mother-in-law for leaving a negative Google review. She also claimed there was an agreement, but there was no written contract—just an upfront payment for the dress, with no mention of extra charges for services like busseling or veil application.

Finally, when I inquired about my refund, I misread the timeline due to my dyslexia. Layne responded with an attitude via email and was upset that I didn’t address her by name in my messages. I explained that I just wanted my refund, which seemed like the right thing to do. Her lengthy explanation eventually revealed that the veil alone cost $800 plus tax—an amount I had no idea about, especially after she “forgot” it at the ceremony. Layne also threatened to sue my MIL.

Please, stay far away from this shop. The lack of professionalism and poor communication made a stressful time even harder. I would not recommend Gee June...

If I could give zero stars I would. I don’t give negative reviews ever because I appreciate small businesses are trying to make it in a tough economic climate and sometimes bad things happen. However, the experience I had with my best friend who is the bride and the maid of honor yesterday was actually traumatic. So traumatic after leaving we had to talk through many times what we had just experienced in order to process it. It started at the very beginning when we arrived early actually and the door was locked. We complied with the sign that said to not disturb if the door is locked and after waiting 5 minutes after the appointment started we called and left a message and there was no answer. After 10 minutes of standing outside Layne opened the door and commented that we were late. Which we were in fact 5 minutes early standing outside with no response. Layne also mentioned we only had an hour because their was another appointment. The bride needed to use the restroom and we were told there was not one available and to use the public toilet around the corner which is a bit shocking for an upscale wedding gown boutique. Layne never explained the process we were about to experience. In hind sight probably because there was not going to be any experience or at least not a good one. Layne asked the bride what she was looking for and the bride described the details of what she wanted. Layne asked her to show her pictures when the bride tried to pull up the images they wouldn’t load. The bride asked for the WiFi Layne said they would look for it came back and said they couldn’t find it, a bit odd. Layne picked out many styles of dresses most that did not fit the description given in anyway and pulled the same dresses quite a few times that the bride had already declined wanting to try on. We had to ask Layne to assist the bride with trying on the dresses and fitting them so she could get an idea of how it would look. Layne didn’t offer for the bride to try any shoes with the dresses or accessories. I wish I could say that is was only an issue of terrible customer service. However, what proceeded were negatively framed questions like “are you short wasted? What part of your body are you insecure about? Do all of you have a lot of tattoos?” When the bride tried on a dress that had blue buttons down the back she asked if it would be possible to have the buttons in a different color. Layne responded that actually the buttons were white originally because the dress was so old they turned yellow so they had to replace them for the blue buttons. Information that you probably shouldn’t communicate to a client who is about to make a large purchase. Understandably the bride after trying on a few dresses in this now toxic environment is in tears. What should have been a joyful and fun experience was awful. We went to David’s Bridal to wipe the terrible experience from our day. We explained to the employees what had just happened to us and they came around the desk just to hug the bride because that is how bad our Gee June Bridal experience was. Needless to say the bride will not be purchasing a dress from Gee June Bridal despite really loving the last dress she tried on. My only hope from writing this review is that no other future bride ever has to experience what we went...

We are an older couple and recently got married in the Finger Lakes. Our expectations in comparison to a younger couple are higher in some respects, and more focused in other areas. As a long-time local professional wedding photographer, my expectations and standards were high for my bride. Gee June Bridal did not disappoint, Layne’s expertise of couture wedding dresses was mind blowing. My bride wanted to wear an antique 1930’s handmade wedding dress 4 sizes too small, which was my grandmother’s. Her second dress was a Temperly from London. A week before the wedding she was crossing the street in Skaneateles and an energy brought her into Gee June. After an appointment with both dresses, she felt at peace and excited that she would look her best and feel comfortable in both dresses. Layne’s understanding and experience in garment construction, her years at design school in NYC, and as a bridal shop owner and stylist she was able to make the impossible possible. Layne had worked for one of the major fashion house labels in LA for years, before deciding to start her own custom wedding dress shop in Skaneateles. Over the past 5 years I have accompanied my wife to over 20 bridal shops from Boston to NYC, including New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Palm Beach Florida. She too had experience working for a top designer, and a basic understanding of sewing etc. But when it came to my grandmother's wedding dress, she was gripped with fear of working on it. Layne’s expansive knowledge of all wedding dress materials, even the rarest taffetas, chiffons, and lace’s that cannot be replicated was the most impressive. She color matched and created a veil for my wife that stayed in 8 hours. She deconstructed her second Temperly dress, shaped it to her body, and trimmed the bottom so that she looked like it was made exclusively for her. The energy investment and time Gee June Bridal put in for my wife a week before our big day was incredibly generous. But the greatest blessing was that Layne made my wife feel supported, stunning and magical for our wedding. It’s difficult to put into words except to say that there is magic at Gee June Bridal, and Layne is a couture seamstress tucked away as a secret in Skaneateles. Moving forward, I will recommend that every bride I work with visits Gee June. There wasn’t a dry eye at our wedding, it really was the happiest day of our lives. Thank you to Layne for making my wife feel extra beautiful and helping her to fulfill her vision of linking the past and the future. We are...