Renaissance Bridals and Prom — Local services in York

We bought my daughter’s senior prom dress here. The dress is STUNNING, and so was my daughter last night at her prom 🤩 The sad part is, if my daughter hadn’t fallen in complete love with the very first dress she tried, I honestly would have never purchased a thing from this shop. I’m giving three stars for the dress selection and the wonderful young blonde representative who was “partially” assigned to help my daughter…more on that below.

The second we walked into the shop we felt unwelcome. There was an older dark haired sales representative who asked what color dress my daughter had in mind. We told her ‘olive green’. She basically scoffed, then said, “Well she better have come with an open mind, because they don’t make olive green prom dresses.” First, she hadn’t “better” anything, because we’re not obliged to purchase anything from this place. Secondly, “they” (whoever they are??) do make olive green prom dresses. I told her that we’d already seen olive green prom dresses in shops in Baltimore (where we’re from). She immediately responded, “They do? Then why didn’t she buy it??” I had to explain that we hadn’t been shopping for prom dresses at the time, as if I owed her any explanation at all to her condescending question.

When my daughter’s friend and her mom arrived, the same older woman greeted her friend and her mom. She looked my daughter and her friend up and down and said, “You. You’ll stay up here, but you need to go downstairs to the bigger dresses.” These girls are MAYBE 2 sizes different…tops. It was so incredibly rude, and to say it to a 17 year old child so bluntly was horrifying.

My daughter worked with a lovely young lady who was genuinely interested in finding my daughter the perfect dress. As I stated before, my daughter immediately fell in love with the very first dress she tried on and we made it clear we were going to buy it. Our young sales rep stayed with my daughter for a bit, adjusting straps and suggesting slight alterations, then she took her to another area of the shop to get a better view (it was a bit crowded), to spread out the train, and to snap some pics. The older woman came up to me and asked me if we were going to buy the dress. I told her that we were. My daughter and the younger rep were still making adjustments and taking photos when the older rep interrupted and said, “You need to go help her friend!” as if because we’d already decided to purchase, our time was “up”, and we didn’t matter as customers anymore.

The younger girl walked away to help my daughter’s friend and my daughter got changed so that we could also go to be with her friend, who was still trying on dresses (by this time her friend had come back upstairs to try on more dresses that certainly fit her just fine!). I’m not really sure why the older woman shoo’d away our rep, because SHE took over anyway and started choosing hideous dresses for my daughter’s friend that she was already told were of no interest. As if her pushiness wasn’t bad enough, my daughter’s friend did wind up trying on dresses she knew she didn’t like, just because this woman wouldn’t stop pushing them on her. The absolute WORST part, was that while she was in a dress that she already said she wasn’t confident in, the older woman came up behind her, started pulling and tugging, and exclaimed without a shred of tact, that my daughter’s friend would “need a few sizes up!”

Needless to say my daughter’s friend left without buying a dress, and we ALL left with a horrible taste in our mouths. I think that if the older woman wouldn’t have been there, it would have been a lovely experience. All of the younger sales reps were so kind, complimentary, and helpful. I think someone needs to have a talking to with the older woman about how to treat younger customers. I’m not sure if she’s just not used to being around teens, or doesn’t remember being one, but she was so incredibly rude, pushy, condescending, and dismissive, that I WISHED my daughter hadn’t loved the dress so much. It was actually painful to give her...

First off let me start out by saying I am not "THAT" bride that throws a temper tantrum if things don't go my way... I am the complete opposite. I'm in the military and thoroughly understand what adapt and overcome means. With that out of the way, let me tell you my horror story that is not over since my wedding is in September.

Take it or leave it this is the only positive thing I have to say about this place, after this point it just goes down hill and FAST! I absolutely love my dress, I keep putting it on and get that feeling every time that it is the one. The young girl that took care of me was just as awesome. I had no clue what I wanted other than lace and if you know that store you know their lace selection is LARGE. She grasped my style and found the perfect dress in my price range. I have no complaints when it comes to this part of my experience.

Where I hold all my frustrations and wonder how they are still in business is my experience with my bridesmaid, maid of honor and matron of honor dresses. I walked in there knowing exactly what I wanted, 3 similar dresses with 3 different necklines and 3 different colors. First off when I told the lady this I got a look of disgust, she later told me she's surprised the appointment went so well because she assumed with all my "demands" we'd be there for at least 2 hours. When we were set in stone on the dresses I showed her my sash and said I want to match these colors. Easy right? She opened her binder and said these are the colors this dress and this dress come in (bill levkoff) and my matrons dress (Renaissance) had the colors listed on the tag. I pointed to the colors, she jotted down the name.. Easy Peasy right? WRONG.

We submitted the order for the dresses and paid in full, 2 weeks later I get a phone call saying 2 styles of the dresses they promised me in those colors... Actually don't come in those colors (bill levkoff)! Apparently I was the test bride aka. the one that had to find this out the hard way. Thankfully one of the colors that it was available in matched my matron of honors dress color. This made me quite upset but again adapt and overcome. We just orders them all in the same color.

Next came sizing, 3 of my girls are out of the area and submitted their measurements but 3 of them got fitted there. I picked up their dresses today and one of my bridesmaids took hers home. She immediately tried it on of course to find out the dress was literally falling off her. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I'm now at my last straw, she got measured by someone that works there, she also ordered a size down! How in the world is it even possible for her to be swimming in this dress? I understand MINOR alterations are needed but we're literally talking about 1 to 2 sizes here, and before you ask NO she didn't lose a single pound or inch. My matron of honor tried her dress on and the SAME thing! She was measured by a member of their staff as well.

I call today to deal with the issue to be told call Beth on Monday, and to understand that alterations are needed and to be lucky that it's too big and not too small. First off lady, my girls already paid $250 for a dress I'm not trying to have them pay another $250 to take it in a crap ton of sizes because YOUR people don't know how to work a tape measure. Like I said 3 of my girls are out of there area and 2 just had babies. So if 2 of the girls dresses are already huge that had no bodily changes it makes me extremely fearful to see how the rest of their dresses fit!

Like I said, my story is still in the works but my experience has been this shitty THUS FAR that I will never recommend a single person ever come to this store for their wedding EVER!!! A lot of my girls are unmarried and live in this area so they lost quite a few potential customers...

Let me just start by saying that my experience here was Amazing! I got a late start with our wedding so I am 7 months out and hadn't even started dress shopping yet. I have no idea what I want and only very rough ideas of what I might like. I called on Tuesday looking for an appointment for that Saturday which they happily accommodated. My two aunts, my cousin, my mother and I arrived 10 minutes late due to a wrong turn and were still happily greeted at the door by Jon, one of the owners. We were all asked if we wanted drinks (coffee, water or wine) and were asked regularly throughout the appointment if we needed or wanted refills or anything else to drink which, for me, is a very simple thing to do that adds a nice touch and shows that they are really thinking about their customers.

Jon asked me what i liked, what I like and what I wanted, I told him that i really didn't know and that I didn't know what would look good on me. He asked that I just let them do what they are there to do, and I happily did just that. We started out in the back room for the appointment, which we were told upon entering can get cold since there is a large air vent in that room, but that was perfect for me. The last thing I want when trying on heavy dresses is to be in a hot room!

Jon had pulled some dresses for me, and then Alexis took over to help me with getting into the dresses. I don't know which of them pulled the dress originally, but only 3 dresses into my first appointment ever and I was done! I threw at her, after falling in love with this dress, that i had forgotten that I wanted a pop of color and she came right back with several solutions and after trying a few of them, we found on that fit perfectly and accentuated me and the dress amazingly! Jon continuously came in to check on us and help us out with details, and Alexis was incredibly sweet, polite and SO helpful!! She just seemed to know what fit my personality!

Overall, I would highly recommend Renaissance for an amazing bridal experience! My mother and I both thought I would end up in several different dress shops trying things on before I found the right one, especially since I had no real idea of what I wanted, but they did their jobs and they did them perfectly for me! The only thing I would note is that the dresses start around $900 and go up from there, so if you are on a smaller budget, this may not be the place for you. I will update as my interactions continue with them as I just bought my dress yesterday, but they have been very accommodating for me so far. I couldn't ask for a better experience! Thank you Jon and Alexis for exceeding my...