UTBride's reviews

I purchased a Lazaro bridal gown from Yvonne (store owner)at Gallippo's in Toledo, OH. At first I was really happy. My dad bought the dress of my dreams and I felt that I had one task on my list completed. It took 11 months for the dress to come in. Yvonne told me about how it had to go through customs and that it was almost to the store. When it came in I was excited and couldn't wait to show my mom and future mother-in-law. When I first put the dress on I noticed that there were no buttons down the back. This was a distinct detail that I and one of my maid of honors remembers about the dress. It was also a deciding factor in purchasing the dress. When I confronted Yvonne about it that day at my first fitting she said that I must have gotten that detail confused with another dress that I tried on. Remembering that I tried on many dresses and that Yvonne is an old family friend, I took her word for it.
A couple months down the road I decided to call the wedding off. My mother and I asked Yvonne if she would buy the dress back and she said no. Reasonable enough, I figured I'd just sell the dress online. Afterall, it hadn't been altered and only put on once at the store. We took the dress home and stored it. With family events and school I became very busy in the past year. A few months ago I decided that I should try to sell the gown since the economy was getting better. I was doing research on the dress and found some inconsistencies. First off, a picture of the dress on the Lazaro webpage should the dress with the button detail on the back. Then I found out that the dress was to come with designer tags on the inside of the dress and a certificate of authenticity. My dress had none of those and it didn't even come in a Lazaro bag, it came in a Gallippo's bag. Also, all the dresses are made right here in the United States. Yvonne told me the reason it took 11 months to come in was because it came through customs and was being sewn in another country, if I remember correctly she said Spain.
The designer is from Cuba, so I thought that was strange and the fact that his design team was in New York. I also found out from another bridal shop that it only took 4-6 months for the dress to come in...the lady specified that it was coming from Newark, which is in New Jersey. So here, my Dad spent a couple of thousand dollars on a dress that wasn't even the one I ordered, or tried on for that matter. And the stories that Yvonne told me for that period of time (11 months) it just boiled me. If I had a choice, this vendor would NOT recieve any stars. I want to warn brides about Gallippo's. Even though I ended up on not getting married, I should have recieved the item that I purchased. I believe in legal terms they call this fraud. We were wondering how she could have given us such a great deal on a designer gown.