starrie8's reviews

A
The thank you cards look good. The color is not exactly what I was expecting, but it's still nice. They took a while to arrive, but there wasn't any rush, so it wasn't even an issue.

This was the coolest hotel I've ever been in. The decor was unlike anything I've ever seen and the staff was extremely nice and helpful. The minute we drove up they congratulated us and when we got to the room there was a bottle of champagne waiting for us with a handwritten note congratulating us again. Only 2 complaints - the restaurant/bar in the lobby, Thor, closed at 12 (we'd planned on having an after-party there and had to move it across the street to Verlaine) and the door to our balcony wouldn't open. But the gorgeous view (even from just the 8th floor) and luxurious bathroom and bed were amazing.

F
I have nothing but complaints about the seamstress here. I'll try to keep this short and to the point since in the end, they did not alter my dress. The seamstress was fine until my mom (not familiar with this sort of thing) asked if the place had insurance since we were about to leave the dress with them for an extended length of time. The seamstress had just finished pinning everything and she suddenly seemed insulted by the question. She told us there was no need for insurance and that made us uncomfortable leaving the dress there for so long. We told her that we'd bring the dress back closer to the wedding and she got annoyed and gruffly took out all the pins she'd put in (and caused a run that I noticed once I got the dress home). She threw the train into the garment bag and stormed off. When we complained to the woman at the desk, she said that they were in fact insured. Thankfully, I decided not to deal with that woman again and took my dress to Pinpoint where it became clear that she would have made the hem too short by at least 2 inches.

I had quite a few problems with Pinpoint which is surprising considering bridal is their specialty. First, my second fitting was a complete waste of my time. When I brought the dress in, I tried it on and she pinned the hem and pinned in bra cups. The body of the dress fit me perfectly, so really, the only adjustments needed were the hem, the bra cups, and the train/satin piece on the back. When I showed up for my second fitting, the only thing they'd done was sew in the bra cups. She took ANOTHER look at the hem which made no sense... I'd brought my shoes the first time and it wasn't as if I was going to grow over the course of a few months. I took the dress off and pointed out that white marks made by a previous seamstress (see review below) would be visible with Pinpoint's hemline. The woman told me that if I wanted, they would have the dress cleaned. I thought I made it clear that yes, I wanted the dress cleaned, but apparently, she did not grasp that. So, for my third fitting, the hem was done. I'm not sure why, but they used this horribly stiff plastic tape on the hem that even after steaming showed through the fabric. When I dropped off the dress, I'd included a bag from Wearkstatt that included lace for finishing the hem and snaps for the train/satin piece on the back. I was getting ready to pay when I noticed that they'd never sewn on the snaps for the train/satin piece. I pointed this out and they said they'd do it right then and there. However, she told me that she didn't have the right sized snaps and would have to use different ones. I sat down to wait and it occurred to me that those snaps were included just for that purpose. Apparently they completely ignored the bag of goodies I provided. So, while sitting there twiddling my thumbs while they sewed on the snaps, I decided to inspect the dress. The white marks were still there. I asked if the dress had been cleaned and she told me no... that she didn't know I wanted that and that she didn't think it really needed it. This was my wedding dress... I was going to wear it once and I did not want to settle for ALMOST spotless. I told her that yes I wanted it cleaned and she told me that it would be an additional $175. I have no idea if this is a reasonable price or not, but at this point, I didn't have the energy to take the dress elsewhere. The alterations themselves cost me $195 already (which I thought was a deal compared to the previous seamstress I'd gone to who wanted to charge twice that). All in all, I feel a little bad about this review because the woman was very nice, but they were surprisingly unprofessional and didn't listen to me. I should not have had to go back there beyond the 2nd fitting.

The only reason I didn't give them a 5 star was that when I asked them to confirm that Laundry's color called "sable" was a chocolate brown, they couldn't. No one could actually, not even the manufacturer strangely enough. But, the dresses were beautiful (I wouldn't mind getting one myself), their customer service was great, and the dresses arrived a month ahead of schedule. And, to top it all off, they had the lowest price for the dress (I couldn't go to RK Bridal with the price because I wasn't able t get a quote in writing). I think I managed to save my girls about $70 off Adrienne's price (which is where the girls found and tried on the dress).

B
Well, let me start off by saying the end result was ok. No one besides the bridal party was aware of any of these problems and most were pretty minor irritations, but there were several problems that popped up. First, when my husband went to pick up his tux, the jacket was the wrong size. They did get him a replacement in the correct size though later the same day. The biggest mistake was that they gave the best men, groomsmen, and ushers the wrong jackets. My husband was supposed to get a 2-button and the other guys were getting 3-button. Well, everyone got 2-button jackets. No one noticed, not even me until my husband pointed it out, but still, they screwed up the order. Then, there were a few small problems: a button fell off one of the jackets, 2 shirts had sleeves that were a little too short, the neck of one was too tight, and a couple were slightly dirty. Compared to some of the tux horror stories that I've read though, these were minor problems.

I thought my shoes were beautiful and they arrived quickly without any problems. I have no complaints, but they did start hurting towards the end of the night. It was my fault though because I ordered a size 7 when generally I wear either 7 or 7 1/2. In this case, I should have gone with the 7 1/2. If the size wasn't too small, they would have been comfortable (the heel was fine for me, but I'm used to heels).

I was a little unsure about the veil Sposabella made for me. Unfortunately, I forget the name of the woman there who made it. I don't think birdcage veils are very popular requests, so I can't really blame her. The veil looked very nice and I got lots of compliments, but I had something slightly different in mind. But, I guess you get what you pay for. I went with Sposabella because the birdcages I saw elsewhere were 3 times the price and I didn't want to spend that much on something I'd be wearing for 25 minutes.

David really made me and my mom look beautiful. My hair and makeup (and my mom's makeup) were great and his rates are much better than any I found elsewhere. He came to my apartment for no additional charge also. I do have a complaint or two though. He did not buy for me the lipstick he used so that I would have it with me for touch-ups despite having told me at the trial that he would. Luckily, I had a similar color myself, but if I hadn't, I would not have been able to reapply my lipstick for the rest of the night. Also, I don't know if this was really his fault or not, but my mom's mascara kept smudging. She requested water-proof mascara and I don't even think she cried much, but she kept getting smudges under her eyes. She doesn't usually wear much makeup and it wouldn't surprise me if it was just happening because she rubbed her eyes or something. David's such a sweet guy though, so please don't hold any of this against him. Just be sure that you specify that you want him to buy the lipstick for you he plans on using.

+
My husband fought me on this rating, but I really loved her writing. The problem was that she forgot to write the number cards for one of our tables (we had table number cards inside envelopes with the guests names written on the outsides). She also didn't hold on to any of the extras for this kind of emergency, so we didn't have enough time (and it wasn't worth overnighting 6 cards to her) to have her correct the mistake. We ended up just writing the number cards ourselves, Which was ok because the writing on the number cards wasn't all that special anyway and the numbers were a bit too small for the cards (the other drawbacks). We owed her an additional $8 for expedited shipping and when I brought the error to her attention, she discounted us $1/missing card (slightly more than she'd charged us), but that left us still owing her $2. She should have just told us to forget the $8. I did love the way she wrote the names though. She's got an elegant and modern style that's very unique, which is why I didn't want to give her a lower grade.