tbabian's reviews

After meeting with a few florists in my area we decided to go with Shirvan Designs since Arsine seemed extremely experienced and could see my vision for our wedding. I corresponded with her over the phone and sometimes I would stop by the store to make sure she was aware of the changes in my colors or ideas. We went in for one centerpiece sample; it was more like a work in progress to see what I wanted. By the end of our meeting we had finalized details of my centerpieces. Two weeks before our wedding we went in one more time to go over all of the details, make all of the final choices, and pay for her services. She was always very knowledgeable and gave us comfort that everything would be perfect. She also told us to come in the night before the wedding to inspect all of the flowers and make sure that I liked everything. I did not like the bouquets that they had made for both of the moms, and when I told her she immediately told her assistant, Art, to make new ones that I liked. In the end I was very pleased with the results. My bouquets and centerpieces were absolutely gorgeous! Each of my centerpieces were about 2.5 feet in diameter and would stand on top of tall chloe vases with crystals hanging from the top. All of the guests raved about how beautiful the flowers were and how huge the centerpieces were.

I noticed that since our wedding Shrivan Designs has expanded into a full service event and floral design company and has a new website. I would totally recommend them, even though at first she seemed a little pushy to me, I am so glad we went with her.

Here's the website: http://shirvandesign.com/

After visiting about 7 different bridal shops in LA County, I decided to drive down to San Diego just to be sure that I was picking out the right gown. When I got to the store I looked around and it was very different than any of the other bridal salons I had been to. They carried only the Demetrios lines and had practically every style ever designed. I had picked out about 6 or 7 gowns from their website to try on, but I ended up trying on about 10. My assigned sales associate was Greta, she was very sweet and extremely helpful, and she also had exquisite taste. She not only helped me pick out my gown, but I also ended up buying my tiara, veil and petticoat from her on my second visit. I ended up getting 20% off my bridal gown because I paid in full, and Greta also gave me 10% off my veil since I purchased so many things from them.

The dress I purchased was from their couture line and was told that it would take 6 months for it to arrive, but it arrived in only 3.5 months. Since I lived in LA and didn’t get a chance to drive down there for a month and a half they were so nice about it and just kept it there for me until I had time to go pick it up. They were also very helpful when they offered to ship my petticoat, veil, and tiara directly to house so that I could save myself a two hour drive.

I totally recommend checking out Brides by Demetrios before you make your final decision about your dress. Besides the hundreds of Bridal gowns, they also have tons of Mother of the Bride, Bridesmaids, and Flowergirl dresses, as well as shoes, jewelry, and accessories.

The only thing I was not too pleased about was the lady who did my alterations, I had VERY minimal alterations and I didn’t like the way she had done them. I had cups sewn in but they were not placed under the lining, also I wanted to add gatherings on the dropped waist with a beautiful appliqué to match the ones on my dress, but the gatherings were done however there was no appliqué. It also cost me $350 to do these minimal alterations. You are not obligated to have your alterations done there. I recommend you have them done somewhere else.