House of Brides

HORRIBLE!!! 4 out of 5 bridesmaid dresses were wrong. They don't even deserve the attention you give this store when driving by and looking at the sign. Here is my story:April 2011: I went to the HOB in Orland Park to be fitted (the bride placed the order at Oak Lawn). The lady who fitted me (middle age, dark hair, European accent) had to be repeatedly told to measure me correctly. She dug the tape measure into my abdomen and wanted to add 2" to the bust size so "I should go buy a nice bra from Victoria Secrets." I am already a 36 DD. I do not need extra padding. When I commented on digging the tape measure into my waist and told her I wanted to be able to sit at the wedding, she stated "you have all summer to work on it." I demanded she measure me as I was and she finally complied. It was insulting and extremely hurtful. She implied that there was something wrong with the way I looked. I wanted to cry. When I went to the check out area they showed me a picture of the maid of honor dress (which was NOT for me). I indicated several times that it was not the dress I was supposed to have and they stated the Oak Lawn knew which one to get for me because the bride was working with them to place the order. The told me that Oak Lawn would be contacting me to take a down payment by phone.2 days later: The Oak Lawn store called and said that they did not measure me correctly and the size faxed over was not available by that designer. I also indicated several times NOT to order me the maid of honor dress. Then they asked for payment in full. I stated that according to Orland Park only a down payment was required and I did not want to pay for a dress in full until it was completed. But they charged my credit card the full payment. I was not mailed, e-mailed or faxed a receipt. I am requesting a receipt be faxed or e-mail asap. October 7, 2011: The bride picked up the dresses (which arrived two weeks late) and sent out a text stating "they fucked up the dresses!" 4 out of 5 dresses were incorrect. The order was supposed to be the following: 1 maid of honor dress brown with a red slit in the front, 4 bridesmaid dresses brown with the red slit in the back. Instead she received the following: 2 maid of honor dresses (1 for me and the other for another bridesmaid, not the actual maid of honor), 2 with the red slit in back and 1 that was completely brown, the red trim was missing!!!!!! How can you explain this? The bride and her mother picked up the dresses today and asked for at least free alterations for the HUGE MISTAKE that was made and they offered nothing. No alterations, no refunds, nothing. They left the bridal party high and dry? Would you want a wedding with three different bridesmaid dresses? And a maid of honor dress on two people, neither who are the maid of honor?

Do not go to House of Brides. They ruined my wedding dress and refused to fix it after the alterations department made it worse. I was forced to go somewhere else the week of the wedding and now they are refusing to refund the money. Brides beware- do not go here. Once they have your money, the don't give you the time of day.

I purchased my dress with House of Brides. I had the best experience I could have had, I love the setting of the place and the comfort there was for my family and children that were with me on that day. The salesperson was a wonderful lady and was VERY patient with me. The manager was very flexible and was able to meet my needs. When it came to receiving my dress and veil everything was perfect..I have recommended this place to my sister in law and she already purchased her dress at the same location.

I would NEVER recommend House of Brides to anyone. I wish I had read the reviews before I stepped foot in the store. I loved the dress that I bought but the alterations there ruined it. Every fitting it kept getting worse- there was weird puckering over the corset where all the detail was. I kept asking them if they would be able to fix it and the seamstress kept saying yes. My mistake was trusting her that she knew what she was doing. Finally it was 3 days before my wedding and the dress looked horrible. I was in tears in the store. That's when I found out that their seamstresses have only been there 5 months. I can't believe they charge $300 for a group with so little experience. When I asked to speak with the manager--an extremely rude person, Lucy, she told me it was my fault for picking such a complicated dress. I guess I just assumed since their business was wedding dresses, they would be able to alter one.
I ended up having to take it somewhere else 2 days before the wedding. Thankfully she was able to fix it overnight. She knew how to fix the puckering and told me that the House of Brides bustle would have fallen in about 20 minutes of the reception and they did not press the dress correctly either.
I am still shocked that this store is even in business. I don't want any other bride to go through what I did. I'm still waiting to hear back from someone about getting my money back. DO NOT GO TO HOUSE OF BRIDES!!! I have never dealt with such rude, insensitive people. This store needs to be shut down.

I planned my wedding for 280+ guests in 10 months. Wedding planning for me was fantastic, I had a blast doing lots of DIY projects with friends and family to make my wedding reflect mine and my husbands personalities and interests. I only had 1 awful experience, and it was with House of Brides in Oak Lawn...I went there with my mom, sister and 2 friends on a Friday for what they were advertising as a 'Midnight Madness' sale. Their advertisement said their gowns were at least $300 off (coture) or more with discounts on shoes and veils. First of all, the lady that was helping me was a nut case, she was very uptight and very fidgety. She kept saying it was becuase she had been there all day and was very tired (mind you it was only 7:30 and the place was not very busy). I felt as if she were on some type of drugs or overly medicated. I didn't have anything in particular in mind, but I did have a couple magazine cutouts. Several of the dresses that I had cut out were there, but since they were a size or 2 smaller than what I was, she told me I should not try them on and put them back. I tired on 4 dresses before going back to the second. It was a beautiful gown. I felt good in it, but I didn't get that 'OMG this is the dress' feeling that I thought I would. I asked the sales rep to figure out what the price of the dress and a veil would be. She told me that the dress was only $150 off and the veil was only $30 off. When we asked why it was as much as advertised, she told me I needed to prove that this dress was what they were advertsing that was part of their sale. Odviously I couldn't do that. Now I'm not the type of girl who likes to shop and shop for things; I find what I want, I get it and I'm done. I decided to put some money down on the dress SO THEY COULD SAVE THE SALE PRICE. There was no ordering at this point and all I did was hand them my money and I got a little piece of paper that stated the amount I needed to pay in order for them to order the dress.3 days later I decided that the dress was a little more expensive that I wanted to pay for (and it really wasn't all that bad). I took my mom to David's where I ended up finding THE dress and I had that 'yep, this is it' feeling. So 2 weeks later we made our way back to House of Brides. I decided that since I already gave some money, I would do the nice thing and not demand my money back, but to order a special occasion dress, possibly a dress I could wear to my shower. i found 2 dresses that I wanted to order instead of the wedding gown using the money I had already given them. Unfortunately, the lady that helped me the first time was there again, so I was stuck with her.I took the dresses to her, told her what I wanted to do, the colors and the sizes, and she stared at me. Them she proceeded to drill me with questions on why I didn't come back to them and how the could have helped me find something else. She did not like this or that I already purchased my wedding dress and did not like the fact that I drove 1 1/2 hours to get to this salon. She then told me she was not going to be able to complete my transaction and that she was going to have to talk to her manager about what was going on. I was turning into Bridezilla at this point so I showed her the paper that said I put this much cash down and that it said nothing about an order or refund/exchange. She then kept calling what I wanted to do an 'exchange' and told me she was unable to give me any kind of discount on the 2 dresses I was ordering becuae it was an exchange. I then asked her if we would get somewhere if I came in and demanded my money back or if I contacted the corporate office if I would get what I wanted... they then decided to do my transaction...6 months later I had not heard anything about my dresses. My shower was 3 weeks away and was planning on wearing one of these dresses for that day. I gave the ordering department a call. The lady pulled of my ticket number and told me they were going to have to give the vendor a call to check the status of the order and told me to call back at the beginning of the following week. The next Monday I gave them a call... 3 calls actually and could not get through; I couldn't even leave a voice mail. I e-mailed their corporate as well as the vendor of one of the dresses. The next day I got a very nasty voicemail on my phone while at work stating that I had no right to contact the vendor and that my dresses had been in the salon for 'a very long time.'I called bacl almost right away and was very heated at this point. I talked to the same lady who left me the nasty message and told her when I called the weeke before my dresses weren't there, and that SHE had no right to leave me such an awful message. I told her she needed to check on the other dress that was on the invoice, and that that was the dress they were waiting on...The next day I got another message that that dress was in and I could call on when I wanted to come get them.When I went to pick them up, they did not ask for any ID that I was me and did not ask if I wanted to try them on first. They were very rude at the door and the girl who handed me the dresses was very snotty. I asked to speak to a manager and the girl at the desk told me there was no manager on duty. I would NOT recommend HOB to ANYONE, not for ANYTHING. Planning your wedding and getting your wedding dress is supposed to be the happiest time of a girls life. No one should have to do with snotty, stuck up women.

THANK YOU to Lila at House of Brides in Oak Lawn.... went in on a whim, without an appointment and found my dress! I was on the fence as we had several appointments to go to afterwards and the next day... our consultant, Lila, told us she was off of work the next day but offered to come in for us if I decided that the dress was the one. I went back first thing the next day, GREAT service, dress even came in early!!

I had a horrible experience with House of Brides in Oak Lawn. I ordered my wedding dress 11 months prior to my wedding and found out 3 months prior to my wedding that they never ordered the dress. I had to contact them numerous times before they would finally give me an answer. They kept telling me they would just have my consultant call me back, and she never did. When I finally demanded to talk to a manager, they told me that they had no record of me ever purchasing a dress and that they didn't order one for me. I had to bring my receipt and credit card bill into the store before they would honor my purchase. When I finally received the dress, they made me take the dress to the Orland Park store, because the seamstress quit. I highly advise all brides to NEVER shop at the House of Brides store in Oak Lawn!

I bought my gorgeous Saison Couture gown from them but I would not recommend them to anyone. I had an appointment, but when I got there I was asked to peruse the aisles for over an hour until someone could get to me. The representative seemed very bothered to help me and told me "the bride usually only brings one other person" as a jab at my 3 guests. I drove two hours to get there and I had three bridesmaids with me. My representative must have thought I was taking too long trying on one of the gowns because she started knocking on the door and telling me I am not allowed to take pictures (I wasn't). When I went back to try it on again and show my mom, we looked the gown up online and the price on their website was lower than the price in the store. The manager refused to budge, so my second representative (much nicer than the first) offered to take $100 off my $200 veil to help make up the difference. Unfortunately, this IS where I found my gown, so I had to keep working with them. They told me my gown would be in the first week of May (my wedding was in June) so when I called the first week of May to see if it was in, it wasn't. I asked the woman to please give me a call as soon as she heard anything and she promised she would. I called back a week later to see if the dress was in, and they told me it had been in for a week. Very frustrating to work with.

I fell in love with a dress that I found here. With a little help, it was a tight fit. But, I bought it anyway. I knew that I had time to lose a few pounds to fit perfectly by my wedding day. For some reason, because I paid by credit card, I was not able to take the dress home with me that day. I had to wait two weeks "for the transaction to clear." Fine, whatever. I waited. When I went to pick up the dress, my sales person was not there. So, another woman helped me.... if you can call it that. She asked for no proof that I was me. She just let me take the dress out of the store. But, I wanted to try it on first. I had lost 4 lbs. since I first tried it on. But, she said, and I quote: "I don't know how she got this to zip up on you. I can't possibly do it." And left it unzipped.I will never use the services of House of Brides and I will never suggest anyone else does either. David's Bridal's staff is MUCH friendlier and much more helpful.

I went to House of Brides Oak Lawn to try on wedding dresses. I found a few dresses I liked but did not fall in love with any. Their prices are really affordable and they give you great discounts if you ask. What I liked best are their consultants. They are incredibly laid back and really take time to show you anything you like. I went there recently to look at bridesmaids dresses and think I will be buying them there. They are really nice, look a lot more expensive than they are, and my bridesmaids love the price since everyone knows you don't really ever wear those dresses again.

My wedding dress was gorgeous and a great value! The alterations woman, Christine, did a TERRIFIC job making my dress custom-fit exactly the way it should. I am glad I trusted house of brides with the alterations. They did a beautiful job steaming the dress too. The veil and headpiece I ordered were beautiful as well.Our bridesmaids dresses were gorgeous and were one of a few dresses we saw that would have worked out for the wedding.My only problem with house of brides is that they don't have swatches. The saleswoman recommended we bring in paint swatches from a hardware store which I did but NONE OF THEM were close to the dress color we picked, making it hard to coordinate the tuxedos. A possible way to solve this is to order the bridesmaids dresses way in advance so you can get a swatch cut from the bottom of one of the dresses when they come in. We couldn't do this because we picked dresses just a few months in advance. Overall I definitely recommend house of brides--just be aware of the swatch situation before you go so you don't get stressed! The women who work there are friendly and helpful and not pushy at all.

My bridesmaids and I went to the shop to search for their dresses but were very unimpressed with the service. Once I found the dress that I liked at another shop, I had three of the girls order it from House of Brides online because they were less expensive. All three had to call and ask them to hunt down their dresses once we were a month away from the wedding. They had all been told the dresses would arrive at least 4 to 6 weeks before this point. Because they all needed alterations, this was unacceptable when they had been ordered months before their promised delivery dates.

I had a very helpful saleswoman help me find the PERFECT dress! I didn't even think I'd find one I'd like. She was great. Stayed within my budget and got a beautiful designer dress. A+

Horrible experience, staff is incredibly rude. As soon as we walk-in their first question was how much I was going to spend on the dress, and when I told the lady I was looking for and affordable dress, she walk away, no even a little help, nothing!!! So I was with my friend in our own looking for a dress, but wait it keeps getting worse, we put some gowns away to try it on and one of the ladies came to us and told us that those dresses where way to expensive for us!!! Who in earth working as a sales person is cappable of such a thing, they completely ruin my experience, it was supposse to be fun and beautiful, they treat us so bad, we should walk away at that moment but no!!! I tried the gowns of course by my self, yes!!!they left in a small room alone!!!, then my friend went to ask for a clip to hold the dress and the lady gave it to her and told her, but I need it back!!, What she was thinking, that we were going to stole a clip!!!. So brides please beware, don't go there. I went to another bridal shop and I really saw the difference, they treated me like a princess and of course I bought my dream dress with them, now I'm looking for the bridesmaid dresses, not in a hundred years I'll buy something from house of brides.

I visited this shop for bridesmaids dresses. I was impressed to see how many options they have for bridesmaids dresses (very modern and elegant dresses). So many options that it was hard to narrow it down. I knew that other reviewers had not had such good experiences here, but I really liked their dresses and I was willing to take a chance. We honestly did not have any problems. The dresses came in about a month before the wedding (leaving plenty of time for alterations). We did alterations elsewhere.

Although I personally did not experience any problems with this company, my bridesmaids and the mother of the groom went through hell! We were never called when the dresses were in, there were problems with the alterations which left one of my bridesmaids and my mother in law with dresses they were not happy with, and no time to take them elsewhere to get fixed. I would not recommend using them.

I had alot of issues with this place. I had bridesmaids dresses not showing up until 5 days before the wedding, when i addressed this issue with the manager they were rude and acted like it really didnt matter. In no way did they try to resolve this issue or any of the many others i had. Would not recommend to anyone.

Absolutely the worst place ever!!!! DO NOT get your dresses from here! My one bridesmaid needed a certain size dress, and they told her they ordered a size 18, which was on the reciept. When she got the dress it was a size 22. They would not order a new size, and when she asked if they would take money off for the alterations they said absolutley not, even though it was their fault! This is not even the whole story. My other bridesmaid had a problem with them too. Worst place ever. The only good thing I can say is that my dress was beautiful, and it only cost about 330.

Everyone I dealt with here was extremely rude to me as well as my bridesmaids. They did not go out of their way at all to make you feel special about your upcoming event. They ordered the wrong size dress for my bridesmaid who lived in Wisconsin and the only way they would help fix it would be to have her drive down during the working week when the lady would be in and get it fixed at their store. She lives 6 hours away and works!!! I would not recommend purchasing through this store. I loved my bridesmaid dresses but I did not enjoy the experience of buying them. If I could do it over I would have used a different house of brides at another location.

I had a horrible experience with the house of brides in oak lawn.

They are the worst place I have ever dealt with. After telling me that I would not be able to get a maternity wedding dress, they refused to make a flower girl dress saying there was no way to get it done in time. They also ruined 2 of my bridesmaid dresses and refused to do anything about it.

they were awesome..... i only had 4 months until my wedding so i bought off the rack. i had my dress in 20 minutes. i explained what i wanted and they rushed around and i had my dress 20 minutes later. this was the easiest part of it all because they were so great.

This was the worst customer service I have ever received in my life!!! Horrible! Unfortunately I was so in love with my dress or else I would have taken my money else where and cancelled my check there. The ladies are nice to you only until they get a deposit and then they have no use for you. They couldn't care less about whether or not you are happy and the corporate doesn't care either. They actually handed me my gown in a large garbage bag and it was pouring outside. They never even offered a nice bag or to see if I neede alterations. I was on my own for both! They actually lied to my bridesmaids to get them to put money down on dresses I hadn't decided on. This was the worst treatment ever! Do not go to the Oak Lawn location ever! And if you go to one of the other ones and have trouble, do not expect corporate to care at all. I wrote 2 letters, 3 emails and left messages, no one cared to call or answer any of them! I even reported them to the better business bureau and their only response was that is was all a miscommunication! Ha. What a joke!!

these are some of the rudest people i have ever met in my life. this was my special day and they made me and my bridesmaids feel like they didnt matter. everyone should be treated special and they just did not want to waste their time. my bridesmaids said they would never go back again. i surely would never recommend them.

When I first walked in the people were very sharp with me because I had a small amount of time until my wedding. Finally, they got pass that and helped me find my dress. They prices are good, but they will not work down the price anymore then want is on the tag.

The selection of dresses is quite broad. You are sure to find something to fit your style and your budget. But definitely go with enough time. They are not very good at keeping their word with promised dates.

House of Brides is THE place to order Bridesmaids dresses. It was very easy for the girls to order their dresses from them and the color swatches were so helpful and accurate. They have a wide selection and are VERY budget friendly. I will be using them again for my renewal. I was able to get the dresses EARLY as well...which was a great help because it allowed the bridesmaids to get alterations on their own.

When it came to picking out my dress, the people there were very helpful. I went in several times to try on the same dress and was helped every time. The only complaint I have is with the alterations and the delivery time. My dress took a very long time to be delivered. I ordered it with enough time but it didn't come in until about a week before my wedding. The biggest problem I had though was with the alterations. The did their best to fit me in and get it done on time but the alterations were horrible. I had ribbon lining the bottom of the dress so instead of hemming it from the bottom they took it up through the waistline. This caused the dress to bunch around the waist. When I went in to try it on after the first alterations I pointed it out and she said that it was only because the material hadn't been cut yet. It was two days before my wedding. She assured me that it would look perfectly normal after she cut the material. When I came back to pick it up The bunching was still there. There was no time to fix it. I was very unhappy with the way my dress looked.

Not satisfied with their service at all. I would not recommend them to anyone.