Elaine's Wedding and Event Center

My bridal consultant was not well educated on the dresses the store had to offer. Despite giving the bridal consultant my budget and exactly what I was looking for she did not produce the dress I ended up purchasing; my mother pulled it on her own after I had already tried on many dresses. It was well in my price range and EXACTLY what I had described to the consultant.

The consultant was uncomfortable with me wearing my bra and thong to try on the dress. She stated that most brides feel more comfortable wearing a slip. I think it made her more comfortable.

The store had the wrong date written in their books for my wedding.

They ordered the wrong size for one of my bridesmaids and when she called to get the new size they tried to charge her for both dresses.

They ordered the wrong length for my mother's dress.

My bridesmaids live all over the nation and they refused to mail any dresses to other vendors when they originally said they could do this.

The consultant at the front desk when I arrived for my fitting told my seamstress I was running late when she had me wait for 15 minutes while she worked on the computer.

The most positive experience I have had so far is with my seamstress. She was extremely flexible and is willing to do final touches two days before the wedding as I live out of state.

I would NOT recommend Elaine's Wedding and Event Center to anyone. While they do have a good selection of dresses and I found my dream dress, the stress that entailed with their poor service wasn't quite worth it.

Great store. The have so many dresses, it's hard to decide on just one. The staff was very friendly even though they were very busy. I found the dress I wanted on a Saturday, but came back another day to order it, because they were so busy. I checked out a couple of other stores in the meantime, but nobody else had anywhere near the selection. Given how busy they were on Saturday, I figured this must be the best place to get a wedding gown

I was expecting the experience at Elaine's to wonderful. I was extremely disappointed. We had made an appointment but when we arrived the place was packed and there was no room for us to try on dresses. We had to wait and our consultant was often no where to be found. We picked dresses and had them ordered. When they arrived they were the wrong dress which the staff promptly blamed on the bridal party. When the new dresses finally arrived three weeks before the wedding they were all the wrong size. The staff ignored us upon entering the store and were once again blaming us for the mistake. Next came the alteration process, the alterations staff was WONDERFUL! So polite and helpful and apologetic with our experience. The floor staff however provided more misinformation to the bridesmaids creating further delays in getting the dresses fitted before the wedding. These women really need to get some training in organization and customer service.

Went twice to look at dresses - first time was a little iffy as I got little feedback from my consultant, might be nice for a girl who knows exactly what she wants, but I needed a little help. The second time was amazing. The store had no problem letting me choose a new consultant, and she helped me pick a dress that was perfect, obviously. The prices are SUPER reasonable, and no one would guess that I paid so little for my gown. A phenomenal deal for a store that has a TON of stock in all different price ranges.

I walked into Elaine's after trying dresses on at 2 other shops and had some poor experiences. Elaine's really caters to their clients and really does want to find the best for them... They told me their honest opinions and set me in a direction of what kind of look I was wanting to go for.. They were so nice and very professional...

The dress I bought was from the Justin Alexander Collection-Everyone said my dress fit like a Glove and it truly did, I also bought a head piece and veil here that went so well together that really finished my look... :)

I bought my dress from here. They can be a little pricy, but then again my dress was a Maggie. I had a list/pictures of dresses I wanted to try on and of the 6-8 dresses they only had 1 that I wanted to try on. It happened to be theone I fell in love with online so I ignored the others. They lady that I had helping me look wasn't the greatest - seemed lazy/unorganized. The dress did get ordered correctly and the alterations lady was fabulous! Overall I loved my dress, but would have to say Elaine's could use some better workers...

They have a great selection and under $3000. My dress was under $1000 but everyone thought it cost at least 5 times that!

I had a wonderful experience with Elaine's. They have an unbelievable selection to choose from and the prices were good. My first visit was on a Saturday and the place was like a zoo. I tried on dresses for about 2 hours and then came back a week later to order my dress. I also liked that my bridesmaids got a nice discount on their dress because I bought my gown there - that was nice. Everything went very smoothly and I got lots of compliments on my dress.

I got my dress from Elain's. I loved my dress more than I could possibly imagine, and had so many compliments on it as well. I wanted a dress for less than 1000. and was able to fullfill that. I did feel they could have done a better job following up but do not have any complaints.

I visited Elaine's for my wedding dress and bride's maid dresses. I have had numerous problems since ordering my dress from them. I found the customer service terrible. I was one of several brides trying on my dress the first time I stopped in. I understand they were busy and thus dismissed the lack of help from the staff members. I returned to the store to be sized and order my dress a few weeks later. My mother paid the required deposit and the order was placed. The dress came in and my mom then started a payment plan with the store. This was fine and incredibly nice of them! The fun begins here. My mother was informed there would be a weekly storage fee to keep my dress at the store! WEEKLY FEE? we were never told this and my mother promptly picked up the dress paying the remainder of the bill minus the $70 added bill for storage! (They wanted $20 a week!) I gave them the benefit of the doubt and made an appointment to have my bridesmaids see and try on the dress I picked for them over Thanksgiving when they were all home (I'm still in college and my friends are at college in many different places too!) So we had an appointment and I warned the staff my wedding party was 7 people with a miniature bride. When we went to the shop on the day of our appointment the staff laughed at me for saying we had an appointment! Then I asked the staff to find the dress I picked for the girls along with the one of my dress so I could show all the bridesmaids. The staff did so, but placed the dresses on the end of a rack and walked away. They didn't ask to help me put it on! (It laces up the whole back!) they also did help us at all the rest of the visit! I mean I had 10 plus people with no assistance from the 4 girls working. I would be considerate if there were other customers to help, but we were the only group and I had made an appointment! I was asked as we left the store (after deciding to bring our business elsewhere) when I wanted my maids fitted. I wanted it that day!!! HELLO!! I wish I could give a good complement to a store with beautiful dresses, but I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone EVER!

I didn't get my dress from here but I almost did. They had a HUGE selection of dresses for dirt cheap! Be sure to go to the schaumburg,IL location - they have the largest selection.

I was very impressed with my dress, Alfred Angelo 1136. Great quality for the price.

The service at the shop was good, but not exceptional. I didn't have any major service complaints, but was never "wow-ed" either. I dress shopped during Prom season, and the sales girls often seemed too busy to pay much attention to me. The shop was very clearly short-staffed, so I guess I can understand why wait times were long and service didn't seem very personalized. But I did buy my dress, my accessories, and my bridesmaid's dresses from them--which is a lot more than any prom-shoppers likely bought from them, so I thought I'd get better service than I did.

i got my dress on their clearance rack, a 900$ dress for 325!!

They kept if at the shop until the week prior to my wedding (incase my house burnt down :) and steamed and pressed it for free as well!

friendly staff that was fun to work with
lots of mirrors and private area to try on dress infront of family and friends!

I did have some minor problems, but for the most part it was not a bad experience. The biggest problem was going to pick out the bridesmaid dresses because it was prom season and the store was packed. We had a very hard time with trying to get someone to work with us.

I found this dress and fell in love. The staff was wonderful in making sure the adjustments were done on time, and they complimented me in the dress constantly. They understood what I wanted when I wanted to take the zipper out and put a corset tie in the back ... they did it! It looked fabulous. I was so pleased with the friendliness in this atmosphere. It was a great place to get a wedding dress, and I would go there again anyday!

Elaine's has great sales on in-demand styles. They also have attentive, but not pushy, staff. I found my perfect dress on my first visit!

My experience at Elaine's was overall pretty good. I made an appointment last May on a Saturday to try on dresses- we were probably there about 2 hours... everything went well, consultant was great. Later that day I went to David's and didn't like my consultant or the fact that they wouldn't make many changes to their dresses... then they kept calling me for months. I found a dress at Tie the Knot (that place was great too), but ended up buying from Elaine's because it was cheaper. My dress was to come in in 4-6 months, I think it got here in September so it was early. Tried it on to be sure everything was ok & then made an appointment for my first fitting for Feb. That was with Maria- she did a great job. Had my dress done in a week, had to make a little adjustment & that was ready in one day. The prices of the alterations were reasonable compared to others I have heard. Overall everyone there was nice, the selection was good, prices were fair. At times they do seem to be a little busy at the front desk or when you call- so they may need another person to help in that area, but no one was ever rude like other people have mentioned.