Sophie's Gown Shoppe

The store itself is a very quaint boutique to shop. It is a perfect environment for any bride. I loved me dress. Thank you Sophie

I had to give this another bad review!When i went in initally to find my dress, the service was great.. and that's where it pretty much ends in service!After purchasing my dress ( off the rack, i did save 10%) not to brides!! if you don't mind buying a sample dress, it's the way to go!!!!Trying to get items organzied for my bridesmaid dresses was just a site for itself... we never recieved phone calls when the dresses came in like they said they would!!They charged WAY to much for alterations which i think is atrocious, considering what we pay for our dresses to begin with!I will say that the seamstress was very nice and super helpful to me!! she made the adjustments as requested and when they took in too much she helped make my dress better by putting it back to it's original state... I can say that she was a great help to me during this process. I went back a few times to ensure that the dress was right and it was!!I am glad that not all of my experience with Sophie's was bad!!!But again, it's what happens in the bridal work unforunately, you will get this service with EVERY bridal store.. so take it with a grain of salt, and just hope that the service you get is exceptional!!!

I visited Sophie's Gown Shoppe in London to look for a gown for my upcoming wedding. I can't say enough about the excellent service I received. I was nervous at first but the staff were excellent. This store not only has the best selection of gowns(and I have shopped at many stores in the GTA)but the store is absolutely beautiful!!!! The staff informed me that the store has just undergone a complete renovation. WOW!!! As soon as I walked in I was impressed by the overall atmosphere. The consultant who helped me was very helpful and pulled out styles for me to try on. It was the 2nd dress that I fell in love with. Not only did I love the dress but I loved the store. I cant say enough about how impressed I was with the service and the excellent selection of gowns and accessories. I would recommend this store to all brides in the London area, it is even worth the drive from Toronto. You will not be disappointed. Thank you Sophie's....I will be back for my bridesmaids

I had tried to write this review on the website for Sophie's Gown Shoppe, however, there is nowhere for customers to post comments and the only ones on there are all happy quotes from completely satisfied brides. That's not a surprise with the comments I have read
here, no wonder they don't want to let their customers post without them, no one would ever shop there!
I don't normally complain. In fact, this is the first time I have ever actually formally made a written complaint, ever. But I am a retail store manager and I am actually really upset with my experience at Sophie's so I sought out a site to vent on and hopefully other brides will not have a negative experience like mine.
I wasn't too angry when I ordered the dress I was in love with and they told me they would call me when it arrived in April and at the end of May, I called them and sure enough, my dress was in.
I wasn't too angry when I went in for my first fitting and was only spoken to once. The seamstress never spoke to me and I had to get my sister to undo my dress because no one came back.
I wasn't too angry when they overcharged me for my alterations, big time.
I started to get a little angry when the day before my wedding, I got a phone call from the store saying that they wanted me to come back to the store and pay $100 that they miscalculated when I paid the balance on my dress.
I got really angry when, after I told them I would call them in a couple weeks to sort this out, I got a call 13 days later harassing me for the money again.
As someone who works in retail, I understand "honest errors" (as I was repeatedly told by the manager when I was telling her I was unhappy) I do not understand making the customer take responsibility for your "honest errors". I know how much money they make on these dresses and I am really unhappy with the stink they have made out of this $100, when I am sure they made 6X that on the gown in the first place, not to mention an arm and leg for the alterations! I would never call one of my customers after they had left my store and tell them I expected them to come back in and give me more money, and this has happened to me, undercharging people or my staff undercharging people. And to avoid the risk of offending our valued customers, we would eat the cost of the mistake and have done so in the past. Apparently Sophie's does not feel the same about keeping their customers.
I was warned by my wedding planner not to go to Sophie's because several of her clients had negative experiences there, however, I was in love with the dress and against my better judgement, ignored her. Wish I hadn't because, while I had a lovely wedding, I could have also had a lovely wedding with a dress from a vendor that didn't leave such a bad taste in my mouth. Honest mistake after honest mistake will lead me to never recommend Sophie's to any of my friends or relatives.

If the mark of a good business is not the friendly service you receive while you are handing over the cash, but how they handle problem situations, then Sophie's fails. Big time.

Here was my experience there:

Sophie's Gown Shoppe requires a 50% deposit in order to place a dress order. The wedding I was to be a part of was tragically canceled, and I was wondering what would happen to my order and my deposit.

They told me I had two options: forfeit my deposit, or pay the balance and pick up the dress. Fair enough. I was fine forfeiting my 50% deposit (who needs a purple tea-length dress anyway?), but there was a catch: I also paid the balance the same day as the deposit. I did this over the phone because I am from out of town.

Of course I thought I would get a refund on the balance of the dress. All of the other bridesmaids forfeited their 50% deposit and left the dresses at Sophie's. Well, for some reason they decided they would keep a 100% payment from me.

As I continued to explain how unfair this is, the sales person I spoke with continued to tell me how I was "confusing" her and that she "didn't understand" what I was saying. She kept saying that it was store policy to "keep the deposit".

Yes. The deposit.

The 50% deposit should be kept to cover the cost of the dress. This, I understand. This, I was willing to happily give them. But why do they have to keep the other half? They are going to profit from me, while the others pay only half? They are going to profit from a broken marriage?

Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

I went to the Kitchener store. I found a great dress and I was totally in love with it. However, I found that the staff were not as helpful as they could be. They were slow to acknowledge you in the store and the day i went to pick up the dress at my appointed time, it was not ready, I had to return half an hour later while it was steamed. Overall it was a good experience.

would avoid all business dealings with Sophie's London store.

I had a great experience trying on the dresses, but they have completely fallen flat when it comes to customer service.

After purchasing my bridal gown, I was told that if my mother and bridesmaids or anyone purchased their dresses from Sophie's, there would be a discount on their dresses.

When my mother and sister purchased their dresses, they were told no such discount could be given. Too bad for them. Fine, we agreed to just buy them there for convenience and be done with it.

After several months, we had no word from them in regards to the arrival of my mother & sister's dresses as we were told approximately 2 months for their arrival. When I called to get a status update, I was told that my mother's dress wasn't expected for at least six months and she couldn't understand why I was even bothering her to call. LUCKILY, the dress arrived "early". We never would hvae bought that dress if we have been appropriately told the time.

At the time of the purchase, my mother decided it best to just pay in full and be done with it. However, similar to the last post, this proved to be a problem. We have a bill that states "PAID IN FULL", yet when my mother arrived to pick up her dress she was told he owed another $60 in "fees from the manufacturer". Currently, they have no reason for this extra $60 other than staff error, which we believe we should not have to cover. There are also issues with the alteration rates we were originally told would be honoured.

Finally, in regards to my dress, I was told at the time of purchase to schedule a fitting after the dress arrives to determine what undergarments I need. But when I called to make this appointment I was VERY RUDELY told I had to have all of those items or I would "just be wasting the seamstresses time by coming". I have no idea what exactly I need yet, but after 15 mins I finally got the woman to understand that I needed to try on the dress to figure out what was needed. "Oh, well then just come in whenever. You obviously don't need an appointment for that".

I have had nothing but terrible service from this store and has caused my family and myself a lot of grief through what should be a fun and memorable (in a good way!) process.

I would completely avoid this store!

There are plenty of fabulous bridal shops in London, which is where my sister and cousin will now be purchasing their bridal gowns and up to 12 bridesmaid dresses.

Where do I even start?When it came to my own dress...I had 4 "final" dress-fittings. 4!! Last time I checked, 'Final" was defined as "pertaining to or coming to the end" Every time we went in, they had forgotten to do something, or hem this part, or add this...everything we had told them to do the first time, took 4 extra reminders to get these things done. My bridesmaid dresses were another nightmare. My MOH was blessed with a large chest, a tiny waist, and a lovely bottom...they made her pay an extra $50 (on top of the $175 she had already paid for the dress) because her breasts made her a "plus size", even though she's a size 9. Then, they charged her another $60 for alterations to take out all the "plus sized" fabric at her waist out. My mother, now this lady has some patience. She ordered her dress 6 months before the wedding. Her dress came in ONE WEEK before my wedding. And since of course nothing ever got done on weekends, she had 4 days to get the dress altered, fitted, and out the door. Somehow, Sophie's managed to pull the rabbit out of their asses and got it done. Overall, if you enjoy being let down and disappointed, go to Sophie's. If not, shop around.

This store is HORRIBLE! It is located on York street in London Ontario. We ordered my dress and 5 bridesmaids dresses from here. The dresses that we ordered have not arrived as of yet and were ordered4 months ago. Not that big of a wait I know unfortunately they will not be in until the end of may because when I went back to the store my dress had been ordered in a yellow color and two sizes to small. When it needed to be reordered I asked to have it rushed and was told that I would have to pay the 100$ rush charge. That is not acceptable as it was their mistake and no one would like to take responsibility for such.
If I could afford to go to another store and order new dresses I would!

The first few times going into the Kitchener store were nice the girl that helped was wonderful when it came to picking my dress,veil teira 2 bridesmaid dresses and a flower girl dress(of course spending over 2500) however when it came to fittings they were always behind, the day it came to pick up our dresses one of the bridesmaid dresses wasnt ready and then at 3 in the morning the day of my wedding i relized they didnt have my veil or teria in with my wedding dress! I was so stressed out and they didnt open until 10am. My hair appointment was at 1030. They acted like i should be calm and it took them 20 mintues to get there steamer up and running since they hadnt even steamed it! I was so disspointed as it made me have to rush around and worry that i wouldnt have it in time..There billing and payment set up is not very good the one girl took my card info and when i told her to pay off everything she said it was all taken care of and when i went to pick up my dress i had to fight with them because she didnt staple the slip to my order so they tried getting me to repay over $900! i fell in love with my dress and honestly that is the only thing that keep me going back!

I bought my wedding gown here and it was a great experience. They had a huge selection and the prices were unbeatable. The staff was very helpful and friendly. They have large selection of mother of the bride gowns and bridesmaids dresses as well.

The store looks a little dated or chintzy, but the reason I chose to get my dress (Maggie Sottero, Marilyn) from this bridal shop was because of the saleswoman - Rita. What a sweetheart! She's been working her hardest and cutting her commission to get me amazing deals on bridesmaid dresses, accessories and my gown, of course. Take the time to get to know any salesperson you might buy your dress from. A good relationship with him or her could make all the difference later on. You will be seeing this person a lot in the future, and they can work serious magic on percentages off all the extras that come along (alterations, bridesmaid stuff, etc) if you've developed a nice rapport.
Sophie's in general has quite a broad selection, some pieces that are good quality (although be choosey!), and reasonable prices. For some reason they sort everything by colour, which makes it really hard to find a specific dress if you've seen it online, so again it's important to have a really competent salesperson to help you navigate through.

I LOVE MY DRESS!! Being new to london I ended up going into Shopie's for my dress because it was the only gown shoe i knew of, and I heard of it from the regular adverts on 103.1 Fresh FM. The employees are amazing and did everything to help me out. I was a little late in choosing a dress so they ended up letting me buy one off the rack and i got a great discount!! Thanks Sophies!

Overall, a great experience purchasing the dress and veil. But the fittings took a long time. I had to go to the store for fittings at least 4 times. They would forget to alter part of the dress and then I would come back in so they could do it. One of the store clerks was quite rude, but most of the staff was kind and very helpful!

Sophie's in KITCHENERThese girls were just plain RUDE. I spent almost $1800 on my dress at their shop and they were unhelpful, snotty, and the dress was NOT what I was expecting when it arrived either. They were not clear with thread colours and I ended up with a dress that was gold and white when I was told I had ordered a silver and white. One of their staff even tried to match a gold threaded veil to my dress and then when she realized her mistake assured me it was silver and not gold. Had I not been on such a tight time frame I would have gone somewhere else!

Sophie's had a lot of selection and had exactly what I was looking for, and even though it wasn't on sale when I went in, the sales clerk gave us a deal. I was a bit anxious when the dress wasn't in 2 months before the wedding, and when it did come in no one called me, I had to call. The fittings were a little squeezed in as the seamstress only works one day during their "off peak" season so that was a little difficult having to be there during the day.Overall, the service was okay not fabulous but they did have great selection and I found me dream dress for less than I thought I'd pay so I was pleasantly happy.

I had a wonderful experience choosing my perect wedding dress but afterwards was not so impressed. I felt like the staff was only helpful when I was spending. I was so excited when my order was in! I wanted to show my Mom the dress! They reluctantly brought it out of storage but did not offer a change room. I felt so bad for even asking, but it was MY dress! It's not like they were busy, it was the middle of the week. I didn't even need help. They also wanted to charge my bridesmaid $100 just to order a dress in a plus size, we were told that was the manufacturer's charge. We got the same dress somewhere else at no additional cost. Everything worked out in the end and my dress was fabulous, but I wish I had shopped around more. I'm sure they have some good staff, but they sure have their share of rude people. 

My gown arrived at the store well before the wedding (5 months). I was very happy with my dress, and they did a great job hemming it. When I was first at the shop looking through the gowns, the customer service wasn't the best, but I didn't mind because I liked looking through their dresses on my own anyways, as opposed to having someone follow you around and make suggestions. I knew exactly what I wanted going into it.

I regret the fact that I didn't spend more time looking for dresses. Not because I was unhappy with my dress, but rather, unhappy with the service I received. While the girl who helped my actually pick my dress was fun and enthusiatic, everyone else in the shop was rude! Incredibly rude! Once my dress had arrived in store, I had to do acrobatics around the seamstresses schedule to get a fitting (with a store that big, why only one seamstress?). I had very little alterations to be done - shorten the hem, and make an underbustle. I was pretty surprised to return and find that my alterations had been done incorrectly with so few alterations being done. Added to that, the girls at the shop started telling me that if I had to do more alterations, the cost would be increased, since it was getting close to my wedding date and the seamstress would have to do "last minute alterations" - when the mistake was THEIRS! The cost of the alterations was very overpriced to begin with, I can't imagine how much those "emergency alterations" would have cost!The staff was rude to both my mother and grandmother when I came in to try on my dress, one employee even complained about having to stop eating her lunch in order to help me - with my SCHEDULED appointment (she did not stop eating, instead she would just keep running off to eat more food).The greatest part was, a month or two later, I went to another shop while looking for bridesmaids dresses with my friend, and I found my exact dress -- $300 cheaper!Awful service, bad alterations, price gougers and just plain rude staff. I definitely warn all my friends to not shop there!

Sometimes the service at Sophie's can be a little slow or even a little rude at times, it is generally a nice place to shop. They were able to rush my gown (6 months is not enough time!) and even special order it; I fell in love with a tea length gown, however I wanted it to be full length. They made sure it came in the right length and it ended up needed very few alterations. The alterations that were needed were done within a week of the fitting. The store is nicely kept, with a large selection of dresses, and the fitting rooms are huge.

Wonderful staff, beautiful facilities and excellent service. I can highly recommend brides to Sophie's Gown Shoppe in Kitchener because of their impeccable style, reasonable prices and great customer care. Every bride I have sent there has been extremely satisfied.