I have thought long and hard before leaving this review. I consider myself to be a very reasonable and rational person, so therefore I wanted to take the time I needed to really think about the entire experience that myself and my bridesmaids had here at Ashley Renee. Myself and my two cousins, both bridesmaids, made an appointment and visited on October 9, 2021 to see about picking out a bridal gown for myself and bridesmaid dresses for all of my girls. The staff was all super friendly and attentive. We were greeted with a salutation and smile as soon as we walked in. We were placed with our bridal consultant and offered mimosas. At this point I gave her a rough idea of what I envisioned and she started to pull dresses for me to try on. After trying a few I found one that I really liked. At this point we left to try a few other places. I decided later on that the dress at AR was the one I wanted. We returned that day to make the order/purchase. My girls also picked out the bridesmaid dresses for the party and placed their order as well. Here is where the story heads South... The dress I tried on that day was a size 18. It fit me perfectly from the waist down, with the top half being a little big (I have the photos of myself in the dress as well, front and back). For whatever reason, the bridal consultant decided to order a size SMALLER for me, after clearly seeing that the dress I had on fit me almost perfectly. I had no clue this took place, as she took my measurements and ordered the gown. I was never told, "Hey, you tried on an 18 but we are ordering you a 16" because if so, I would have 100% questioned that. I put my trust in the consultant to order a dress that would fit me (Don't be like me. Please question everything). On February 12, 2022 my dress arrives. I return to try it on and it does not fit me. Two of the consultants managed to zip me up in it, while telling me how beautiful I looked in it, all the while I could barely even walk or breath. I'm still not even sure how they zipped me up in it. Nevertheless, I take it and I bring it to my seamstress. After looking it over for 15 mins he finally states that there is absolutely nothing he can do to fix it. With my wedding in 2.5 weeks, I called the bridal shop completely distraught. I asked them if they still had the dress that I tried on that day because I was going to need it. They did still have the dress and agreed to swap out my brand new one for it. I go to swap the dresses out and then ask what kind of money they were going to return to me for this, or at the very least pay to have the dress cleaned. I was told that they would ask the owner, but it was highly likely that they would return anything to me because they ordered based off of my "measurements". It wasn't until one of my bridesmaids (who by the way, 5 out of 9 of their dresses didn't fit as well, but I'll get to that in a moment..) left a bad review, that someone even tried to call me back. They offered me $100. So I am now the proud owner of a $1650 rack dress, that had a rip, 3 missing buttons, stretched out button loops and was tried on by God knows how many people. And honestly, the rack dress isn't even what bothers me. I'm an easy going girl. I have no qualms at all about wearing a rack/used dress. What bothers me is that I paid $1650 for a rack dress and they now have my brand new one to resell. This is where Customer Service is completely lacking. Hell, I know they aren't in the business to lose money, no one is. But hey, shit happens and you're basically going to now make DOUBLE on a dress, while you toss me $100 bucks... $100 bucks that I only got because I had to ASK for something off! I never should have had to ask.
Now to the bridesmaids... Almost half of them have dresses that barely fit them. One girls doesn't even fit her at all. A seamstress shop is working frantically to completely tear it apart and try to rebuild this dress for her so she can walk in my wedding. Three of my girls both tried on 18's of the SAME DRESS that fit them comfortably in the shop and STILL instructed the bridal shop to order them a size larger (this is very common because of size variances and to play it safe. Remember this ladies!). This was also not done and their "18's" arrived and DID NOT FIT. This dress brand is Sorella Vita from Essence of Australia, and honestly I believe the problem here most likely lies with them, although I'm not certain... All I know is that these dresses DID NOT FIT. This is not a prom or a Mardi Gras ball. This is my WEDDING. This is one of the happiest days in someone's life. This is NOT the kind of issues that you should have when entrusting someone to fit you're entire bridal party! If you are selling a product, especially one of such high importance with a long production/order time, You better damn well know your product inside and out and have a better plan of action for when these things occur. A little common sense to boot wouldn't hurt either. read more
