I've been to 3 total bridal shops so far for gown appointments and Effie's has my favorites. As soon as you walk in, you're asked to take your shoes off. They have pink slippers for you to use, or you can go barefoot. The entrance also has a nice little waiting area with comfy couches and a great view of all the dresses. Once you check in, you're greeted by your stylist. I should say that before your appointment, Effie's sends you a survey that includes your budget, styles you love, and more about you, so your stylist should have a general idea of what you like and what you can afford. Our stylist asked those questions again and had some dresses pulled for me to try on. More on that later! She lead us through the store and described each area of the store, including the 'off the rack' section, then gave me 5 tags to choose dresses I wanted to try on and let me and my group loose to find a gown. The off the rack section is sorted by size and is exactly how it sounds - you take the dress off the rack (normally at a discounted price) and go home with it that day. After we'd gone through the dresses and picked 5, we went back to our corner by the dressing rooms. My stylist had hung the dresses up in the room for me and said she'd be there for zipping and closing the dress. This took me by surprise, because the gowns I'd tried on before were complicated and would have been a struggle to pull them on by myself. Because I didn't have assistance, I had to let one dress go because I couldn't get it on by myself. Having said this, I'm sure there are some people who will really appreciate the privacy aspect because not everyone wants to be basically naked in a room with a stranger. For me, it would have helped to have assistance. As I tried on dresses and came out, my group was allowed to take photos, videos, and whatever we wanted. I even had one of my girls FaceTime my maid of honor because she lives in Pennsylvania - great connection! The lighting was natural and pretty and let us see the dresses at true color, which isn't always the case with bridal shops. I tried the dresses on that my stylist had pulled for me and LOVED them, but to my surprise, both of them were over my budget that I'd specified twice. One was about $1000 over and the other was about $300 over. This was disappointing to me, because I loved both of them. She did totally nail my style and picked beautiful gowns. As a counterpoint to this, she also talked to the finance part of the store when I tried the one on that was just over budget. If I bought it off the rack, it would be JUST in budget, so that was nice to know. Our stylist was patient with us, answered all our questions, and never made us feel rushed - even on a Saturday! Overall, I do recommend Effie's Bridal Trunk and will be purchasing a gown from them soon. read more

Effie's Bridal Trunk - Great lighting, lots of room for guests. - Bridal Near Me - Burnsville, Minnesota

See all

Imagine slipping into your wedding dress 30 minutes before your first look. Do you picture the elastic loops holding the buttons on the back falling apart? Sadly, that's what happened to me. Instead of being excited and giddy, I was confused and in tears being sewn into my dress, so it would stay shut. I spent $2k on an Allure Couture dress with Effies. After the wedding I called, provided photos of the elastic that fell apart (my alterations only hemmed my dress, nothing else, and it was the correct size), and was told they would "try" to talk to Allure. Allure is one of their largest vendors. After weeks of follow up, I was told "sorry, no warranty". Reading past the fake "!" in the text thread (below), they weren't responsive and didn't care. Why would they - They already had my money. It was and it still is heartbreaking to be treated like that and to have gone through that experience on my wedding day. Brides - Effies is a nice place to buy a dress, I agree, but if something goes wrong after you leave the store, the don't stand behind their dresses. It's sad, but important to know. I'm stuck with a dress that need to be fixed at my own expense. After weeks of back and forth, Effies offered me new loops from Allure. The same loops that fell completely apart - like, what? Oh and $25 to get them sewn on which we all know does not cover that type of alteration. I said thanks for the insulting texts, no thanks. Go somewhere else to buy your bridal gown. It's not worth the heartbreak. read more

See all

I had such a wonderful experience at Effie's! With all the COVID craziness, they were more than accommodating to me, allowing me to invite a larger party. The room was beautiful & there were more than enough dresses to try on. I was so pleased by my fitting experience with the consultant, Allie. She was so sweet & made the day so special. I could not recommend this beautiful place enough! read more

Effie's Bridal Trunk - Bridal Near Me - Burnsville, Minnesota

See all

Plus size Brides, don't bother! After carefully viewing every photo of the wedding dresses, from every one of their designers, shown on their website, we had provided them with a list, in advance of the appointment of 17 dresses that my dauther would be interested in trying on. We were so looking forward to this appointment as it seemed like they carried a lot of possibile dresses in the style my daughter was looking for. Bridal fits much smaller that street clothes, so if you are a Size 16 or up, don't waste your time here. When we arrived, the consultant, (none of us remember her name, all we remember is she had on Black Yoga pants, a Black top and White Tennis shoes). With LA Fitness right nextstore, we joked amongst ourselves that she was headed there after our appointment. When we arrived, she didn't have any dresses pulled and started off by asking all the basic questions that my daughter had filled out on the questionnaire they sent, prior to the appointment. When I asked if they had received the e-mail with the list of dresses that my daughter wanted to try on , she said they didn't have any of them there that my daughter could try on and weren't carrying the Allure Womens line. Well, Allure had four or five different lines listed on their website. So, either they aren't sure if they aren't carrying all of them, as she had picked dresses from each of the different lines, or if she meant no dresses that my daughter could try on, due to size. They literaly only had a few Size 16 dresses in their shop for anyone larger to try on. The bridal consultant asked her if she wanted to pull dresses, but if there is nothing you can fit into, why bother. There was a definite theme to the style of dresses my dauther was after, but nothing for her at this shop. She did try on two dresses, not her prefferred style. It was a very discouraging appointment and one that took the wind out of my dauther's sail as far as shopping for a dress! Plus size Brides, you need to check out Luxe Bridal in Eagan! It was a whole different experience! Shari Scavone-Mann read more

Had a great experience in store but thought it was weird there were no prices on the dresses I was picking. Was told I'd get an email with pricing of the dresses I tried, names, designers, and the dresses I liked but didn't have time to try. Never heard from them after my appointment. Needless to say I didn't go back and found my dress elsewhere. Go to BHLDN in St Louis Park again, you won't regret it. read more

I was really looking forward to my appointment at Effie's after browsing their collections (or so I thought) online, so I made it my first one of the day. The shop was very cute and they definitely had more dresses than any other place we went. After me and my group were greeted by 3 different staff who all asked if we had been helped and then disappeared into the other room, we started roaming around the store as that seemed to be what the other group was doing. After we roamed for maybe 5 minutes, our consultant found my mom and said something about how she had been looking all over for us... which we were standing right in the doorway for the first 5 minutes but were never given any direction from the 3 previous staff members. Our consultant gave us a tour of the store, asked what I liked, and gave me 5 tags to place on dresses that I wanted to try on. She was very nice, but honestly added nothing to the appointment. My friend had to suggest and then just straight up ask if the consultant could maybe make any suggestions as to what I should try. I mean, this was my first time trying on dresses, so I feel like once we get the ball rolling and I start saying what parts I like of certain dresses that the consultant would normally say, hey let's try this next, I think you'll like it. The biggest disappointment was that I spent a lot of time beforehand looking through all the links they had on their website of their collections, because they ask for you to send them style numbers or pictures if you can for them to have ready for you, but it turns out all the links for were Spring 2020 collections and so not a single dress that I had sent was available at Effie's. (Side note: Christian Lane in Hermantown, MN had one of the dresses from the Spring 2020 collection that I was looking for, so they are obviously available). The "trunk" where you can buy off the rack has some very sad looking dresses that are in rough shape, and though I understand that's what happens with sample dresses, these seemed to be the worst I've seen. Overall, if they would have had a dress I loved, it would probably have felt like a better experience. My budget was around $1500 and there were plenty to try on for that, but nothing that I really even considered being the one. read more