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September 2024 by Hannah Cowley
I was going to wait to write this review until after my 9/21/24 wedding, but felt it was imperative that I post sooner rather than later for the benefit of other brides. I will add photos of my dresses after our wedding.
I deeply love and respect small business owners, and understand the weight reviews have, so it pains me to leave this. I brought my dress to Susan and her team at their Baltimore location in mid-July 2024. My dress needed to be hemmed, taken in at the bodice, and straps shortened. I was quoted ~$1400. While expensive, I believe in Susan’s mission of paying her employees a living wage and believed that this price reflected the high quality of their alterations. I also brought Susan a gown to be shortened to tea length, let out, and sleeves removed for my rehearsal dinner. I was quoted ~$1000.
I picked up my wedding gown on Saturday, 9/14 after the prior 3 fittings in which I was expressing concerns with extra fabric in the side bust. In previous fittings Susan and her team attempted to add a dart to correct this problem, which caused the bust line to come to a point. I am grateful for their work to then remove the dart and try another approach to correct the issue extra side bust fabric issue.
When I picked up my wedding gown, the problem of the extra fabric at the side bust was not corrected. Furthermore the cups were added to the dress without appropriately stretching the fabric around the cup, causing a bunching effect of the fabric. I picked up my dress, having paid an extra $100 for an extra fitting (per Susan’s contract), and promptly brought my dress to another seamstress who, luckily, was kind enough to fit me in for a rush appointment less than a week before my wedding day. The bodice fit was easily corrected by this seamstress in one fitting.
My rehearsal dinner dress was provided to me for pickup with a lining layer left raw, which I will now finish at home on my own machine. The horse hair hem of my wedding dress is not snug to the bottom of my hem, as it originally was, and in some locations, the hem doesn’t appear straight. In one of my last fittings, Susan pointed out that the straps of my dress started to turn grey, which she claimed was from handling the dress a lot through alterations. She said I could get the dress cleaned if I wanted, but I declined. I understand how this was possible, but it seems that some measures should be taken to avoid discoloring wedding dresses while working on them.
Susan repeatedly commented on the difficulty of working with designer dresses, and misidentified my dress fabric as crepe (it is silk mikado). I found it troubling that someone with her level of experience made these comments.
I believe Susan was well-intentioned in her efforts to ease my anxiety throughout the process, and truly do appreciate the intention. Multiple times, she insinuated that I was experiencing “bridal psychosis”, meaning that I was picking apart my dress given the pressures of being a bride. I agree - being a bride is stressful, and can lead us to second-guess ourselves. However, this phrase is inappropriate and gaslighting. My dress had serious problems, which another seamstress agreed with and promptly acted on. Furthermore, making light of mental illness in this manner is insulting.
This experience left me more stressed than I have ever been in my life. I hardly slept or ate these last few weeks because in the two weeks before my wedding, I wasn’t sure if my dress could be saved. I had nearby bridal shops holding samples for me, as until finding a new seamstress, I thought I would have to buy a whole new dress again.
Multiple times through my months of working with Susan and her team, I was asked to write a review. I’m deeply sorry it has to be this one. I appreciate the opportunity to work with Susan, Joan, and Joy, and genuinely wish them well and success with future brides’ dresses. Perhaps I was just unlucky.
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September 2024 by Cecilia Adams
Susan and Joan were amazing to work with. They were extremely thorough throughout the process and I am so happy with how my dress turned out. Also, she helped me accessorize with earrings, a veil, and belt to take my dress to the next level and make it unique.
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June 2024 by Abbey Becker
I wish I had better things to say. I had the most stressful and uncomfortable experience with Susan, who owns the studio. I brought in my dress months ahead (early March for an early June wedding) and ended up having to visit 5 times, and it still wasn't altered correctly. Susan offered to take $50 off and drop the dress off at my house. I initially agreed but felt that $50 was too little, so I tried calling, texting and emailing Susan to discuss this. I heard nothing for two days, until I called her Brooklyn studio and happened to catch her walking in. She told me she'd received the email and seemed bewildered about how upset I was. This was about a week before my wedding. Susan dropped off my dress at my house 6 days before my wedding--I did appreciate the home delivery. Unfortunately, even on the 6th try, there was still a bit of tulle that was too long, and there was one side of a removable snap still sewed to the top front (the snaps for my straps, which we added, were on the inside lining of the dress). The button for my bustle came off halfway through my reception, but a friend saved the day with two safety pins to at least keep the back of the dress off the floor.
Throughout the process, things were forgotten, undone (including my bustle--someone supposedly snipped off the bustle that was added at the studio), redone or done incorrectly. Susan has a few very friendly staff, but she was often rude and demeaning to them in front of customers. It was uncomfortable to say the least. She would rarely, if ever, admit something went wrong on her end. The best I got was, "It seems someone hemmed your train." Someone? If you're employing other people to do your work for you, you need to take notes and make sure they do what was planned. When I asked about the train the next appointment, I was told that actually no, the hem had just been basted.
This was one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever had. I'm glad my dress fit on the day, but for all the stress, gaslighting, lack of communication or attention to detail, and general disdain for her employees, I would do it all over again with pretty much any alterations person.
I've seen some of Susan's replies to others' reviews, and while I'm sure some reviews are unfair, let me just warn others considering working with her that I certainly wouldn't take the chance. I'm glad some people had great experiences, but I wasn't one of them.
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December 2023 by Emily Moriarty
Susan did an amazing job! I had previously gone to another tailor for my dress and I didn’t love the work she did, and Susan made corrections and altered the dress beautifully for a wonderful price.
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November 2023 by Emily Wessel
Susan did an amazing job! I had previously gone to another tailor for my dress and I didn’t love the work she did, and Susan made corrections and altered the dress beautifully for a wonderful price.
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November 2023 by Reyna Lubin
Susan and her team are amazing! My wedding dress was tailored to perfection in under two weeks. My dress has a very long train and she was able to create the most gorgeous bustle. Susan is also a wonderful person and lovely to work with. I can’t thank The Wedding Dresser enough!Services: Custom tailoring
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June 2023 by Alexandra Gilliland
Susan was an absolute joy to work with for my wedding dress alterations. She did a virtual consult with me to walk me through all the steps and what to expect before our first in person alteration appointment. Each appointment went smoothly and I felt confident at all points that her team would be able to handle the alterations, which included adding detachable cap sleeves, hemming ~7 different layers in the skirt and taking in the heavily detailed bodice. Not only was there excellent technical skill, but she is set up to help you accessorize and style your whole wedding day look. This really helped me as I could rent a winter cover up and purchase accessories from her, trying them all on to see how they went with my dress. Plus Susan has been in the industry and has reassuring advice on timelines and what to expect with weddings. Could not recommend her more!Services: Wedding gown alterations
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December 2022 by Laura Ellen
I CANNOT recommend Susan and her team enough. I ordered my dress originally from Etsy and it fit like a lumpy, living room curtain (see last photo!). I was so anxious it wouldn't be savable.Susan took her time and gave so much attention to understand every seam of my dress. She and her team completely deconstructed and re-constructed my dress THREE TIMES to get it just right.I walked down the aisle this summer feeling tucked, tailored, and beautiful. They turned that heavy, boxy curtain into my dream Classic Hollywood style dress.Services: Wedding gown alterations
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December 2022 by Google user
I CANNOT recommend Susan and her team enough. I ordered my dress originally from Etsy and it fit like a lumpy, living room curtain (see last photo!). I was so anxious it wouldn't be savable. Susan took her time and gave so much attention to understand every seam of my dress. She and her team completely deconstructed and re-constructed my dress THREE TIMES to get it just right. I walked down the aisle this summer feeling tucked, tailored, and beautiful. They turned that heavy, boxy curtain into my dream Classic Hollywood style dress.
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November 2022 by Laura E.
I CANNOT recommend Susan and her team enough. I ordered my dress originally from Etsy and it fit like a lumpy, living room curtain (see last photo!). I was so anxious it wouldn't be savable.Susan took her time and gave so much attention to understand every seam of my dress. She and her team completely deconstructed and re-constructed my dress THREE TIMES to get it just right.I walked down the aisle this summer feeling tucked, tailored, and beautiful. They turned that heavy, boxy curtain into my dream Classic Hollywood style dress.
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October 2022 by Michelle Coughlin
I loved going here to get my wedding dress altered by the owner Susan. She kept my mind at ease while I was freaking out about my dress fitting, if I gained or lost weight. I even bought a nice pair of wedding earrings to go with my dress from her. She has a lot of gorgeous pieces to pick from. Susan made the whole process go so smoothly and I thank you so much!!!!Service: Wedding gown alterations
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January 2022 by Emily R Cupps
I had such an incredible experience with my wedding dress alterations.
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August 2021 by Sara Morabito
When my wedding was cancelled to covid, a year later I found that not only did my dress not fit, but I was pregnant. I was devastated because it was my dream dress and I couldn't imagine being nearly 4 months pregnant by my wedding and it fitting. Well the ladies at The Wedding Dresser were sure they could make it work and they DID. nobody could even tell the dress had been altered, it was beautiful and I was comfortable the whole night. Total lifesavers.
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May 2021 by Heidi Hiller
So excited about this new store in town to find everything you can possibly need for your wedding. Bring your entire bridal party here to shop for all your accessories!!
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April 2021 by Cari Srebrenick
Professional who knows what she is doing. My dress fit perfectly and felt amazing on my body. Susan and her team are doing great works of art!
