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This post is by Jessica:

I just wanted to post a warning to all the future brides out there. Don’t use David’s Bridal. All the bad things you hear about them are true.

My David’s Bridal experience began on a cold, icy January morning. My mom and sister and my sister’s friend had come up to KC to share with me the joy of wedding dress shopping. We got to David’s Bridal right at 10:00 for our 10:00 appointment. There were about a dozen people milling around the entrance of David’s waiting on the store to open. The employees (or “wedding consultants” as they like to be called) were standing inside the nice warm store, just chatting away. At about 10:10, they opened the doors. Thus began a stampede to be the first bride in line to talk to the lady at the desk right as you walk inside who sees what you are at the store for. Anyway, I finally get to the desk and give the lady my name. She assigns me to a wedding consultant. This consultant tells me to pick out 3 dresses I like and then go back to the fitting area to try them on.

I pick out 3 dresses I like, based on what I’ve seen in the catalog. The dresses are arranged by size only…you have to go through each dress in the size you are looking for to find what dresses you think you like. So, I toodle back to the fitting area and they tell me one person can be back there with me. Katelyn and Elizabeth go out and hang out looking at pretty dresses. My mom comes back with me and helps me get into the dresses. Then, you are put up in front on a big mirror on a little pedestal and the consultant plunks a tiara and a veil upon you.

I liked all of the dresses and the consultant brings back a dress she thinks I’ll like. She’s right. This was the dress I was pretty sure I wanted. However, I still had several other stores to look at and other dresses to try on. I made an appointment to come back on Sunday at noon. I find out that the consultant isn’t going to be there tomorrow, so she schedules me with someone else.

I try on other dresses at other places and decide that I do want to go back to David’s Bridal. This time, Lindsay joins the Neely clan. There is one other dress beside the one I really liked that I wanted to try on and make sure it wasn’t “The One.” I do the drill again…give them my name and appointment time. The consultant I had the first time was really pretty nice. She seemed excited about the dresses and made appropriate noises and was all in all pretty decent. The consultant I got on Sunday was a total wash-out. She didn’t seem to care a bit for what she was doing. She was no help with the dresses or getting them on or off or anything. I was not impressed with her at all.

I decide to buy the dress the first consultant thought I’d like. I am immediately pressured to buy a veil and tiara from David’s. Each of those cost at least $150. Those were the plain ones! The consultant kept telling me that I could get 15% off on them, but only if I bought them today. She also pushed shoes on me, telling me I needed them. She then asked me my sizes and brought back a petticoat and a bra that I needed with the dress. I decided I really didn’t need a veil, tiara, or shoes from David’s, but the slip and bra were fine. I went up to the cashier to get this all paid for. Without asking, she added a $10 garment back to the purchase price.

I went over the bridesmaid dresses that we had had Katelyn and Lindsay try on and decided that we would order. I told the cashier what style, color, and size we needed for each of the 3 girls. We finally get that all taken care of, and she tells me about the alterations.

Now, my dress did need a bustle put on it, so I went back to the alteration room and had them do their pin-up thing with it. The seamstress told me when it would be ready, and I thought I would be leaving. However, at the door, I was accosted by a nicely dressed young man pushing tuxedoes. I thought I would be polite and hear him out. He went over these “great” deals that he could get me on tuxes and how it was the best deal in town. Finally, at the end of his spiel, the little fact came out that I could only get these great deals if I put down some money right then, tuxes unseen. I decided that I didn’t want to do that.

I finally escaped from David’s Bridal and considered the ordeal behind me. Little did I know…

I got a call about 3 weeks later from David’s Bridal, telling me my bridesmaid dresses were in. I had a date to pick up my wedding dress from the seamstress that week, so I decided to do both at one time. I had Lindsay go with me to be another set of eyes, and off we went. I went to the seamstress first and picked up the dress. I got it on and the lady showed me how to bustle it. Then, Lindsay looked at the beading on the back and told the seamstress that it wasn’t done well and she thought that it should be looked at again. The lady did this with pretty good cheer, and we got it back in good shape.

Then we went to pick up the bridesmaid dresses. I got them, determined that they were the right size and color, and was ready to go. Fortunately, Lindsay noted that they were not the right style. See the previous posting for full details. Anyway, we got them ordered again, and they finally came back correctly.

There are a few positive points to David’s Bridal. If your wedding is less than 4 months away, David’s Bridal sells you wedding dresses off the rack. Otherwise, it might be too late to order them and get them in on time from another store. Another positive is that the bridesmaid dresses came in early. The date I was quoted on getting the dresses back from the first (incorrect) order was February 21. By this time, I already have gotten one set of wrong dresses in and another set of correct ones. That’s it. There’s really nothing else positive about them.

I got a wedding dress, I got undergarments, and I got bridesmaid dresses from them. Everything else, I was able to get way cheaper and with more attention than David’s Bridal came close to providing.

Just a warning…