I’m extremely heartbroken, and I don’t know what to do. I ordered a beautiful dress that I love from David’s Bridal. Because the top is mesh with appliqués, I was scared to take it elsewhere so I made an appointment for alterations at David’s Bridal.
I picked up my dress from alterations last Thursday and initially was happy. The fit is good, but I planned to go back in because I realized after taking it home that I’m just not happy with the size of the bra cups the dress came with, and I want bigger ones added in.
Here’s why I’m upset.
My first alterations appointment went well, but I had some reservations about it after the fact, so I went in the next day. The second time I went in I had a different person helping me. At my first appointment, I decided on having the shoulders taken up, having a bustle made, and having new bra cups put in. I felt like the bra cups I chose were too big, which is why I came in a second time. The second time, the alterations woman convinced me to leave the built in cups in and just have them moved down, which I agreed to try. She started pinning a bunch of stuff in the front of my gown and she decided to move the appliqués over more towards the center. I’m honestly not sure why, and I’m a very shy person and felt too awkward and uncomfortable to ask why, so I just agreed to it.
Well after looking at my dress now compared to how it was originally and when it was pinned, I don’t like how it looks. I can deal with the appliqués being moved over, but I don’t like how my previously symmetrically designed dress now seems uneven. I don’t like how she added a leaf that wasn’t originally there, and how the dress looks like a keyhole/circle instead of a “v” shape like it was in the pinned photo. I don’t like how the leaves are all touching.
I’m posting pictures that show the before and after along with the issues I have with the new look.
I paid $180 just for her to move the appliqués . When I was at the appointment where she pinned the dress to move the appliqués, I even heard her talking to a different worker and the worker told her it’s extremely hard to move them. I honestly thought she’d tell me she couldn’t do it, but she didn’t tell me that.
I think she overall did a good job, but I’m devastated and can’t stop thinking about this. I want to feel my best on my wedding day, and I’m worried it can’t be changed. I don’t need it moved completely back because I don’t want to pay for that, I just don’t want the middle leaves touching and I want it symmetrical. I don’t want the extra leaf added either. I’m very nervous I will be charged almost $200 again for this fix.
I called today and spoke to the alterations manager, and she says she’s the one who worked on my dress. She says that just because she pinned it that way, doesn’t mean it will look like that at the final result. She said she had to pin it that way. She says she sewed it the way she did because when you move appliqués, it can leave behind holes, so she had to sew the appliqués back down in their original place. I’m not really understanding what she means, but I gathered from the conversation that she wasn’t going to move them at all and that she had to do it that way.
I still don’t understand what exactly she was doing by moving the appliqués. She said something about narrowing the bust area. There are sequins missing now, a small hole near one of the appliqués, and an area of the mesh where it looks a little stretched. She says that when you move appliqués, sequins can fall off and onto the floor and they can’t find them.
I’m upset because none of this was told to me. She didn’t explain that the final look would change or that I risked losing sequins or getting holes. I feel it’s unfair to not have told me these things so that I could use that information to make my decision.
She didn’t seem willing to help, and when I asked why we moved the appliqués, she said that it’s what I asked for. I never asked specifically to move the appliqués, but I might’ve asked to make it more snug, and maybe that was her solution. I understand that this is my fault because I agreed to it, but I don’t think it’s fair that the dress looks so different from when she pinned it.
I’m torn. Do I deal with it? Find another seamstress? I definitely won’t be going back there for bra cups.
Just to note, I did cover up my cleavage in the pics just because I get nervous about showing too much on the Internet, but I totally respect that others are comfortable doing so and I don’t judge at all!
