Wedding Blog

I have issues with the customer service at David’s. The place is huge, impersonal, and I always feel ignored there. This feeling is the same at multiple locations.

I was in a wedding last summer in LA - the dresses were from Alfred Angelo on La Cienega Blvd in Beverly Hills. The dresses were reasonable and the staff great. My bridesmaid dress was a ‘little’ snug and the zipper popped 2 weeks before the wedding while I was trying it on. I was in VA — the store and wedding were in LA. I was stressing! I overnighted the dress to them - it was perfect when I arrived in LA two weeks later for the wedding! Free of charge too.

We went to David’s to shop for my sister’s wedding - and it was terrible.
I called and made an appointment, because they said they required appointments on weekends. When we arrived, at the time of our appointment, we were told they would be with us in a “minute”. An hour passed, and when I continuously went to see what was taking so long, they said “oh, well somebody came in without an appointment and they are taking a really long time”.
I have seen bridal shops explain, nicely, that they do not take people without appointments, and that the people can look around but they can’t try anything on. This is why the appointment policy exists. It does not exist so you can snub customers by trying to get the largest number of people to spend money there.
After we were finally seen, the saleslady acted bored with us and annoyed when we asked her if there were any other A-line, strapless dresses. (Not a hard question.) Additionally, their dresses were itchy, poufy, poorly constructed, and made of cheap material. While a dress is only worn for a day, if it gives you a nasty rash, its not worth it.
For a bride on a budget, I recommend looking at Watters dresses. The Watters dresses my sister has tried on are made of nice fabric and are flattering but reasonably priced. The are also available through online retailers like houseofbrides.com. Also, just go to your local Lord & Taylor or designer dress shop - they sell some gorgeous evening gowns in white for less then what a typical bridal gown would cost, and you don’t have to order them 8 months in advance.

I made an appointment because I too, am on a budget, when I got there they made me wait 10 minutes before someone walked over and asked me no to look at the dresses on the rack please. I told her I had an appointment she then told me to hold on while she checked, 25 minutes later she came back with, please don’t look at the dresses again(what was I supposed to do?) they didn’t have my appointments the person on the phone scheduled it for next month????? then she told me she would see if someone could help me. So my 3pm appt. started at 3:45 and I tried on 5 dresses which they helped me get into, but first I had to thumb thru the catalog and point out dresses even though on the phone they said I could make a list of internet numbers and they would find them that way. Not so, she said she didn’t know numbers by heart to please point them out. ok. So 6 dresses 1 1/2 hours later when her next appointment was arriving she left to greet her. Left me in a dress for 10 minutes. I had my sister help me out , put the shoes and hoop thing away waited another 10 minutes and finally grabbed my registration (with my number and info) and left. They had no way of contacting me, thank god, a friend of mine said they called monthly to get her to come back in.
The dresses that were “cheap” weren’t nice…the dresses that were about 600-1000 were okay. BUT! you could find the same dresses on craigslist for about 300.00(they always have these dresses for resale)or you can buy a sample dress like me for about 600.00. My dress was originally 1250.00 beautiful what I wanted, good material and best of all on sample sale!!!

They were very huffy with me when I came in without an appointment just to LOOK at veils and sashes!!! Will never go back!

Yes, David’s Bridal stores tend (not all) to be lousy in the customer service department, but frankly *some* bridal salons are even worse with their elitist attitudes (making it clear they want to cater exclusively to wealthy & thin patrons). Both DB’s I went to had brides who seemed to have brought their entire bridal party. Bringing more than two ppl with you is a nuisance to other brides, JMHO. My DB “bridal consultant” and I use that term loosely, was disinterested at best. However, she did her job and I was pleased with the final product: a beautiful, well-constructed gown for 60% off, it’s a Monique Lou.

Typically I buy my clothing at Nordstrom, Lane Bryant and Neiman Marcus. So would I have been happy with a “poufy, poorly constructed cheap material” gown that made me break out in a “nasty rash”? Nope.

I did not expect to be waited on hand over foot at DB (I read up on the customer services issues that plague many stores), I was realistic with my expectations of service (no wine or fancy padded banquettes of which to rest my weary derrière) and quality (yes, many dresses looked of inferior *to me* however I knew someone else would find them to be lovely).

Bottom line: DB does a very good job at reaching out to a certain market: women who do not have, or chose to spend, thousands of dollars on her wedding gown. Also, DB is one of the few bridal salons that offers plus-size (and really, when more than half the population is plus-size is it that much of a stretch to accommodate our stylish clothing needs as well?) gowns to try on. Being a size 18 and trying on a sample size 10 wedding gown is not a pleasant experience in my book.

Whew! I feel better - just my two cents of course and no offense meant to those of you who choose not to shop at DB.

I had BAD service when shopping for bridesmaids dresses as a LAST resort, but we ordered there anyway bc I didn’t want my maids to pay big bucks for the look I wanted. The dresses came in and a zipper on one of the dresses kept breaking. On the wedding day we had to sew all of the bridesmaids in, just to be safe. I wanted to buy some matching fabric from the dresses, and everyone kept saying they didn’t sell it. FINALLY after talking with about 5 different people one girl said “Of course you can! and we did, very easily.”

You ABSOLUTELY CAN get a reasonably priced (same or lower priced) dress from places OTHER than DB and get better quality and service. My dress was not a bargain but when hunting I found so many dresses that were very inexpensive and it surprised me as to WHY would anyone get a cookie cutter dress from David’s Bridal when you can get something better for the same price?!!?

Also, I am a wedding photographer and you can tell DB dresses, bc so many people have them…bc of price! I don’t mind having the same t-shirt as thousands of others from Old Navy or somewhere to work out in….you can do better for your wedding day!

I have had the same reaction. I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that they are a retail chain and service a lot of people, which means that there is a chance that your service will suffer. I am not using them for my dress because I am anal about my gown and need the one on one attention I get from the little local boutique.

I’m going to give them a shot for my bridesmaids gowns because I have 8 girls in the wedding -2 from TX, 1 from NYC, 4 from Philadelphia, and 1 from Delaware where I live. I don’t know how else it would be possible for them all to get gowns that they are able to try on in person and get altered as needed. Alteration is important because one of my bridesmaids is pregnant and will give birth 3 months before the wedding, and another had gastric bypass last summer and is a different size every month.

I would say that if you’re interested give them a shot. If they’re rude or inconsiderate or don’t give you the attention you want then look elsewhere!

I went to DB the first time I wanted to try on dresses. I just needed to get an idea of what looked good on me. I went on a Saturday when it first opened and of course, it was packed. The service wasn’t too bad and my “helper” had other people to assist. I didn’t mind seeing that I was capable of putting my own dress on. The second time I went in on a weekday and it was empty but the lady was pushy. She asked me the names of all of my bridesmaids and wrote them down. I didn’t even mention buying a dress there! I found some dresses that I liked but in the end, purchased my dress from the local bridal salon for the same price as some DB dresses. And personally, I think my Maggie dress is much nicer than any DB dress I tried on. Shop around. You can find decently priced dresses anywhere-not just Davids Bridal.

It’s certainly not the place where you’ll get something like Vera Wang or Amsale but it’s honestly not bad. I know from experience! Definitely make an appointment no matter what day/time you go and be prepared for hard pitches from some of the “consultants” since they work on commission. Also, the try-own gowns are all store on racks and are big and cumbersome to shuffle through but once you get them to your dressing area and get things tried on, it’s not so bad. Definitely what you save in money makes up for all of the lackluster that they don’t offer. My gown was $699 on sale for just over $600 and despite the poor quality that some people have spoken of, it’s really not that bad. It’s decent quality taffeta and the workmanship is pretty good - you WILL probably have to settle for a zip-up back though.

It’s kind of like IKEA - you get what you pay for. And that goes for the shopping experience as well.

I bought my wedding dress at David’s bridal. I had a good experience actually. I think it depends on the person you are working with. I got a really good deal with my dress. They were prompt and efficient.

I bought my dress at David’s and had a decent experience. Yes, they were busy on the weekend that I made my appointment, but everyone was still very friendly. I am smaller than the size of most sample dresses, so I loved that I could try on dresses and actually tell whether they would flatter me instead of looking in the mirror at a mass of fabric that would later be transformed into a dress that fit.

I actually didn’t have great experiences in most of the smaller boutiques. I had a small budget, so most of them didn’t want much to do with me. At the friendly shops it was actually more depressing because I knew I could never afford the dresses that I ended up loving.

I agree that the accessories at DB are waaay overpriced. But my gown makes me feel like a princess, I didn’t have to have it hemmed or altered much b/c it fit me already (aka saving a lot of money - i also found a seamstress other than DB to alter my dress) and it didn’t break the bank. More power to those girls who can drop $1,000 or more on a dress for a single event, but even if I had the money I wouldn’t do it.

There’s no harm in checking it out if you’re on a budget. If you do have a bad experience, you’ll at least be more wary of what to look for in other shops and with other dresses. If you have a good experience, you may end up finding a great deal.

Good luck! Hope whatever you choose turns out wonderfully.

I fell in love with Maggie Sottero Capri right off the bat after getting engaged. I found it for $740 at a boutique, and then saw DB had made of knock-off, so I went in to compare the quality and price.
Not only was the dress quite a bit lower in fabric quality, but it was $800, and at 5′10″ I would have had to have paid $50 for extra length, and then even more for a hem when it came in, so it wouldn’t be TOO long. The Maggie had many more color options for the detailing, and the length was perfect on me without having to pay extra. I shopped around some more and found my Maggie for $700, and didn’t even have to have it hemmed.
So that’s my story for dress quality and price.
As for service… I also got major attitude from their consultants for coming in on a Wednesday evening just to browse! They wouldn’t let me look at dresses on the racks (Okay, how am I supposed to know what it really looks like?) and eventually did help me try a few on, since the store was completely DEAD. But no help getting in and out of the dresses at all. Not the worst service I ever got at a dress shop, but definitely not the best.
Actually… I wouldn’t say I got superb service at ANY bridal shop, and we went to 7 different stores in San Diego county. I ended up shopping just for price and dealing with crappy salespeople as part of the deal.

When I visited David’s Bridal, I was also given the can’t-try-on-without an appointment rap, despite the fact that at the time I was looking for a “social” dress as opposed to a wedding dress, and this was simply because I happened to mention it was for a wedding. There was no one else in the store, and at least two clerks just leaning on the counter. I talked my way into getting to look, but with no help from them. I felt like I was intruding on them, and I’ve decided to go to one of the local bridal boutiques.

I went to several other bridal shops before going to DB, and most of them were terrible. Awful, ripped, stained sample dresses in RIDICULOUS sizes (I’m a size ten and had to try on two size 22s because that’s all they had left) and the service was NOT great. David’s Bridal was my last resort, since I didn’t really like a lot of their styles and heard some bad stuff about the store. I went in, waited a bit, but when I was helped I was definitely helped. I felt a bit pressured to buy my bridesmaid dresses there (which wasn’t going to happen b/c I needed short-sleeved dresses b/c of BM’s modesty reasons, which DB doesn’t really make), but I loved my gown. It was incredibly simple, runched “light gold” satin (more like warm ivory) with a champagne sash. With the sale they had going on, and the sash, and taxes, it came out to 330 bucks. They charged us 95 bucks to take up the front hem about an inch, which seemed a bit much, but I guess there were a lot of layers to deal with. All in all, I was very happy with my purchase. I did have to wait several times while I was there, but I would TOTALLY rather wait than spend a few hundred more dollars to get a very similiar looking dress. Then again, I love thrift stores and discount stores, so I don’t mind waiting or looking through things for a great deal. If you want to feel like a diva, I guess you have to pay like one too.

Here’s my Yelp review of the David’s in Milpitas, CA. I loved my (not on sale) $675 gown from Forget-Me-Knots in SF. You don’t have to go to David’s to get a cheap gown (and mine and others at Forget-Me-Knots were very well made). My issue with David’s was the poor workmanship and the fact that the dresses all looked cheap - especially any with beading.

David’s:

Wow. I’ve never seen so many truly hideous dresses. I sound like a snob, but I can’t believe people buy dresses here. Are they blind?

The dresses are sorted by size, and there really aren’t that many to choose from - just about one rack full. And you’re literally buying the dress off the rack. I need an ivory dress because white is an abomination on my pale skin, and there were TWO, count ‘em TWO ivory dresses total.

The beading and materials all look super cheap. If you want to spend under $1000 on a dress go to Forget-Me-Knots in San Francisco instead. You’ll definitely get a quality dress here as opposed to these monstrosities.

Here’s a fun analogy…
Forget-Me-Knots : David’s Bridal :: Chiffon : Toilet Paper

My only interaction with the staff involved me going to the counter and asking if they carried Oleg Cassini. The girl said, “yes.” And that was it. No showing me where they were located or anything.

Number of Dresses: D
Quality of Dresses (Did I Like Them?): F
Strapless Bra Quality: F (no strapless bra)
Cost: B (yes they’re cheap, but the price is higher than the quality warrants)
Dressing Rooms: C
Service: D
Understanding of My Taste: F (salespeople? where?)