"You'll love David's Bridal" ...Maybe

I am sure we have all seen the commercials for one of the biggest wedding retail chains in the world, David's Bridal. The add claims in a sing songy tune, "you'll love David's Bridallllll." But will you really LOVE it? Well, I guess that is a matter of opinion but if you want to know mine read on...



Review of David's Bridal


Price:

The prices at David's Bridal are on average lower than other wedding dress salons. For a bride on a budget this is probably your best bet. From time to time you will see a "$99 dress sale" pop up at your local David's Bridal store. This could mean scoring a dress at a super low price, but if you want a dress with much personality you may want to steer clear of dresses on this sale. Here is an example of a dress you can get on the $99 dollar sale:








Is this dress beautiful? Duh, of course. But, does it have pizazz? No, not really. My point here is try on those $99 dollar dresses to see if you find anything worth taking a second look at but if you want the vavoom factor, it might not happen in that price range.

Overall Price Grade: A-


Service:

I can't speak for every David's Bridal because I have only had experiences in two that are located in the state of Florida. Now that my disclaimer is over with here is the truth: David's Bridal has horrible customer service. Before we go and shame their employees for this lets try and figure out an excuse for them. My theory here for why they are always so frazzled is: stress. That place is so busy!! Does this give reason for not so great treatment of a bride? It shouldn't but none of us are perfect. So if you are more into the price and can deal with a little rude bridal consultant without going all Bridezilla then I would still go ahead and look at David's. Here is what to expect at your appointment:
You will call in and make an appointment to try on dresses. When you get in the store the person at the front table will give you a catalog to look through in which you have to pick out dresses you like the style of for your consultant. The consultant then comes up and takes your suggestions, the dresses you liked from the catalog, and dresses that are in the same style as ones you express interest in but a little more expensive because they want to make that higher sale. The consultant will then lead you to one of their million dressing rooms, stick the dresses in there, and shut the door. My consultant actually walked away and I was forced to walk the store in a half zipped wedding dress to find her to help me. Your consultant will more than likely have two other brides other than you in the same dressing room row.

Here are a few tips with dealing with their service: 1) be prepared to not have that much attention 2) bring a friend who is experienced in zipping, tying, fluffing wedding dresses 3) do not be afraid to talk to a supervisor

Overall service grade: D


Return Policy:

WARNING WARNING WARNING! If you read nothing else on this blog please pay attention to this. David's Bridal's return policy can be summed up in two words: not fair. Lets say you buy a dress that you think is your dream from DB. The next day you have cold feet and decide to try another bridal salon. If you find your dream dress at this other salon do not expect DB to give you your money back from the one you bought at their store, even if they have not done any alterations yet. Their policy allows you to exchange for an item that is of equal or lesser value. So the tip here would be to make sure that before you purchase anything from DB you know it is the one and only dress or item for you.

Overall Return Policy Grade: C






Website:

David's Bridal has a really great website. Not only is it easy to navigate but it is fun. You can create your whole wedding parties look as well as your own in "dress my wedding." This tool is very helpful when trying to choose your wedding's color palette. Another tool I really liked is the color changer for their products. You can change the color of bridesmaids dresses, wedding dress accents, and accessories as you browse. Go to this URL and click on the small color boxes for an example:


http://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplayView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10051&categoryId=-49998974¤tIdx=1&subCategory=-49998976%7c-49998975%7c-49998974&catentryId=6142385&sort



Overall website score: A+


Alterations:

I have to give praise to the woman in alterations at the Clearwater, Fl store. At first I was quite angry because the tiny alterations room was crowded with brides, children, and bridesmaids when I went for my first fitting. This would would have been fine except the seamstresses helper kept letting people who were pushy cut me in line. I patiently waited for my "turn" and stepped up on the pedestal. The seamstress apologized for my wait and got to work. She pinned up to do my bustle but my mom and I fell in love with the way it looked. They were accommodating and said they could make my bustle permanent and the train would no longer be there. Now, on the other hand I had a friend who hated the alterations department at David's Bridal. Granted this was in a completely different store then the one I went to but I couldn't agree with her more. They were rude, pushy, and didn't want to listen to her ideas about the dress. I think this one may depend on who you get...

Overall alterations grade: B-

Partner Tux store "Mens Warehouse":

My fiance and I were curious one day to see what DB's partner store Men's Warehouse had to offer for him. We went in to the store and looked around some before speaking with an associate. At our wedding the men are going to wear suits not tuxedos so we were looking to see if they had those for rent. Unlike other men's wedding/prom attire stores they did not have this service. They could only rent out tuxedos, and not in many colors either. We also did not enjoy their selection of vests and ties. For each color there was only one design of fabric that you could choose from. The worst part was these colors were supposed to "coordinate" with the ones at David's Bridal but all of them were a little off. Maybe it is just me, but as a "matchy matchy" person I was not happy. Check them out for yourself and form your own opinion. We will probably go elsewhere.

Overall Partner Tux Store Grade: D-




OVERALL GRADE FOR DAVID'S BRIDAL: B-


In reflection, while David's Bridal is low in prices, they are lacking in service. They could really use some good customer service training, and team building exercises. Whoever designs their website deserves a kudos and a raise because it probably brings more people to the store than word of mouth does.

As with anything I think it is best that you form your own opinion of the store. If you would like to see more reviews from others, why not visit this site?


http://www.projectwedding.com/vendor/show/david-s-bridal




I would like to a get a few responses on this one... how was your experience with David's?