Bridal Secret

11/10/09

Great Experience

by zizzpudding at Citysearch

First off, I'm an older bride with a few extra pounds on me and I was open to any style of dress and really appreciated the attention and advice that Judy and her staff (Donna) were able to give me. Judy had a great selection of dresses for my size (14 - 18) and I must have tried on a dozen before coming around again to the one I first tried on.

Judy's shop is just my style. It's a small, independent shop where you're not a number. In this economy, I'd much rather give my business to a local shop.

My MOH and I had a blast. Judy had great ideas for modifications to the dress I eventually bought. It could have been a stressful occasion, but we rolled out of there relaxed, laughing and with one less thing to do... find a dress.

-Joan

• Pros: Nice shop, great staff, good selection of dresses.

11/09/09

Lovely shop

by galvizmarie at Citysearch

I visited this lovely shop with my two daughters this past weekend and I can only say I wish we started here looking for my engaged daughter's gown. The shop is lovely and the staff was very attentive to my daughter. The owner Judy is wonderful, patient and absolutely knows this business.

Within minutes of arriving they pulled out gowns within my daughters budget and taste and found her a beautiful dress that thrilled her and I . I would certainly reccomend The Bridal Secret to any future bride to be, its a lovely store with many many gowns to choose from and I am thankful to Judy and her sales girls to finding my daughter the perfect dress, thank you !

• Pros: wonderful girls, beautiful gowns and great customer service
• Cons: none I can think of !

10/25/09

Not really impressed

by JCMF at Citysearch

I wasn't terribly impressed with The Bridal Secret. I walked over to tell her that we were going to be a few minutes late, and the staff weren't very receptive; their only response was "well, we'll have to cut your appointment short." Which, duh, I expected but there are much nicer and friendlier ways to say this. And shouldn't you greet people when they come in the door?

I think this store is for diva brides. Not being a diva, it was not the experience for me (or the ladies that came with me that day). There was a lot of primping and priming if it looked like you liked one of the dresses, but if you are just starting out and having difficulty finding something you like, the level of attention goes way down. The whole time it felt very fake -- the kind of salesmanship where it feels like the profit is #1, not the customer.

I didn't find anything I really liked, the dresses are largely the sparkly kind, and the owner basically gave up and dropped me after she figured that out (instead of maybe encouraging me to come back sometime when they have different stock?). A friend of mine who found something she liked (but wasn't ready to buy, her mother wasn't there) was told her appointment was over 15 minutes before it was actually over. It didn't really help the overall feeling that if you're not buying **today**, you're not worth the effort.

I don't know if it's due to being a small store, or simply the kinds of dresses they carry, but I didn't really try that many on in comparison to other places I've been. I was surprised when I went to another store and they brought out a dozen gowns for me -- I only tried 5 at the Bridal Secret.

The one good thing is that they did have good prices on mid-range designers like Maggie Sottero, so if you're looking for a decent price on those names it might be worth checking out.

• Pros: ok prices
• Cons: not many styles, a lot of pressure to buy