David’s Bridal

Be aware that David’s will NOT protect your personal information or your privacy.
Several months ago, I received an email purporting to confirm an order. Trouble is that I’ve never been to Champaign, IL, this store, or any other David’s, let alone ordered anything. I replied letting them know they had the wrong email. Since then, I have received details of several other orders and appointments, as well as marketing emails from David’s and from companies to which they have sold their email list. I have tried all the removal emails on their website several times, without success.
Moral of the story:
1. David’s won’t make any effort to make sure they have the correct email for their customers.
2. David’s won’t correct their records even after they’re told they have the wrong email.
3. David’s might send details of your appointments and orders to the wrong person, even after they are told many times that they have the address.
4. David’s won’t take your email off their list even after you try several times and they promise to do so.
5. David’s will sell your email to other companies, who will spam you.

Well where to begin? Let me say this is my SECOND go around with this location. Last February I had a military ball to attend and needed a formal dress. The store manager helped me and it was pleasant. I am a weird size and had low self esteem while shopping because their sizes are SPARCE! She helped and it was fine. This year. I decided to go back for this military ball and went in, had the dress and color picked out and just needed to try on a dress to know which size to order. That was painless. A week or so later I come back to pick up my dress, try on and have a small alteration done. I MADE AN APPOINTMENT mind you since I was a Saturday, I walk in and they’re busy and the girl immediately brushes me off because I’m not a bride. She then says «let me go make sure your dress is here». Well I fricken hope so! I paid for the darn thing and waited for it to get here. She comes back out with the dress and pushes me off on the store manager– whom I told I wanted to complain to and she snapped at me saying I couldn’t complain about her because «she didn’t do anything” — that’s the point ma’am. You did nothing! So I then get shoved in a room with no person to help me way in the back. I open the dress bag and the dress is ripped to hell! I then open the door and the assistant store manager is there. I complain and she proceeds to call me «dear» and rub my back like I’m a crying teenager upset over a prom dress! I paid for the dress and they ripped it and then she has to ask to see if they can fix it! Are you kidding me?! I then proceed to complain more and more. Try the dress on and demand it’s fixed. The 1 – 800 number I was given to complain is closed (how convenient). I will never ever EVER go back to this location ever again. I was stomped on and shoved to the side because I wasn’t a bride or buying a wedding dress. Let me just say– a military ball is important! It’s a huge deal! My boyfriend has deployed many times and is a high ranking officer and I just wanted to be treated nicely! I will be writing a complaint letter and calling corporate to complain.
DO NOT go to this location. Your heart will be broken, your self esteem low and you will leave feeling defeated and not good enough because the 20 something’s working on commission don’t think that nom-​bride customers are important.

I got married in October of last year. I loved the consultant I’ve had when I tried dresses on. Loved the dress I picked out. But the alterations manager was down right horrible. Not only did she not measure, she pinned the dress hem! When my mom and I went to pick the dress up, she left to do something else. My dress hem looked horrible. It was not straight at all. There was another gal from alterations there that I would have had alter the dress. She even said she wouldn’t send her daughter down the aisle looking the way the dress did. They finally got manager back and she did what she finally was supposed to. And my dad and I picked it up, again, it took the manager an hour and a half to fix hem. I believe she was the same gal who messed my cousin’s dress, who happened to be one of my bridesmaids. My family and I wouldn’t recommend.

Good product, terrible service at this location.
I needed a bridesmaid dress and knew exactly what I wanted, but it still took me over an hour to get assigned a consultant, try it on (in a different color), order the one I needed, and leave. Dress also ended up being more expensive than it should have when I got to the counter, but after an hour I was already annoyed, so I just paid it and left.
The consultant guaranteed I’d have it within 3 mo which was an important fact because the wedding was only a few days after that. Needless to say, two months later all other bridesmaids had received their dresses, so I went back into David’s Bridal and they said that the ship date wasn’t for another month which meant I wouldn’t have it in time.
I talked to one of the girls at the desk (who was very very nice +1 star just for her) and a manager (who was cross, didn’t apologize once, and acted like I was putting them off for ordering a dress and expecting it to be in by the time they told me it would). They sent in a rush request. Fortunately when all was said and done, the dress came in just before the wedding, but if possible, I will never go in to this location for service again.

David’s Bridal overall as a company is okay, but this particular location was a nightmare. As soon as I walked in I received horrible customer service. I came with my family to try on dresses, and although I did not make an appointment the receptionist told me they had slots available however I could only try on three dresses, yes THREE dresses. I asked her why and she said because that is all that they allow. Because I was already there with my family, I decided to go ahead and try on a few. The whole process was rushed and the assistant manager, Jessica, was completely rude making comments to not only anger me but to rush me out the store. My consultant however was very nice and friendly, and seemed patient throughout the process. I ended up picking out a dress (which ended up being a regret) and I feel that it was because I was rushed. After the dress came in and I let them know that I did not want the dress anymore because I felt rushed into making a decision, they let me know that I could only exchange it for another dress of equal or lesser value and it had to be at their location. The entire process for the exchange was nerve wrecking, and I knew I did NOT want a wedding gown from David’s Bridal anymore so I decided to trade my previous gown in for a bachelorette dress and dress for my honeymoon. NEVER would recommend this David’s Bridal, not even to my worst enemy. The only reason they are getting one star is because giving them zero stars is not an option.

Based on the reviews here, I considered not coming to this DB location and going to the next closest one, which is about a 2 hour drive away. But then I thought, what the heck, that’s a long drive, I may as well check this place out myself before ruling it out. And I am so glad I did because my recent experience was totally fine.
The purpose of my trip was to try out a couple of bridesmaid dresses, take pictures, and get on with the rest of my day. I did not book an appointment. I handed an employee a written list of the two dresses I wanted to try and guessed my size, and it only took her a few minutes for her to find them for me. I was in and out of there quickly, and thought the employee was nice and efficient. So as long as you do your homework and come prepared with the dresses you want to try and what your size is, I think you should be fine. Considering that the employee who helped me was juggling between different customers, I imagine that it might be a slow and harrowing experience if you don’t come prepared or if it’s super busy there.
If my experience changes when I go there again to actually purchase the dress, I’ll be sure to update this review. Just don’t be intimidated by the reviews here!

Oh… where to begin!
Let’s start with how they didn’t have any of my selections pulled. She said they weren’t able to find any of my selections that I had made online. I thought that was the point, you know? You find what you like online to save time when you get there. Anyways, she had me, by myself, look through the dresses with my two bridesmaids to see what I liked. She never asked what I was looking for, never asked my size.
Finally, after wandering around by ourselves, she came over and pulled out a few dresses.
–I may interject here that I thought the salesperson seemed a little hungover–
Now, I understand that the prices at David’s Bridal are a lot less expensive than at a boutique… but you are definitely getting what you pay for. The dresses online look beautiful; in person not so much. I was so disappointed. Just absolutely disappointed. The dresses just looked so cheap.
At one point, when I didn’t like any of her selections and we were just standing there, I pulled out my phone so I could show her my online selections. She seriously just stood there, staring, not saying anything. Finally she said that the store didn’t have any of those dresses except for one, which I had tried on. I mean, seriously, I ‘liked’ over 20 dresses!
I do have to say that the saleslady was very helpful in getting me in and out of the dresses. BUT… the changing rooms are so tiny and cramped and the seating area for whoever you brought with you is directly in front of the door. Everytime she would open the door to get another dress my bridal party got an unexpected peep show.
ugh.
The icing on the cake for me was the saleslady bad mouthing other brides the entire time she was helping me.
Needless to say, this was not exactly the experience I was expecting.

My daughter was married in August. We went in November to have her get her wedding dress. We had an appointment and the staff were nice, though very slow as they seemed to have other customers there they had to deal with too.
She got her dress, I paid for it in full around 563 dollars. My daughter went for final fitting in July and was told alterations would probably be between 30 and 100 dollars. Imagine my horror when my daughter called and said since she had lost some weight it would be around 283 dollars for the alterations PLUS another 150 to take the hem up. I was NOT pleased by this. Plus they said the dress would not be back till about August 3. I had them go ahead with the alterations but we did not do the hem. It really did not need anything.
They should also really send instructions with working with the bustle. They explained it to her, but that is rather hard to remember. The bustle thread was very small and it was hard to get the button up. We never did get it perfect but we did get the train up off the floor after about 30 minutes of messing with it.
I found out later that my cousin could have done the alterations for us for free as a gift. ARGH.

I’m only giving them one star out of 5 because I can’t give them a zero without sharing how I feel.
I’m sure other David’s Bridals are fine and I have always appreciated their website and their attempt to accommodate to plus size brides without making them look like fat kids in poofy confections.
HOWEVER. I will say this. They say that they prefer brides schedule appointments. There’s no real point. The consultants stay huddled together like sheep so if one has to leave to deal with a customer, they all scatter and deal with everything else. This leaves you there among rows of dresses without a clue of where to even start.
So when these ladies decided to help me and my friend (who is also getting married but not to me. remember this fact, it will come back later in this review), 3 or 4 women surrounded us apologizing profusely.
I did make the mistake of saying I was only trying on dresses, not buying. I only said this because the shopping trip was technically spur of the moment and I didn’t even know what I wanted.
She only pulled two dresses for me after about 20 minutes of telling me what she thought I would look good in and ignored my requests to try on some others. She also kept pointing out dresses that were no where near my size.
I suppose the only highlight was that she knew how to dress me. I am pretty peeved that my friend was offered shapewear (even if she didn’t want it) and I wasn’t. She sure did know when to tell me when to stick my arms up and when to duck.
The first dress was ok. I’m sure it would have looked better with shapewear… other than that, it was wholly unremarkable as was the plain, satin halter dress she pulled after spending 5 minutes convincing me that a belt would make it amazing. I still love that the dress was of shiny material, even after I specifically said I didn’t want a dress made of shiny material. Oh well. I suppose that’s the bridal experience I was paying for. OH THAT’S RIGHT, I DIDN’T.
As I was standing there, in my first dress, waiting for my friend to come out of the dressing room, all of the consultants automatically assumed that we were lesbians and they were SUPER awkward about it. Don’t get me wrong, if I were to swing that way, she is definitely not a bad choice. But they kept asking. They asked her mom if I was her future daughter in law. They awkwardly asked if I wanted my friend to see me in my dress. I’m pro LBGT. So don’t even throw a fit that I mentioned this. She could have easily read the form she insisted we fill out and she could have seen that our fiances’ names were MALE. But reading must be difficult. OHHHH that’s why she kept pulling size 14 dresses when I’m a size 20…
I left the store with a bad taste in my mouth. I was unsatisfied and I didn’t feel like a bride. Perhaps it will be better when my mom has recovered from surgery and can join me at Michelle’s Bridal in a few weeks. If you ever shop David’s Bridal, just don’t bother going in. Shop online. You get the same customer service and it’s not as busy.

I knew better than to expect complimentary champagne and a montage with upbeat music, ending with my best friend finding the perfect dress. Even still you would think as one of the few bridal stores in town, David’s Bridal would have experienced staff and quality customer service. Unfortunately, it seems the only job requirement is to be able to distinguish ‘white’ from ‘ivory’.
My best friend had an appointment to try on dresses last Saturday afternoon. We were running late (my fault) and they were nice enough to bump the appointment back a bit – one of the few nice things about the experience. We had a bit of a wait, but it gave us time to browse the dresses they had available. We were told not to pull any dresses, which is perfectly understandable, but we were not given any information on how to keep track of ones we liked. Even a golf pencil and a scrap of paper would have been helpful. Thank god for camera phones. We took pictures of the dresses and their tags to show the consultant.
Anna was the young woman who helped us. Let me emphasize – YOUNG. Far be it for me to be an ageist, if you can do your job well I don’t care if you are 18 or 80; however, her attitude and inexperience was on par with a gum-​popping high schooler. Here are some highlights:
[1] She did not know the inventory.
Several different times my friend liked a dress (either one she had found on the DB website or there in person); when we asked for similar styles Anna claimed there wasn’t anything else like it in the store… at all! These were varying styles, from A-​line to mermaid, and she was claiming there just were no dresses. Unless DB only has ONE A-​line dress, and ONE mermaid, it sounded like she was trying to cover for herself.
[2] She was not attentive.
We were her only party, yet she somehow managed to keep us waiting. Three separate times my friend was left waiting in the dressing room while Anna was nowhere to be found or didn’t even notice my friend did not have a dress.
[3] She was not professional.
After claiming there were no similar styles for a particular dress, I went back to the racks to look for myself while she just stood at the end of the aisle making small talk. After I DID find several styles, I had to hunt her down to give her the tag numbers. I found her gossiping with another worker, and though she looked up and saw me, I had to wait for her to finish her story that ended with «So then she lifted up her skirt and told me it wasn’t her underwear!» (cue gum popping)
Of course, it is possible this is just one horrific consultant; the other employees seemed nice enough to say hello in passing. Even so, I cannot trust a store that gives such little training to someone who is handling something as important as picking a wedding dress.

My DB experience was comical at best. I know you can’t expect much from David’s Bridal, and I didn’t – honest! But it was still