Helen’s Bridal and Alterations

Love this place! They went above and beyond to help me in a pinch!!! Awesome customer service so friendly! Highly recommend!!!

I bought my dress from this shop and believed that this was also the place to get the alterations done as I had purchased my dress there and Helen seemed very confident about doing the alterations. The dress was too big and needed to be taken in, I also wanted the train cut off and wanted the straps made into something a little different. I scheduled my «fitting» and Helen and I discussed the changes in detail. She stuck a few pins in the dress and made an appointment for me in 3 weeks, (this was about 6 weeks before my wedding). When I returned at my appointment Helen told me to return in a couple hours as she was not yet finished. When I returned the only thing she had done was she had taken the dress in very sloppy (crooked seams), and she had taken it in way too far! She had done no other work on the dress at all and when I questioned her about this she could not remember what alterations she was supposed to make to the dress. I then made another appointment to return in a couple days for further fitting and she promised the work would be done. When I was leaving her assistant prompted me to call her prior to coming in to see if she had even done any of the work she was supposed to. I was extremely disappointed and out of fear that again nothing would be done to the dress I found a new tailor and she actually charged me ½ the cost that Helen was going to and did it in about ½ the time. I would be very careful at this store!

Thank you for staying professional after I politely decided to take my dress somewhere else after you wanted to double charge me for a simple length change. You literally RIPPED the pins out of my dress after I told you I don’t want to pay $ 65 to cut the bottom of a polyester dress with serged edges. I went somewhere else that charged me half that price. Take care and good luck in the future

They are not really open on Sunday, Unilocal had them open 11 – 4, they are not.
Love their alterations, top notch

This is the first Unilocal I have written, but I feel the need to so that others can avoid the frustration and over-​charging we have. On three separate occasions, Helen did not complete work before scheduled appointments with us. She charged us way too much, even after we waited months for her to complete alteration.
On December 1, 2014 my daughter and I went to Alterations by Helen with an old wedding dress that my daughter wanted altered for her rehearsal dinner the following Fall. Helen said she would be able to mend and clean the dress, and asked for full payment of $ 340 up front. I thought this was high, but paid her in full. She wrote on the ticket that it would be finished by December 18, 2014.
My daughter lives in Massachusetts and would be home again for Christmas. I came by the shop @ December 22^nd to make sure we could pick it up while she was home. Helen told me that she had gone on a long trip home and hadn’t even started on the dress yet. I was surprised, but not too concerned since we had plenty of time. I said that my daughter would be back at Easter and we’d pick it up then.
Well, we came in around Easter — 4 months later — and it was still not finsihed. The seams had not yet been sewed and Helen said that my daughter must have lost weight (which she hadn’t) and said she needed to re-​adjust it. She also wanted to charge another $ 190 to hand sew the hem on the blouse so that it laid down, adjust the dress, and to let out the sleeves. My daughter kept insisting that she thought the dress looked fine and didn’t want us to pay more money to fix the dress, but Helen kept pushing and made me feel that the dress wouldn’t look as it should if I didn’t do the additional alteration. So, I agreed.
Then, I called Helen the end of April to tell her that my daughter would be in town in June and we wanted to pick up the dress – giving her two months notice to finish the dress. When we came in for our SCHEDULED APPOINTMENT, she said that she hadn’t done any work on it. I was floored. She now has had this dress for 7 months plus my $ 340 and we still do not have the dress! She said she could rush and finish it by the next day, which was Friday. I didn’t want her to rush and not have a quality job. So we agreed to pick it up Monday.
The dress looks fine and clean, but it was outrageous that Helen failed to complete work that she had already been paid for before scheduled appointments with customers. She never seems apologetic or sorry about it.
Additionally – at one point in this whole saga we brought in my daughter’s wedding dress to be altered. Why? I’m not sure. No surprise, her estimate was extremely high — $ 340 for simple things like hemming and replacing a zipper tab. We left the dress with a downpayment of $ 200, but on our drive home we decided that it would not be a good idea to leave the dress in Helen’s hands.
We went back the next day and Helen gave me a refund. However, she charged me 20% for canceling my order and wanted to charge me $ 5.65 because she said that is what she would pay to the credit card company. I really didn’t want to pay either. I told her that she has had my $ 340 for 7 months and she should consider this an even exchange. She would not agree to that. I ended up paying the $ 20 but she didn’t charge me the sir charge for the credit card company. When I left she sarcastically said «Congratulations», I am not sure what she meant by that.
We then took the wedding dress to Alterations by Ruth on Gravois. What a WONDERFUL experience. She is great. Told us that she can easily fix the zipper, that she could get almost all of the pilling off, also said that she would take off the appliquéd lace on the hem and re-​apply it as well as CLEAN the dress. The total price was $ 250 ! She said she has NEVER asked for money up front… because she has the dress. She is going to alter my MOB dress as well. She is a gem.

I called Helen at the request of Unilocaler Shandi F. I spoke with Helen and asked her to make things right because the negative potential consequences of an angry customer outweighed her gain of $ 350. She started screaming and threatened to sue for harassment. Sticking up for a fellow consumer is not harassment. Those businesses who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear and nothing to threaten litigation over. Do yourself a favor and avoid this shop at all costs.

I’m sorry. $ 400-​$ 500 for this work? When I provided all the materials? Honestly… I’m not trying to be funny… But it looks like something a 4^th grader would so in art class. When you told me the amount I was to pay was $ 350, I though you said $ 35, which I was surprised by since I thought it would be closer to $ 100 (for only your work since again, I provided the materials). I figured maybe you gave me a discount since I had introduced you to a few pageant directors and could help you with business in the future. My parents and I were all shocked to hear you actually wanted THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS for this piece of work! Friends in Los Angeles who make veils for a living say this is absurd. And you keep saying ‘cathedral veil.’ Lady, you didn’t finish the edges or do anything to any part of the veil except the few beads stitched by a seeing impaired person onto the comb. Any cathedral veil that is $ 400 – 500 has lace edging, beading throughout it or SOMETHING that looks a whole hell of a lot better than this!
And the officer that called me acted like it was a joke. He said they have had many problems with you in the past and you refuse to offer refunds or exchanges. He actually told me to take it to small claims court. So there. Everyone knows you are in the wrong.
And last thing… The gowns you sell in your store aren’t even as much as this veil! So how are you going to charge me so much when again, all you did was stitch on a couple of beads???
Rip off.
And I asked you in an email after I picked it up if you could credit me $ 200 back on my card, or I would give you a negative review. You responded saying I should appreciate your work… That it was all hand done. I tried for a resolution. You refused. So you get what you deserve.

I came to Helen with a bridesmaid dress emergency the week before my sister’s wedding. The dress I had was too small in the bust and ribs and needed to be let out since there were no larger sizes available. The dress was silk chiffon with draping and ruches where the alterations needed to be done– Helen and her team were so confident and comforting that they could fix it in the short time frame, & they did! The dress looks perfect and fits well! Even more, the alterations were not expensive at all!!! Anytime I am in StL with alteration needs, this will be my place!

The most innovative and dependable seamstress in St. Louis. Helen has been our seamstress for six years and the reason we keep going back is that she is very creative, dependable and flexible. On behalf of my wife who on several occasions has needed her service on a short noitce, and three grown daughters, this is a shout out to say Thank You !!!
Benjamin Ola Akande

I love Helen’s Alternations. She has repaired some sweaters, taken in some pants, and made some bedding for my son’s toddler bed. She is inexpensive and has a good turnaround time. My mother drives all the way from St. Charles just to have her pants shortened by Helen because she is so good and inexpensive. She has done hemming of some jeans for me and you never have to specify that you want the special kind where it still looks like the bottom of a jean (that should be obvious anyway but other people make you ask for it and charge extra). I completely trust her and her work.

I took my wedding dress here and she seemed to do an okay job when I had my fitting. We went back the next day to check the color of the lace against my shoes and we thought there was an issue with the dress color (it looked really white in the lighting, and I ordered an ivory one). So we took it to the bridal store to make sure we got the right color (we did) and they told us that Helen had messed up my dress. She had put the wrong type of bustle in, and in the process was pretty close to ripping off a couple of the buttons. The girls at the store also told us that Helen put B cups in my dress when I am clearly about 3 cup sizes bigger. She had also made some other alterations that were apparently mistakes as well.
The girls at the bridal store fixed my dress for free because Helen did such a poor job and now it looks beautiful. I was really disappointed in the job Helen did and do not recommend her.

Helen is a AMAZING!!! She is the best kind of tailor– she listens to what you want but she knows exactly how to make things fit beautifully. She is also super sweet and friendly– never pushy or impatient!
A year and a half ago, Helen altered my wedding dress and her work was exquisite. She added boning, completely modified the neckline, took up a *lace* hem PERFECTLY, created a gorgeous bustle, and took it in everywhere that needed to be taken in to make it fit right. On top of all that, she made me a custom veil and added lace and beading (taken from scraps of my dress) to my hair accessory.
After her amazing work on my wedding dress, I would trust Helen with anything. Therefore when I had a bridesmaid dress «emergency» I knew just who to go to. Due to some «dress-​drama» I had to have a brand new size 16 (I’m actually a size 8) bridesmaid dress altered the DAY BEFORE the wedding. Helen was a miracle worker! The dress fit like it was made for me… and all the work was done in ONE DAY.
I can not say enough wonderful things about Helen. I no longer live in St. Louis and I am truly sad that I don’t have Helen’s expertise and lovely personality available for my tailoring needs. If you live in the St. Louis area– go see Helen, she will take good care of you!