Angelica

I found my wedding dress at Angelica during one of their regular sample sales which take place throughout the year and which are advertised on their Facebook page. My main intention was not to buy a dress though, it was to see what a sample sale experience would be like. I will freely admit that I was preparing for the ultimate sample sale at another shop which was meant to take place a few weeks after, but, instead, somehow managed to find my dress here.
The sample sale was not bad. There were a decent number of dresses from all of Angelica’s designers, including David Fielden and Justin Alexander. Discounts were good too, with many dresses coming in at less than half-​price. The first part of the sample sale was a little bit messy though — not because there were too many people or elbows at dawn or that sort of thing — just that no one attended to me when I arrived so I did not know what the process to be followed was. It was only after I waylaid a member of staff who attended to someone who had arrived after me that I was told what I needed to do (get given three tags, tag the dresses you want to try on and wait your turn for the dressing room). To be honest, I only saw one dress I liked and put my tags on another two just to have a basis for comparison.
Once I was in the changing room, the staff there was really friendly and sweet, giving me advice on how I could change things if the dress didn’t fit in certain areas and so on. I was so completely blown away by the first dress I tried on — the one that I liked -/​and although I tried on the other two, I knew that that was *the* dress and I bought it there and then. There was no sales push from the staff at all, I should add. Just a simple acknowledgment that the dress suited me and that I looked so happy to be in it.
So, yes, I bought that dress. I was told it didn’t need dry-​cleaning as it was brand new (it certainly looked new) and that I could contact their in-​house tailor closer to the date of my wedding in order to get alterations done. I didn’t use their tailor in the end, but was told by the tailor that I did end up using that Angelica’s tailor is indeed very good at alterations.
While I can’t comment on how the process would have been had I not purchased a sample dress, I imagine it would have been very good. The staff are friendly, the shop is centrally located and they have a good tailor on board. Not many shops can boast that.

This shop is simply lovely. I had a day out shopping with my sister, and I liked the look of one of the dresses in their window. My sister is really REALLY excited about my wedding, so she got me to make an appointment to come back and try it on (along with other be-​autiful dresses)
I spent an hour choosing and trying various dress styles, and changing my mind completely about what I thought I wanted.
— The staff are complete sweeties
— The dresses are simply gorgeous
— They lend you shoes (I spent a lot of time in underwear and heels while they’d get the next dress ready)
— They weren’t pushy at all
— There was lots of room for mum and my friends to sit and give their opinions
I fell in love with most of the dresses I tried on here, and I am considering going back to buy one of them… I’m not sure why it is so hard to commit to a dress when I have no problem committing to my fiancé.