The Bridal Barn & Tux Shoppe

I had a very pleasant experience at The Bridal Barn a couple weeks ago. I was there with a small group to shop for bridesmaid dresses with my sister-​in-​law to be and a few others. The shop is pretty small, but so cute. My sister-​in-​law knew what she wanted and the employees left us to our own devices unless we needed something. Prices are what you would expect for a bridesmaid dress.

This weekend while on the hunt for a dress we decided to stop in at this little bridal shop since they were having a clearance sale. This shop located in Deerfield is situated in a restored barn which is really cool.
This is the second time that my fiancé has come here and both times she has been greeted by polite staff who have gone out of their way to make her feel comfortable while shopping.
The store itself is well packed with beautiful items, but the prices were a bit high. Since this is a local shop that should be expected and the quality is definitely worth the cost.
My fiancé has shopped at multiple bridal shops in the area and she had to say that by far this is the best one. We enjoyed shopping here and would come back in a heartbeat.

It’s too bad that I have to give this store such a bad review… because my initial experience buying my dress was such a pleasant one. The staff was not pushy and I had the whole place to myself and lots of time to try on different dresses. I found the perfect dress on the first visit. After this it all went downhill. I was recommended to a completely incompetent seamstress (who was new at the time to the store and who no longer works there) who frankly did a terrible job making the alterations to my dress… which were very simple. The dress pretty much fit me when I bought it; it basically needed a hem and a tuck in the bust. The seamstress cut and hemmed my dress crooked among other things which made the alterations processes extremely stressful. During this stressful time, the staff at the Bridal Barn failed to call myself or any of my bridesmaids to tell me that they had laid off this particular seamstress. Instead, I received a call from the seamstress telling me she had been let go and had taken my dress so I had to go to her house for alterations from there on. When I finally asked the Bridal Barn staff to intervene and get my dress back to the location where it was supposed to be stored (at the store!) they reacted. However, my mother had already paid for the alterations in full and they were not completed, and the seamstress was not willing to give us the money back. The in house seamstress graciously and wonderfully fixed my dress and my mother paid for her work (which was well deserved) in addition to the first seamstress. However, the way the situation was handled at the Bridal Barn was not professional and I personally think they should have offered to pay the in house seamstress themselves to make the fixes to the dress, and not my mother. After the wedding was over I called them to see if I could get a scrap of material to cover where my dress had ripped in a place that the original seamstress had messed up, but no one ever returned my phone call. I would NOT recommend this store to a bride because of how stressful this process was and how unprofessionally the staff reacted to this problem. I should have been compensated for the huge loss of money to the original seamstress, whom they recommended, or at least given store credit to buy some jewelry or something to make amends. Terrible customer service when a problem arose.

Came by Saturday with a friend who is also dress shopping. We weren’t pounced upon immediately after walking in which I really appreciate. They were also very busy and had all of their dressing rooms taken up but I didn’t mind since we didn’t make an appointment so I kind of expected to be left alone. We browsed the half a dozen racks and I was surprised at the limited inventory. This is not Davids Bridal (which I’m thankful for. I haaate them) but I do wish they had more to browse. We each found a few gowns to try on and since the dressing rooms were all full, we were given the option to try them on in the mens side where it was empty. We didn’t mind at all. i ended up not finding THE dress but my friend may have. She said their prices were a little higher than other stores she’s been to in the area. I have nothing to compare them to but I thought they were reasonable.

Just ordered my daughter’s wedding dress last evening after a wonderfuly supportive experience. The consultants were wonderful to our group, giving us lots of personal attention and support. After letting us play dress up for a bit, our consultant narrowed down my daughter’s vision, and found the perfect dress for her. There was no effort to push me to the top of my budget by pushing my daughter into a dress that was a maybe. The focus was on finding the right dress for this bride, while being respectful of our budget cap. In the end the dress was one third of what I had been prepared to pay, and my only daughter had the perfect dress for her day.
A few tears and measurements later, and we were done! While waiting for my final bill, I wandered a bit and found a dress I liked. I was graciously shown a dressing room in spite of the late hour. It paid off as I found the perfect mother of the bride dress!
All in all a truly fantastic experience. We felt comfortable, cared for, and never for one moment rushed or warehoused, as often happens in larger chain stores or some snootier salons. There were dresses of all shapes in a vast array of sizes — from a 00 to 30 women, and at prices to fit any budget. I cannot say enough good things about The Bridal Barn!