East-West Bridal & Boutique

Walked in… Store looks dirty. Walk around… Not greeted. I only checked this place out because an older woman at work said she had heard there was a «bridal boutique» in Manchester. Took me being there probably less than 10 minutes to know that I didn’t like the feel of the store. Not worth your time.

I’m a bridesmaid in my brother and future sister-in-law’s wedding in August. When I was home in Maine for the holiday a group of the bridesmaids (there are seven of us) went to a gorgeous bridal boutique in Portland with equally impressive service to match. That set the bar high for my experiences at other bridal shops.
We had a change in the line of dresses we are ordering for the wedding. Since it would much more convenient for me to order the dress from Connecticut it made more sense for me find the dress here. I called around and this happened to be the most convenient location that carried the dresses. Yesterday I called to make an appointment for today and even though they close at 5:30 on Tuesdays, take their last appointments an hour before, they let me come in at 5 because it was just myself and not a group of maids.
I arrived a few minutes early and walked past the prom gowns, wedding dresses, mother of the bride dresses to the back of the store where a young female employee was steaming a prom dress. She didn’t greet me, she didn’t engage in pleasant conversation. A moment later the owner himself came out of the back and I reminded him that we spoke yesterday and I was here for my appointment. No warm greeting from him either. I felt bad, almost like I was an inconvenience even though they still had half an hour until closing, not to mention that he agreed to the time for the appointment.
I had a list of the dresses I wanted to try, only three of which they had. A little disappointing, but not a huge deal. What was more disappointing was that once I disappeared into the dressing room no one came to offer to clip me — and of course the dresses were way too big as they always are. It was difficult for me to imagine what the dresses would look like in my size even after holding lots of fabric back with one of my hands.
Inventory-​wise, this store does appear to have a decent variety of dresses. The shoes in the middle of the room looked old and dirty. Even if the store itself isn’t as glamorous as the Portland, Maine bridal store we went to last month I could have had a better experience here if the service had been better.

Dirty. The dresses, the floor, the dressing rooms, and the racks, It’s all dirty. There’s nothing about this place that makes a bride feel special. I’ve gotten better treatment and I’ve felt more cared for at a Macy’s department store.

This review is a little late in coming… but here goes.
I’ve shopped here for both formal gowns for special occassions and also when I was looking for my wedding dress (7 years ago). I have to agree with Hillary on the storefront and interior… and I add that it’s been that way since I initially visited waay back in 2004. Personnel while nice, tend to be a bit on the clueless side. Not in the bad/​annoying way like David’s Bridal, just in a slightly exasperating way. I usually have a pretty good idea of what will look good on my figure (or lack thereof). I don’t need a late teens salesperson trying to convince me to try on a silhouette that i KNOW will look abysmal. Other than that though, they really are kind people.
Selection is OK, especially considering the size of the interior they are working with.
My overall impression is that if you’re a Bride looking around, this is a worthwhile option for the area, especially if you’re not 100% set on a particular designer or dress. And for teens, you’ll have a blast in here.

I also visited this store because it was near my home in Glastonbury CT.
My first impression of the store was that the window had a great display (and still does to this day – whoever sets it up needs a raise), but the inside is a bit run-​down. There are bridal dresses and bridesmaids dresses in the front, and some prom/​quince dresses in the back. They have shoes too but they were pretty tacky, I didn’t look at them or the accessories they had for sale.
I had an appointment with Mary Beth who was very very nice. She let me pick out some dresses-​as opposed to some of the fancier salons that say «what are you interested in» then go run into a warehouse. I agree with the poster below – they had a lot of bigger sizes – I was a regular size 10 and a wedding dress size 14. I ended up loving a dress my mother picked and ended up buying it-​the sample they had was a 14 so I got a really good idea of what I was getting. The dress was reasonably priced, around $ 500, I also paid the seamstress around $ 100 to get it all perfect. The dress came in when they said it would and I had no problems picking it up – I give them an A+ when it comes to MY dress.
I was getting married in November and wanted satin for my bridesmaids dresses, most of the other stores had taffeta on display, so I ended up coming back to East West for bridesmaids dresses. I successfully ordered 4 dresses, the salesgirl put them in the computer correctly – and they came in just as I ordered.
The only problem there was with those dresses, was that they came very wrinkled. One of my bridesmaids who Ive been friends with for 15 years was just shocked at how wrinkled it was – and the owner refused to steam it for her (without charging her). Tht miffed me, because the dresses were in the $ 150 range – I was embarrassed that my friend paid so much money to be in my wedding and the dress came all rumpled – if we’d bought a dress off the rack at Macys – it would have been steamed before they put it on the rack. So my friend declined to have the store’s seamstress do her alterations because of this.
I did use the store seamstress and she was very nice and did a great job. She also did my sister’s dress and did a good job with that one too.
Overall my experience with East West was a good one-​if you don’t want to deal with the big hoity toity bridal stores – I definitely recommend them.

Fairly large selection of dresses (bridal, bridesmaid and prom). I came to look at wedding dresses about a year ago, staff was pleasant (and ran to a book a bunch of times to verify colors a dress came in for me). They carry samples in bigger sizes than most shops so if you are a bigger woman, this is a good spot for you to try on wedding gowns. I can’t speak for the rest of the process as I did not purchase a dress here. Prices were pretty good — you don’t have to go to evil david’s for an inexpensive dress.

I visited this store because it is close to where I live, but I came away with a strange feeling. I was the only customer there on a weekend, and the store itself seemed a bit run down. The saleslady was nice, but had only been there a year and didn’t seem particularly knowledgeable. She did look up some of the dresses that I had brought pictures of. The owner was also around and he felt a bit pushy/​smarmy. I found a dress that I liked there, but I didn’t trust the shop, and decided to look for it elsewhere. They mostly carry lower priced dresses, which is good for someone on a budget.