Bride N’ Formal By the Bay

This place is horrible. I think the owner ‘helped’ me (and if she wasn’t the owner I came in at 5 pm on Saturday the 26^th so find out who was working then) and she had no idea what she was talking about. Seriously uneducated when it came to wedding dresses and how to speak to people. WHO CALLS SOME ONE CURVY WHEN TRYING ON WEDDING DRESSES. I’m 5’2 with a boob job and 120 pounds and that makes me curvy? No lady I’m busty so help me find a dress that covers my top correctly. She didn’t help us pick one dress and all she could say was maybe she can order something. If I wanted to order a dress with out trying it on I wouldn’t of came in here? This place is shit and I don’t even know why there still in business. Terrible dresses, terrible customer service. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE.

They were wonderfully helpful and even though I ended up buying a wedding dress that was pretty heavily marked down, I didn’t feel like it changed the way they treated me at all. I really can’t say enough great things about this spot. They special ordered my veil and we’re really sweet about calling me when it came. I was recommended to go here by a Co worker and I am so pleased I took her advice. They were also lovely to my stepdaughter when she looked at flower girl dresses.

My sister purchased her wedding dress from here and is now in the process of having alterations done. The store is nice, with a modest selection. Seemed a bit pricey, but it is right in the middle of downtown Monterey. The lady working was nice and seemed helpful enough.
Down to four stars because the quote for altering the dress and the actual cost of alterations were quite different. She was quoted one amount for alterations when she purchased the dress, then after the fitting with the seamstress that quote doubled. Now the alterations will cost half of what the dress cost to begin with. Seemed a bit steep.

I have to admit, I almost didn’t go to this place because of a couple of previous bad reviews that I read. However, I am so glad I did! I really don’t see how anyone could give sandy a bad review. She was suuuuuper sweet and very helpful. She was upfront and honest about possible rush charges considering the wedding is only a few months away. (as with any bridal shop AND website you will find it takes about 12 weeks give or take a little) She was very knowledgeable and gave my friend and I great advice for dress styles that would fit our figure. She encouraged me to try on a dress that didn’t have much hanger appeal and It turned out to be the perfect dress!! Overall she just had really great customer service and made my bridesmaid dress search (for an out of state wedding may I add) a breeze! She helped take a huge weight off my shoulders and I would most definitely recommend her to anyone. I would go back to her for all my future wedding dress needs for sure!

Beautiful selection of dresses and very reasonable prices! The owner, «Sandy», is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. She came in on a Sunday to help me when she was dealing a pretty serious personal issue of her own. The dress I had order online (NEVER DO THIS :-/​!!!) was terrible. I had 2 weeks to get another dress. She made it happen! Her attention to detail was impeccable. She noticed things that even I, as a bride, didn’t notice. My dress turned out beautifully thanks to her experience and skilled seamstress!

This place sucks! Don’t go!!! The owner will tell you one thing,& the next something else. I was recently in a wedding ‚& the owner was too slow,& had a delay on putting our orders in. This however wasn’t the bad part. The bad part is that she charged us a rush charge, when it was her fault she couldn’t get the dresses on time. Later on we all find out that our dresses aren’t even the sizes she fitted us for. When I put down a down payment she made us just put half down. 108 $. Later when she decides to put the rush charge bs my dress jumps from 108 $ to 285 $ instead of 216 $ what!!? So now I am pretty upset and I want to back out maybe, but she says if you don’t want to buy the dress fine, but your still gonna pay the down payment. I told her I was t paying the 255 $ as the rush charges ‚& her making mistakes wasn’t my fault!, she then tells me oh well !, if I want the dress that is the price! So Long story short the dress of almost 300 $ ended up being 255 $ for me ‚& 285 & up for the other girls,& one girl she under charged in the chaos!, anyways you can get a dress just like this is a mall or online so don’t bother even giving this lady the time of day! You WILL loose money here. And if you need more proof read the other reviews. I hope this helps future brides,& bridesmaids because I wouldn’t want this to happen again! Oh yeah btw… She yelled at me over the phone,& in person. She even hung up cause she was loosing her cool! Last thing. She made a killing on my friends and I … 4 bridesmaids paying almost 300 $ a dress, you do the math.

Stay Away!
Everyone knows that planning a wedding can sometimes be stressful. Luckily for me, its been over a year and I haven’t had any bad experience or freak out moments :) Until now.
I had made plans to go to the store, but first wanted to call to see if she had the color swatch for my bridesmaids. On the designers websites it states to go to your local store that sells their dresses to see the exact color for each fabric. Totally fine! I’m a visual person anyway. When I asked the woman about the swatch she asked me where I was getting the dress. I completely misunderstood and thought she was referring to where I was looking at this dress… my response was «online» as in-I’m looking at the designers website and I’m getting the image from there. I didn’t think she meant where I was purchasing the dress, obviously, since the designer only sells in bridal boutiques and not on her website.
Anyway-​She then responds very abruptly and extremely rudely by saying that she refuses to show me any dresses because she thinks its unethical to purchase online. after a good 2 minute shpeal, I had realized my mistake and rephrased my answer. Letting her know I had misunderstood this and told her what I meant, she then still was extremely rude and then says «I dont mean to cut you off but…» Well then why would you cut me off? She then tells me the color doesn’t matter. What matters is which dresses they have. Well, I’m not expert, but when you’re planning a wedding, usually you would want to match the bridesmaids dresses to the color palette of the wedding… pretty important! She then hung up on me.
I was so outraged by the way she spoke to me, I called back to ask for the manager. She said she was the manager and owner. When I asked for her name, she wouldn’t tell me.
Overall-​I didn’t even step foot in this place and I experienced the same rudeness as the other bad reviews here. So unprofessional! If you are in the business of customer service but refuse to help people… I’d say you’re in the wrong field.
Not only should the wedding planning go smoothly but the day a bride is picking out the pieces for dresses etc, that should be the happiest moment of the process.
I am taking my business and need for bridal accessories and 8 bridesmaids dresses somewhere else… even if I need to drive an hr to the nearest shop! I would never recommend any bride to deal with this store.

I personally didn’t get along with Sandie very well. I walked in and she was helping a bride try on dresses and came over to me and I think was trying to be helpful but I told her I was fine on my own and that she should help the bride who has an appt., I was just going to browse and look at accessories. I think she was trying to be helpful but came across as pushy to me. I found a veil for $ 168 but wasn’t in love with it. I told her I wanted to keep looking and she seemed displeased. It just was not a pleasant experience. She seems to get stressed easily with having 2 people in the store.

This is long overdue, but this place, Sandie and her seamstress are fabulous! So accommodating and nice. Totally recommend it for any gowns you may need. They pretty much redesigned and re made my entire dress and it was beautiful. Thank you Sandie!

Just ok. Not all that helpful. Dresses were all heavy and fit poorly. The lady working said alterations would run about $ 400 or so and the nicer dresses had to be preordered several months in advance. For a dress I didn’t much like the price tag wasn’t worth it.

I heard about this shop through Unilocal and thought I give it a shot in looking for my wedding gown. It was the first and only place I went to look for a dress. Sandie was a great help, really sweet. Even though I did arrive late to my appointment she was still very helpful and I had all of her attention.
She let me pick as many dresses as I wanted to try on. She worked with my budget. I wish she would have had a little more of a variety of styles in gowns.
Im a plus size girl so she did have a good amount of gowns that I was able to try on.
The first gown I tried on was the dress I picked. I bought it off the rack and she gave me a super sweet deal, way under my budget :). I will recommend her and her shop to anyone looking for a gown.

After visiting 4 other stores in Santa Cruz and San Jose area I was getting frustrated that the dress in my head was not going to be a reality. Not wanting to waste my time and trip to Monterey, I decided to call Sandie and describe what I was looking for first. She seemed to know exactly what I was describing and thought she had a few options for me to see, one in particular.
Upon arrival she had all the dresses pulled for me and pointed to the one she thought fit my description the best. WOW — she is good. Not only was that THE dress, the others she pulled were close runners up.
I highly recommend Bride N’ Formal for your wedding dress needs. I felt that I was listened to, allowed and opinion and had the opportunity to see ALL of the dresses in the store. Sandie was extremely helpful in every way and made the experience of selecting my wedding dress a very special one!

While sandy worked great with my budget and seemed very kind, her customer service skills were poor. I asked for the designer and style of the dress and couldn’t get it. I also had a unique situation where I had to Skype with my loved ones to get some sort of help and she was clearly disinterested in helping me accomplish my goal and helping me find the right dress. She wouldn’t even let me ask for the wifi password from
Her neighbors so my family could see my selections better. I am really disappointed because I absolutely loved that dress but her customer service has turned me away.

The shop owner — Sandie, is the most helpful and nice person. I am immensely grateful to Sandie for helping me out this weekend. Sandie, you are the reason why this wedding went the best way it could!
My bridesmaid dress did not arrive, and I found myself urgently looking for a dress, and I had to do it within 2 – 3 hours before the ceremony. I called Sandie’s shop, and asked for all dresses in the red color, and when I arrived, she had just what I was looking for. Not only she made sure I got the dress, but she found a tailor around who could do urgent adjustments, and she also gave me a small discount. I wish I would meet more such wonderful people as Sandie.

I went to four other bridal shops and Bride N’ Formal was definitely the best experience. The variety of dresses and prices were great, but best of all was how perfectly Sandy handled our interactions. She is great! She took great pains to learn what I liked and helped me pick dresses (in my budget), but also gave me time to browse on my own. She was helpful without being pushy, sweet without being cheesy or overbearing, and incredibly patient! I later brought my mom in to view the dress, and Sandy made her feel special too. When my mom started to shed a few tears of joy, Sandy knew to step out and let us have a moment. There were many little things like this that convinced me that she really knows what she is doing, and understands the expectations and dreams of brides shopping for dresses.
Obviously, I can’t say enough good things. Sure, I’m a little biased because this is the shop where I found my dress, but I’d still recommend Bride N’ Formal to anyone :)

My Fiancé spent nearly 5 hours in this shop, trying on dresses for our wedding. The owner insisted that my fiancé buy a dress that was marked down from $ 1100.00 to $ 450.00 before she left the store and went elsewhere. My fiancé didn’t want to get the dress on the spot, but the owner stated that she won’t offer the discount tomorrow so she must buy the dress while she was there. Reluctantly, my fiancé bought the dress, with cash. Then the owner made my fiancé sign a contract that said no refunds if returned.
I, being the groom-​to-​be, didn’t know she signed a contract, because her wedding dress was a secret and I wasn’t allowed to see it. The next day I dropped her off again at the bridal shop to pick up the dress. We brought it to a tailor in Carmel and the tailor asked my fiancé some alarming questions. First of all, the bridal shop told my Fiancé it was a «Designer Dress», one of a kind. The tailor found a tag on it that said «MADE IN CHINA.» Secondly, the dress had 3 stains on it — making my fiancé and the tailor thinking that it was a used dress, when in fact, my fiancé was told she was buying a 1 of a kind, new dress. The tailor told my fiancé to go and bring the dress back to the bridal shop. We got there, and my fiancé went inside. I sat in the car, thinking, no big deal, the owner will see the stains and realize she sold her a bad dress. 10 minutes later, my fiancé storms out of the bridal shop, crying and upset. Then she explained to me that the owner would NOT take the dress back and that my fiancé signed a contract and there’s nothing she can do about it. We were out $ 450 cash on a dress that was used, made in china and worst of all, my fiancé was going to have to wear this dress on the wedding with bad memories of this store/​dress.
At this point, I was livid. What kind of business owner won’t take a dress back, when it’s sat at her store all night and was purchased less than 24 hours ago? It has stains, it was made in china, and my fiancé was deceived and coaxed into signing a contract. Not only that, but the other bridal shop and tailer in Carmel said that the woman sold her a lousy dress. I went in there, ready to ask questions and get the money back. The owner was busy with another girl, trying on dresses, and ignored me for 15 minutes. Then my fiancé came in, the door bell rang when the door opened, and magically, the owner popped out of the backroom again, to greet my fiancé. By this time, I had cooled down and didn’t get to passionately ream this woman for ripping my fiancé off and taking her money. The owner insisted, it was make-​up stains and she will wash it and that my fiancé will be happy with the dress. So we left it there, the owner washed it and we picked it up later.
In the mean time, after the tears and anger over the unethical business practices by this woman, we bought another dress for more money in Carmel so we could have a happy wedding. We ended up having a wonderful wedding in Carmel and didn’t wear the dress that the Bride N’ Formal owner sold us, because we didn’t want bad memories.
Stay away from this shop, the owner is unethical, and takes advantage of people.

My daughter and I had a very positive experience last May during «Prom Season». Here in Monterey the gown selection is very limited, and Sandie ensures that she only orders one of a kind dresses so that there won’t be anyone at the dance with the same dress! Sandie’s seemstress remade the size 10 gown to fit my daughter’s tiny frame. (We had a week to do this!) Yes, it more than doubled the price of the dress, but it made her look and feel like a Million bucks… that is «priceless»!
Today I am returning to help my friend find a wedding gown to wear in two weeks from today! I am counting on Sandie to work her magic for me one more time!
It is now later in the evening, and I am adding this to my post:
Still 5 **** STAR service from Sandie! No appointment, and she was quite busy with various customers, but we found and purchased a wedding gown, in the price range we wanted! Sandie was so honest about alterations and prices… making us extremely happy customers. I can’t wait to have another reason to shop for a formal gown!

The owner, Sandie, was very sweet, helpful, knowledgeable, and patient. Her store has a great variety of beautiful wedding and formal dresses. I went back 4 – 5 times conflicting from what I want and every body else wants me to wear. Each time, Sandie patiently and graciously assisted me to figure out different options.
I use Unilocal all the time but am not one to write only because I don’t have good things to write so I don’t write at all. But this store gets 5 stars! I highly recommend Bride N’ Formal By the Bay to all of my friends!

Being someone who is plus size, I was dreading the day that I had to go searching for a wedding dress.
Randomly I found Bride N’ Formal in Monterey and decided to make an appointment to see if it’s possible to find a dress that would make me look decent.
It was that day that I met the owner Sandi. The most wonderful, enthusiastic, helpful person I have ever met.
Right way she looked at my shape picked out a few dresses and had me try them on. They all looked fantastic; I could not believe that I would look so pretty in a wedding dress. Now the issue wasn’t finding the perfect wedding dress, it was all about picking out one from all the selections that she had chosen for me.
She spent over 4 hours, helping me put dresses on and taking them off (physical labor for her) until I found one that felt just right.
The amount of care and love Sandi put into helping me find a dress is unbelievable. She goes beyond the call of duty and takes her job to a new level.
My wedding was this past Saturday, and the first thing people said to me is «WOW your dress is amazing». THANK YOU SANDI for the best experience and I will never forget how easy and special you made the entire process. If you are looking for a wedding dress, Bride N’ Formal by the bay is the place to be.

Drumroll please… yes! The dress is in! I received a phone call from Sandie to call her back and she said that my dress had arrived. A whole month early in fact. I made an appt to pick it up right when her doors opened this past weekend. I was so anxious, I couldn’t sleep the night before. You would think it was my wedding day!
Sandie greeted me with a warm smile and hello just like before and ushered me into to dressing room where my dress awaited. I think I almost cried. The dress is as gorgeous as the first time I saw it. The moment of truth… does it zip up all the way? Yes! A little snug around the muffin top but i’m not worried… I still have 3 months to lose the muffin factory before the wedding.
Sandie had suggested I pay a little extra to have the manufacturer shorten the dress from hollow to hem so that it would be the perfect length when I got it. (i’m barely 5′ tall and these gowns are made for 5’8″ super models) I am sooooooo glad I listened to that little piece of advice. The dress is the perfect length and now all I have to do is add in a bustle for alterations.
As I left and thanked Sandie for all her help she in turn thanked me for trusting her. I’m glad that I did because I now have the perfect dress for my happily ever after :)