After getting engaged, I couldn’t wait to try on wedding dresses. I’d watched Say Yes to the Dress for years, and I was so excited to twirl around in a fancy white gown while sipping champagne with my favorite people. However, after visiting several bridal stores, I can say that not every shopping experience lives up to that fantasy. And while I didn’t visit David’s Bridal myself, the store claims to sell one-third of all U.S. wedding dresses annually. If you’re thinking of booking an appointment at this chain, though, you may want to keep reading, as current and former employees have several major warnings for brides-to-be.
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1. Bridal consultants might not be well-versed in wedding dresses.
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You’d assume the consultant helping you choose and try on wedding gowns was an expert in the category, right? Not necessarily so at David’s Bridal, according to a former bridal stylist who goes by @oliviafignewtonjohn on TikTok.
“I was one of the people who was, like, styling brides, like helping them pick out a dress, which I was severely unqualified for,” she shared in her video. “I don’t know [expletive] about a wedding dress. I was not set up for success at this job.”
Another former employee added in the comments section, “used to work as a Stylist there…its not for the weak. within my first week they had me work a literal Bridal show with no training and I was only like 17 at the time.”
2. Alterations could end as a nightmare.
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All over social media, brides have shared stories of alterations gone wrong at David’s Bridal.
Again, this could come down to the employees not having proper experience. Commenting on @oliviafignewtonjohn’s video, someone said, “They hired me as a seamstress, I’ve never used a sewing machine.”
In a Reddit thread, an employee of three years advised a David’s Bridal shopper looking for alterations: “If I were you I would go somewhere else. I’ve heard so many stories abt dresses getting lost and or ruined days/weeks before the wedding.”
In yet another Reddit thread, a former employee shared, “I did alterations there for three years and it’s soooooo overpriced. They also limit the amount of custom alterations you can do to ‘preserve the design’ so you can’t remove layers, alter the neckline, remove the train, etc.”
3. You might not be getting a brand-new dress.
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Unless you’re at some type of floor-model sale, you can expect to get a brand-new wedding dress. But one former David’s Bridal employee shared on Reddit that there could be an exception to that rule.
“My one piece of advice is just to make sure it’s not a dress from another store,” they wrote. “When a stylist orders your dress it can often times be sent from one store to another. Meaning its been tried on and can be dirty. There is supposed to be a quality check but people can definitely slack off.”
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4. You might get rushed through your appointment.
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For @oliviafignewtonjohn, the “straw that broke the camel’s back” when working at David’s Bridal was when she was given a consultation appointment 15 minutes before her shift ended, which she added was a common experience among stylists.
“At David’s Bridal, they keep you like an hour over your allotted time,” she said, explaining that management also had unrealistic expectations for how quickly stylists were supposed to get through consultations—as little as 20 minutes.
5. Stylists have no incentive to find you your dream dress.
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In the past, stylists at David’s Bridal worked on commission, so they were very incentivized to find clients their dream dresses. Now, however, @oliviafignewtonjohn says she makes the same hourly rate regardless of what she sells.
“Commissions to hourly pay is not fair,” shared another employee on Indeed. “Its set up to pay less for your efforts in sales.”
Content shared from bestlifeonline.com.