My experience here has been nothing but an absolute nightmare.\r
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When I first bought the dress I was really impressed by the caring demeanor of Debra, one of the salesladies, however, the owner Art's attitude left much to be desired. I had a baby 10 months ago and I have a lot of extra skin that makes me look big around the middle, but there's absolutely nothing I can do about that. He kept insinuating that I should lose weight before my wedding and kept asking me if I was ""really happy with [my] figure."" I kind of rolled my eyes and went on from there.\r
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When I went to get the dress altered (the third time I had ever tried it on) the zipper broke. The seamstress offered to replace it for $55. I went to La Merite and spoke with Art as I felt this was a defective product and the cost of replacing the zipper should be his responsibility. He and one of his salespeople kept talking about how ""all the zippers on these gowns are so cheap, they're made in China and they don't put strong enough zippers in them for the weight of the fabric,"" which I feel is basically admitting that they're selling an inferior product. He also kept mentioning my weight and insisting I probably gained weight and that's why the zipper broke. (I had actually lost 5 lbs in the time between buying the dress and having it altered.) \r
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He refused to do anything other than talk to the seamstress for me to see if she'd reduce her price. I wouldn't allow him to, as it wasn't the seamstress's responsibility that the cheap zipper on the dress broke, it was the fault of his inferior product.\r
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I then had the dress sent back to them for cleaning and pressing (I had prepaid for it when purchasing the dress, or I would have sent it elsewhere) and when I went to pick it up on the arranged date, it was completely wrinkled and had not been pressed. \r
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When I FINALLY picked up the dress, I got it home and found that my PERMANENT French bustle I had had installed (I am having an outdoor wedding and do not want to have a train) had been untied and not put back in. This bustle cost me over $100 to have done and has something like 20 points in it, it's not a regular bustle that you'd just do up quickly after a ceremony. It's really obviously not meant to be undone. We have no idea how to fix it and will have to take it back to the seamstress (and probably pay more money) so she can retie the whole thing.\r
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This shop has wasted so much of my time and money through their utter incompetence and lack of caring. I will never be back for any reason, and I don't recommend that anyone use them. The hassle and cost of fixing their mistakes is just too much for anyone, especially a stressed-out bride!
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