WEDnesday: Bridesmaid Dress Nightmare... and then some

When a girl gets engaged the excitement is instant. You cannot control the urge to begin to plan. Depending on the length of your engagement you cannot afford to waste too much time. Ideally, the wedding as everyone will tell you is not as much about the actual event...it's about the coming together of two people. I believe that's true but in reality when people ask "how was the wedding?" I want people to say it was incredible- beautiful- joyous- one of a kind. Of course like every other bride-to-be I want it to be perfect...but like everything else in this world I know that is impossible. With this in mind I kept my planning very simple. I hired Marcell, an expert I could trust with the design of my wedding and really made it a point to steer clear of frills. WEDnesday Flashback: Marcell once replied to me "Yes Angie you have to have flowers!" Just pick up any wedding mag- it's easy to see how brides go overboard. It's easy to get overwhelmed. After I set "our date" last August my priority was getting the people directly impacted by this monster of an event taken care of. I picked out what I wanted for my dress and immediately went through the grueling process of finding the "perfect and practical" bridesmaid gown. This was a decision that would affect nearly a dozen women from across the nation. Because of the geography of us all a traditional trip to the boutique to try on gowns was out of the question. After analyzing multiple magazines, advertisements and websites I found the dress maker I wanted to go with. I chose a variety of Siri gowns my maids could then choose from. I don't regret it. The raw silk material is high end, the designs timeless and the off-white shade I wanted was perfect. 8 of 11 gowns were right on target. BUT The difference in the three that were off -was striking. I wanted a strapless number in the party lineup.... check out my original sketch of maids. Three ladies chose this style based on the picture. We were told we could have the elegant GRACE GOWN STYLE made in all off-white shantung silk, no embroidery as shown. Looking at the advertised gown, everyone I've talked to agrees it appears to be a simple, strapless with a straight skirt. THAT was the look I was expecting.

3 weeks prior to my wedding the gowns came in and THIS is what we got! This my friend, is a SIZE 2! You can imagine my and the maids' reaction. Bridesmaid Jennifer put it on and said "I look like a bride!" The simple gowns we thought we ordered had a noticeable cumberbund around the waist... and a skirt I'm convinced all three of my junior bridesmaids could comfortably fit under. I thought this late in the game I had reason to be concerned. ONE: this COULD NOT be the same dress. See Diagram. TWO: I can't have 4 brides walking down the aisle. THREE: if we can't get new gowns it's going to be pricey to recreate what we thought we ordered and paid a good amount for. My heart was broken. With this I knew we needed to act fast. I called the bridal consultant we had been working with at Copper Penny Bridal in Mount Pleasant South Carolina. After a series of emails over the course of a week there came no closure. Copper Penny Bridal insisted the gowns were the same. In an email response on March 18th, 17 DAYS BEFORE MY WEDDING, I was told, "Ok so the picture that was posted does not represent the dress well because of the dark color". With this I immediately defaulted to one of my favorite questions I use to ask as a news reporter:

Why?

Why does it not represent a high end dress you are selling? Why didn't someone tell me this in August? Why must my girls be stuck with a gown that was falsely advertised and the bill it's gonna take to restructure it? WHY WHY WHY??? I was told by both Copper Penny Bridal and the manufacturer of the dresses that this was indeed the GRACE GOWN. That the color disguised the cumberbund, that the angle the model was standing at perfectly somehow sucked in the sweeping A-line skirt. Try looking it up yourself... and you won't find the dress I ORDERED because the picture was taken off the Siri website I was directed to via Copper Penny's website. I'm told the sample was taken off months ago. WHY? The manufacturer says because of the dark color. hmmmm.

After a series of emails with the bridal consultant at Copper Penny Bridal I was emailed "...the Grace dresses are as is. That is the risk you take ordering a gown off the internet and not seeing it in person. It is understood that you had seen these gowns prior to order or that you understand the risks of not seeing them." Here was my response:

This is such disheartening news. In choosing a boutique to provide gowns for
almost a dozen women from across the nation I wanted to go with the cream of the crop. There are a lot of bridal boutiques out there, but I chose Copper Penny
Bridal for a few reasons. Most importantly, I chose Copper Penny because of the sophisticated image you portray and the implied promise that you would facilitate me in finding the perfect gowns for my bridesmaids for the most important day in my life.Until now, everything has been seamless. However, in light of the recent fiasco – the gowns not resembling what I ordered in two significant ways - I feel now as if I've been left hanging. I understand the risk in ordering dresses online. That is why I came to you, an expert, for your help. I could have gone to any wedding boutique and given them my business, but I chose Copper Penny based on your expertise and reputation. In an age when any boutique can essentially order a dress for you, I would imagine customer service would be the measure that would set you apart from the rest. Kindly don’t fail me 14 days before my wedding. Whether the dress is incorrect (as I feel it is- please see diagram attached) or as you say,correct but not represented well in the picture, the bottom line is that it does not resemble the dress I thought I was ordering. My bridesmaids will look like brides, in my view, if they were to wear those dresses. Please, put yourself in my situation: How would you feel on your wedding day if were walking down the aisle, feeling like you were one of the bridesmaids?I and my bridesmaids have invested a lot of money and trust intothese dresses through your boutique. There is no doubt that I will have to have them altered before the wedding. It is my hope that you will recognize the disappointment, quite frankly, the heartbreak, of the situation and honor what you value in customer service. I am asking that you offer a partial refund to help offset the cost of the now required alterations. I am reasonable and know mistakes can happen. You are a professional and I hope you will help make this right.I trust that you will. I look forward to hearing from you and thanks for your consideration. Angie

I heard back:

Dear Angie,
I am sorry that you feel dissatisfied with my customer service. I love weddings and truly enjoy helping brides put together their perfect dress and bridesmaids dresses,
and am honored that you chose Copper Penny Bridal to put together your bridal
party. I take my job very personal and get very involved with my weddings - this
has not been easy for me either to hear you are unhappy - believe me. I always
hate when something goes wrongor something is not how the bride imagined. I
pride myself on my service and if the dresses had arrived incorrect I would have
been quick to remedy the situation; however they did arrive correct.There is
nothing that I can do, but I am thankful that you have time to get the dresses
altered to better fit your theme. I appreciate your understanding and wish you
the best of luck. I am truly sorry that I can not do more. "Best Wishes"?

And that was it. "Best Wishes" for the big day. No adequate explanation in my eyes for the confusion and obvious error. Not one single copper penny to help offset the cost to redo the dress. It wouldn't have been as tough to swallow this outcome had I whole heartedly felt I was to blame. If all 11 gowns had come back and looked wrong... I would have an easier time taking ownership for not paying close enough attention to detail. This is an isolated issue, concerning three dresses that has turned out to be more than a material matter.

Afterall, how do you compensate poor customer care during a time you feel pushed into a corner and up against the clock? I don't think there's a good answer when you've been terribly disappointed three times over, three weeks before the one biggest day of your life?

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