Silver Threads

I really enjoyed working with Ms. Ann for my wedding dress. She was suggested to me by my wedding planner for her expertise. My wedding planner said that Ms. Ann had handled many a designer gown and was the only person my planner trusted for alterations. I knew this meant something and so I had to go and see for myself.
Not every part of the wedding planning process was so great and so romantic. I was especially nervous about my dress since I it took me so long to even find one that fit and that I loved. What I liked most was that Ms. Ann made me feel like a super star each time I came to work with her. I brought my dress in about 2 months before my big day. We had about 5 fittings and she made me feel beautiful and special each time. My favorite part was trying on my dress, stepping on the platform, and having her turn on the lights. Seeing my gown glitter and gleam under the lights excited me more than I had been throughout the process. I looked forward to wearing it after being with Ms. Ann. She was sweet as pie always. She steamed my flower girl dress and birdcage veil free of charge. She has been in business many years and will alter your dress according to what she knows looks best in photographs. She honored all appointments and all deadlines throughout the process. She was actually very flexible and responsive despite her very busy schedule. She never wasted my time during any appointments, especially since I was coming from so far. She works very hard and she was always a professional!
The dress fit beautifully on the day! So I was a very happy bride thanks to Ms. Ann.

I had such an awesome experience with Ann! I received a bridesmaids dress that was three sizes too big one month before a wedding that I was in. Due to the extensiveness of the alterations I knew it would required, I was prepared to pay an arm and a leg to get everything done in time.
Not only did Anne do a beautiful job on my alterations, she has such reasonable prices and made the time to schedule follow up appointments within that month to assure that my dress would fit perfectly. It was steamed, pressed, and ready to go in time for the wedding.
I definitely recommend using Anne for alterations on bridesmaids dresses. Conveniently located near Baltimore and such a kind person to work with.

I have had quite the unfortunate experience with Anne & Silver Threads. I purchased my dress from the bridal boutique next door. I had such a great experience with the team there that I immediately trusted their recommendation to use Anne. My dress arrived on Valentine’s Day, leaving nearly 7 months for Anne to complete my minor alterations of lowering the neck-​line, tacking in the sides and very slight hemming. I traveled back and forth between Philadelphia and Arbutus multiple times for fittings and progress updates. When it came time to collect my dress, two weeks before my destination wedding in Martha’s Vineyard… the dress was not done. In fact, it was in the same state it had been weeks before when Anne had stated that she had «maybe an hour» of work to do on the dress before it was completed.
Anne, who is seemingly a very pleasant lady, was in tears and remarked that she had simply taken on too much work in the busy bridal season. She promised my dress would be ready the following week and if need be, she would drive it to Philadelphia herself. Luckily, my Mother lives nearby and was able to pick-​up (what was supposed to be) the final product.
When the dress arrived to the wedding site, there was major puckering in the bust, raw lace all along the neckline, defects in the under-​arm area and an uneven hem line. Not to mention, the dress somehow (within a week) became much tighter in the torso… even though I had dropped a few pounds due to wedding stress.
I was forced to find a tailor, the day before my wedding, who luckily was able to fix the bust. The rest, I had to accept and walk down the aisle in a less-​than-​perfect wedding gown. No bride should have to do this — ever. We spend a hefty price on a gown we will wear for one day, that will live in photographs passed down for generations and memories that last a lifetime.
After spending several hundred dollars to fix Anne’s mistakes (who also made us pay for all of the alterations before delivering a final product), I notified her via email — 3 times — of my dissatisfaction and asked for a refund. I included photos of the dress clearly showing the many flaws in her work. The first email was sent on September 18 (the day before my wedding) and following two emails throughout September. It is now October 20, 2015 and I have yet to receive any semblance of a response from Anne. If Anne would have at least acknowledged her errors, I wouldn’t be writing this review. It seems several brides have ran into this same issue with Anne… absolutely horrible!
I will continue to pursue this situation off-​line but I wanted to caution any bride who is considering using her service for your wedding day. This is an entirely too significant event to trust someone with such horrible customer service and that refuses to stand behind her work.

After my dress was let out and the hemmed, I was still tripping on the dress down the aisle. A few fun photo ops of me tripping but I did seriously hurt my ankle. Also my heel tore into the dress after the wedding thank god.
She also, didn’t deliver the bride’s gown until the day before the wedding…

I went to see Anne to get my wedding dress altered. I tried my dress on at the shop and she decided I needed a hem, cups sewn in, a bustle and a little taken in at the top. She also decided that I needed to get it steamed, which I myself didn’t find necessary because I could not find a single wrinkle on the dress.
Once Anne decided what work she would do, she very quickly quoted me at $ 450. $ 450 as the pre-​tax base price, noted that there was a possibility she would need to do more.
I expressed that it was a lot higher than I expected to pay, considering my dress cost $ 1100, but she told me that she doesn’t negotiate. I told her I was going to need to look around a bit more to do price comparisons, and she immediately began scolding me that I would never find someone with her expertise. I’m not a seamstress, but what I am getting done is very standard.
I left Anne’s shop because I didn’t want to pay an arbitrary $ 450, which would be around $ 500 with tax. I am sure Anne is a great seamstress, but since I was offered no price break down, I felt like she just made the number up off the top of her head, but it was somehow not negotiable.

I purchased my wedding dress right next door, and they recommended Anne for the alterations I knew I would need (I am a busty, petite woman). Anne was immediately gracious, welcoming, and sweet. She accommodated my weird scheduling (I’m getting married in NC, but Anne obviously lives and works in MD) and even offered to make an inexpensive veil ($ 50!) for me when I told her I was having trouble finding something I liked. Along with the veil I’ll wear on my wedding day, she put together a little sample veil for me to take along to my hair trial. I still haven’t seen the finished product of my dress, as I have one fitting left, but the extensive work Anne has already done (moving up the waistline, hemming, shaping the cups) is wonderful. My dress fits better than I could have imagined. She’s also adding a custom sash for me, and was really helpful in directing me to a place I could find what I wanted more cheaply, rather than buying something pre-​made.
And, Anne really makes you feel like a star – her shop is complete with a pedestal and «dance floor» lighting that she can turn on to show you how the dress will look in that setting.
Overall, I have had only positive interactions with Anne, and I’m looking forward to see what my dress looks like in a few weeks!

Anne did an amazing job with my bridesmaids dress. I was in a wedding party with bridesmaids across the globe, so we ordered dresses online and unfortunately the dress I selected was just not a good fit for me.
Ann completely took the dress apart and rebuilt it to fit me. she took out the waist line, reshaped the bodice, took up the shoulders, and took about 12 inches of extra fabric out of the skirt — all for an amazingly low price.
It took a while to complete the alterations, there was winter weather, she was sick, she mixed up her appointments once, and she added an additional appointment to ensure that the dress fit right.
At the end of the day the only thing the designer did was provide the fabric, Ann did the rest and the dress fit perfectly.

Just called to see if they could squeeze me in for a hem. I was a last minute add in to my friends wedding party so the last minute issue was not my fault. needed the dress in 9 days… I WAS LAUGHED AT by whomever answered the phone. A simple: «I’m sorry we are booked up» would have sufficed. I work retail and this is a HUGE no no. you never laugh at the customer… you don’t know their situation!!!

I will echo both the compliments and the complaints.
Compliments: Was at ease with her, very flattering and affable person. Seems to know what she’s doing, and initial work was great. Compared to two other seamstresses, her price was best.
Complaints: My dress didn’t fit.
To understand the true gravity of that statement, I want to say that I have been the same size since puberty and do not fluctuate in weight or measurements. I hired Anne in January to have a dress complete by the end of June. I had 3 fittings from Feb-​Mar, and at the last one, I wasn’t sure what had been changed. I told her several times I wanted the final fitting in May, but she refused, saying in her experience a final fitting had to be done within a week of the wedding.
Lo and behold, 9 days from the wedding, she rescheduled our final fitting appt.
8 days from the wedding, while I was driving to her office, she texted me to say she was in an accident (delivering another poor bride’s dress) and could not meet me. I expressed my concern for her safety and waited a day to text her to reschedule. She didn’t respond until the next day, when she told me she could maybe see me Tuesday or Wednesday (wedding was Saturday).
I met her on Tuesday, and she had not completed a bolero I’d asked for in March, but she swore she’d finish it for the wedding. The dress fit, but was not complete — it still needed boob cups as well as a good pressing. She’d promised in January that she would also trim up some of the fraying parts. She assured me she was good to go.
She was originally scheduled to deliver on Sat, but after her driving «accident» delivering a different dress the week before, I was nervous and asked if she could deliver on Fri. She said that worked BETTER for her, and she’d drop it off by 4pm.
I’m sure you know where this story’s going. I didn’t receive my dress until 6:45am on Saturday, after numerous calls (that went unanswered) and several text messages where I was still being very polite (because I was afraid she would just not bring the dress). Her first text to me said she wasn’t finished with the jacket. I told her to forget the jacket; I just wanted the dress. She said she wanted things perfect and she’d deliver it the next evening. ??? I was getting married the next afternoon??? I told her I needed the dress Fri night. Her response included saying that «if you have 15 weddings in a weekend, then things get stressful.» I’m sorry — why are you taking on 15 weddings in one weekend then and how is this MY problem? All of this was going on DURING my rehearsal dinner.
I lost an entire night’s sleep fretting over my dress and if it would arrive on time, but nothing could compare to the moment my bridesmaids started to zip me into a dress that was suddenly too tight.
I don’t even know how that is possible when the dress fit comfortably on the Tues before the wedding, and if anything, I might have lost a pound. I was hyperventilating and could not breathe through the ceremony. THANKFULLY, I had a different dress that I changed into after my first dance.
It was an expensive dress (orig $ 1700) with a costly alteration ($ 600) since it had to be taken in and up. However, now the dress is ruined. I also lost 45 precious mins of my cocktail hour because I had to strip off the dress to breathe for a bit before putting it back on to make my entrance.
All of this said, customer service issues aside, your ONE expectation from a seamstress is always that the dress will fit. If that ONE expectation isn’t met, then the seamstress has failed. You can take your chances and hopefully have the experience of some of the 5-​star raters here, but my recommendation is to go with someone who isn’t going to over commit and under deliver.

I originally posted this on Wedding Wire but decided to copy it to a site where vendors cannot have reviews altered and removed. I saw another negative review come in after mine against this company on Wedding Wire but it was removed shortly after Anne Graham posted her rebuttal against my review.
Anne came highly recommended by our wedding planner. However, after our experience, my planner has informed me that she will be removing this vendor from her company list. Anne is a very good seamstress but a terrible business professional. She takes on too many clients leaving herself very disorganized and overwhelmed to the point of providing bad service. The total cost of my wife’s alterations was over $ 1000 which at first I was shocked by but then realized she would be performing a lot of work on two dresses. Anne had her dresses for over 5 months and during that time had to reschedule on numerous occasions, sometimes not calling to say she needed to reschedule until we were driving to her shop for the appointment. She missed several deadlines including the final fitting when my wife was supposed to pick up her dresses the week of the wedding. She tried to hand the dresses off incomplete and it wasn’t until my wife brought several incomplete alterations to her attention did she admit to not finishing on time. Worst of all, she lost the «something blue» memento that she was to sew on the inside of my wife’s dress. This was something very dear to both me and my wife and is irreplaceable. She assured us she would find it, finish the alterations, and deliver the dresses the night of the rehearsal dinner. We did not receive my wife’s dresses until 11:00 pm the night before our wedding and she never found the item she was supposed to sew into the dress. As she was leaving from delivering the dresses, she apologized for the horrible experience we had and offered a refund on her service. It is 4 weeks after the wedding now and she has yet to return a phone call or email. I am assuming we will never see the item she lost or a refund on the terrible service.
Update: Anne finally replied to my wife’s third email which wasn’t until after she saw my review on Wedding Wire. Her only response to her was that since I decided to take the issue public, that’s where we can expect to see her response. At the hotel she was so apologetic and even cried over the fact that she caused us so much grief. She was the one to offer us a refund, we didn’t even ask or expect one. That was obviously an act since now she is admitting no wrong doing and is only concerned about her status and reviews on wedding websites. As I mentioned to her in my emails, she has obviously made other brides happy but for us it was an awful experience. The worst part of this whole experience has been after the wedding. Rather than taking responsibility for her actions, and contacting us directly, she instead posts a ridiculous rebuttal of excuses to my review. Good luck to anyone who works with this woman!

I really liked Ann from Ann’s Silver Threads. She took a very inexpensive dress from David’s Bridal and made (most of it) look great and charged a reasonable amount.
I had three appointments which all were quick and went pretty well. My last appointment I got a call from Ann on my way to the appointment saying she was at a funeral in South Carolina and wouldn’t be able to make the appointment. I was of course very sympathetic to the fact that she was at a funeral but would’ve appreciated a call sooner, especially since my mom and I had taken off work that day to go there and to do some other wedding errands. When I was able to reschedule the appointment, there were a few little things that in retrospect I wish I had asked her to change, but, since it was so close to our wedding date and I just wanted to take the dress with me that day.
Overall, her work was good, and I was always at ease with her.

I do not question that Anne is a good seamstress. She seemed very knowledgeable at our first meeting. However, I question her professionalism. As a business owner, she should never post a message on her door to alert people that she will not be meeting them for a scheduled appointment. No phone call? People were driving from as far away as Northern Virginia. I also know this didn’t just happen to me, it happened to at least two other clients. Her excuses are very lame and numerous. Nobody needs that drama in their life when they’re looking for a wedding gown seamstress.

Anne was late with my dress, though she had it for months. I was set to pick up my dress, and she told me she wasn’t ready because she had a bunch of dresses to finish. When I told her she would need to deliver my dress to the National Harbor, she decided to prioritize my dress.
I picked my dress up not knowing that Anne never completed the alterations. There was a missing corset hook she was supposed to replace. Despite having my dress for several months, and the fact that I reminded her of the replacement several times, she never replaced it. My dress actually started opening on me during my reception. Fortunately, I had a going away dress to change in to.
When I contacted her, she was rude and asked what I wanted her to do. I told her I wanted her to refund the cost of the alteration she didn’t complete. She said she would and I never received anything or heard anything from her. I’ve since read reviews where people said she did similar things. My alterations were $ 300+. Needless to say, I don’t recommend her.

You MUST go to Anne if you are looking for a seamstress, particularly for a wedding or occasion dress. She is super sweet, very affordable, and does an amazing job. I am so happy to have found her. I purchased my wedding dress out of state and didn’t have the free time to use their seamstress (also out of state). By the time I called Anne there was less than a month to my wedding. I was absolutely terrified of finding the wrong person and having my dress damaged. She had everything taken care of in a few weeks and is steaming the dress for me to pick up the day before the wedding. And did I mention all of this amazingness is affordable?! You can’t find this level of service and price anywhere else. Trust me, I tried.
Unilocal and Wedding Wire reviews led me to Anne, and I could not be happier. She is next door to Lily’s bridal and used to work exclusively for them, but now the rest of us can take advantage of her. Call her and make an appointment, you will not be disappointed.