Formal Envy

Oh, Formal Envy. You’re as good as it gets!
The search for my wedding dress was nowhere near what it’s like on TV. First of all, there were no tears. There was no trying on 100,000 dresses. There wasn’t a lot of debate among the bridal party. There was just a strong feeling in the room that the search was over and that dress was mine.
Ok so about a year and a half ago, I went with one of my friends to try on bridal gowns. I fell in love with one of the dresses she tried and knew that it would be a frontrunner when my time came. Luckily, she did not buy the dress which made me secretly jump inside with excitement. I tried the dress on at a bridal salon in Charlotte, then at another shop in Fredericksburg. I was just about ready to go back to Charlotte to purchase the dress when I saw that Formal Envy was having a trunk show for the same designer. I called and even though they didn’t have a sample of the dress in the store, they offered to order it and honor the trunk sale discount. Boo-​ya! Got my dress AND got it for $ 1,000 cheaper than what the other store in Fredericksburg quoted me and $ 200 cheaper than the store in Charlotte.
Needless to say, my experience at Formal Envy was a great one. The girls in the store were super helpful and the owner was a real gem. She did not have to offer me a discount on a dress that she didn’t even have in the store, but she did. The process was relatively quick and painless. Within an hour I was on the road back to Richmond. Love it! Excited to pick up my dress in a few months.

My first time going to Formal Envy and picking my dress was simple and exciting. The owner and Mary were extremely helpful. After purchasing my dress, everything unraveled from there. From allowing one of my bridesmaids to change my request without consulting me to canceling my alteration the day of my appointment. I no longer have the desire to do any business with Formal Envy and I would not recommend them to anyone.

After a day of looking all over Fredericksburg for a wedding gown in my modest budget of $ 200 I had given up as we were heading down Rt 3 east toward home, I saw the word «formal» on a store sign and I yelled out and had my brother turn the car around. We pulled up about 6:30pm on Sunday and we looked inside through the window and it was so nice inside and I thought they were going to just laugh at us and send us on our way when I told them my budget. (This embarrassment is why I didn’t go in any other nice stores). But I said you’ll never find a gown if you don’t suck it up and ask, so my mother, older brother, sister in-​law and I walked in and I just said out right my wedding is two months away and I need a $ 200 gown, and the look on the sales woman’s face was skeptical but, who I assume was the owner said we can do this and they told me all the bridesmaids dresses could be ordered in white. So I picked a few out and bought the first one I tried on, it was absolutely gorgeous. The staff, the shop, everything about the experience was great, no judgements, no treating my family (my brother in his paint covered work clothes) poorly, I’m so pleased.

This place seriously rocks. I couldn’t even imagine having a better experience. I’ve been in here three times and I had the same two girls help me the first two times. They were so unbelievably sweet and helpful. They were focused, listened to my maid of honor and I’s ideas and pulled dresses that they thought would work for us. I went in there for a third time with one of my bridesmaids that needed to try dresses and had a girl I had never seen before help us. She was extremely pleasant as well. She knew that I was concerned about the size of a dress I had tried at another store and actually offered to come with me to see it for herself so that she could assess it for me. What?! Who does that? It is not even a dress that they carry, so for all she knew, she could have been helping me buy a dress from a different company. This is the kind of out of your way service that makes brides feel cared for and comfortable. This also goes to show you that they empathize with the fact that this is a very difficult decision and they will help you in any possible way. The service that the girls give at this store truly make me feel like they care about the outcome of my dress and my wedding day in general. They’ve totally earned the business of my bridesmaids and myself.

I am so glad I decided to book an appointment with Formal Envy. I had an entire weekend planned to visit bridal shops worried I wouldn’t find the perfect dress. After visiting and finding the dress and veil… I cancelled the rest of my appointments.
Nicole, Kolby and the rest of the girls (can’t remember all of their names) have been so helpful, patient, nice and attentive. They give you all the time you need to try on the dresses. The store has plenty of dresses to choose from at reasonable prices. I noticed that they also sell jewelry, shoes, prom dresses, tuxedos…
I also booked several appointments at other stores for my bridesmaid dresses but ended up back at Formal Envy. They had a wide variety from different designers. Even the mother of the groom bought her dress here.
The girls called me as soon as my dress arrived which was almost a month ahead of time and so did the bridesmaid dresses. This was a big surprise!
The seamstress is a sweetheart and did a great job with the alterations.
I have zero complaints about Formal Envy.

Sigh. After my friend filed a complaint with the BBB (not to resolve the situation, but to make a point that businesses shouldn’t treat their customers that way), Formal Envy replied, stating that we (yes, I was mentioned by name) were trying to extort money/​services from them! So be careful what you say on Unilocal,because people misinterpret the law all the time!
As an aside, when we all went to pick up our bridesmaid dresses, they were beautiful. And the sweet girl that helped us was amazing. I publicly apologized to her for all the ugliness, and told her that she and the other sweet staff were the only saving grace of the company. Unfortunately, the owner and her mother are going to run this place into the ground unless they change their practices. So take note: unless you end up in a dispute with the owner (or her mommy), Formal Envy can and will give you a wonderful experience. Besides, from what I hear, the owner is never there anyway.

I was highly impressed with this store! I’ve been everywhere and they were the nicest and most attentive, even without an appointment which is unusual for wedding shops! The girl who worked with me was very patient and sweet, she kept the dresses coming and kept taking the time to lace me up, which I’m sure gets old quick! They were only open for an hour more and they still accommodated me which, again, is totally unusual for wedding shops! I found my wedding dress here and I’m in love with it! I saw negative reviews about the seamstress and that worries me bc I haven’t dealt with that at all yet but if all goes smoothly I’ll be back on here to review the seamstress, so maybe I can help someone else as stressed as I am about having an easy transaction! :)
Shop here, it’s small but perfect!

It was a Saturday morning and yet somehow it felt like I had the store completely to myself. I had two young girls helping me. They were very enthusiastic and very helpful. The dresses were all on great shape, and the prices were very reasonable. Although I didn’t end up finding my dress here, it was a wonderful experience!

These folks clearly understand bridal wear and their brides! I had a wonderful experience here after not so fantastic experiences at other salons in the area. They listen, are so helpful, and have beautiful dresses. Make this your first stop for a wedding dress. I wish I had!

I called this shop in desperation after having a really poor experience at another bridal shop in the area. I explained that I was looking for a bridesmaid dress for a friend’s wedding and that because she lived quite far away, I was on my own in finding a dress. I had been told by the previous shop that I couldn’t get the dress I wanted before the wedding, since 12 weeks was the turnover time for the dress. I told the woman on the phone that I desperately needed a dress, and asked if they had anything in the color or around the size I needed since I was worried that I wouldn’t get a dress at all.
The woman said that the store had changed hours and that they now closed at 3pm instead of 5pm, and it was already 4 at the time. She said I could come in and see what they had, and that they carried some brands that had a faster order time and would get to the store in time. I arrived slightly later than I had planned, but the woman was very patient and helpful with me, showing me the particular brand that arrived more quickly and helping me to go through catalogs for the brand when I couldn’t find a dress on the rack that I liked. Although she was new and somewhat unfamiliar with the brands and ordering practices, she made a great deal of effort to be as helpful as possible in finding a dress for me. Ultimately, I still could order a dress, but she took down all of my information and made a note for the owner to follow up with me as soon as possible when the store opened Monday morning with details of ordering and information.
Although I don’t have my dress yet, the woman was tremendously dedicated to helping me deal with a difficult situation and the time crunch due to short notice of the wedding.