Brunilda’s Bridal and Alterations

I really do wish I could give no stars on this also. I have never been soooo uncomfortable in my life. My experience at this store was awful, with my friend not understanding what I wanted, and the owner not understanding what I wanted also. My friend showing me a hideous dress, and not being able to try on a freakin dress without an appointment. YEA I THINK NOT.

Wish there were a way to give no stars to warn people…
Being a busty person, I was thrilled that the shop actually a dress that fit me perfectly off the rack. It just needed to be shortened.
I told her I had someone to do it for me but she told me not to spend the extra money and she would take care of it. Stupid me…
I let her pin the dress for the hem and advised her I would be back in a week to pick it up (I live out of town). Well, I returned and put the dress on and the hem was an inch *ABOVE* my ankles! A decent-​looking gown that should be hitting the floor was now a joke. To add insult to injury, she charged me $ 40 for the job, pointing to her sign that there was a cost for all alterations — after she told me to NOT spend more money elsewhere.
So I had no choice but to wear the dress because it was too late to find another one and feel like a fool for having her do the work AND not reading the other Unilocal reviews first…
Avoid this place at all costs!

Went here with my two best friends for prom dresses in 2008.
The lady was extremely rude to my friends who were over a size 6.
I paid $ 500 for a dress that fell apart. All the sequins and beads fell off. The hook for the train broke and I trampled all over the dress at the prom. She decided to order shoes a size larger without asking, fell off my feet and I was stuck with them. She sewed in boob pads into my strapless dress in the wrong location and I fell out of it all night long. SO EMBARRASSING to have the whole senior class see my breasts.
For how much money I spent it was so not worth it. I dont want to hear for hours how you used to be a gymnast and there is no reason to be fat while I struggle to go from a size 9 to a size 6. Im still pissed to this day thinking of that experience.

Brunilda is a gem! I was getting married on a Thursday and went wedding gown shopping on Tuesday. Brunilda is a sweet, petite, Greek woman who has been in the business for over 20+ years and has owned her own store for 18 years.
We tried on 4 dresses and sure enough lucky #4 was my dress. She did the alterations overnight and the next morning I came in with my girlfriend for the last fitting and it was perfect!
Brunilda is accommodating, sincere and will work within your budget. She not only has wedding gowns, she also has prom dresses, religious ceremony gowns, etc
I hope everyone who reads the review will love Brunilda as much as I did.

I have been recommending Brunilda’s to my friends since my wedding two years ago, and I was surprised when I found all the horrible reviews on Unilocal.
Brunilda, the owner, along with my maid of honor, helped me find a dress that I really loved.
My wedding dress not was ugly, torn, or out of date, which seems to be a problem other reviews had with their bridesmaids dresses. My service was friendly and personable, and the prices were more than reasonable.
Brunilda bundled the cost of the dress, shoes, veil, dyeing the shoes and veil, alterations, packing, and shipping from CA to TN into the price I was expecting to pay for the dress alone.
If you’re looking for an upscale boutique experience where the saleswoman flatters you regardless of how you look, go somewhere else. I appreciated the frankness and small-​town, intimate service I received at Brunilda’s.

Whoa, I really wish I would have read Jenny’s review before I went to Brunilda’s because I had a similar experience. The owner is a whack job… she is bossy, dramatic, lazy, not receptive to clients desires or concerns. I ordered a bridemaid dress out of a catalog at her shop and when it arrived I almost died! So ugly, cheap material, horrible fit. She wouldn’t acknowledge any of these facts! She also basically refused to help me with the alterations I asked for… just LAZY! I needed the top of the dress taken in but she said I just needed a push up bra. I HAVE DD BOOBS!!! How much bigger do they need to be for gosh sakes??? Once I finally convinced her to put darts in the top of the dress to fit my boobs she put them in such an awkward place instead of running them along the seam that was already there. That is like Sewing 101 helllooooo!!!
Save yourself the time, money and grief and head to ANY other bridal shop in the Napa Valley.

Do NOT shop at this store! The owner has no integrity & will take advantage of you.
The bottom line:
Everyone should know that the owner of this store is unreliable, misleading & argumentative. She overcharges for sloppy alterations & sells defective merchandise. Do not make the same mistake that I did by giving your business to Brunilda’s Bridal.
My full story is:
When I first walked in the store I needed a simple hem on a bridesmaid dress. The owner acted like she wouldn’t help me because she said she only does alterations if you buy a dress from her. I was holding my dress in my arms & she was literally trying to sell me another dress! But then when she realized that wasn’t happening she said, «oh well, maybe I’ll make an exception for you» as if she was doing me a favor.
I asked her how much it would cost & she wouldn’t give me a price until she pinned the hem. I insisted on a quote & she said hems start at $ 40. I thought that was high but I was already there so I put on the dress so she could measure it. After it was all pinned she told me it was a «more complicated» hem & she would do it for $ 55. I was annoyed & argued that she said $ 40 but at that point I had already wasted so much time that I just said fine & left.
When I went to pick-​up the dress I tried it on. She tells me that the bra I have on is not good for this dress & she pulls out a bustier for me to try on. She gave me a size 38B. I am a 36DD. She said she sells bras but they are in the back & she only gave me one bustier to try on. I thought the bustier looked worn, like other people had used it to try on dresses. I wasn’t sold on the size so I told her I wanted to try on another size but she insisted she knew it was the right size & she was not going to give me another option. I felt like I was being backed in the corner & I never should have bought that bustier…
Fast forward a few weeks until the day before I’m leaving for the wedding. The bustier is sitting in the same bag that she put it in when I bought it. I pull the bustier out of the bag & I realize that it is broken. One of the plastic boning strips is literally coming out of the back. She sold me a used broken bustier for $ 60! I decide there is no way I’m going to use it because I want to return it so I don’t even bring it with me to the wedding. Instead in between hair/​makeup appts and bridal party pictures I was running around Philadelphia shopping for something to wear under my dress.
Also on the day of the wedding I realize there is something wrong with my dress… the inner material is sticking out near the neckline. One of the other bridesmaids had to rip some stitches to get the material to lay flat under the dress. So, somehow this «3^rd generation seamstress» also managed to screw up a simple hem alteration.
After the wedding I tried to return the bustier & she said she doesn’t take returns. She didn’t care that she sold me a broken bustier & there was nothing she would do about it.
So, please save yourself the time, money & endless frustration. Do not make the same mistake that I did by giving your business to Brunilda’s Bridal.

I too have had a terrible experience with Brunilda. A family member was getting married, and as I was a student, the parents of the groom (my relatives) offered to pay for the dress I couldn’t afford.. When I went in for a fitting, I couldn’t help but notice how tacky the store was — not somewhere I personally would ever choose to go, but hey — it’s not my wedding, right? After the fitting, Brunilda looked me in the eye and said (with the most obvious criticism and disdain), «the mother of the bride already had to pay the deposit on your dress. She paid half. You need to pay the rest when you come back». I told her it wasn’t any of her business who paid what and that she would get her money, which should be her only concern.
Upon my arrival to pick up the dress, she again made clear her disapproval that I was not the one paying for the dress. I understand it’s traditional that a bridesmaid buys her own dress — but is this really how Brunilda wants to treat customers? I will never ever ever go back.

This dress shop, the woman who owns it, everything about it is a nightmare. I gladly went along with the Bride to Be, searching for bridesmaid dresses in April of 2008. Bride to Be and Mother of the Bride had been in before and had been impressed with the selection and the owners promises to «get whatever the Bride to Be wanted» Whatever the Bride to Be wanted was NOT what we got. Three bridesmaid dresses, too late to alter, snagged material and the run around each time I called with promises of «the dresses will be in next week» times 5. As the Maid of Honor, my job is to keep the Bride to Be calm, right? Each time I dealt with the owner of Brunilda’s she made my job as MOH a bit harder, until the day came that I called and asked «are all 4 dresses in, 3 bridesmaids and one Mother of the Bride dress?» She told me that all bridesmaid dresses were in but the MOB dress had just shipped that day! Less than 14 days out from the wedding, I wasn’t gonna’ keep anyone calm with this news. She then back pedaled and said, well maybe the dress was there. Oh yes, she confused the dress with another MOB. Um, no. We received the dress right off the rack. Snagged, missing buttons, horribly ripped and torn fabric. She covered herself by pulling the dress off the rack, that she forgot to order! BTW we ended up finding a similar dress, more lovely than the first for half the price at Macy’s the next weekend for a now satisfied Mother of the Bride. Brunilda’s charged approx. $ 500 alterations not included for something you could get at the highway 29 flea market. This store is a classic example of dying downtown Napa, with no shopping, no credible downtown stores, and no options across the valley — therefore customers are forced to go with what’s there. What’s available. Well thanks alot downtown Napa — we’ll drive to Sacramento, San Francisco or fly to New York the next time a family wedding comes to town, because Brunilda’s certainly won’t be getting our business anymore, and there are plenty more weddings to come!