Bridal Elegance & Pageantry

I bought the dress of my dreams here. Everything was wonderful — my consultant was amazing, super sweet to my whole entourage, especially to my grandma. A week after I bought my dress, they called to say the dress had been discontinued. A WEEK had gone by before they figured this out. Needless to say, I was devastated. Devastated.
Their selection is amazing, their prices are wonderful and my consultant was perfect. I’m just shocked that they would not have their inventory organized enough to realize that the dress they measured me for and charged my credit card for wasn’t actually a dress I could own. I know things like this happen, but I just can’t get over this.

I consider myself pretty low maintenance when it comes to these types of things, but I guess there’s a couple things I would expect out of a bridal shop. First — when I arrived for my appointment, the consultant they had assigned to me was working with someone else, already (and, mind you, my appointment was 15 minutes after the shop opened — so it’s not as though I was early or another scheduled appointment could have been running late). This would not have been a problem, except for the fact that during the entire 45 minutes I was there trying on dresses, I only saw my consultant once. No one helped me find or get into the dresses. And it wasn’t a case of them being super busy — it was just me and one other bride in the store. Second — prior to my appointment, I scoured Bridal Elegance’s website to find dresses I liked (in hopes that it would ease the time it took to find dresses). I handed a list of about 10 dresses to the consultant and asked if they had the dresses in stock (mind you, all of them were dresses that were pictured on the store’s website). The consultant took the list and never brought it back. I never heard if they had any of the style numbers or if they were older styles. Nothing. These things kind of turned me off to this place.
There are a few positives, though. The selection is HUGE and the prices are reasonable (I even found a dress I liked for $ 475, which is far less than I was expecting). In the end, though, I didn’t end up getting my dress from here because the service was terrible and I didn’t feel like they cared I was there, at all.

I got my dress from Bridal Elegance, and could not be happier. The girls there were SO nice. The place is huge, and they have dresses to fit anyone’s budget. One room is filled with destination wedding dresses, and other moderately priced gowns. The other room is called «The Couture» room, and they have higher end gowns. None of the gowns are marked with designer information, other than the Maggie Sottero dresses. I thought this was great! If you were looking for a specific dress, by a specific designer, they are able to find it for you. However, it was nice to look at a dress, and fall in love with the dress and NOT the label.
The girls there were extremely helpful and knowledgeable. They let my mom, maid of honor, and I roam around the place, filling up racks with any gown. I had never tried on any dresses before this, so the girls told me that was the best way to narrow down what would look best on me. I tried on a little of everything, and when I didn’t like it, they put the dress back. When I did like something, several girls walked through the store, and would grab other gowns in a similar style. They are very respectful of your budget, and do not try to upsell you or force you into a more expensive dress.
The dress I ended up choosing was a brand new sample that had not even been on the floor yet, and it was a perfect fit. I was able to purchase that exact dress. The girls also informed me that if the floor sample is purchased, they will no longer carry that dress. They are constantly getting new things.
We spent approx. 4 hours there. After I was set on my dress, they informed us that I would get 25% off all bridal accessories, and 10% off MOB, Bridesmaid Dresses up until the date of my wedding. The girls were always offering us bottled water, and they were pleasantly helpful.
I would reccomend Bridal Elegance to anyone. It is unlike any other bridal shop that I have ever been to. I wasn’t really impressed with their selection of Bridesmaid and MOB dresses, but as far as bridal gowns and accesories this place is AMAZING!

I have been to 16 bridal shops in the Chicago area. In comparison with other stores, Bridal Elegance is average (ranked 8^th out of 16).
Cleanliness: 3 stars (dresses are in gown bags, and are in decent condition; the store exhibits average cleanliness)
Service: 1 star
Selection: 5 stars (the only 5-​star selection… literally rooms full of dresses)
Trustworthiness: 3 stars
I had an appointment on a Saturday prior to Prom season. We had the place almost to ourselves. The girl who helped us didn’t seem to enjoy her job at all, and I tried on all the dresses myself. The dresses are average price ($ 500-​$ 1500). Basically this is a good place to start your shopping and get an idea of various styles.

I decided to try Bridal Elegance because I heard they were the largest wedding dress store in the state from a friend. I drove from Chicago with my mom and grandma. At first the building didn’t seem that overwhelmingly large and definitely didn’t look «boutique-​ish». But I was so pleasantly surprised!!! They truly have so many wedding dresses (they also have rooms full of bridesmaid, mother of the bride, prom, etc. dresses too!). After looking at wedding magazines and being overwhelmed by the price tag of many dresses, I wasn’t sure if they would laugh at me when I told them I wanted to spend less than $ 1,000. I was thrilled to find that it was absolutely possible! I was there literally all day long and swear I only looked at 10% of the dresses (they really have that many!!!). I also like how they have the store set up. They have two huge rooms of bridal gowns (they also have multiple other rooms full of other types of dresses). One room is for «standard» dresses and the other is for «couture» dresses. And even in a less than $ 1,000 price range, I still found tons of dresses in the «couture» room. [FYI — I was told most of their dresses are under $ 2,000, and there were tons of amazing dresses well under $ 1,000]. I had the most amazing saleswoman Zena (I highly recommend her!). She took the time to look at pictures I had cut from magazines to get a feel for the «look» I was going for. I pulled a bunch of dresses to try on and Zena pulled a bunch of dresses that she thought I would like as well. She very patiently «laced me up» in about 20 dresses for my first round of «try ons.» We were able to really figure out what shape/​styles worked for my body shape (I am a curvy size 8/​10, large chest, short waist, long legs. The short waist thing can really be a challenge because everything bunches up in the middle). After narrowing it down to what styles worked well, we pulled a second round of dresses (most from a designer that seemed to work well with both my shape and style). Again, Zena patiently «laced me up» in another 20 or so dresses. In the end, I was able to narrow it down to 7 amazing dresses (all between about $ 650-​$ 850). I’m a pretty indecisive person and I knew it was going to have to sleep on it and come back a second time. But I left so happy knowing that I had many beautiful choices, all under $ 1,000!
I would recommend making an appointment for a Monday or Tuesday when the store is slower (you have a better chance of a wonderful sales person like Zena spending more time with you). I was told that the weekends are busier and appointments are only an hour and a half (and I don’t know about you, but I can’t make up my mind that fast!)
All in all, it was definitely worth the drive and I plan on going back with my «posse» of bridesmaids to make a final decision on a dress and pick out bridesmaid dresses.