Lamerite

DO NOT GO HERE!
I’m a bridesmaid in my sister’s wedding. I’m the only one who lives here in St. Louis so I went to go solo to try on the bridemaid dress she picked out. La Merite was the only shop open on Sundays with this particular dress, so when I had extra time I decided to swing by. I actually called first to make sure they had the dress and they were polite enough on the phone. But when I got there, the employees were as rude and disrespectful as could be. They for some reason got it in their heads that I was from out of town, which I repeatedly told them was not the case. The man working there practically threw a size 10 dress at me and walked away. I had to run after him to ask if there were other sizes to try on so I could find a smaller size to see which size fit me best. His response was «you’re from out of town right? you’re not going to buy the dress from here.» Once I explained again that I live in town, he reluctantly gave me a smaller size. As I was leaving, I ran into a woman sales associate, and she also looked at me and said, «you’re not going to buy the dress from here, are you?»
The fact is I could have easily bought the dress from them, but the way they treated me, ignored me, refused to listen to me, and made assumptions about me made me run out the door. These people are rude. They probably assume people won’t buy from them because all their potential customers get disgusted and walk away. I can’t even imagine how horrible they must make brides feel on a day that is supposed to be special.

If you are a bride who is interested in having as low a stress as possible for your wedding. Including having your dream dress made specifically for you and having it catered to you. Do not go to this shop. Art the man who runs it will be very very nice to and extremely helping until he gets all of your payments and you are done paying for your dress. Not only did i have issues with his customer service. My tiara was 1) not the tiara i ordered, and two was not broken and bent. When i asked if it could be returned so close to the wedding date Art said he would call the company and ask for a replacement. He never called the company. The tiara sat in plain view for at least a week. When i asked for my money back because i found the tiara unsavory he refused to return my money. I had to send my mom in to get my money back. (Which she was indeed able to do). I finally got my dress one week before the wedding. Which it took almost 9 months to get to me after it had been ordered. I was fitted for it and it was altered and looked amazing. When i finally went to go sign and take my dress for my wedding. My mom who was extremely untrusting of Art decided to open my dress the dress. As my mother was opening my dress Art disappeared into his office. The reason for his duck and cover move was because my dress was filthy and extremely wrinkled. It had other scraps of dresses stuck to it. This was after i had just had my last fitting and it was perfect. My mom confronted Art about what was wrong he proceeded to tell not only her but me as well that he had pressed the dress and that he felt that nothing was wrong, and that not only had he pressed the dress that his elderly father who also worked in this family run dress shop had pressed it as well. The one saving grace was Arts assistant who took my dress and cleaned. (this all occurred the friday before my wedding. My wedding was on a sunday). I returned for my dress a couple of hours later and it looked extremely presentable b. The lady who had fixed my dress worked extremely hard and was even wiling to spend even more time on it and even refused to leave the store until i felt my dress was presentable. I really liked the assistant who wanted to remain anonymous when i wrote about this shop. She was extremely helpful and very kind and reassured me that she was going to report the store owner.
The day of my wedding finally arrived and when i went to put on my dress. I realized that the front of my dress was steamed way to much and the fabric had gathered. Also the whole entire zipper on the back of my dress came off. My mom had to safety pin the whole dress to my corset and then fashion pin the whole dress closed. It held the whole night. and the bridesmaids were able to pin the dress in a way that made the front look presentable and have a completely different design.
Not only was my dress massacred the bridesmaids were treated horribly and that they too had slits in the pockets in their dresses and had a hard time getting a straight answer from the guy. Art Was absolutely horrible to everyone once he was able to get all the money he was owed and if there was any flaw with anything he wouldn’t accept responsibility he would just say «In my professional opinion it looks completely fine»
If you are looking for a dress shop to cater to you and you are looking for someone to help you make the best decisions for you and help you make your big day amazing then do not go to La Merite Bridal Shop. They will ruin your big day.
DO NOT GO HERE!!!

This dress shop is TERRIBLE and I definitely DO NOT recommend using them. My Mom ordered her dress back in May an we are now 3 days from my wedding and she still has not gotten her dress! The owner has told her that they don’t know where the dress is and that it could be caught up in «customs» from china and may not arrive in time. As a solution, he offered us the stained, torn, and used sample dress at FULL PRICE and won’t fix it! Are you kidding me? NOT ACCEPTABLE! We went in today to request a refund as I said the wedding is in 3 days so we found my mom a different dress. He refused to refund the deposit saying he hasnt done anything wrong and the dress «could still come in before the wedding.» He claims that because I think it is unacceptable to not have a dress 3 days before the wedding that is my «opinion» and most people do not have a problem with that… Right I’m sure most brides do everything at the last minute! The owner is incredibly rude, unorganized and is a poor poor businessman and has absolutely no concern about the stress of me or my mother not having a dress. According to him, he has done everything right! What a joke!
Thank God I didn’t get my wedding dress from him! Take your business elsewhere if you want to avoid headaches like this before your big day. He needs to be SHUT DOWN!