This is a hobo suit, darling! You can't be seen in this. I won't allow it! - Edna Mode, from "The Incredibles"

Hi all, it's Tan here.

Before I start, this whole blog post was inspired by Edna Mode from, "The Incredibles".  For those who don't know who that is, check this out:

NO CAPES!!

How did Edna inspire me to do this blog post?  Well, watching Edna reminded me of the first and only experience Jennie and I have had when dress shopping recently.  It's not that we don't like Edna - quite the opposite really.

(Jennie: Just to clarify to those wondering, Tan will be helping me in the dress selection process as he enjoys clothes shopping more than many women do and he also has awesome taste.  So in my honest opinion sticking to some silly outdated tradition would be just selfish of me!)

Our first experience left us wishing that we had someone as awesome as Edna to help us with the dress selection.

What we thought Wedding Dress shopping would be like

(Jennie: I feel that our view of bridal boutiques may have been slightly influenced by watching too much "Say Yes to the Dress". Kleinfeld Bridal have an absolutely amazing store!)

Jennie: I'd love to go here just to say that I have!

One of the possible designers Jennie had "narrowed" down her selection to was Alfred Angelo, as he is responsible for the Disney Fairy Tale Weddings Collection.  Quite a nice collection, if I do say so myself (see more here).  He is quite popular in the US however, there are limited stockists in Australia.

One of the few places in Melbourne was the first place we visited.  I don't want to name any names, but if you're ever looking for Alfred Angelo dress in Brunswick... Don't even bother!

What we thought it felt like being in that shop

So what went wrong?  Where do I start...?

The experience upset Jennie so much that she went as far as writing to Alfred Angelo themselves to let them know how poor the experience was.  Here is an excerpt from her feedback:

"When we walked into the store, it was quite a small boutique and had a very "thrift store" feel about it. I was disappointed when the first thing I noticed was all the dresses in the store were not covered and were all looking "dull" because they weren't protected at all.

I presented my list to the attendant who made it clear she didn't have much time as she was the only person working that day, even though she made a point of mentioning that we were the only people that were in the store the entire duration of our visit. 

Actual image from the shop,
sadly this image looks better than the store does!

She began searching through the dresses and went through about 50 or more trying to find the ones on my list even though I had all the codes written down and tried to explain the styles to her.

I recognized the newest Ariel dress (style 223) on the hanger and pointed it out saying that it was the one, but even through it had a "Disney Fairy Tales Wedding" swing tag on it she disregarded it as being that dress because it had a different code on it instead she kept looking through more and more dresses unable to find anything.

When we eventually found another style that was on my list and this time had the code (it was the Snow White dress, style 220), she pulled the dress away from the others while it was still on the rack. I had about 1 minute to glance at the dress before she tucked it back in with the other dresses. The shoulder train (or cape) was still tucked into the dress (to protect it apparently) and her lack of care and presentation did absolutely nothing for such a beautiful dress.

I asked about the Cinderella Platinum dress (style 209) as it is one of my favorites, she said she had that one and pointed to a dress that was hanging on the end of one of the racks. She never bothered to hang it away from any of the other dresses, fluff it out, show us the back or try and present it to us in any way. We were to view it on the end of the rack and that was all.

I asked if they had another store that I could view some of the other styles or when they'd be getting any of them in. She said they weren't going to be getting any of the other styles in because they wouldn't sell in Australia so there wouldn't be any point. 

She offered to order them for me if I wanted something specific, but as you know, it would be silly to buy a wedding dress without trying it on because what you see in a book will look completely different on each individual bride.

This attendant had no time, no product knowledge and no interest in selling your gowns. Overall I had a very disappointing day from what was meant to be an extremely exciting and magical time. I am surprised that Alfred Angelo is willing to allow a retailer that is clearly not doing the brand justice to be allow to sell such a beautiful and rather high-end product. 

I would love to see them put a little more time into their screening process as if I wasn't such a big lover of Disney and determined to travel half way around the world to have my wedding in Walt Disney World then I wouldn't have given the product a second thought, I would have walked out and purchased something else."

Quite scathing from Jennie (if you know Jennie, you'd know that she usually doesn't send this type of feedback).

What it must have felt like to Jennie...

Credit to the team at Alfred Angelo, they responded to Jennie's feedback within a few days and told her that they would help out when we're ready to go dress shopping again.

Here's hoping the next time is much more magical!

Thank you for reading.  Would love to get your feedback.

P.S. If you haven't responded to Jennie about the room allocations, please do so ASAP - this week is the week we lock in our dates and expected room booking numbers.  You will miss out on the discounts!!

Thanks for reading!!