Beautiful Bustles

She was terrible.  That was the worst part of the whole wedding.  She is on the Louisville Wedding Network.  I don't usually do this but I am going to have to write a letter.  I went to a jewelry place and she said "I have had a few other complaints about her recently."  She said that I should tell the president of the local wedding network because Megan is the only one under alterations on there.  I had a whole list of things that she did that I ann going to tell him.  It was a nightmare.  It was just awful.  She did so much damage to the dress that even on the wedding day, that was the biggest stress of all, trying to get the gap covered up.  She took it up too much and the dress was too small.  We had to lace it just right so it wouldn't pucker, then you couldn't hook it so we had to take the hook off because it showed.  Then, my cousin and I had to figure out how to get the tie in there to cover up the big gap since it was taken up so much.  We had to tie a bow and tuck it in.  It was one thin after another.  She cancelled appointments.  She had good reviews on line and she told me that I was the only one who had ever complained.  Then, it turned out that I'm not.  Someone else recommended her to me, who spent more on their wedding than we did, but she said that her daughter didn't need a lot of alterations.  She was really nice, had a lovely personality and relates well to the young people so she kind of hooked my daughter in with her personality.  My daughter kept wanting to go back to her and she was young though and didn't realize what was right and what was wrong.  I kind of have a little sewing background so I knew.  I called her and said that she had already done the damage and we no longer wanted to use her.  She was supposed to come a few hours before the wedding and press and steam the dresses, sew on buttons, and help with anything that anybody needed; groomsmen, bridesmaids, and the variety.  I thought that was a good idea and that is what the other person had said:  she liked that Megan would come to the wedding in case there was an emergency.  That is one of the main reasons why we chose her.  Plus, we checked her website and she had gotten good reviews and she was the only one on the Louisville Wedding Network.  Oh my god, it was awful.  The hem was terrible.  The dress had layers and they were not even.  She took up some higher than others.  When it was bustled, it was longer on one side than the other and on the top layer, there was a hump on one side that she said couldn't be fixed.  Eventually it was fixed by the warehouse.  There was a pleat on the other side.  The stitching on the liner was puckered and it showed through the organza.  It was so bad that I had to take it to Expert Tailors who had to take the whole hem out to get it smooth all the way around.  The stitching was too thick on one side, she took up too many layers where the bodice met the skirt so Expert Tailors had to repair that too.  When the middle was bustled, it made an indent in the back below the zipper because, I guess, it was bustled up too high so it pulled on the metal stitch.  There were two pleats on each side of the zipper in the bodice part, I think because there was too much fabric in the lining.  Then, when I took it to Bridal Warehouse, they said she didn't take up the lining.  She took up the outside but she didn't take up the inside so there was all this extra fabric and that is what I thought was making it pucker.  They took the inside lining up and it still puckered a little because she took it up too much and there wasn't enough seam left for anybody to let it out.  It still puckered up a little at the wedding even thought I left it as loose as I could down there.  The privacy panel was supposed to be used to give it more support but she didn't use the snaps, she just left it there for it to show.  She just barely stitched it so it was done over twice.  Expert Tailors did it over then Bridal Warehouse did it over; they did it over twice actually, so three times!  I spent $325.00 at Beautiful Bustles, then I spend $145.00 at Expert Tailors then I spent $92.00 at Bridal Warehouse to get the dress fixed since it was getting so late.  She kept the beads.  There was a little bag of beads for emergencies.  She gave me a bad of these tiny little beads and said those were the ones but they were not the ones!  They were bigger beads in all different sizes and shapes.  I took a picture of the beads and emailed it to her and we got some of the beads back that came with the dress but not all of them.  I think she just dumped them in her little container but I can't be sure of that.  There were too many trips; you wouldn't believe all the trips to get it fixed.  When we came, there were obvious things wrong, like one side was longer than the other, the hump in one side, and a hole in one side.  She didn't check it before we came and I was always the one who had to find the mistake.  I felt like the bad guy but she saw it and said "Yes, that can be fixed." She admitted that it needed to be fixed but I was thinking, "Why didn't you fix it before we came?" She was not very professional.  She forgot an appointment and she cancelled an appointment.  Twice we were supposed to come back for my dress and her dress and she didn't have time for my dress or she didn't have time to fix it.  Everything about her was an F.  Sometimes she didn't even answer my phone calls. The ties on the bustles were too short and I couldn't get my fingers around them to tie them.  I also took my pants to her and they were puckered.  She took the pants up but didn't cut them off.  She cut the lining and stitched it but she didn't cut the outside.  I took them to Expert Tailor and they said "Well, it's too heavy.  She didn't cut it."  They cut it off and hemmed it up and it looked just like it was ready made.  It wasn't that hard to figure out what was wrong with that.  My dress, she took up too much under the bust line and it couldn't be let out because the seams were cut and it needed to be looser there.  She let it out all the way down and she said that the soils would not show, and they did show and she couldn't get them out.  I took it home and I ironed it with a pressing cloth and I finally got them out.  There were, like, three things that she worked on.  I couldn't get my daughter to go anywhere else because she wanted her to come to the wedding.  I should have just put my foot down.  It was less than a week before the wedding and we still didn't have the dress fixed right.  It was just so much stress.  After I called and told her that we no longer needed her services, there was so much wrong with the dress.  I don't remember exactly what she said but she said "I know you weren't happy with my services."  I told her, "It's not just me, Megan.  I took it to three other tailors and they all agreed with me."  I took it to another place that Bridal Warehouse recommended and she wouldn't touch it.  She said "She made the mess, let her fix it."  She said that the dress was too short, the hem was uneven, it wasn't right and she wouldn't touch it.  Then, I took it to Expert Tailors and they fixed some of it but they didn't have the experience to do the bustle because I don't think they had done too many bustles.  Then I dot iced the pucker and I called Bridal Warehouse again to see if they had any cancellations.  It was so close to the wedding and the person there was very nice and very good and she did the best that she could with what she had to work with.  She told me to bring it in to have a look at it.  The stress was out of this world over this dress.  She looked at it and said that Megan had not taken up the lining, and she re-