Elite Secrets Bridal

Purchased a gown during Black Friday sale. The dress is beautiful and had great customer service.

Date of wedding: 09-26-2024

I am a very disappointed bride to be. I purchased from Elite Secrets Bridal on April 29, 2022.
I experienced 3 bridal boutiques. Elite had the dress...es I loved from posts on social media. And I loved one of them in person! So I purchased it on the spot. This was the only place I had to figure out how to get into the gowns. It’s really kind of ridiculous for me to go into a dressing room and attempt as much as I can and step out of the room for the young lady to finish getting me into a dress. May sound odd! But the dress I liked had pearl strands draped across the back. It’s probably better to ask the bride what she prefers.
To date! It is October 12! My gown was supposed to ship on September 2! And I have no shipping information and it’s pulling teeth to get a response to questions and those responses have absolutely NO INFORMATION!
On 9/23/2022 I called to see if maybe my gown was in store and I hadn’t been notified! I spoke with Tasha who told me she would get back to me by Wednesday! Wednesday came and went! I didn’t hear from her until the following Wednesday 10/5/2022! She called and spoke to me as if it was the Wednesday she indicated! And had no more information than when I called to inquire about the dress 11 days before! After 2 more sleepless stress filled nights! I wrote an early morning detailed email! This email got an immediate response. Someone will contact you today 10/7/2022! Only to have no one contact me! Tuesday 10/11/2022 I wrote another email making it clear no one had contacted me! Only to receive an email from Vincent the next day! today! Telling me they should have shipping information this week! The customer service is horrible! Unprofessional at its best! I am doing my research for small claims court! I have less than 2 months to get my dress in hand ! Have alterations! And get to my destination! It’s time for me to look for a dress at a reputable place!
Let me go back to another issue! Before we got to the dress experience. I purchased the off the top of my head Bride Tribe appointment! What I purchased was very clear what it offered! But after I purchased the email sent indicated something different. So I responded it wouldn’t work for me. So I got updated information the same as what I purchased! Great right! WRONG! The week of Leah starts texting me! Asking questions about bridesmaids! I don’t have any. But I thought maybe it went with the Bride appointment! Guess what! Not at all! My Bride Tribe appointment was scheduled as a bridesmaids appointment! Yeah! One big mess of an experience! In hind site it would be easy to say… I had signs everywhere! But if it’s your special event! You want the dress you want! I hope I get tracking information by end of this week! I really love my dress! But if I don’t tracking or my dress! Refund asap! OR Small claims court it will be! GOOD LUCK Y’ALL! May your experiences be better than mine! I seem to keep a headache the last week or so!
On Saturday the 15th of October my dress shipped. It arrived Wednesday the 19th. The day I planned to file a small claims case. I’m really glad to not have to do this.
Buyer beware! I’m not a bride that needs hand holding or constant anything. But I do expect the service I pay for! And with life happens! I expect communication! 43 days late my dress shipped. Nothing sincere from them. Horrid experience! If give me my dress and let me get out of here was a person!

Date of wedding: 12-08-2022

I am saddened that is has to come the point where I have to leave this review about this establishment, but I cannot hold in my frustrations any longe...r, I want to possibly save other future brides from going through what I am going through right now.

I found Elite Secrets through Instagram months before I was engaged, and fell in love with what I saw. I was happy to support a Black-owned female-run business because that aligns with my core values as a fellow Black woman. Everything seemed perfect when my mom, my sister, and I visited on White Friday to pick out my dream dress. I especially loved the claim that they tailor to all body types, and I *especially* loved that they have different colored mesh to sew onto dresses so that brides with darker skin tones don’t have to look ashy with generic mesh panels. That was in late November. We finalized the purchase of my dress in early to mid-December because my wedding is on June 12th.

It is now the beginning of April and I haven’t heard a single update. At the time of purchase, it was my understanding that it could take 4-6 months for my dress to arrive, and I was okay with that knowledge of shipping delays due to the pandemic and what not. I’m still okay with that knowledge and am not expecting things to be perfect. However, what I am not okay with at all is the absolute lack of communication from this establishment. I have been calling at minimum once a month and sometimes up to three times a month since late February/early March, simply asking for an update on my dress. Every single time I have called, I have been told that they are “trying to contact the manufacturer” and will “put a note in my profile and get back to [me] with an update.” And every single time I have been left hanging with no update, not in email form, and not in the form of a phone call. It is now the beginning of April, and I called a couple of days ago, only to receive the exact same answer, with the exact same outcome - no update whatsoever.

I am so disappointed. I am so frustrated. I blindly put my trust in this establishment without first checking reviews, so I hope this is a wake-up call to somebody else so they are at least aware that this can happen to them too.

The sad thing is that I chose to shop here instead of just buying a dress online, just for the purpose of supporting a Black-owned business, and I am now starting to regret my decision. I am so stressed and anxious during a time that is supposed to be filled with joy and anticipation, and it really feels to me like the staff ultimately do not care about me and my wedding, which was NOT the vibe I got from actually shopping in person. I have been going through so much stress and anxiety that it is now starting to manifest in physical ways on my body.

While it appears to be a long shot, I may return to this review after my honeymoon is over and update it if the situation works out for the best, in the interest of providing an honest wholistic look at the situation. I hope to be able to do that, because I hate having to leave a bad review like this for a place I dreamed of shopping at for months.

Date of wedding: 06-12-2022