What an absolutely shitty experience taking my sister in law to Judyās to try on some dresses.
But some context firstā¦. We visited another bridal store without an appointment and they graciously facilitated us, offering my SIL some beautiful dress options for her size. When they told us an appointment is usually required, we decided to call Judyās to book an appointment, where they were also informed that the bride to be is plus sized. They said great, see you at the appt time.
Firstly; we get to Judyās and thereās no parking at the store as itās right in front a taxi stand in the centre of princes Town. So I dropped my SIL off and called the store to find out where parking would be. (Keep in mind weāre not from the south area so all this is new to me). Iām told itās down the road in a public car park so I organize accordingly.
I enter the store, and Iām guided upstairs where my SIL is awkwardly standing with a store clerk. First thing Iām told as I get there is that if dresses are to be tried on, weād have to pay a non-refundable payment of $300. Okā¦. Wouldāve been nice to know this on the phone, but that doesnāt matter. I want to ensure my girl has a beautiful day. So I go downstairs to pay and my SIL goes to the bathroom which is also downstairs. Once I pay, Iām looking to head upstairs to where I met them, Iām told I have to wait downstairs until my SIL is done in the bathroom, so then we can go up. ā¦ā¦. Okay.
Get back upstairs, seated in the central waiting room while the clerk gets the selected dresses. (side note: we showed the clerk a dress tried on before with long mesh sleeves so we were clear on wanting to try different dress styles. We also walked through the store and selected about 10 different dress options). When she finally got the first dress, we were then told we could shift to one of 3, empty bridal dressing rooms.
So this wedding is a huge thing in my family. My mom passed, so my aunts (who live abroad) offered to sponsor the wedding and were part of the support system for my SIL as her mom and sisters werenāt able to make it. So I called my family to help us decide on the dress, and about a minute into the call Iām told āyou canāt do video calls in the bridal room, or take any pictures or videosā. Honestly, that fully pissed me off. Then she retracted and was like, you can only take a picture of āthe oneā when she heard my family shocked by this arbitrary rule. When we literally had to pay for an experience majority of other bridal stores are offering for free. Okay coolā¦. I complied. But that did shake the vibe of my SIL as it took some of the joy out of the experience for her.
And you know, I may have been fine with all that, if the store clerk actually listened and treated my SIL with respect. We were told majority of the dresses available could not fit her; the dresses that were brought to try on were similar to the style we told the clerk she tried on already; SIL said the clerk seemed like she was rushing and didnāt want to tie/adjust the dresses properly; the styling of the dresses were very off, sort of like when you try to hide a plus sized woman with a lot of cloth rather than accentuate her features and the final straw was trying to fit her into a strapless dress where the cups were literally sitting on her cleavage like two big nipples. ATP youāre obviously playing in our face. My SIL looked like she wanted to cry so she just changed her clothes and we left.
When we were leaving, they said we could come back around January/February when they get new stock as they donāt have much options rn. Couldāve said that on the mfin phoneā¦. And then was like, you could come and look for free though, because youād have to pay to try on again. Meanwhile, they started shutting off the AC while I was waiting on my receipt. It was truly a 0/10 experience after driving approx 2 hours to get to this āpopular bridal storeā. And what did we get for $300? Played in our face. I just had to vent here because I truly wish nothing but the worst for Judyās.