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La Belle Elaine's Bridal
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: Queen Anne
140 4th Ave N
Seattle, WA 98127
(206) 404-0888
140 4th Ave N
Seattle, WA 98127
(206) 404-0888
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
16 reviews for La Belle Elaine's Bridal
I am pretty surprised at all the bad reviews! I have had two separate experiences with LaBelle Eliaine's and have been really impressed with their service. The first time was as a bridesmaid. I was merely trying on different styles that needed to be in a certain fabric and the bride was ordering the dresses from a different state. They were super nice and helped with all my options and measured me. When I finally got the dress from the other state, it was completely cut wrong (a common occurrence that has little to do with the store and more to do with crappy dress manufacturers!). They were really helpful in finding me a great alterations shop that got my dress fixed in a matter of days for a really reasonable price.
This time I was back as the bride. They were so nice and the front desk and in the dressing room. I ended up choosing a bridesmaid dress that it turns out was a sample in a fabric that was discontinued! I was upset, but they told me they would see if they could sell me the sample of the rack that fit me perfectly. They did even with a small discount.
They have been really nice and really friendly every time I have visited the store and I will definitely recommend to my friends!
Great selection, great location, great ambiance inside... terrible customer service!
Luckily I found my dream dress here (for $2300) and then found it online, new and perfect for $600! I did however buy a veil here, which I regret.
The customer service stops as soon as they take your credit card. They ordered me the wrong veil, in the wrong color, and the wrong length, then tried to argue with me and say it was MY fault! Luckily the paper record they had did specifically say I had ordered diamond white not ivory, because they tried not to correct their mistake.
You can find the same (or better) dresses/veils/headpieces for less elsewhere, and with better customer service.
I had a good experience at La Belle Elaine's. The staff was friendly from scheduling to assisting in the dressing room. My only mark down is that as I was finishing up, I saw a gown on a mannequin in the front area and the salesperson seemed a bit put out that I wanted to try it on. It was absolutely gorgeous Ines Di Santo - one of the dresses she made for her daughter's wedding.
I found several gowns in my price range and she wrote all the information down for me which I appreciated. I was leaving for Paris in a couple days and found my dream dress there. This is fortunate because, I would have been really hard put to decide between the Di Santo or an amazing Pronovias gown.
First let me preface that my sister bought her wedding dress from Elaine's in Edmonds prior to their merging with La Belle. Their customer service was great (sales and alterations), so I thought maybe - with the merge, they would have the same service, but wider selection.
Boy, I was wrong. I had an appointment and had a seasoned helper, but it became painfully obvious that my wedding dress budget was impossible to work with. I brought my mom, sister, and a few friends. I don't really feel that comfortable having a total stranger around while I'm standing basically naked, so I had my sister there for assistance. The sales assistant was obviously perturbed with my lack of need for her and disappeared numerous times.
On a side note, one of my girl-friends bought her dress from La Belle and they had to send it back twice because they got the bodice measurements wrong and she couldn't even zip up her dress.
Now, I could have afforded any dress in that place. I had the budget to do it, but I was trying to keep costs down. But from the minute I said my preliminary budget, I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman; some poor girl looking to play dress-up with the rich folk. I broke into tears after I left.
Unless you've got a $4000 plus budget for your wedding dress - please don't waist your time. How about if you want great customer service, don't even give this place a second thought.
Update on my experience with La Belle Elaine's. My 2nd dress came in (due to mistake with 1st one) and it was perfect! I did need some alterations and the alterations staff is a bit....lets say...rough around the edges -- there is a reason they are not in sales, that is for sure -- not so great with customer service. But, the boutique did comp a good portion of my alterations due to the original mistake with the dress length. Not expected, but super pleased with how they handled the whole thing.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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8/25/2009
I had a fabulous time looking for my dress at La Belle Elaine's. I came here because my sister… Read more »
I can't speak for the alterations process b/c my dress hasn't come in yet, but I enjoyed the buying process at Belle Elaine's. My consultant was very friendly and not pushy. She took my tastes into account and ended up pulling the dress I fell in love with.
As to "budget," I was looking for something in the $2000 range, so she told me to look in a specific area of the dress racks, so I wouldn't fall in love with something too expensive. The dress I ended up buying was $1800. Not super cheap, but also not as expensive as other reviewers would have you think.
Will update when I go through the alterations process, but I would definitely recommend Seattle brides check them out!
OK... so I know every bride is supposed to be excited about going dress shopping.... but I wasn't. I found it a very difficult process for me.
I went to the budget bride dress shop (I Do Bridal) to one of the most expensive in town (Marcella's). La Belle Elaine's falls in the middle. There is no Vera Wang here (thank god), and there is very little polyester (thank god).
I was looking for a specific gown by Pronovias (see Princess Bride review in Bothell), and they didn't have it. That was okay, we worked through their selection, which is very impressive. They have dresses that are close to $1000... you just have to look.
Sometimes shopping for a gown feels like car shopping. There is no question in my mind that there is commission involved. Some sales people handle that with tact, and with some you can smell the desperation. Heidi made me feel like she had my best interest in mind. I told her my experience elsewhere, and she seemed generally concerned. She made me feel comfortable that I was making the right decision. This dress was above my budget, but I didn't feel buyers remorse. You have to pay more to get natural fabrics, i.e. silk, if you want a dress that is light... Polyester dresses are heavy!
My only complaint is that the alterations are $$, but they do warn you about that. Thanks to you Belle Elaine's, my dress is amazing. It has been hanging on my door for the last week... and I can't help but hug it.
I will be sure to send photos!
Looking back on my wedding I can honestly say that there were only two things that went awry that I can't put behind me without getting them off of my chest. The first was the drunk DJ we hired (but that is all water or whiskey as the case may be- under the bridge). What I can do is warm other unsuspecting ladies about the treatment they will received at La Belle Elaine's. I ordered my dress from a designer trunk show very early so that alterations could be done on it. They were in transit and combining with a Kirkland shop so I can cut them some slack for disorganization. But my dress was six months late!! Good thing we were engaged for ten months!
And instead of accommodating me and being super nice about what turned out to be THEIR mistake, they were rude, snotty and unsupportive. I left crying twice.
This was an awful experience and I was so sad that I had not chosen to go with another shop. In the end I did get my dress, almost two sizes too big for me...
Yikes. After reading reviews from some of the other people around here, I'm glad I narrowly escaped this place without buying my dress here.
La Belle Elaine's was the place I almost bought my wedding gown from, before I found THE gown elsewhere. I'd gone in and tried on a ton of dresses. The salesperson almost had me talked into buying a silver fluffy thing with rhinestones all over it (it fit me really well). She said they could easily remove the rhinestone part, which I did not like. Thank goodness I didn't fall for that. After alterations, this dress would have been about 7000 dollars, which was significantly more than my budgeted amount. Eventually I settled on a far less expensive, far more tasteful gown (and then on THE gown elsewhere, haha).
I showed up for my appointment on time and I was made to wait for 20 minutes for a room to open up. The person who was supposed to be helping me kept disappearing. The other sales people refused to allow me to walk on the runway thing to appease my bridesmaid-in-tow because they were busy brown-nosing their clients by letting them and all their bridesmaids play around up there exclusively. The front desk people were snotty to me multiple times.
Eventually the time came for me to order a veil. I remembered that Elaine's had a huge selection of veils, so I made an appointment to come in and try some on. I showed up for my appointment on time and was told to go ahead and go back to the veil rack and try them on, alone. As in I wasn't spending enough money to get any assistance in spite of the fact that there were 5 girls at the desk and zero other customers in the store. I spent a half an hour or so wrangling the veils on my own and I finally decided on one made by a local designer. I gave the order details to the person with whom my appointment was supposed to be and I paid and then left with a promise of receiving the veil within 6 weeks. They said they'd call me when it came in.
They never called. I completely forgot about the veil because I had no less than 10 trillion other things to do. Three days before my wedding one of my bridesmaids asked me if I'd ever ordered a veil. Oh yeah! Veil! I called up Elaine's and asked them about said veil. They made me wait on hold for 15 minutes and then told me they didn't have it. I did not panic because this was not the first time I had been told something wasn't there only to have someone else tell me later that it was there. "It has to be there by now, you were supposed to have gotten it 2 months ago," I told the girl on the phone. She went to check and came back 15 minutes later. Oh yes, it was there. "Why didn't you ever pick it up?" she wondered.
*roll eyes*
Anyway, I went in to pick it up the next day. At least I got what I paid for.
I'm a little irked when I check in for my appointment because they say they don't see me on their schedule. Nope, I made the appointment for this day and I have it in my calendar. They finally find me and the girl who made my appointment had booked me for the following week. Regardless, they had an open room for me and so they fixed it otherwise this review would have gone sour.
If you're a bride looking for a gown on a budget, this is not the place for you. I'm one of the budget brides, but I knew they had some gowns that were fitting for destination weddings that weren't as costly so I figured I may as well look. Their gowns start at $1,000+ but wow are they gorgeous! Get Heidi to be your saleslady, she is such a sweetheart and not pushy at all. They have a great layout so that you're not running into all the other brides and even have a runway for you to try your dress out on.
The gowns are more on the typical princess style, big and poofy - not me at all. But, they do carry a wide variety of designer labels including my favorite, Jim Hjelm. My dream dress would cost me $3,700(plus tax & alterations). There was no way I could justify spending that much money on 1 day of my life, so I left with no luck but did have fun trying on all the beautiful gowns.
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride...
Take it from me, I know bridesmaid dress shopping.
La Belle Elaine's made it so easy and so stress-free. First of all, the design of the store makes it seem as though there isn't anybody else in the store. The dresses line an oval-shaped room but the dresses are partitioned from the center of the room...where a huge, lit catwalk lies for brides-to-be and bridesmaids-to-be can get a better look at their dresses.
The dress selection was great...and they even had dresses that I would want to wear. The staff there were really helpful and knowledgeable about the various designers and fabrics. I especially liked the layout of the dressing room. The private dressing rooms are on the outer edge of the oval-shaped room, and they are completely private. The rooms are large with a curtain dividing the changing area from the "viewing" area where the salesperson and the viewer (in this case, the bride) can wait. It's convenient...and discrete. :-)
If you're not ready to buy exactly what the salespeople want to sell you (the most expensive gown around) stay far away from this store.
I had a price range, and a style in mind when I came to this store. I made an appointment, cut out photos,and did all the stuff us brides are supposed to do. The person helping me promptly ignored my expressed preferences, and tried to surpass my budget by more than twice by stacking silly, outrageously expensive dresses in my room. My designated salesperson's attitude was so haughty and annoyed at my insistence that I ended up feeling small - something I was surprised to see a salesperson make me feel. Ironically, I doubt that she could afford the $4,000 gowns she was loading me up with...
This industry is such a mystery to me sometimes.
The one cool thing about this place is the real time webcam. My mom in Portland could check out the dresses as I came out onto their runway. So if the service had been decent, this could have been a good experience.
Edit note: one of my best girlfriends recently had a really good experience here. They were not pushy, they listened to what she wanted, and she had a great time. So I'm increasing my stars.
I hate being a bridesmaid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Going to la belle elaine was kind of annoying.. we had to work around their schedule and that wasn't making us happy because we are spending about 5 grand for my sister's wedding dress... .GRANTED IT LOOKED AMAZING and is on seattle bride ..... however, did we really have to wait for an appointment when we are spending that much money.... alterations took forever, and we actually had to ask if steaming was free for her veil....... really? if you are spending more than a thousand dollars you should get at least free shoes right? free booze? free matching thong lol.. anyhow... the girls here were kind of snooty and they shouldn't be... do your job and make us happy..... we got better service at david's bridal and I wish that the dresses there were as nice as la belle elaine's but it wasn't.. and I wished that marcella's had better selections for real weddings instead of dresses that weren't for a runway show... :( anyhow.. go here for a nice dress but don't expect them to bend backwards for you.. they might just think you didn't have money and turn you down........
pro's - beautiful dresses
con's - really expensive, snooty service, bad parking, and you have to work around their schedule....
when I get married I will probably go to luly yang.... and not la belle elaine...
i (despite my reviewer name, i'm a girl) bought my dress here a couple of years ago. my experiences are very parallel to a number of others on here. so i'll quickly summarize:
--very, very snotty front desk staff
--dresses seem to start at $1000 and go up
--fitting/alteration process was a pain. i chose a bridesmaid's dress (budget) and i spent easily 1/2 the cost of the dress again on fitting fees. sadly, despite two different mandatory (and scheduled around them) fittings, it didn't fit well (it was a basic problem with the shoulder straps they should have addresses)
i will say that the girl who helped me find my dress was actually not snotty at all and seemed to appreciate my honesty that i was seeking something on (their price-range) a bridesmaids level.
but the front desk chicks are something else. be prepared to go in there and let it all bounce off of you.
just a head's up, La Belle Elaine's 'forgot' to order my best friend's wedding dress -- she even called to follow up and confirm that they did order it, and they said they had. when it came down to the time it should've arrived, she called back and they 'had no records of her order'. she ended up having to buy discount last minute. disaster. I WILL NOT GO HERE. i've warned ALL my friends about it. that is not something you want messed with on your big day.
I made an appointment at La Belle Elaine's to try on wedding gowns. It was my first stop of many. I agree with the other reviewer that the design of the shop is great, and the dressing rooms are nice, but at a certain point I felt the dresses looked better simply based on the surroundings, rather than their own merit. There is also not a good selection of dresses in varying price ranges. Basically ANYTHING I could find was $1800+. Yes, wedding dresses are expensive, but I wanted to have at least one choice under $1500! Also, the sales staff is a little snooty, and when I was there, two sales staff came in with me (along with my mom) which made for a very crowded dressing room. One of them just stood and stared at me while I tried on dresses, making the random really insincere compliments here and there, so it all felt a little awkward. The other downside was the condition of the samples. Torn, stained and stretched out, it was really hard to tell what they were supposed to look like. I purchased elsewhere.
