The Art of Bridal and Couture

et with Karyn and she was kind, confident, and excited to work on my dress. I brought the dress to her in early January for a wedding in late March. Frequent meetings were created and initially, I did not have concerns about her work. Fast forward to four weeks before the wedding and she consistently canceled and delayed my dress appointments and was not finalizing pieces as per our agreement. I became increasingly apprehensive but still did not know to take my dress elsewhere, based on her reviews and her confidence that all would be okay. In the final 2 weeks before my wedding, my dress still required significant structural amendments in order to stay on my body, in addition to pieces such as sleeves, that she did not complete. With two weeks before my wedding day, the dress continued to not fit. She confirmed that she would do whatever was needed, including closing the shop early, to get it done. She pushed my final fitting to 6 days before my wedding day. I called 2 days prior, and confirmed with one of her assistants that my dress would be 100% complete at this final appointment. I was reassured that it would. When I went in, my dress was far from complete, and fit worse than it did in prior appointments. I was panicked and began to cry. I asked what we were going to do. She told me “I want to cry too” and that she did not know how to make the dress fit me correctly. The bodice did not fit, she had taken the dress in too much in an attempt to compensate for the poor fit and to hold it up, and had not added the sleeves and belt that we had agreed upon months ago. I left, crying and panicked, and she told me she would try to work on it overnight. I asked her not to do that, and that I would come to pick up the dress in the morning. She did not listen to this request, and made the dress even smaller, and added the sleeves in a way that my next seamstress had to rip off just to get the dress on me. In the morning I came to get my dress and was told that I was not allowed to try it on that day. I didn’t question this, as it didn’t matter at that point, and asked for a refund that I could use toward a new seamstress, who I would have to pay a rush fee. She responded “you aren’t getting a penny back from me, the dress fits someone perfectly and I have spent hours on it”. She then turned to her associate and asked them to get security. I asked, continuing to speak quietly and respectfully, if that was for someone else. She replied “No, it is for you, I want you to leave.” I asked why she would bother with security rather than just ask her customer to leave and then I promptly left, sobbing. The next day she texted me, apologizing for her behavior and provided me with a refund. I found a seamstress who agreed to work on my dress with short notice. My new seamstress was shocked at the state of the dress, sharing that in 25 years, she has never seen such damage done to a wedding dress during alterations. She expressed concerns that Karyn “did not know how to diagnose what was wrong with the dress in order to fix it”. I paid thousands more than I had budgeted for, in order to be able to wear my dress on my wedding day. She stayed overnight and put in over 30 hours in 2 days to get it done. Just to get my dress to zip, she had to completely tear apart my dress.

nd put it back together again to fit you flawlessly and you can absolutely rely on Karen to do that for you. She is generous with her time and the care that goes into your gown. Her pricing is reasonable and straightforward and she is open about possible costs. For example, my dress had a "horsehair" hem, which could have cost more to remove depending on how it was sewn, but Karen informed me ahead of time and encouraged me to receive multiple estimates to ensure I was confident in her rates. I knew before I left her shop that she was the gal for me to put my faith in for this important task. She remembered me from a bridal show and always picked up conversation right where we left off. The color of the lining in my dress just wasn't quite right to match my skin tone and Karen continued to adjust it until it matched beautifully. She hand removed my train so the rest could be hemmed - it was perfect on wedding day and stayed up the whole night once it had been bustled. She also does alterations for other wedding party members - my mother-in-law used her services as well and was equally impressed. I will be bringing all of my alterations to her from now on, whether they are wedding related or not. Cannot sing her praises enough!

ledge and care for her work. Her personality is gentle, kind, and professional. The bustle of my dress was BEAUTIFULLY done with 5 points and the dress fit absolutely perfect when she was done. She even got my maid of honors dress done with just a couple weeks before the wedding. Can’t recommend her enough!

to ABC! 💕