Bay Area Gals - Dress Shops?

[EricaR]

My mom wants to take me dress shopping, so I''ll pop a Xanex (or 5!!!) and let her come along.

Where are the must-see shops? She lives up in Benicia, but is going to a Giants game that afternoon so we can hit anything in the north/east bay area - I just have to be able to drop her off at a BART station afterwards.

I am already dreading this and it is still two weeks away...

 

[violet02]

http://www.yelp.com is a great resource to look up reviews on dress shops.

On that note I'd recommend going by:

Marina Morrison
Alexandra Bridal Salon
Amy Kuschel - her own designs

These are some of the upscale dress stores. I never made it past Marina Morrison were I bought my Liancarlo dress but I wish I could have checked out the Romona Keveza and Melissa Sweet dresses at Alexandra.

There are other dress stores that have more bargain prices and that carry other lines like Pronovias etc. Lots of folks on here will have great suggestions for you. Try yelp to for sure. I loved Marina Morrison by the way. I wound up going to a trunk show there recently and getting all my jewelery and veil custom made as well. The service has always been amazing.

ETA: There's also the Bridal Galleria in the embarcadero. I hadn't known about them before but we just rented all the guys tuxes from here and I saw that the had all the latest vera wang, monique dresses and more. A lot of high end names. I had no idea! I'm not sure how great their selection is but it looked nice. I think the galleria name threw me off since I went to the fashion mart jewelry center or whatever that's called on Brannan and tried on dreses in a place that was pretty scary.

 

[dutchflowers]

Amy Kuschel. I love this shop. The space is open and airy and the assistants are very helpful.

Just something to keep in mind - many of the bay area stores - Amy Kuschel included, if you want to try on dresses, you have to make an appointment.

 

[hthip]

I''m not sure what your budget is but, Galmour Closet has designer samples.

 

[violet02]

Date: 6/22/2008 8:17:15 PM
Author: hthip
I''m not sure what your budget is but, Galmour Closet has designer samples.

Glamour Closet was the other one I was trying to remember... they supposedly have great deals on designer dresses. I hear you have to be prepared to walk out the door with something you love or else it may be gone later though!

And you DEFINITELY have to have appointments for most bridal shops.

 

[cara]

If you need more options later in the search, my recs are Bay Area Bridal and Elegant Lace in South Bay/Campbell area. No BART access, though.