Where to have a wedding dress altered in Atlanta?
May 27, 2015 12:49 PM Subscribe
My fiancee asks:
I need to have my wedding dress altered and I'm trying to choose a place to go but having trouble finding a spot I can trust. Yelp reviews for some places are great but then there are the negative reviews that stick out and scare me away.
I need a hem, a bustle, some fitting around the chest/arm opening and maybe removing a layer from the skirt. I also don't want to spend a fortune. Any recommendations on where to go in the Atlanta area for these things and price expectations would be helpful. Thanks!
I need a hem, a bustle, some fitting around the chest/arm opening and maybe removing a layer from the skirt. I also don't want to spend a fortune. Any recommendations on where to go in the Atlanta area for these things and price expectations would be helpful. Thanks!
One thing I'll say about online reviews in general is that no matter how awesome something is, you will always find someone saying that it's horrible, radioactive, killed their dog, turned their tongue permanently green, etc.
My impression is that a few of these are genuine outliers (even the best businesses make mistakes), many of them are exaggerations (or fabrications) from dissatisfied customers who often have terminally advanced entitlement complexes, and on Yelp in particular some of them will be associated with unscrupulous competitors trying to poison the competition. Also you get a lot of one-star reviews based on irrelevancies (customer thought they were ordering something else, business wasn't open when customer wanted it to be, customer just doesn't like Chinese food but feels qualified to review a Chinese restaurant anyway, etc.).
Maybe your partner is already savvy about this, I dunno. I'd just generally caution her to make sure she reads the reviews instead of just looking at the star counts, and asks herself whether the complaints are about things that are relevant to her and whether the stories in the reviews ring true or whether they might have been embellished somewhat. Nineteen rave reviews shouldn't be discounted because of one terrible one—at least five percent of the population is probably totally bonkers anyway and shouldn't be relied on.
Personally I put the most stock in 3- and 4-star reviews where the reviewer seems to have thought things through fairly thoroughly, weighed up the pros and cons, and explained why they gave the rating they did. Both 5-star and 1-star reviews are often relatively thoughtless—the reviewer just wanted to say "this is great!" or "this sucks!" and any accompanying text is just intended to reinforce that basic judgment.
Just my two cents, regarding online reviews. They're a lot more useful if you know how to look at 'em.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:54 PM on May 27, 2015
My impression is that a few of these are genuine outliers (even the best businesses make mistakes), many of them are exaggerations (or fabrications) from dissatisfied customers who often have terminally advanced entitlement complexes, and on Yelp in particular some of them will be associated with unscrupulous competitors trying to poison the competition. Also you get a lot of one-star reviews based on irrelevancies (customer thought they were ordering something else, business wasn't open when customer wanted it to be, customer just doesn't like Chinese food but feels qualified to review a Chinese restaurant anyway, etc.).
Maybe your partner is already savvy about this, I dunno. I'd just generally caution her to make sure she reads the reviews instead of just looking at the star counts, and asks herself whether the complaints are about things that are relevant to her and whether the stories in the reviews ring true or whether they might have been embellished somewhat. Nineteen rave reviews shouldn't be discounted because of one terrible one—at least five percent of the population is probably totally bonkers anyway and shouldn't be relied on.
Personally I put the most stock in 3- and 4-star reviews where the reviewer seems to have thought things through fairly thoroughly, weighed up the pros and cons, and explained why they gave the rating they did. Both 5-star and 1-star reviews are often relatively thoughtless—the reviewer just wanted to say "this is great!" or "this sucks!" and any accompanying text is just intended to reinforce that basic judgment.
Just my two cents, regarding online reviews. They're a lot more useful if you know how to look at 'em.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:54 PM on May 27, 2015
Completely agree with Anticipation, The. My relatives' business is a pretty straightforward dessert shop, advertises exactly what they sell, answers questions forthrightly—and still has a couple of negative reviews online (one complained because the shop doesn't sell health food, and the other complained because a fly came in the door and she thought that meant the shop was unclean). Look at the balance of the reviews, and the length/depth of the reviews. One person complaining is not a red flag.
posted by sonic meat machine at 6:07 PM on May 27, 2015
posted by sonic meat machine at 6:07 PM on May 27, 2015
Gill's Alterations in the Around Lenox shopping center. Don't know how much they will charge, but they do a great job.
posted by MelissaSimon at 12:34 PM on May 28, 2015
posted by MelissaSimon at 12:34 PM on May 28, 2015
I bought my wedding dress from a consignment store and paid one of the advanced students in our local university's theatre costuming program to do the alterations for me. If there are any colleges or universities with good theatre programs near you, that's worth considering — these are folks who are used to doing one-off handwork on a wide range of fabrics.
posted by Lexica at 10:09 PM on May 28, 2015
posted by Lexica at 10:09 PM on May 28, 2015
« Older Need a nice folder or binder for wedding officiant | Why can't I get pancit by delivery? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:45 PM on May 27, 2015