J’aime Bridal – pleasant Pleasanton bridal salon with no-pressure sales
I went to my first bridal salon on Saturday. I looked at Yelp reviews, trying to find places that don’t have annoying salespeople but were still possibly within my budget (<$1k). J’aime Bridal had positive reviews for service, quality, and pricing, and they’re one of the few salons that allows cameras. They were also having a San Patrick trunk show last weekend, and after looking at the San Patrick website, I definitely wanted to check out their latest dresses.
J’aime Bridal is located in downtown Pleasanton, not far from 680 and fairly easy to find. There was plenty of street parking, plus the boutique has a small parking lot. There is a counter next to the entrance, where I let the lady there know I was there for my 3PM appointment. I think we were the last appointment of the day, allotting us two hours (which turned out to be more than enough for me). There’s a dressing area by the entrance that I think was for bridesmaids dresses. The store was a bit crowded because of the racks of poofy dresses crammed in the small space. Walk past the racks, and you get to the bridal dressing area. Three or four rows of three or four chairs face two circular platforms (where brides stand on in their dresses) in front of two mirrors, sandwiched by four dressing rooms.
Because we were early and were waiting for Anna and Chris, my mother and I browsed the racks. The San Patrick dresses had their own rack in the middle, so I looked at those. While the San Patrick dresses didn’t have price tags, all their regular dresses had tags on them. I found the two San Patrick dresses I had hoped to try on: Broche and Baltico. The lady I talked to over the phone plus a different woman who approached me as I browsed stated the San Patrick dresses ranged from $900 to $1500 (prior to the 10% off from the trunk show). Anna arrived, and she joined me in looking at dresses on the racks as we waited for Chris. I tried to find dresses on the racks I wanted to try on, but honestly, everything becomes a white blur after a while. I don’t think I’m built for dress shopping.
After a while, we decided to start without Chris. My consultant, Marin, had introduced herself to me earlier, and she asked to get an idea of what sort of dresses I liked (simple, not too much beading, but lace is okay). I also gave her my budget, and with this information, she started grabbing dresses and putting them in my designated dressing room. Aside from the San Patrick dresses, she picked out all the dresses I tried out. In the dressing room, I’d put on each dress myself, then stick my hand out the curtain for Marin to come in and clip me into the dress. With each dress, I’d give her more input, and she’d narrow down my options or bring more dresses. My mom took pictures the entire time.
The first one I tried one was the one I liked from internet surfing, and that was Broche from San Patrick. I know people who know me are probably a little surprised I would go for such a detailed dress; I make an exception with lace. People always say you need to try on a dress to know if you really like it, since pictures of the dress on models isn’t accurate to how it is in person. My expectation was that the dress would look pretty terrible on me, but I looked okay in it (not as a good as the model, but not bad). I also liked how the dress felt. Mom and Anna liked it, too, so I definitely wanted it on my “approved” list. Based on what she knew from the trunk show, Marin’s estimate was that the dress was around $1200. Boy was she (along with the other girls I asked about the San Patrick line) wrong. Apparently, this dress was an outlier. She looked up the price to make sure and discovered it was actually $1900. Me = pwned.
Nevermind the hanging straps, weird bunching
from the clips, and my lack of height.
I sort of wish I hadn’t tried this totally-outside-my-budget dress first; I really liked it and it sort of made the following dresses not seem as good. Marin was very good about sticking with my pickiness and budget. After ten dresses, I discovered I don’t like taffeta or stiff silks (though in hindsight, they look pretty good in pictures), while I actually like the feel the slightly-less-expensive charmeuse. I don’t like sweetheart necklines, but I like pleated busts. I want at least a chapel train. I like lace overlays, and I want a dress that hugs the waist and hips. There were a couple others I thought were decent, like the Baltico dress and Maggie Sottero’s Vienna. Both were in the $1200 range, though other than that, Marin was very good about sticking to the budget.
I finished my dress session in less than hour. I asked Marin to try to think of some other random dresses to try, but I shot down everything she brought (mainly because of heavy beading), so she certainly tried. I was disappointed my session ended so quickly, but Marin can only do so much with their selection and my many restrictions. In hindsight, I should have tried more San Patrick dresses or whatever dresses, since I drove all the way to Pleasanton in a big storm. (Though, it turned out the trunk show didn’t have every dress [i.e. Bremen] in the current collection for some reason.) There was one other bride booked the same time as me, and she seemed to be having better luck, as one of her companions said one of the dresses was about to make her cry. *sigh*
As we were on our way out, Marin gave me a J’aime Bridal postcard with a list of all the dresses (brand, model, price) from the approved list. Throughout the entire time, she was patient, helpful, never snooty or annoying, and understanding of my budget. She never shoved her opinion on us (though, I wouldn’t have minded a little input, as I was pretty clueless). And most importantly, she never once suggested we buy anything. Absolutely no pressure for purchase. The experience overall was disappointing for me, only because I liked the first dress I tried on best, and it turned out to be way, way more expensive than the rest. This has nothing to do with the store and its service though, so I highly recommend visiting this store if their lines are within your budget. They seemed particularly stocked in Maggie Sottero, so if you like that line, J’aime Bridal is definitely worth a look.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that if you buy your dress here, your bridesmaids get 20% off their dresses if they get them here.
New thing I learned today: A bustle is what holds and gathers the train up close to the wedding dress so it doesn’t drag behind you, preventing people from stepping on it and allowing more movement for the wearer.
