"I ordered a STUNNING dress from Helene Bridal, WD0185. I have always feared looking like a marshmallow in my wedding dress, so I was thrilled when they allowed me to customized the colors. I chose a red satin lop layer and white lace for the bottom.

Photo of the dress on my wedding day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/70219729@N05/***-***-****/

Because my wedding was happening less than 3 months from the date I got engaged, I was on a rushed timeline. I ordered the dress perhaps two months before the wedding, but I figured there was no need to pay for rush shipping because it should arrive on time.

This is where the headaches began. Victoria was persistently vague about the arrival time of my dress, and when I pressed her for a hard date, she pulled one out of thin air. Two weeks after my dress was scheduled to arrive, I finally fed up and sent her a threatening email falsely claiming that I had family members who were very influential in the Chinese textile industry, and they would be very displeased to hear of my negative experience with their company. She replied the next day assuring me the dress would be completed that day and shipped by the end of the week.

I was a nervous wreck when the dress arrived, it was in a vacuum sealed bag as everyone online had described. When I opened the package, the fabric exuded a very strong fishy odor. I had to air it out for 1 week with all of my windows open before the smell was gone.

The dress itself was beautiful- it looked exactly like the pictures they had posted online, except with the modifications I requested. However, the material was not as refined as I would have imagined (I was expecting satin and got polyester). Nonetheless, the beading was well done, and the details were there. There were a few loose threads, and the dress was far too long (I gave measurements on the long side for fear that they would send me a dress too short) so in the end I had to pay about $150 in alterations. I was very happy with the corset style back- I am a very slim person with a generous bust, so I often have difficulty finding perfectly fitting dresses- the lace up back complimented my figure so beautifully, I loved it.

I have to say, the final product was BREATHTAKING. It was literally my dream dress, and I wouldn't have changed a thing about it. My wedding pictures came out beautifully and I received endless compliments about the dress. HOWEVER, the dress only turned out so well after the alterations. Even though I adored this dress, there is no way I would order from Helen Bridal again. I suspect things could have just as easily been disastrous.

So my recommendation is this: if you have a lot of time in your hands before your wedding and you fall in love with a dress on their site- go for it. But make sure you have a back-up so that you are not bridezilla in distress a week before your wedding.
"

"Don't think you will get your merchandise in the color of the picture they have on their website...because you will only get the color which is on their color wheel!!...which are great colors if you are a clown! They are fraudulant as they show a picture in a beautiful color yet DO NOT offer that color!!

No customer satisfaction...no return policy...awful"

"I ordered WD 2249 and I paid $299 for it expecting to receive the same dress or something that looked similar to the dress on the website. I received the dress on time but it looked nothing like the dress on the helen bridal website. It was the wrong colour, the buttons didnt fasten at the back of the dress and the material was very cheap. There was no attention to detail. I was so upset that I had wasted $299!! I contacted helen bridal and they offered me an exchange. I ordered dress WD 2218. Again when I recieved the dress it looked nothing like the dress in the picture. It was poorly made and it was a disappointment. I wouldnt recommend ordering from this company."

"Ordered my wedding dress april 27th & received it May 31 after numerous emails and rush delivery. Didn't realize it was coming from china until I got paypal response in Chinese & email from Victoria n broken english. Became ongoing joke at work that many hands were working on my dress! After reading many horrendous reviews and not receiving dress I ordered two backup dresses from davids bridal. When I received the dress it was as I had been forewarned, in a cheap plastic bag. It was horribly wrinkled and had purple stains alone the hemline, which I figured out later were from the purple ink on the plastic bag with "Helene Bridal" printed on it. After majorly steaming out all the wrinkles, the dress looked much better, however I couldn't even try it on alone because of the complex corset back! After getting some help the next day (3 days before my wedding), the dress looked beautiful and trumped my david's bridal backups.
The dress was way too long ( I'm 5'4) and the satin was lined in such a way that it didnt lay flat. I was getting married on the beach, so with such short time we opted to leave it long. The bodice was very similar to the picture and the corset made it flattering. So all and all I was happy with the dress and it made such a hilarious story
HOWEVER I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE!!
It was a total crapshoot, and I feel lucky it worked out, but I would not depend on t
Also I found the same dress on eBay for 1/2 the price! So if if you want to risk losing only half the money( the prices were $69-110) you could try that.
Just give yourself plenty on time & have a backup!"

"I had read horrible reviews of Helene Bridal after I placed my order. I emailed them asking about the delivery time frame as I had heard such horrible things. I received a response from a lady named Victoria letting me know that my dress would be done "around June 26th." The word "around" terrified me. So I waited patiently. On June 28th I received an email that my dress had shipped. It was here the next day. I was shocked. Then I was scared to open the package as I had heard about the quality of their dresses. Again, I was shocked. My dresses were perfect. Very sturdy sewing, yes mine had a corsett back that I wasn't expecting but I kinda like it. :) The fabric is beautiful and the dress fit me perfect. I couldn't have been happier. Don't believe everything you read, everyone has a different outcome."

"They make it very hard to get a refund my dress does not fit to late to get another .This is where I stand with them"

"Save your money!! I ordered a dress from Helene Bridal for my brother's wedding. In the dress description they do not state it is a corset dress and the pictures make the dress look elegant. After emailing a few times about a shipping date I get a choppy email from Victoria that looks lime it was typed into freetranslations.com and it states she does not have a shipping date and it will get here when it gets here. Fast forward two weeks and she emails me that the dress is on the way. I expect a big box on my porch and instead get a little plastic bag with no receipt or return label. I pull the dress out and am mortified. The dress is a corset and there's a piece of material- fabric wrapped cardboard maybe- snapped to the inside of one side of the back of the dress. After my husband tried to stuff me into the awful thing we find that this snapped piece won't cover my back and keeps readjusting itself and poking out. The dress goes to my ankles when it should go to mh knees- and my chest spills out of it because the tip of the dress is lopsided and doesn't even fit right. I emailed Victoria back telling her I wasn't happy and like everyone else I get an email for pictures to be taken so they can remake this dress. I mention to her that it doesn't state anywhere on the website that this is a corset dress and I just want to return the dress. She's very insistant in her broken English that they will only remake it and will not give me an address to return it to. I called my sister in law to be and luckily we had enough time to order dresses from David's Bridal for the wedding. I am now out over $100 on a terrible dress that is not well made at all. I hope they go out of business, they are dishonest and crooked and only want your money and then send you garbage. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!! They are TERRIBLE!!!
"

"I didn't have as bad of an experience as some on here, or maybe I'm just too optimistic, but I definitely would not order from helenebridal.com again. I ordered 6 bridesmaids dresses and a rehearsal dinner dress for myself. I received my dresses yesterday (5 days early, which was nice) in a very small plastic shipping bag that had all 7 dresses crammed into it. The bag had a good size rip in it so one of my dresses was a bit damp because it was a rainy day yesterday. Please keep in mind I was charged $166 for shipping...not thrilled with that.

So I opened up the bag and started taking out my sage green dresses, which are more of a mint green than anything else. Fine, I can deal with that. That's the chance you take with ordering online, right? I started hanging up my very wrinkled dresses and thought they were a bit long so I tried one on. Not only were my knee-length dresses almost down to my ankle, but they were almost all cut unevenly at the bottom. I'm not quite sure what the point was of supplying Helene with all of my girls' measurements to have custom fit dresses when they are still going to have to have alterations done. My rehearsal dinner dress is a different story. It does not look at all like the picture online and the sweetheart neckline is so lopsided that I will never wear it. I did not do custom sizing with my dress so I thought about returning it. With the group discount I only paid about $72 for my dress. They charge a $75 restocking fee for any returns so there's no point in doing that.

Long story short - don't order from them. Suck it up, pay a little more, and know what you are getting."

"I had to take the time out to write this review only because I like so many others was super scared to order online what would be a key element to my wedding day. After searching in store after store and finding that the service was horriable and the prices for the dresses were outrageous I made the click and I'm so glad I did Helene Bridal was AWESOME!!! my dress is beautiful and I can't be more pleased my dress looks better than the picture. I found that in life someone is always going to be unhappy but don't let that discourage you. I could've ended up with an overpriced dress instead I have what I wanted great quality @ a price that I could afford."

"I was nervous about ordering my dress from Helene Bridal because of all the negative reviews I read. But, I wanted a very modest dress and couldn't find one ANYwhere for a decent price. So I took the risk. I was short on time so I rush ordered it for the extra $25. The dress finally arrived and fit perfectly. The material was good quality, and I didn't have any complaints with the actual dress. My only issue was that they did not rush it as requested. My wedding was rapidly approaching, so I was very nervous when, five weeks beforehand, the dress still had not arrived. But, it did get here in time, and when I contacted customer service, they very promptly gave me the $25 refund. I really did not have any major issues with them, but it might be because I was in contact with them pretty regularly because of the negative reports I had heard. If you stay on top of them, you shouldn't have any problems."

"Okay...I could not find any reviews besides the testimonials on their website until AFTER I placed my $1,000.00 order with them. After I found some reviews on them, I got nervous but hoped for the best. My hope was that everyone was just being really picky.

I dealt with Victoria via e-mail since the phone number that is listed on their webpage is not an active number. Victoria was kind and responded to my e-mails pretty quickly.

I placed my order on February 20, 2011. I ordered 1 wedding dress (WD0215) ivory with an orange sash, 4 Bridesmaid Dresses (BD1376)3 orange with a black sash and 1 black with an orange sash for my maid of honor, 2 mother-of-the-bride dresses (MD3718) both in orange. I was told that I would receive my order by April 1st at the latest via EMS (I paid a $155.51 delivery charge).

I e-mailed Victoria once the dresses were a week late. After 5 days, she e-mailed me back and said they needed more time. I told her that was no problem because I would rather the dresses be made correctly than to be rushed. She said I would receive the "beautiful" dresses by May 1st. I said fine.

I received the dresses on May 16, 2011 in a vacuum sealed bag the size of a small backpack ($155.51 shipping charge).

The dresses are so messed up that my seamstress cannot do anything with them. Not only would they have to be professionally steamed, but they are completely unwearable.

The busts are lop-sided by 3 1/2 - 4 inches on every dress. They all have corset backs with and uneven amount of loops on each side so they will not even lace correctly without doubling some of them. The dress for my tallest girl who is 6'0 is shorter than the dress for my shortest girl who is 5'1. I received 4 sashes; the shortest sash is 1 1/2 inches wide and 37 inches long and the longest sash is 4 inches wide and 153 inches long. Yes... 153. The inlay material underneath the corset also lays lop-sided so all of my girls underwear show on 1 side of their dress. Also, all 4 of my bridesmaid dresses were orange...I did not receive a black dress at all. My dress is not even completed. In the left side of the bust, there is a hole that my arm fits into up to my elbow because it is not sewn. All of the "beadwork" is hot-glued on to net-like material. The list goes on and on and on.

I e-mailed Victoria and was very nice about my complaints. She e-mailed me back 3 days later and requested pictures to show to her factory so they could come up with a solution. I e-mailed her a total of 45 pictures, which I will GLADLY e-mail to any of you if it will keep you from ordering from them. Victoria finally e-mailed me back and said that they did not see anything wrong with the dresses, which, you would have to be blind to not see how bad these are. They did not offer ANY solutions.

Once I received her e-mail, I was no longer my sweet self. I sent a 3 page e-mail to the company and have e-mailed them 3 times since then with no response from them at all.

My wedding is less than 3 months away, I'm out of $1,000.00 + whatever new dresses end up costing in the event that I can even find new dresses.

I'm begging you, PLEASE save yourself the money, trouble, tears and heartache! It is nothing but a scam and there is really nothing you can do about it. I am working with an attorney, but it'll never go anywhere.

If anyone has doubt about what I am saying, please post your e-mail address and I will be happy to send you first-hand pictures.

DO NOT BUY FROM HELENE BRIDAL!!!!!!"

"DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM HELENE BRIDAL!!! Save yourself the hassle and purchase your dress elsewhere, unless you want to waste your money.

I purchased a wedding dress form Helene Bridal after reading their return policy as I would never purchase something I hadn't seen in person unless I could return it. Their return policy clearly states that there is a $75 restocking fee for non-custom cut dresses as long as they haven't been worn or altered. I was OK with paying the restocking fee, so i went ahead and ordered the dress.

When it came in the mail, the quality of the dress was so poor and the detailing looked like silver sequins glued on with hot glue, the chest area was too big, and the insert in the corset on the back of the dress was too small. The material was cheap and poorly made and I was certainly not happy with the dress AT ALL. There is no feature on their website to increase the size of photos to see the detailing, which I mentioned they should add when I sent a message to get an RMA number to return the dress.

After my initial email asking for the RMA number to send it back, i received an email from them asking for photos of what was wrong with the dress so they could show their factory and decide what to do about it.

I sent another email back explaining that nothing on the dress was cut wrong, per say, i just didn't like the fit, quality, or detailing.

I then received another email saying they are refusing my return since the dress was made exactly as it looks in the tiny little picture on their website.

I sent another email back saying that their return policy clearly says that they accept returns and that I wouldn't have purchased something FROM CHINA that I hadn't seen before without reading their return policy first! I haven't heard anything back since, so I filed a dispute with my credit card company to try and get my money back. I'll post an update when the issue is resolved.

I'm not looking to "screw" the company out of their shipping charges or restocking fee, but I don't appreciate a company going against their written policies. It's bad business ... especially when you're dealing with someones wedding day :("

"I ordered a prom dress for my daughter, paid the 25.00 rush fee and still did not get the dress until the day of the event. I was out a second dress because i had no idea if the dress would arrive. the dress did fit when it arrived but was a little late. when i asked for my 25.00 rush order fee back and a refund on the dress they offered me 5% and suggested she could wear the dress in another prom. REALLY??? So i refused their offer and they countered with 10%. i also refused that.... they wanted to give me 17.00 refund after completly failing to meet the day of the event. I will never order form helene bridal again and will post as many reviews as i can to ruin their business. you are required to pay in advance and then they use China Child Labor to make the dresses. no wonder they can sell the dresses so cheap..... their website says they will work overtime to meet a deadline.... really, thats why a dress ordered March 20 2011 never arrived until April 30 2011..... after charging me a rush fee which they still have not returned. helene bridal sucks, dont order anything from them..."

"I know there are some bad reviews of Helene Bridal out there, and that's why I'm writing this. I took a chance on this dress because it was so reasonably priced, and because of that I had low expectations and didn't want to get my hopes up. My wedding is over a year away, so I figured I have lots of time to get a new dress if this one wasn't quite right. However, this dress far exceeded my expectations. I'm glad I took the risk of ordering online.

My dress arrived within a few weeks like they specified, and it looks and fits great! Seriously - I look just like the photos on the website when I'm in it. I measured myself, and had ordered with my custom measurements. I will probably be getting some slight alterations in the bust area, but aside from that there are no issues.

Please don't dismiss Helene Bridal because of some bad reviews. There are always going to be dissatisfied people, and those are usually the people that take the time to write reviews - which is why I especially wanted to write this one. I feel like people should know that I had a great experience, as I'm sure most people did."

"I won the battle but you may not be so lucky. Do NOT waste you time, money and tears!

I ordered a wedding gown on March 16th, 2011. It was the skirt of WD2191 and corset of WD2194, I had wanted a red gown since I was 13 so I was estatic that I could have this done in red. I thought I'd hit the jackpot! As my wedding was only a month away I paid a $25 rush fee to have it completed and sent in 14 working days as well as $60 for expodited shipping, bringing my total to only $344 for the dress of my dreams.

After the 14 working days had passed and broken promises that my dress would be shipped "this week" on April 4th Victoria stopped replying to my inquiries. I finally reached her on April 13th through the chat on the website, as my wedding was only 3 days away I was upset that I had paid for rush and it was not honored she refused to refund the rush fee and told me my dress would NOT be done in time for my wedding but the dress would still be sent even after telling her I did not want it any longer. That Friday, the day before my wedding, to my surprise I recieved a dress. I felt relieved and as soon as I opened the package my heart sank. It was more orange than red, the beading on the skirt was missing, the beading on the corset which was supposed to be intricate and beautiful was sparse and scattered, the train and bunched bussel was missing, it was 18 inches too long and the lacing on the back of the corset was done completely wrong.
I e-mailed Victoria immediately letting her know though I was grateful to have the dress it was not what I was promised and had paid for so I would like to return it and be refunded. She e-mailed me back that she needed pictures to send to the factory to start a plan of action. I sent side by side comparisons of the problems to the dress I was promised. She got back to me saying since it was custom made there were no refunds and all she could do was either send the beading to me to have put on at a local shop or refund me $25. Which would be understable had the dress been finished and made as promised. She also explained that the back of the dress wasn't exact because they didn't have the tools to make it that way! After now almost 2 weeks of persisting that I get a refund and them not owning up to sending me a unfinished atrocity I got fed up and e-mailed her imforming her that if they did not own up to their mistake and refund me that I would be filing complaints through www.ic3.gov, www.eConsumer.gov and www.ftc.gov as well as letting her know I would dispute payment through paypal she finally e-mailed me this morning with 3 options.
1) Send the dress back and have it re-made but still without the backing correct due to lack of tools, making me invest more money to ship it back and pay for shipping on a new dress.
2) Return the dress and recieve a refund of $259 for the dress and $25 for the rush fee but also having to pay a $75 restocking fee.
or 3) Keep the dress and I could choose another dress equal to $150 totally free of cost.

Obviously I have more negotating to do, but finally after imforming them of my intentions to file complaints something was done!
This has been a headache and I have already filed the complains and I suggest everyone else whom has issues with them does the same to save other consumers from being victimized!

"