Chester and Felicity

I bought my wedding dress from Felicity’s before the merger, and collected it from Winchester’s. My experience was positive in Felicity, apart from when I went to collect my dress. The store had moved. Brown paper over the windows, no relocation address, and a $ 2000 dress missing. After searching, I found that the two companies had merged. I was very irritated that they had not informed their clients of the change of address, and at the inconvenience it caused. Imagine if you had bought a $ 2000 piece if jewellry, to find the shop had closed when you went to collect it. You wouldn’t be impressed.
Winchester’s was not overly friendly, but the lady from Felicity was, and was still helpful. The larger shop does not have a personal touch, and I felt like I could have been walking around a dept store. The lady who helped me try on the dress, helped me look at belts. I picked out a selection, and then she put some back on the rack as ‘they are too expensive’ without me even getting to try them. I was not impressed by the assumption that I could not afford, or did not want to pay whatever the cost was of the belts. The excitement and magic that I had felt when I first bought my dress was not there when I went to collect it. I believe that this was down to the service and attitude, and the new location. I also do not appreciate being barked at when I walk in to collect a dress, to take my shoes off, in the summer. Winter boots I can understand, and again the staff at Felicity never insisted on this is their shop. These are SAMPLE dresses that people are trying on, they’re not even being resold for more than 30% of what they charge for a new one. It was very inconvenient having to take my shoes off, collect my dress, hold my dress and put my sandels back on. The pretentiousness of the shop is not warranted. And I believe that a greeting should be the first thing out of the staff’s mouths, rather than an order!
Overall I cannot compare my experience to other bridal shops, as Felicity was the only one I visited in Canada, but I would be hesitant to recommend this company.

Went for my wedding dress. Experience was okay… not like you see on TV! Store Is alright inside, so-​so décor, clean, poor lighting in lower level changing rooms. Overall, it seems like they could easily spruce up the place with some new matching light fixtures, a better outdoor shoe removal area, and dress code/​uniforms for employees.
The first time I went, I was the only bride in the store. The associate kept pulling dresses that I didn’t like, and that did not look nice on me at all… I don’t think she got my sense of my style. She was nice enough but I felt a lack of knowledge from the employees there about veils, sewing, altering, and anything above and beyond basic dresses (not that associates need to be experts on everything, but a basic knowledge of the common issues surrounding wedding dresses would have helped, and would have made me feel more confident in their opinions).
I found they had a nice range of different dress styles. Hundreds of dresses there. Not a lot of veil variety (only really one type of veil fabric), or shoes. would be nice if they had an undergarment section as well.
I was weary when they took my measurements and recommended (from their print out sheet from the designer’s web-​site) a size way bigger than I usually wear. I told them I had a similar style dress by the same designer in size that was 3 sizes smaller than their recommendation. They told me to get the size they recommend, which I hesitantly did. When my dress came in and I went in to try it on, it was really big on me everywhere. I’m not blaming this on them, i just wish they could have helped me out more than just saying, ‘oh you can get it altered to fit’. Yes, I know I can, but I would rather have minor alterations than having my dress taken in drastically. I don’t know… maybe this isn’t a very common occurrence.
A was pretty ticked off when I went in for my dress-​try-​on appointment. I had booked an appointment for a specific time. I was five minutes early. I was half acknowledged when I walked in, and had to wait 25 minutes to try on my dress. which made me mad considering I had booked an appointment for a specific time to avoid this (they were very busy and under-​staffed). What made me even more mad was that I had no idea what was going on for that 25 minutes. No one assured me that they would be right with me, no one told me what was going on, no one apologized. I wasn’t really sure they acknowledged me and my appointment that whole time I waited– and when I asked an associate about it, they brushed me off.
Another thing that I didn’t like– they don’t have someone to do alterations on-​staff. Thankfully there is a tailor upstair who does wedding dress alterations, but you have to take your dress home with you from the store, then take it back in to the alteration’s shop. When I asked to keep my dress at the store until I have it altered, they told me there was no room to do that. So I paid for my dress, and walked it out the front door, over the mound of wet smelly shoes in the front entrance, and will have to bring it back in a few months to the same building to have it altered.
Generally, my experience here was lacking in customer service. I want to feel pampered, taken care of, and assured when I shop for my wedding gown– I unfortunetly didn’t feel that at Chester and Felicity.

Chester and Felicity is a merging of two Halifax bridal boutiques — Winchester’s and Felicity Bridal. I stopped in recently as I’m now on the hunt for that perfect dress, with realistic expectations. It was, you know, fine.
If you’re a bride who envisions yourself in a princess-​style gown or classic A-​line wedding dress, you’ll probably do great here. There were lots of full-​skirted gowns to choose from. Because the store is arranged by designer and the dresses are squished so close together on the rack, I found it hard to look through them.
If you’re like me and going for a more flowy, relaxed kind of look, then you’re out of luck. I saw maybe three or four dresses that didn’t have full skirts. There was exactly one dress that made me think «This is OK». I didn’t love it, but the price was right and I was willing to try it on. Except that you need an appointment to try things on. Since I’m not ready to bring every woman I know along for an afternoon of standing on a podium trying on multiple ball gowns, I’m not going to do that.
There were some pretty headpieces and stuff, so I’ll likely set foot in the store again for that sort of thing once I’ve acquired a dress. But for a girl with my taste, this bridal shop is not the right place.