Julie Allen Bridals

Horrible experience! We purchased our bridesmaid dresses from Julie Allen. I am extremely disappointed with the tailoring that was supposed to be done to my dress. First, I do not live in town, it was difficult for me to make appointments. They insisted that I come for a final fitting so I traveled up from the city one day. It was rushed, 15 minutes, and it made absolutely no difference! The day of the wedding, the bridesmaids and I were tripping all over our dresses, even while walking. We wore the same shoes to each fitting! I tore five holes in the bottom of the dress going up and down stairs! My tailor Kassie insisted that I pay cash for the job. I had my check book at the fitting and she insisted I pay with cash when I pick the dress. All that needed to be done to the dress was the hem length and straps. Now I can see why! She should be happy I’m not the IRS… One of the other bridesmaids had another tailor and the hem was long and totally uneven. It was long on the left side and short on the right! We were uncomfortable the entire night! The whole experience was rushed and with such a horrible outcome, I will not be recommending my friends use Julie Allen, especially for bridesmaid dresses! I refuse to pay a cent more there!

I have so far had an amazing experience here! They have an amazing selection compared to anywhere else around.
Melanie the owner is exactly who you would want to help you with gown shopping-​helpful, patient, honest and she knows her shit! And her daughter Lauren is amazing as well. She is attentive and goes above and beyond.
Check out other bridal salons and you will find a poor selection, staff that doesn’t know anything about weddings or bridal, or they are ovepriced. This shop is none of these!
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I had Lauren as my consultant (I’m a bride.) I came in a few months ago with my future mother-​in-​law to begin looking, found a favorite dress. Came back over this past weekend with my mom, FMIL, and 5 bridesmaids. Lauren again helped me (I asked when I made the appointment.) Everything went perfectly. I ended up getting the favorite dress. After I found mine, she let me and my BMs go a bit crazy trying on dresses. We ended up finding a good direction for their dresses which we may or may not order (don’t know yet. Still looking.) This review is really for Lauren because I couldn’t imagine working with a better consultant. I’m not sure if I’ll do my alterations here or with a family seamstress I know, but either way, I’m hoping for the best!

The staff isn’t always friendly, depends on the day. I get that serving brides and bridesmaids is probably very difficult, however you chose to be in this business. Since our bride chose Julie Ann Bridal for her dress and our Bridesmaid dresses they offer $ 65 alterations, you can’t really beat that. HOWEVER, the alterations were horrendous. I mean absolutely horrendous. There was a 4 inch variation in the bottom of one of the bridesmaids dresses and 3 inches on mine. You could see it on the hanger — how does a seamstress not notice. Places on the bottom were also longer & shorter than the chiffon overlay. I should have known when the seamstress spent 5 minutes with me. Further, the cups were sown in with three stitches. I would have rather paid the $ 80 to $ 100+ elsewhere for a quality job.

I had the luck of coming in and it felt like a family affair from the get go. I was still in the looking stages of shopping, but after our experience here on our first visit, we determined we would make which ever purchase we would eventually make here, especially since they were so flexible and able to order and work with their brides. Erica was my consultant, but I did work with several of the staff members. They really take pride in knowing all of their inventory and knowing it well. Often I would say that there was a part of one dress that I liked and they would come up with several variation suggestions from their inventory that they would run and get. I truly felt pampered.
Turns out that my experience was truly a family affair as I had family that had purchased their gowns from their old location in the past! Truly special to know!
I had a unique situation with a great deal of my wedding party being spread out all over the east coast, and they were amazing at working out the details to get dresses ordered and really help with the coordination of getting the orders done and on time, taking measurements from bridesmaids and ordering the proper dress if they were away.
Tailoring is also done on site and was done very very well and was affordable, especially as I have heard all kinds of stories, I was truly impressed. Even my Mom found her Mother of the Bride dress here!
The entire staff and family are truly amazing, and I have recommended this to countless friends, acquaintances, and just other brides to be that I have come into contact with. They truly know what they are doing, and do a quality job.
I am currently working with them for the maid of honor from my wedding who now has her turn to get married! Again all the dresses will be going through their shop for the party, and they even were able to order the dress she wanted she found elsewhere since she really only wanted to do business with them! Now it is my turn to be the bridesmaid across country in California, and they have been great coordinating getting the dress ordered!
Here’s to another amazing wedding by Julie Allen Bridal!

I cannot believe that I have read reviews calling this store a «hidden treasure», this store is far from it. I decided to shop at Julie Allen’s when I saw that my favorite bridesmaid dress designer sold dresses there. We ordered the dresses for my June 29^th wedding the first week of February, and I was told that was a perfect amount of time for the dresses to come in. Instead of a first week of May arrival date like I was told, the dresses came in on June 3^rd, 26 days before my wedding. And each dress was 2 – 3 sizes too big. So I’m not sure what happened there. After realizing they were too big, we were also told their seamstress could not help at all, since it was a busy time of year. This has forced all my bridesmaids to find a tailor (with my help) to fix a problem that could have been avoided if they were fit right. Each girl was sent a dress in a size they never wear. Which frustrated me. (My friend who wears a size 4 dress in all her bridesmaids dresses she has was given a size 8 which was falling off her body)
I also am not impressed with their sales associates at all. They were rude and very unprofessional. We all felt like we were a burden to be in the store, rather than being welcomed like we were the only people in the store.
I will never go back to that store, and have told many friends to stay away. I am so glad that I did not order my wedding dress through them.

What a very lovely experience. I worked with Lauren and she was FABULOUS! I didn’t have very high expectations going in because of the reviews, but I was so pleasantly surprised. First of all, Lauren made sure that my mom was able to relax and enjoy being the Mother of the Bride. Not every bridal shop does that. Second, Lauren listened to what I was looking for and almost every dress she brought in was appropriate. (Not all appropriate on my body, but that’s not her problem). Also, she asked what my budget was. Not only did she not go over the budget, but the highest priced dress was still $ 200 under my high end. All of the women in the shop were so helpful and never once did I feel like I was being pressured so they could «make the sale.» I want to buy my dress there, but because I live out of state, I think it would just be too complicated. That is literally the only reason.
Champagne would get this place 5 stars :)

Getting married is supposed to be one of the happiest moments of your life, and wedding vendors usually try to resonate that feeling… unless you’re shopping at Julie Allen Bridals!
My fiancé and I were visiting CT from Florida because we’re actually getting married in CT, and we were hunting for wedding venues/​reception halls. We were driving when I spotted Julie Allen Bridals, and I asked her to please stop so we could go in (yes, my fiancé and I are both women).
Usually, bridal shops will tell you in one way or another that they serve clients by appointment only (with a sign on the door or whatnot). But this one had a sign that said, «Open! Come in!» So, we did!
Needless to say, we were not made to feel welcome. The lady who «greeted» us (and I use that word loosely) looked at us like she had no idea what we were doing there. It was like she forgot that she worked at a store, and we had actually walked into her living room in the middle of dinner.
We told her we wanted to look at wedding dresses, and she just looked at us like she couldn’t be any more confused. She finally came around and asked me if I had any idea what I was looking for. I said no, and that I wanted to look at a few dresses to see what I liked.
She then told us, in probably the rudest way she could, that they serviced customers by appointment only. We really had no idea that this was the case, and even if we did, she could have been a little more polite about it… especially after making us feel like we had just landed from Mars and decided to invade her store when we initially walked in.
She then offered to let us take a look at some of the wedding dresses «in the back.» Little did we know, «the back» was a cramped little room full of dresses that were zipped up inside plastic bags. There was no way to see anything in there; my fiancé and I barely fit in the room! We told the lady that we would just come back another time, and we left.
This was really the worst experience I’ve had in my wedding planning so far, and it left such a sour taste in my mouth. Our wedding planning has been so happy and peaceful, and we’ve enjoyed it so much together. This experience made us feel like we were being looked down upon, and it just turned us off entirely.
I’m never setting foot in this store again, and I’ve warned our CT friends to not do so either. No soon-​to-​be-​bride should feel ridiculed when she’s shopping for her dress.

I visited this bridal store for a bridesmaid shopping trip recently. Erica was a great help to our group, giving honest opinions and advice and no pushy sales talk. Even though our group was a bit late to our appointment, she did not make us feel rushed during the appointment or pressured to make a purchase decision at the end. I would recommend this shop for its customer service.
It is missing the 5^th star because the dresses were not laid out in the most obvious organized fashion, though we were allowed to browse and pull dresses.

At the request of of my Mom I came here over the weekend as I was visiting from NYC. It was a great experience! Within seconds of meeting Beverly, she picked out the most incredible dress that I ended up purchasing. I tried on about 20 additional dresses after that but the first one was truly perfect.
I suggest making an appointment as it can get very busy here, especially on a Saturday. All of the sales people I came in contact with were lovely and the prices were excellent as was the selection of dresses (bridesmaid and bridal). In response to the other reviewer– most bridal shops with exception of David’s Bridal select about a dozen dresses for you to review, so this was not unique to Julie Allen. It’s actually very beneficial to the bride as it saves you a ton of hassle and exhaustion.
I highly recommend Julie Allen Bridal and Beverly. I’m so glad I came up to CT for the weekend and cancelled my Kleinfeld appointment in NYC!

Really more like 3.5 stars.
Julie Allen is a hidden treasure in Newtown. I only found out about it from a friend who came to see bridesmaid dresses for another wedding here.
When we came here for our appointment, we were the only ones in the store. Very nice! I really loved how the store was set up — very private fitting areas, tastefully decorated. There was nothing tacky about it.
It was a bit odd in another way, though. The woman helping us (owner, I believe) had me describe what I wanted, and then pulled dresses — without me even seeing the selection. All bridal gowns are kept in a separate, closed room. She brought out dress after dress that was not exactly what I wanted. After half a dozen of those, my mom finally asked if we could save the hassle and just go look at the dresses ourselves. Thankfully, we were granted permission (all dresses are in clear plastic coverings anyway, so not sure what the big deal was). The lady wasn’t as pushy as others, but definitely had her own idea about what would look good on me and did have me try on some outrageous numbers (a pouffy tulle gown with giant appliqued flowers that would even make Cinderella cringe).
Didn’t find anything special here for myself, but its worth a visit.