Cristina's Bridal

I wouldn't even give this establishment 1 star. As the MOH, I wanted this day to be fabulous for my best friend and I feel horrible for the experience she was given. First, we went downstairs and I tried multiple bridesmaid dresses on. Not a single associate came to assist as all four of then were helping one group. We found the dress the bride loves, and went upstairs to look at wedding gowns. When we walked in, we were told someone would be right with us. Twenty minutes later an associate came over to show us around. She asked if the bride has tried on dressed, to which she replied just one but I have been looking at pictures online. The associate then advised that she needed to ""come back when she was actually serious about purchasing a gown"" and that she's obviously not ready to make the commitment to a dress. I laughed in disbelief and stated that if she found the dress she loved of course she would purchase it. The woman told me I was wrong, and that she was there to just play dress up. Needless to say, we found the bridesmaid dresses and will be purchasing them elsewhere, where our service and money are appreciated. I would never recommend this bridal shop as I receive better service in David's Bridal! more

Now that my best friend has picked up her wedding dress, I can tell you all about my horrific experience with Cristina's. The bride and 3 out of her 4 bridesmaids ordered our dresses from here. We all had to call in our orders since we live out of town. Our bride had to call multiple times to set up a list even allowing all her bridesmaids to place our orders (apparently the first time it was set up wasn't enough.) Then we all ordered different styles dresses in the same color. My dress came with a belt, that we were told only came in fuchsia (the dress was sunset/orange colored.) Because of this, the Maid of Honor ordered her belt in the same color as mine to match.When my dress came in the dress came in with the same color as the belt...orange! When I called to get a new belt they blamed the bride and me for not specifying a different colored belt. According to Cristina (yes, I spoke with both the manager and the owner.) It was my responsibility to tell them I wanted a pink belt. Since the belt was the same material as the dress, they don't have to ask me what color I want. When I told them that they should be the experts in their field and should ask me what color belt I wanted, their response was that they are not ""mind readers."" If you're confused, you now understand how I felt. To make a long story short, after fighting with both the manager and Cristina, they made me pay another $25 for the material they had to order to make my new belt. They thought they were doing me a favor by making the new belt for me. Sorry Cristina, this is not a favor when you messed up in the first place. Mind you, the bridal party had already spent a few thousand dollars there and all Cristina needed to do to rectify the situation was pay the $25 for the belt. Apparently her pride got in the way, which is why I am writing this disgusting review. Good luck to anyone using this salon! If you want a stress-free, hassle-free bridal salon please go elsewhere!!!!! Cristina, I have some advice for you...the next time a customer tells you $25 will make them a happy customer, take her advice and pay the $25 yourself. It will help you avoid terrible reviews like this one. A stress-free bride is a happy customer....you missed the mark on this bridal party for sure! This salon is definitely trying to squeeze every penny out of you. If they actually cared about their customers they would've happily paid the $25 for their mistake, AND apologized for their mistake. Instead, I got the blame for the mistake and they painted themselves as doing me a favor a making the new belt. Manipulative and disgusting!!! BRIDES BEWARE!!!! FIND A DIFFERENT SALON!!!! more

DO NOT GO HERE!!!!! Had a good experience upstairs when picking out my dress. Going downstairs to do fitting and alterations was HELL! First time I went for a fitting NO ONE had any idea what was going on, where the extra fabric was I ordered to make cap sleeves. My dress is ivory, they wanted to use white because they could not find the correct one!!!! Very rude staff. Went back for a second fitting and it was just as bad! They had taken the dress in on the sides incorrectly and now you could see the boning of the inside of the dress come thru. The seamstress was just going to leave it. My mother asked her if she would let her daughter walk down the aisle like that and the woman said ""No!"" , so my mom asked why would you think I would want mine to!!! They tried to charge us to fix the mistake they made to correct it! As it was, they charged $600 for alterations! For that much money it better fit like a glove!! When I went back the 3rd time they had fixed the boning problem and added on the sleeves. It was suppose to be pressed along with the sash that was purchased there. They had offered to steam my veil for me. My veil was my grandmothers which my mom and my sister had worn. We were very nervous about giving it to them given how old it was. They assured me the dress, sash and veil would be ready for pick up the day before I left for my wedding. I called the day before to confirm pick up the next day all 3 of them at 12 and was told it would be ready. When I went to get it they said ""oh sorry it’s not ready yet, will be about 45min"". I had 4 other appointments scheduled that day after I had picked up the dress before I left the next morning. I was now going to be late for everything else! Went back 45 minutes later and they handed me the dress in the bag and was expecting me to just walk out. I said I would like to see the dress first! Looking at it I realized they never pressed the sash. It still had the same marks on it from when it had been folded. Had to ask them to re-press it because they thought it was sufficient! As I waited AGAIN, I kept looking at the dress. They never cut any of the loose thread inside the dress when they took the sides in. You could see all the thread on the sides. More importantly, I realized that my veil wasn't in the bag!!! They were trying to rush me out and my veil wasn't even there!!! When they came back up with my sash I asked where my veil was and they said ""I don't know"". They went downstairs to look for it and 15 minutes went by with me BY MYSELF upstairs wondering if my grandmothers veil was lost!!!!!! They finally came back up and told me it was very hard to do (I knew this ahead of time which is why I asked already 3 times to make sure they could do it and was always told it would be fine!) Then Cristina, the owner, actually started arguing with me when I told her how disappointed I was with everything. It was now 1:45. I was suppose to pick up my dress, veil and sash at 12. She has no customer service skills and I am amazed that she is still in business and why more customers haven’t given her horrible reviews as it was obvious I wasn’t' the first customer who had been treated this way. When I opened the bag the next day for my wedding , my dress wasn't even steamed. My mother had to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond and BUY a steamer to do my dress, veil and sash. PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THIS STORE! HORRIBLE SERVICE AND VERY OVER PRICED! more

I wish I would have paid more attention to the bad reviews. Please do not go here. I bought a dress off the rack and they kept it for repairs. Namely the clasp and the zipper were broken. When I picked it up weeks later, they tied a string through the broken zipper and just removed part of the clasp. When I picked it up I had them check and confirm the zipper had been fixed. The owner said, ""yep, it's fixed!"" Nope, it's not! There is a ribbon that hangs off the back.... this is my wedding.... and I could tie my own ribbon in place of a zipper. \r \r The dress also smells of BO. Even the most affordable places will usually clean a sample dress after you buy it. (for example VOWS cleans any dress over $1,000). My dress was WELL over $1k. They never said they would clean it though, so that's my problem I guess.\r \r I was supposed to take this dress home with me this weekend and I'm so, so sad. They ruined such an exciting memory and moment for me. \r \r I will warn everyone I know in person and on the www to avoid this place. Expensive dress and horrible service. Lots of nice places around, no need to mess with a place like this. more

Cristina's Bridal in Andover, MA had a nice selection of bridesmaids dresses. However, I have issues with the ordering process. We were told that our dresses would arrive within 3 months from date of order which was cutting it very close to the wedding date. My dress came in a couple weeks later than quoted. All 5 bridesmaids had to have alterations since the dresses were ordered too big. I am the exact same size I was when my dress was ordered and it arrived at least two dress sizes too big. I think they do this on purpose assuming we will have the dresses altered at their store. I didn't give them the satisfaction. One of the bridesmaids had alterations done at Cristina's and it cost just as much as the actual dress. I am very disappointed. more

My Cristina's experience was HORRIBLE. I have heard great things about this place and was exciting to go to this shop for wedding gowns. However I was extremely displeased. I walked into Cristina's to a beautiful store it is the most beautiful bridal shop I've ever been in...but that's pretty much all they have going for them. The staff was rude, extremely unorganized and very unprofessional. I had booked an appointment in advanced and they looked at me like I had no idea what I was talking about. If I can't even trust them to have my appointment booked and ready why would i trust them with the most important dress of my life! After 20 minutes of them getting organized they finally took me to the bridal room. I was handed shower rings to put on the hangers of the dresses I wanted to try on. I'm sorry but if I am going to buy a high end designers gown from you dirty shower rings were not my cup of tea. After waiting 10 minutes after picking out my gowns my consultant was finally ready to put me in the dresses. Once I had the dresses on she gave me about 2 minutes to look at the dress on me before she literally pushed me off the platform to change into the next gown. She completely ignored what I had to say about the dress and gave me her opinion and pushed me in the direction of what she thought. Finally I picked out 2 of my favorites, one which I had liked a little more. I had told the consultant MANY times I had not planned to buy considering it was my first time shopping. I didn't even get a chance to tell my mom what I liked about the dress before the consultant whipped out a calculator and was crunching numbers. I felt EXTREMELY pressured to buy and having a calculator in my face and a consultant trying to convince me I had to buy the dress today or ""it was not worth it"" ruined my experience. After I finally drilled it into her head that I wasn't going to purchase she forced me out of the dress and rushed me out the door. If you are not going to buy right away or aren't going to pay over $5,000 for your wedding dress don't bother shopping here. They won't even want to bother with you. All in all the consultant was pushy, degrading and belittling. And don't be fooled by their new beautiful location they are SNOBBY, STUCK UP, RUDE, PUSHY and WAY OVERRATED! more

I went in to Cristina's early in the day on a Tuesday to try on a bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding. The wedding is in Florida but I live in MA so she sent me there to try on two dresses from the Jim Heljm Occasions line. The sales people upstairs sent us, my mother and me, downstairs because they were too busy to help us find the dresses. Walking down the stairs I noticed someone staring at me, rudely staring as if I did not belong there, turns out she works there. She was the person who was supposed to help us find the two dresses, somehow she could only point to the racks where these dresses should be. She didn't even look up the style numbers for me to let me know if they had them. Cristina's is supposed to carry the full current collection, but they only had one of the two dresses we were looking for or I just could not find the other one. Then to make things even worse they would not let me take a picture on my phone to send to my sister in Florida!!! But the girl in the dressing room next to mine was taking all the pictures she wanted and no one told her she couldn't. I was in complete shock at how rude and poor the sales associates were. Maybe I'm not skinny enough or pretty enough to be treated like a customer in this shop, but I HAVE MONEY TO SPEND AND IT'S GREEN JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE'S MONEY!!! I will never go back or recommend this store to anyone! more

I went to Cristina's based on a few recommendations to look for a dress for a wedding that I have coming up. I was highly impressed with the selection and the quick recognition I received upon entering the store. The saleswoman, I believe her name was Maria, was extremely friendly and very energetic. After describing to her what I was looking for, she brought me around to a few selections that were pretty much what I described. She was very eager to help but not overly ""salesy"". I read some of the previous reviews and can't help wonder if these people went to the same Cristina's I went to. I found the reviews to be completely off base. \r I would definitely go back to Cristina's to purchase another dress in the future and I hope that the same saleswoman is still there to help again! Pros: Selection, Customer Service Cons: Can't think of one more

I just got married in the fall of 07 and I bought my dress, the bridesmaid's dresses, the flower girl's dresses, and even my accessories from Cristina?s. I just wanted to say that I am so glad I went to this shop. As soon as I walked in, I received a very warm welcome by the store manager (I think her name was Maria). She explained to me how the store was set up and exactly what I needed to do. When I first started looking I wasn?t exactly sure what type of dress I wanted for myself or even the bridesmaids. By the end of my first visit, with the help of the store manager, I knew exactly what I wanted. I continued to receive that type of service throughout the whole process?right to the day I picked up the dresses. My wedding was such a magical day and everything was just amazing?I know without the help of the staff at Cristina?s it may not have been. I have already recommended Cristina?s to several of my friends and I know that two of them have already ordered their dresses from them too. I would highly recommend this bridal shop to everyone! Pros: Good selection, great staff and service, very organized Cons: I can't think of one more

I bought my sister's bridesmaid dress at Cristina's. Other than Cristina being personable, there is nothing redeeming about this store. We didn't receive any help picking out the dress (I pulled everything from the racks), and at each subsequent visit, the sales associates' attitudes became worse.\r \r Each time we went to see the dress for a fitting, they couldn't find it. They always filed it under the wrong name. They were never ready for us on alteration days. Moreover, each time we saw the dress it was in worse shape. It was covered it dust; their response when I asked whether they would clean it and press it, they said ""what dirt""? On the last day, my sister went to pick it up and she immediately noted that there was a pull in the back. My sister and mother showed the owner Steve, his answer was ""we didn't do it"". They then claimed that it's part of the fabric. \r \r I was not there but my family called because they were so upset, Steve the owner was put on the phone and stated my mother was being rude (for pointed out the pull and letting him know that the pull was not there on previous visits) and then hung up on me when I told him I would never refer business to their boutique again.\r \r I bought my wedding dress at Madeline's Daughter in Portsmouth, NH...if you want to be treated well, with respect and have an amazing and well cared for dress, this is the place to go. I drive 2 hours from Boston to go there and it's worth every minute in the car. Such a stark contrast from the horrible customer service at Cristina's. Pros: Cristina is nice Cons: customer service, Steve the owner more

I read the reviews and was curious with their customer service. To be honest, I was not impress at all. The reviews are right. No one greeted me or asked me if I needed help. I felt very awkward the minute I stepped foot into the shop. The woman who came to help me did not look happy at all. She was very negative and rude. I expected this type of service since the beginning so I walked out the minute I was done browsing around. I would not recommend wasting your time here. You can get better service some where else that would appreciate your business. Cons: customer service needs improvement more

Terrible service, rude sales. Do NOT order any dresses to try on, they will charge you 100 dollars and you will only be able to use it towards a sale of a dress, not store credit. There are plenty of nicer stores in the greater boston area. VOWS has been exceptional in my dress hunt. Cons: Terrible service. Wished I never came across this store. more

At recommendation of family friend, went to look at bridal gowns...had read bad reviews and wasn't expecting much! Turns out, the reviews were accurate, very rude help, mediocre selection, crowded space, and, to add to the stress level, there's a gym upstairs and the thumping coming through the floor is enough to make you run out screaming! Too many other nice dress shops in the area to be so GROSS! Pros: can't think of a single one Cons: noisy, crowded, rude help, average gowns more

I had a great experience at Cristina's. I found the staff very, very helpful. I bought my dress, bridesmaids and all my accessories there, because they have such a great selection. I have been to basically every bridal shop in MA & NH and I think by far Cristina's was the best in selection and in service!! Pros: Service, selection, location, more

very poor custumer service . barely ask if you need any help and when they find out you already have a wedding gown that your shopping for accessories or bridesmaid gowns they treat you very rudily. BE prepared for bad customer service and stuck-up sales people Pros: rude poor customer service more

I am a new bride in search of a wedding dress and this was the most wretched retail experience ever. The one saleswoman I worked with could use a refresher course in manners and sales techniques. When she asked me a question and then six words into my answer she initiated a conversation with another sales woman-- I knew it was going to be interesting.\r \r The saleswoman also made it seem like my wedding in June was going to be a huge headache. She said, ""Cutting it close, eh?"" \r \r If it weren't for my friend who came with me, I would have left right then and there.\r \r There is no way I would spend thousands of dollars here even if they had the last wedding dress on earth. \r \r The selection was mediocre and in the end, I was sorry I wasted my time. Cons: The help more

I ordered my dresses far in advance and when i called to see if they were in, they nochalantly mentioned they had not been ordered! i was told to put a downpayment and when i called back the girl made me feel stupid and said it was obvious every dress would need a down payment. so i had to lay out the money so they could be ordered that day! They just came in 1 month out and most are huge on the girls they did not size correctly..they were very rude when we came to pick up and had the wrong balance on my account telling me i owed 5x what i did. they do have a great selection but i will never again go into this store customer service was the worst i have ever seen. Please do not trust this store with an important event! more

Large selection, but disappointing customer service! All of the bridesmaids had submitted their orders and paid, but for some reason the order was not placed. Therefore, it is one month out and the dresses have just arrived. Now any alterations that need to be done will be charged a rush fee. Many girls are not in the area and must wait to pick up the dress or be charged a delivery fee to have it sent so that they receive it earlier. When I called to discuss options, every one of the employees was unhelpful and defensive because of this mix up. One gentleman practically hung up on me! more