Wedding Dress from HELL | VIRAL TikTok 🤝 Wedding Planner REACTS

I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. I'm sat. I'm sat. Are you ready? Oh, because this situation is literally taking the internet by storm right now.

Now that the experience is pretty much behind me, I want to talk about my wedding dress from hell. I'm going to try to get through this without getting, like, too angry and freaking out. But basically, I got a custom-made wedding dress, I suppose. I— last year in, like, September, October 2025, I started interviewing designers to go custom for my wedding dress because I wasn't really finding what I was looking for, and I knew I wanted something super simple, um, and I wanted the experience of going custom. I did the math of how much it would cost for me to make or to buy a new dress and also pay for alterations, and I basically kind of like combined that, and I was like, well, if I pad my budget a little bit, I could go custom, and then there are no alterations, it's custom. So in my mind, I was like, this is a worthy investment even though it's very expensive.

I don't know if that's girl math or not. I don't know if it's girl math, but Sounds right to me. And you're probably thinking, Jamie, you're a wedding planner, shouldn't you know this? Do you know the amount of times I've priced out a custom gown? Zero. Zero times. Usually the couple, the bride's already selected her gown and her designer has like gone down that avenue and doesn't really need me to price it out for her. I've never priced out a custom gown. But this girl math is mathing hardcore. Hi, by the way, my name is Jamie Wolfer. I'm an online wedding planner. I help people plan their weddings online stress-free as possible. But before we go any further, would you indulge me for just, just a moment? I fulfilled a lifelong dream recently. Okay, I've kind of been working on it for a while. I, I wrote a wedding planning book, question mark. It's called The Master Wedding Planner and it is available now for pre-order. And it is, in my humble opinion, the most perfect combination of your big sister bestie wedding planner giving you all of her advice and tangible worksheets like your priorities list, your guest list, your budget, things of that nature, and discussion questions for you and your fiancé to work through. It's literally the best version of a wedding planner book you could ever get, because not only does it walk you through all of the steps that you need to be taking when planning your wedding, but it teaches you the reasons behind them. So when you are making decisions, you get to make them empowered. So I'm going to put you on a little bit of a quest. If we can get to 500 pre-orders, that tells book buyers, that tells bookstores that there is something really special about this book and that needs to be out in more stores, on more shelves, and in more couples' hands. So if you're on your wedding planning journey or you just really feel like buying my book, you'll find the pre-order link here and in the description box as well. Okay, anyways, back to the content.

I meet with like maybe 4 designers. I ended up going with this designer based here in New York who we are going to call Kim, okay? And she really understood my vision. She like really got me right away. The first thing that we did was a Zoom call which cost me $120 where I showed her my inspo and she drew me a sketch. So this was like the inspo that I provided her. This is a picture of me and the reason I included this picture was because of the way it fit. I was like, this is the shape of the bodice that I'm after. You know, a little drop waist, super, super fitted. And then these ones I included as like general inspo of like kind of like a romantic shape.

Have you considered going with that original dress and just putting one of those little bump pillows on that they did? Was it during the Renaissance era? Do you know what I'm talking about? It's like they would put on a pillow to give them a little more oomph, a little more junk in the trunk, if you will. So, sorry. Okay. I love historical period dramas. Just so not relevant, but I have to explain how I know about the junk of the trunk pillow.

This is the sketch that she made me. In theory, like, it has everything that I asked for. I remember thinking that like there could be more volume in the skirt at the top, but there was a little bit of pushback from her and my mom was there. They were both kind of like, "Let's start here." I think they, neither of them, maybe they didn't like my vision. I don't know. But this was the sketch.

Okay. Can we do a side by side of the dress that she is not in versus the sketch that she received back? It seems like we're missing a junk in the trunk pillow vibe. That was pretty distinct in her inspo photos. She showed the photo of her in that dress because she liked the material and the way it fell in general, but it lacked, it lacked the hips, it lacked the junk. She wanted a little more je ne sais quoi in her hindquarter section. So I'm picking up on the vibe that maybe already if we're calling this the wedding dress from hell, she missed the designer Kim. Sorry, I got a cow. She's right out front of my window. I was worried this would happen. We literally got her yesterday. So, so sorry. So I'm wondering if we're already off on the wrong foot here. I mean, we know it's not gonna end well. No one titles a video "Wedding Dress from Hell" with a good ending.

The next step was to go in for my prototype fitting this was in November 2025, and the prototype is essentially a rough draft of the dress. And this is what mine looked like. I was happy with this. It fits me like a glove. I definitely had some edits. As you can see, there's like black Sharpie drawn on the bodice. That's because the princess seams, which are the seams that go like straight down the front right here, um, were really wide and straight, and I wanted them to be closer together and curved to give me a bit more of a shape. Also, this is like not a drop waist and I wanted it to be dropped a bit. But other than that, like this fit me so well. This was the back. You can see there's like a blue line where it was giving me like crazy back fat.

And I was like, let's lower that a little bit to get rid of that.

And we were playing with like some lace and bows.

I feel like— I feel like we should be a little kinder to our bodies. Okay. Trying on wedding dresses for the quote unquote most important day of your life is a lot. Is a lot. I do see what you're saying. You don't want it to dig in as much, but it's not giving you a crazy amount of back fat.

You're gorgeous.

Okay, okay, sorry, I can't help myself.

So that was in November. I don't go back until March, and you're not ready to see this. Okay, this is the first time I see my dress in the fabric, meaning that was a prototype, this is it made in the fabric. This is what I see when I walk in. Literally diabolical. Um, the waist is like— oh, it doesn't fit me at all. Like, this doesn't fit me at all. I'm floating in this dress. It's asymmetrical. One of the boobs is higher than the other. The princess seams have not been adjusted. They're wide. They're a weird shape. There's a weird like bunching happening right down the center of the dress. I'm clipped in. I was not clipped into the prototype. I'm clipped in in the front. I'm also clipped in the back. I'll show you. The skirt is like deflated and like this seam across the waist looks so bunchy and weird. This is the back of the dress. I'm completely clipped into it. Like I would— again, I was not clipped into the prototype, so I don't know what happened here. Um, but I left this, this appointment Freaking out.

Okay, so I feel like I'm not worried about the clips. I'm not worried about the clips because the dress design is a process. I am concerned that the princess lines are not princessing, you know, they're not as silhouetted as she would have preferred, um, and they're indeed quite a bit wider. It looks like this material is way more satiny, way— has more of a sheen to it than her original inspo photos, but that could be just me, you know, kind of getting nitpicky, or maybe it's the lighting, I don't know. But I thought the inspo photos were more of a muted material, um, more of a muted finish, but this one is like pretty shiny, but it is, it's giving Temu, it's giving Wish, RIP Wish, if you remember that back in the day. It's just not giving, okay? Or if it is, it's giving the wrong things. So like, I see where she's coming from. Everything about this is not giving a custom gown experience so far. However, there could be circumstances where a dress designer needs to deconstruct things to put it back together. In my opinion, I'm not loving, and if this was my client, I would not feel confident, but I would be hopeful. Okay? Not confident, but hopeful.

After that appointment, I sent my first kind of like firm email where it's just kind of like, I'm a little concerned. I'm not seeing a ton of progress. The notes that I gave in November aren't in the dress. Again, princess seams are not adjusted. It has not been a drop waist. And like, where did the volume go in the skirt? I was like, what's happening here? Um, and they respond— Kim responds really nice, don't worry, it takes a little bit of imagination, we're not there yet, da da da. And then I say, can we move my next fitting up? Because there's only supposed to be 3 fittings between the sketch and picking up the dress, and this is fitting number 2. So I'm like, well, let's— I'm gonna need more than 3 because there's a lot left to do. So we move my fitting up from March to That one's at March, the next one's at May, which is this one. So I go in in May and my dress looks like this. Dress number 3. This is a third dress. They don't even resemble each other. This is completely different. Um, still does not fit me. It does not fit me at all. And in this appointment when I was there, I said, you can take this in a little bit, like the waist could be tighter, like, did it— like, look how much bunching there is. Yeah, like it's not fitted against my body. And they literally told me no. They're like, no, no, no. Like, no, we can't really bring it in anymore. And I'm like, but you can, because it doesn't fit. Um, whatever. They also added cups to the boobs that are giving me like fish eyes. Um, the waist, like the shape of that seam, we've completely lost it, and it's just kind of like sagging there. Let me zoom in. Okay, so maybe you can kind of see what I mean, but like this seam right here, it has like this weird bunching, and it's still not a drop waist. It's just like this weird seam, like barely holding it together. The cups are crazy. You can completely see them through the dress and still look at how wide and straight the princess seams are. Like they have not been adjusted. The waist has not been dropped. The princess seams have not been adjusted.

Mm, okay. There's lots of puckering happening on this gown. You do not need to be a gown expert to see that there's like lots of waving happening in the bodice of the gown where there should not be any. I also don't know if the neckline was a choice where it like rounds up, but it really highlights the cups. In a not good way. We should not know that your dress has cups. That should be a mystery to us, okay? Our eyes should not be drawn to that. The princess seams have not been adjusted. The waist is not a true drop waist. That's supposed to be several inches lower on her body. It's just not right. And like, so at this point, I get where this bride is coming from. Is it catastrophic?

No.

Is it giving custom Is it giving couture? Is it giving it's worth several thousand dollars more? No. Also, when she says, can you take it in more? And they say, no, we can't.

How?

Explain to me how we can have puckering in the fabric, but you cannot take it in any further. Okay. Thank you so much.

So at this point, I'm like, I'm freaking out. This is May. My wedding is in August. Okay. I'm like, the dress is not going to get done by these people because the notes that I gave them in November that I've now reiterated and I've like raised the flags, they're like still not taking place. And again, this has been an expensive experience. Like, this is not like a cheap dress. Like, I've invested thousands of dollars into this dress. At this point, I've made 3 of my 4 payments. Okay, there's only 4 payments. I've made 3 of them. They have all my money. Okay. I'm so concerned and unhappy about the dress that I actually reach out to Kim and I say, I would like to move up. I would like to add another fitting. And I, I'm still not seeing these things and I need you to execute these things, or I need you to tell me that you can't so that I can go elsewhere. Kim responds, she's like, don't worry, it's all gonna be fine. Let's add another fitting and we can have an honest conversation about the progress, like, if you're not happy. I go, thank you. Then I start researching. I start researching a little bit and it dawns on me that if I need to buy another dress, I have to do it like that day. Because I only have so many weeks until my wedding and, you know, shipping, all of these things. Like, I was kind of like, I have to make a game time decision. So I call my inner circle and everyone is in agreement that this dress will not get where I want it to get in the next like 6 weeks until my wedding. So, um, or however many weeks. So I email Kim and I say, thank you so much for all of your hard work, I've really appreciated you and your team being so dedicated to my dress, but I think I need to end our relationship here because—

I'll let her finish her statement.

I'm not seeing the progress I need to see, and this close to my wedding, like, I can't— like, I only have so many options, but like, thank you for all your hard work. From here—

nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. That is not what we do. Here's what we do. I recognize that your team has put hours into putting this dress together. At this point in time, uh, based on the results that I am seeing, I now no longer have confidence in your ability to complete the dress on time.

I don't have that.

I don't have that. So basically, I've given you notes every single time you have failed to meet them. I send an email on this date, uh, the changes were not made. I sent an email on this date, the changes again were not made. We've already moved up one of the dress fittings to make sure that some of these differences, these changes were made. We're making allowances for something to happen to the dress along the way, but for some reason these changes are not happening, okay? And I now no longer have confidence in your ability to complete this dress per the vision and per request. So what I think the bride did here is she tried to like hedge it with a little bit of like that, like emotionally nice language. Thank you so much, I know your team's done a lot. No, we're not thanking them. We're not thanking them. This is coming from a people pleaser. I'm an Enneagram 3. I'm not trying to be mean, but what are we thanking them for? We're not thanking them. No thank you. I do not thank you for what you've done. Okay, uh, I say I don't have confidence in your ability to pull this off. I recognize that hours of work have probably been put into this. I don't see any of results or changes that I've requested, and so I now no longer want to work with you and I'm requesting a refund. This part you could say thank you so much if you want to, okay? But we don't thank them for the hard work, okay? Respectfully, they're not doing the work that they're being paid to do.

Can we please arrange a partial refund? I wasn't sure what she would say to that, you know what I mean? Part of me was kind of like, part of me was like, she's gonna say no. Like, she's, she's like, of course she's gonna like keep the money and run. We have no contract. But the other part of me was kind of like, well, if she cares about like her reputation and she knows that I'm leaving like unhappy, like I'm asking for a partial refund, not a full refund. And I'm also not asking for a finished dress because the dress is unfinished and I'm telling her that they can stop working on it. So I thought that a partial refund would be fair. She responds to me and she just says no. She's like, she's like, no, the dress, you need to come in for another fitting and your payment's due. That's like literally what she says. So I get some advice from different people and I basically was like, okay, if you are like refusing to end this partnership with me, which by the way, why not? Like, why do you want to work with me if I don't want to work with you? Like, it doesn't make any sense. No integrity, no integrity, no artistic integrity, no like business integrity of like her reputation. She's not interested in making me happy, nothing. So I was kind of like, okay, well like Here's all of the things that I need to see in my fitting. And if these things are not present, our agreement is null, but I'll come in. So I went in.

Okay.

Okay. Red flags. Red flags. Where's the contract? Where's the contract? Because guess what? If you have insurance— I know you don't like when I talk about this.

Okay.

I know people get real here with sponsored content. This is not sponsored. If you have insurance, I obviously have my favorite insurance company. Specifically, cancellation insurance can help cover situations like this. Okay, I'll put my favorites right here.

Okay.

Again, not sponsored, but it won't work if you don't have a contract. You need to have a contract if you are spending thousands of dollars on a gown like this. You need to have a contract. So that immediately for me, like, huge red flag, huge, huge, huge red flag. Like, I could hear couples saying stuff and have heard couples say stuff like, well, they're really well known in our area. They've got good reviews, like it's going to be fine. Which is great. I think it's just avoiding thinking about the icky or potentially sad or bad stuff that could happen around your wedding when we kind of want to avoid talking about insurance or talking about contracts. She has no legal ability to get this, this money back to her, and she can't. She has no way of holding this designer accountable. Nothing other than word of mouth, which, I mean, at least she took to TikTok. All right. At least she has this going for her. And clearly it has gone mega viral. Don't worry, we have the designer's reaction coming up next. It's okay, hold on to your hats and glasses, folks, it's going to be a bumpy ride. But she wouldn't have been in this situation where she had to have a video go viral in order to get a response if there was some sort of paperwork and insurance.

Okay, okay, okay, these photos are from June. Reminder, wedding is the 1st of August.

This is June. What?

What? Sorry.

Dress number 4. Like, what is this? This dress looks completely different from the other dresses. Okay, I'm gonna zoom in. Okay, I am still completely pinned into this dress.

What?

Do you see all those pins? Yeah, it doesn't fit me. Um, the nipples are in 2 different places. The boobs are like this. She did fix the princess seams, but they're wide on the boob. And then they go in, which is so weird. The top of the dress is so high up, it's like cutting into my arms, which the last one was not doing. And the waist, although it fits me better, like at least it's more fitted—

this is—

look at all the wrinkling and bunching. Again, still pinned in, all the wrinkling and bunching. This has not been dropped. This has not— this has been the same place the whole entire time. This is what the back of it looks like. Again, we are, we are less like, we are like a month and some change out from my wedding and I'm covered in pen and I'm clipped into this dress, including the pins in the front. I'm completely clipped into this dress weeks away. I also just want to say that everyone I know who works in fashion, I've shown them this dress and they are all mortified. Like, when I tell you I got second, third, fourth opinion So yeah, it's not going to happen. I like can tell it's not going to happen. I'm going to have to do a part 2 because she does like demand that I pay at the end of this appointment.

Wait, wait, I didn't know there's a part 2. No! What do we do? What do we do? Game time decision. Game time. No, respond to what she said first. Respond to what she said. Mm, the dress is not good. The dress is not good. Obviously, if you're not into fashion, you may not know what the nuance is of what's going on. And okay, Slight adjacent story time. I actually technically, technically had two different wedding dresses. I purchased one used for like $200 or whatever, um, and then I was like, oh, I don't know if I like this. I just don't know. I don't know if I like it. Plot twist, I ended up liking it. Um, and I went and bought a second one off Etsy from China. Not so— when I— so it was not great. It's not great, okay? It was not great. Instead of having like a beigey nude undertone, it was, it was buttery yellow. Okay, and while I do love a buttery yellow moment, not on my wedding day. Okay, so I went back to the original dress, found this tailor. I think his name was Fabrizio. He spoke very rough English but did incredible work. Within 2 weeks of my wedding, there was such an insane turnaround on my gown. Like, I personally loved it. I loved it. It had like a 1920s nod. It, it was great. It was great. Looking back, I probably would've done my hair and makeup a little bit differently. I did not do a trial. Do as I say, not as I did. But the dress, she ate, left no crumbs. I loved that thing. I still love that thing. But he was able to work magic in 2 weeks. So when I see situations with a dress being really almost like disconnected in pieces or needing to be clipped in or like markings on it, I know miraculous work can happen with seamstresses, with tailors in a very short amount of time. That's not the part that gives me pause. I'm not worried about you being clipped in. What I am worried about is the sheer lack of confidence that they have given you, that they have bestowed upon you in this entire situation, because now you have no trust because they can't make the changes. She said that the princess seam changed, the seams that like kind of came in to give a little more silhouette. She said that those had changed. They didn't look like they changed to me. They look like they just widened into a big V, but it still wasn't the original idea of that like swoop in of the silhouette that really like hugs in the natural waist. So if you find yourself in a situation where you're clipped into a dress or there's markings or there's pins, that's not concerning necessarily unless it's coupled with, hey, I've told you to fix this so many times and you're completely and blatantly ignoring me. Is this dress the worst dress I've ever seen? No, of course not. No, but it's not what she's paying for.

Okay. Okay.

So now I'm going to go find part 2 because I didn't really— I didn't realize that. I didn't realize that existed. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. There's more parts.

Okay, wedding dress from hell part 2. A reminder of where we left off: we are less than 2 months away from my wedding and this is what my very expensive custom gown looks like. Um, yeah, I just want to know how much it costs.

Okay, does that make me nosy? Is that making me nosy?

You don't care. So at the end of this appointment, she pulls me into this room and Kim Kim pulls me into this room that I've never been in before, and I said to her like, oh, is this new? Because I'd never seen it before. And she was like, no. It's like, okay. She sits down behind this desk with this comically big like Mac screen.

Um, I, I too have a comically big Mac screen, okay? I think it's the biggest they make, okay? I edit videos unless my editor does them, okay? I purchased this I just want to edit videos. I also just love a big screen. I have the biggest screen possible on my phone. I love a big screen iPad. Your girl— okay, why am I defending myself over an irrelevant topic? Okay, I don't know.

It's massive. She's like peeking over it like this to make eye contact with me, and she goes, it's just a matter of your payment. Keep in mind, okay, keep in mind, there— this dress was only supposed to be covered in 4 payments. I've made 3 of them. I've made 3 of them and I've had to have extra fittings because this dress is terrible. Like, I'm just gonna say it, this dress looks like it's worth $900 on ASOS. Like, this is a cheap-ass SHEIN-looking dress that I have sunk thousands of dollars into. Okay, so, and I know that she was trying to intimidate me. Yeah, but you can't intimidate me that easily. And so I was just like, well, I'll pay when I approve of the dress. And she was like, okay, so you'll come back next week and you'll pay then? And I said, I'll pay when I approve of the dress. Like, I'll pay like at final pickup approval. She goes, okay, thank you for coming, and like ushers me, ushers me out. That really pissed me off because again, there's— she just has like a complete lack of integrity. And like, you guys, this girl works with like all of the New York City influencer girlies, like You've seen her on Instagram. Like, I was shocked that she really did not care about just like treating me really poorly. And like, was she gonna let me walk down the aisle in that dress and be like, "Yeah, Kim made this," and she was gonna be happy about that? Like, we have different ideas of like what a good dress is, if she was gonna be proud of that dress and proud of that construction. Um, Anyway, so she follows up with me after that appointment and she's like, hey, um, so your dress is ready for pickup. Like 4 days later, she's like, your dress is ready for pickup and, uh, you have a payment due. And I go, okay, well, I have some questions. I was like, why is it that my dress is suddenly ready for pickup when things I've been asking for since November, they hadn't taken place in March, they hadn't taken place in May, they hadn't taken place in June, And now you're telling me that between the beginning of June and the end of June, suddenly my dress is ready for pickup? Like, what changed in that time?

Okay, this is what we talked about just a moment ago. Miracles can happen in a very short amount of time. With miracles— hear me say the word miracles— this is not the expectation, okay? This is something that can happen in a small period of time, but you're not guaranteed to this. So it could be that this designer and her seamstresses, uh, just busted their booties for a handful of weeks to get this done in time. Okay, so we're just adding a little bit of levity to the conversation because it might not be— it could be that scenario. It might not be that like, how did you do this? It took you months. Well, probably because it was on the back burner. And maybe, maybe this designer is an overall procrastinator type and just waits the last minute to do stuff like this. And so this is frequently how her stories go when it comes to providing gowns for all the New York girlies.

She sends me this ChatGPT-ass response, just like GPT, whatever, basically telling me like, well, pretty much all the construction is done. And I'm like, but it isn't done because I have the— I've had the same notes since the end of last year. Like, what do you mean it's not done? So I repeat myself. I go, sorry, let me clarify. Like, I'm interested in understanding what's changed because I trusted you for all these months and I even ended our relationship and you pushed back the whole time. And now all of a sudden you're telling me that the dress is ready for pickup. What changed? She copy and pastes her last email and sends it to me again. Oh, she just sends me the same thing. So at this point I'm like, I can't wear this dress. Like, not only is it like a really ugly dress that was really poorly made and just looks like a cheap, like, school project, I also like— this girl has like the worst energy. She's got the worst energy. And I'm like, well, I don't want that on my wedding day. I don't want your like tainted vibes on my wedding day. Like, I don't need that. So I do have a different dress, and that dress is a whole, a whole other story. And it's, it's amazing, and I'm very excited to wear it. Um, and so I sent her an email literally like a week ago, um, because she kept asking me to come in and not answering my questions. So I sent her an email like a week ago being like, hey Kim, um, I had to go in another direction. Like, wish you the best. So that was my second time breaking up with her, and I know I will never hear from her again. I will not hear from her again. She's going to keep my money. She's not going to apologize. She's not going to say, like, I'm sorry that you didn't have the experience that we take pride in brides having with us. She has no integrity. Um, and I mean, I'm not gonna, like, say her name on here, her name. I blurred the background and all of those photos. Like, I'm not trying to blow her up, but best believe I am telling everyone I know in the industry. Like, all of my friends who work in fashion, all my friends who work in fashion PR, all of my friends who work in media. The only thing you can do in New York City is like word of mouth. And like, I am not being shy about this experience because I literally feel like she scammed me. I feel like she never made my account a priority. And in addition to being incredibly rude to me, she never put the proper amount of time and effort into a garment that I paid for. And so I know she's going to keep my money. She must really need it. Okay. Um, and I know I'll never hear from her again. And it's like, it's just crazy. It's just crazy. And I—

okay, okay. I feel like that was a lot of fluff and not a lot of update, but there is one comment that I want to address. Like, she, she addresses one comment that I would love to call to attention. Hold on.

I forgot a detail, I forgot a detail, and this is reminding me. In the last appointment when she pulled me into the room and was like, you need to pay, that day, that night, she sent me a DocuSign with all of the notes on it from that day's fitting. Granted, okay, granted, after my first fitting in fabric, which was like pretty insane, I said moving forward I want to receive all of the notes after each fitting so I can make sure that we're like tracking with like the same goals in mind. She never did that. It was always me following up being like, this is everything that like that I'm recapping our fitting. This is everything that needs to take place before the next appointment. Like I was the one who ended up doing all that.

Okay, so quick, quick aside. You can't ask a designer or a vendor to change their policies or how they operate simply because you want to be assured of that. The bride is the one in this scenario that needs to do that following up. Uh, is it good etiquette? Is it good customer service to say like, as the designer, here are the notes from today, here are the changes we will be making? Absolutely. Um, is it a requirement? Can the bride say please send me notes of this? She sure can, she sure can. But that doesn't mean the designer is going to change the way they operate for this. I also think there's something here of this bride saying like, I just didn't— I wasn't important, I wasn't important, my notes weren't valued, I was dismissed. And that is a general vibe, a general sense, a general feeling that you can get. Um, and so as far as like not wanting to wear the dress because of energy, like that's, that's obviously not something that you can argue to get a refund. And also not feeling like you're being treated like a priority client, those are feelings words. But what we can say is, I followed up with notes after every single appointment, um, and those are still not being addressed. Those are action items that were not followed up on. So those are the things that we can really take to and we can really use as a point here. If we're doing the word of mouth system, yes, we can tell people like, I was not prioritized, I was not treated well, 10 out of 10 do not recommend. But if we were to argue against this, we could use those facts. Okay. Anyways.

And then after that fitting where she pulls me in a room and asks me to pay, she sends me a DocuSign and I'm like, no, no, no. You think you're going to send me some sort of legal document? You're going to get me to like sign something? You should have given me a contract from the jump. That's bad that you didn't. That's on you, okay? I'm not doing that now. So I literally responded and I was like, I'm not gonna move forward with that. Trying to play me.

Um, it's not on her because also you could be using that. You could also use that as a reference. So please, please, please write contracts. This is why when I talk about working with frienders or things like that, like, even just write something down. Write the expectation down between the two of you. Both of you sign it. Is it legally binding? No. Can you use it in an insurance claim? No, but at least it's something you both can refer to, because in a scenario like this, there is, there is no recourse. There's no recourse. But one thing I appreciate about this bride is she doesn't name names. She says Kim. Okay, she says Kim. Well, Kim turns out to be Kate, and Kate ousts herself. Most of us would have no idea who she is if she didn't make a video, but she did. And so here we go.

Hi, my name is Kate, and I'm the founder and designer of Undone by Kate.

That's an unfortunate name. You just know. You just know the comment section is littered with like, "Undone for sure," like, "Mm, that name is apt," or like, "Ooh, yikes, kid, you should— are you sure?" It's prophetic.

A word.

A word.

You've probably seen a video circulating online about an unfinished wedding dress that was created here in my studio, and I'm here to provide some additional context and clarity on the situation. First and foremost, I think it's extremely important to understand that this bride has been issued a refund. On July 14th, I reached out to her directly and offered her a full refund. I sent her this email.

Okay, okay, hold on. When was the original video posted? Okay, we're getting sleuthy with it. We're getting sleuthy with it. Okay, July 14th is the day where the video that we just watched where she was replying to comment about not having a contract. Uh, okay, so Wedding Dress from Hell was posted July 14th. Okay, um, and then Part 2, July 14th. Okay, and then the comment response of not having a contract also July 14th. Okay, so, so it's not until the videos go viral— well, arguably, I'm gonna assume it's not until the videos went viral that this designer chose to, chose to respond. Okay, here, let's read the email. Hi blank, we recently came across your videos and wanted to reach out directly. Boom, called it, called it. It's because she went to TikTok. We're truly sorry to hear this was your experience and that this is how you feel about your time with us. While we respect your right to share your perspective, it was incredibly difficult to hear our integrity questioned. Okay. As a small business, every gown we create presents months of work from a dedicated team of people who do genuinely care about our brides and the work they do. Their livelihoods depend on the reputation we've spent years building. So seeing our business discussed publicly in this way has been deeply upsetting for everyone involved. Okay. While we may remember certain aspects of the experience differently, we never want you to feel unheard. With that in mind, we've gone ahead and processed a full refund, which you should receive within the next 7 to 10 business days. Your completed gown looks beautiful. Prove it.

Okay.

Picture didn't happen. And we truly wish that you had the opportunity to see it in its finished state. We sincerely wish you nothing but happiness in your marriage and in this next chapter of your life. We only ask that you keep in mind the very real impact that public statements can have on a small business and the people whose careers and families depend on it. Okay. I mean, you sent an email to somebody. Obviously we're not going to show receipts, but you didn't have to white out their name. And I wonder if she responded. I wonder if she responded. Anyways, This video is getting way too long. It's getting way too long. So let's just—

I sent her this email and she graciously accepted and said, Hi, Kate, I really appreciate you taking the time to make this right.

I was excited to work with you and your team, and it's disappointing that it didn't pan out. Thank you for processing the refund. Wishing your team the best. Best.

Thank you for the resolution. At that point, I thought this would be handled and human to human, the record would be set straight. But unfortunately, that's not what happened online, and any comment proving that she was refunded was quickly deleted, further fueling the fire of this narrative that's currently online. It's also very important to note what goes into the custom dressmaking process. When we start, we have a consultation, and I learn everything about the things you like and the things you didn't like dress shopping. I will never copy an exact dress, but I will take everything that you told me and put it into a sketch for you.

Yes, but will you put it into the dress or just the sketch? Sorry, sorry, sorry. Also, this video is so slow. I know I've been making videos on the internet for like 8+ years now, but like, and I know I talk fast. Man, the amount of comments I still get, "You should slow down." I don't know how, okay? This one does me—

And then we go through sketches together and talk about iterations; things you don't like about this sketch or maybe do! We ultimately decided on this sketch which was our blueprint of what to reference for getting us over there so that way when I got my final gown created it would be perfect...

wait wa-wait-go back okay—the neckline looks better—you can see cups but perhaps could still if its on her person? The waist's not dropped enough IMO—but also doesn't think drop too much either because she has little boobs . It just makes them look really big right now haha Then they went into fitting sessions at Vogue Paris who did an amazing job designing these dresses from scratch without any references before hand. Wait waiwaiwaitgobackgobackokaythenecklinelooksbetteryoucantseethecupsbutperhapscouldstillseeitifitsonherpersonthewaistisstiltnotdroppedenoughinmoyopinionbutohsoithinkItsDroppedEnoughforpamelaGordon.com enough in the sketch if I'm getting into the nuances of it. I don't think the bunching looks good even from this distance, but at least it's not like that dinner plate half moon across her chest situation. It's fine, it's fine, it's just not remarkable. Um, but also I want the dress like, like th— like this. I want it like this, okay? I want you to zoom in on every single detail. I want you to prove us wrong, okay? And not, not a tiny little thumbnail of a photo in, in, in my phone because I can't, I can't, I can screenshot and zoom but it's not gonna give me the quality I want. I'm nosy, give me more.

Your first step is usually a prototype fitting and the prototype fitting is a draft of your dress made to feel the silhouette on your body and we make adjustments, we can change things in that fitting and we have an open conversation about what you're liking and not liking. When you get into your first fitting in your fabric, by all means, your dress is nowhere near complete. It's very different than when you go dress shopping at a typical bridal shop and you try on your gown for the first time complete and you make alterations. We're actually molding a dress onto your body and things can change. Measurements can change, design aspects can change. And that's what's so great about the custom process is that we're here to adapt, trial and error, and move through it together.

Here's my issue with this. Overall is yes, that is correct. You are saying all the right words and all of the right, you know, setup, like in all the right order. But the actions of the dress at each fitting is not matching this. In fact, I felt like the dress regressed over time instead of progressed. So it's not like I don't understand where she's coming from. And obviously she has a talent, she has a gift, she has a skill set. It's not being reflected in the pictures that we see. Of this dress. The receipts that she's providing aren't very receipty, you know what I'm saying? And she's trying to present it in such a way that like, I gave a refund, this should all go away. Girlfriend, you gave a refund after you got blasted on the internet anonymously, by the way. Like, they didn't say who you were. You got blasted and then the comments went off, um, and, and then you refunded her. You even said it in your email, I refunded after the videos. So like What was the expectation? Will you please remove the videos? Because you didn't ask that. You just said, hey, those were hurtful. Okay, but if the client, if the bride says, I, I understand that they were hurtful, they're not inaccurate. You could have arranged some sort of, or had some sort of conversation, hey, would you be willing to remove those from the internet? This is impacting some people and their livelihoods. And like, I get it, you were not satisfied with our service, I totally understand. But this feels a lot like, hey, I wrote this email and I gave this refund, so I had some material to make this video with.

Maybe? Sometimes no two dresses are created the same and it's not as black and white. Sometimes you can have 3, 4 fittings in your final fabric and sometimes you can have 2. I want it to be extremely clear that I would never let a bride walk out of my studio, let alone down the aisle, in the state of the photos that you saw that gown in. Of course. In this case, we had a final fitting on the books and The final fitting is where you get to see your final dress come to life. Unfortunately, this bride rescheduled her final fitting less than 24 hours in advance, and despite multiple follow-up attempts, she ultimately let us know she was moving in a different direction. I have done everything I can to make it right. I have issued her a full refund, I've apologized, and I've absorbed all the costs time, labor, and materials of that beautiful dress. I really wish that that full context could have been shared here before I had to make this video, but unfortunately now I'm receiving death threats and negative reviews from people who have never stepped foot in my studio. What? What? What?

She's receiving death threats? Okay, forgive me, but do you have evidence of this? I'm not saying— which is— it's not okay. It's not okay. It's not okay. It's not okay. I don't know if I take this woman fully at her word based on the understanding that we have from the previous scenario. It's not cute. It's not good. And this is one of the parts of the internet that I, I loathe. I loathe this when people get on a high horse for someone else's cause and then like go out of their way to make someone else's life a living heck. Like, what, what are we doing? What are we doing? And yes, you absorb the cost, and yes, there's going to be impact left over from this. Here's my deal. Here's my deal. Some people are fantastic craftsmen. Terrible business owners, terrible, horrible customer service, horrible response times. They're just not good at this. Like, they're good at their craft and they should probably bring in some sort of administrator or general manager to handle these sorts of things because it's not their field of expertise. It's not their zone of genius, if you will. So when you get situations like this, I'm like, yeah, but babes, that's the cost of doing business. You didn't have good customer service. The client was not reassured by your quality. By your presentation, by how you spoke with her, and you clearly did not explain the process well enough to make her feel comfortable moving forward. Had you said at the very beginning, hey, a couple of these dress fittings are going to be kind of weird, a little icky, you might be like, what's happening? Why are we not seeing more progress? Has no client ever told you this before? Has no client ever reflected that back to you? This would be a great time to weave this into your customer service of, this is what the process looks like. You are going to have moments where you go, I don't know if I trust the process, and, and you're just gonna have to. Perhaps you have— you're just gonna have to, you just have to trust it. Perhaps you could have staged photos of like, here's where it started, here's dress fitting number 2, number 3, number 4, here's final dress. Just so you know, sometimes it gets a little bit worse before it gets better. That's more of what we want from this customer service. That's more of what we want from a scenario like this. This dress designer clearly is good at her craft if she's this popular, okay? But she is not good at customer service or the customer journey. And that is something that if she had tweaked that, perhaps we wouldn't have seen any of these videos.

I'm so sorry that the process shook out the way it did for her, and I wish that we could have gotten to that final fitting. To wrap it up, I know that concerns were raised during this process, and I saw them too. We documented them and continued to work through them. But custom bridal is absolutely a journey. And I will continue to put as much love and care in every single dress that I continue to create here on. Thank you so much for listening.

Yeah, it falls flat for me personally. It falls flat. Your customer service procedures are not great, GirlyPop. I think you just— you need— you need to work on your customer service. You need to work on your customer service. And if you find yourself getting heated in these scenarios, this is where it's a great idea to have another member of staff handle these conversations because clearly this bride left the situation being like, I'm not being heard. All she wants is my money. And unfortunately, it took viral videos for there to be some sort of response. So in these viral scenarios, I always do my best to call to light like the vendor situation or things that the bride or the couple is perhaps not seeing throughout this process and give every like a grain of salt all over the whole sprinkle of salt over the situation, if you will. And this deserves some. Okay. But mostly I think this chalks up to really bad customer service. 'Cause obviously, again, I'm repeating myself, but like this designer has to be good enough to be hired. Her customer service just sucks. And if you have a disgruntled client, you need to know how to handle that. And if you can't, then your business is going to have some issues and potentially not succeed because of it. I don't care how good your art is. If you're not nice to your clients or if your clients don't feel seen or heard, they're going to leave and they're going to leave a bad review. What about you? Are you team bride or team designer in this scenario? I know where I land, but I'd love to hear from you guys. So that's what we have for today's video, guys. Thank you so much for watching. If you like the video, jump on down there and like the video. Oh, also, if you see viral videos or viral situations like this, um, do me a solid, email it to me, okay, at hello@wolferandco.com. I'll leave the email down below as well because y'all are far more sleuthy than I am and you find the best stories. They just get lost in my Instagram DMs, so email me hello@wolferandco.com and I'll take a peek-see of them there. Um, and subscribe to this channel for more tips and tricks for the modern-day bride. If you're interested in checking out my book The Master Planner, pre-orders are available as we speak. I will leave that linked in the description box below. And until next week, bye guys!