Clara Couture

Clara Couture was one of the first places I went to when I went wedding dress shopping. From the moment I met Carrie, I was instantly at ease and felt no pressure whatsoever, unlike a lot of other bridal boutiques (I went to 5 different places in the Lower Mainland). Considering I went back to Clara’s 3 times before I made my final decision and Carrie did not put any pressure on me, I was very pleasantly surprised! You could also take pictures while trying on the dress and she doesn’t hide the name or designer of the dress like a lot of other boutiques in New West do.
After going back and forth between a few dresses, I decided on a Pronovias dress at Clara’s. Clara’s selection of dresses are all so beautiful and this is due to the fact that Carrie attends the Pronovias wedding show in Barcelona each year to pick the newest dresses for her store each year. The store has a selection of Pronovias, San Patrick, Paloma Blanca — which is not available at a lot of other boutiques in town. The difference between Clara Couture and going to a larger store is that you feel like Carrie actually cares about each of her clients on a personal level and this really shows through in her customer service.
From the wedding gown selection process to the alterations I was extremely happy with Carrie’s excellent service and her care with my dress. I went in twice for alterations and she was meticulous in making sure everything looked perfect! She took the time to go over how to tie my bustle with my MOH a couple of times before she got it right.
I would recommend anyone getting married to go to Clara’s for the selection as well as the high level of service throughout!

Clara couture is definitely place I would recommend checking out. It was the first in Vancouver that I checked out and I loved how Carrie was super helpful about trying on a zillion dresses. Twice. (I went there a couple months later and repeated the process with my sister for input)
PROS:
— a good sized selection of designers such as Pronovias, San Patrick, Kitty Chen, etc.
— they put the NAMES on the dresses… this is quite a surprise because so many places hide this information so you’ll buy with them
— reasonable prices… especially near the front section of the store where the dresses are on sale for 50% off!!! yeowza! I found one beauty of a dress for $ 800
Tip: need to take shoes off before you walk around the store, so don’t wear your expensive knee high boots.

Pretty good experience. I dropped in on a weekday and they were able to accommodate me. There isn’t a huge selection, but I found a lot of dresses I liked. They are also not secretive about who the designers are for the dresses, which made it easier to narrow down what I liked, since some designers fit better than others.
Definitely worth a visit.

Clara was very accommodating and friendly, and had the dress that I wanted. When I was measured the women told me I had big hips for my size (I’m fairly petite), which I know already, but it was still an off-​putting comment to make, especially when I am dropping close to $ 2,000 on a dress.
She did give me an excellent deal on my veil, and even offered to let me bring my dress back to be steamed right before my wedding. When I couldn’t pick my dress up right on the day it came in, the employees were a bit catty about it, and Clara also didn’t remember her offer to steam the wrinkles out of my dress before the wedding.
An okay experience, but when it’s your wedding dress, I’d expect better service, and more tact.

I was immediately impressed by the selection this shop has for wedding gowns. As this was my first store I had gone to in search of that perfect gown. I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking for, but the sales person (whom I’m assuming is the owner) made some great selections for me to try on. I am a size 10 – 12, and once I tried on a ten that was too snug she was quite brash about making comments about how much weight I planned on losing and kept suggesting that maybe I NEEDED to lose the weight. I left that shop feeling so low about myself and continued to have terrible self esteem issues about looking too fat in my wedding dress.
I will point out that she does carry BEAUTIFUL gowns. However I later went and purchased a dress at Sposa Wedding World, Feeling GREAT about who I was, my dress and my curves!

I had a great experience shopping at Clara Couture for my wedding gown. I have visited a number of bridal stores until I found Clara Couture. Although the store is not very big, it carries a good selection of wedding gowns at reasonable price. I was not sure what style suits me in the beginning and Clara provided good recommendations to me. Clara was very nice and patient with me. I went back and forth to the store for at least five times and have tried on at least 20 dresses before I found 2 dresses that I liked the most. Clara asked me to go home and decide which one I like the most. She was not pushy at all! After I chose my dress, Clara provided suggestions in how to make alteration to turn it into my perfect dream wedding dress. As Clara has a great reputation in her alteration skill, I feel very comfortable to have her alter my wedding dress (trust me, it’s a big alteration!). I had a wonderful time working with Clara and I can’t recommend them more!

I had a great experience buying my San Patrick wedding dress here — after coming up empty-​handed searching at other bridal stores (San Patrick is only sold at a couple of stores in the Lower Mainland). Clara and her staff were very attentive and helpful with my needs, especially when it came to making sure that the alterations of my hemline and bustle were done just the way I wanted. I even had a beautiful hairpiece made from the scraps of my dress left over from the alterations. Clara and her staff did a superb job with the alterations and I felt completely confident that my dress was in good hands. Clara also designs her own dresses as well… very talented. I would highly recommend other brides to visit Clara Couture to see her selection of wedding gowns (so many beautiful ones to choose from!), and/​or if you’re looking for someone to do quality alterations. Well worth the money spent!!!