Michelle’s Bridal and Tuxedo

Michelle’s Bridal was such an amazing experience! Hannah made me feel comfortable, and was extremely helpful! She contacted me the week prior to my appointment to find out what I liked and disliked, and with that information was able to have a great selection of dresses waiting for me. She did a fantastic job at accessorizing the dress I loved, and was able to answer all my questions and concerns throughout the whole process. Compared to my other experiences with dress shopping, this one doesn’t even compare. Hannah was amazing and helpful, the dressing area was personalized and cute, and the selection of gowns was perfect!

My first experience ever with Michelle’s Bridal Shoppe was actually at their Prom «sister store» M2 in high school. This was when it was still attached to Michelle’s Bridal Shoppe portion and I remember always saying I wanted to get my wedding dress there one day.
Well fast forward 7 years and here I am planning my wedding. I now live in Los Angeles and knew I still wanted to get my dress back home. While looking at dresses online I would always type in Michelle’s to see if they had it in store. I fell in love with one specific dress (lace shoulders, key hole, white, no lace up). It said Michelle’s had it so I booked my ticket home to try this dress on.
I booked my appointment online for a Friday at 2pm, hoping that it wouldn’t be busy and crowded, which it wasn’t at all, this meant myself, my mom, MOH, and future Mother-​In-​Law had the whole store to ourselves to look at all the dresses.
When I showed Cassidy, my consultant, the dress I was in love with she told us they didn’t have that specific dress but had others like it, which I was okay with. I was adamant though on a dress that was a key hole back, white, and zip up, they had plenty of them. My 4^th dress in I instantly fell in love with a dress that was the polar opposite of what I wanted. Cassidy told me that it was a collaboration of my MOH and herself on the dress. I was in love with it and was so glad I had Cassidy to help my MOH with a dress that «works for all body types». After that, I of course had to «Say Yes to the Dress» even if it was way over my initial budget.
Cassidy did an amazing job of helping with jewelry, bringing over a tux in the color I want, and even getting my MOH in a couple bridesmaid dresses to match up with the whole package. Her focus and attention was on our needs and made us feel very welcomed the whole time. Throughout the appointment I realized she has helped several people I know by all the thank you cards on her bulletin board.
I am so happy with the whole experience we had and I am definitely looking forward to coming back in September to look at bridesmaid dresses and tuxes.
Thanks for a truly wonderful time Cassidy!

My sister bought her wedding dress at Michelle’s.
The first appointment went well. The salesperson was helpful in finding The Dress, and sorting through our likes and dislikes. My sister tried on just a few dresses before deciding on one. Easy peasy, my mom put down payment and waited 6 months.
Slippery slope after dress came in. Keep in mind we are straight up novice buyers, and not well-​informed on the procedures for wedding dress buying and alterations. We went to try on the dress expecting an on-​site alterations person (we told the salesperson we would use one of their recommended alterations people) to do measurements at that time.
My sister lives out of town, so she was disappointed when she was told she needed to contact the seamstress ourselves to make an appointment. We would have done so beforehand if we had known. So, we had to come a second time for measurements for alterations.
At the second appointment, the seamstress pinned the dress and showed us how she would create a bustle. It didn’t look right… see the attached photo. I thought it make the dress look like it had a shelf in the back and was not attractive. But, we all figured that it was because it was pinned and not sewn yet. Several weeks later, we were informed that the dress was finished and ready to try on. Yay! At this appointment, my sister noticed that the bustle had not improved by being sewn instead of pinned, in fact it looked worse. We were not informed that there are actually several ways to bustle a dress. We were not shown any options except the one the seamstress showed us.
In the days following, I looked online and saw that there were other ways to bustle long dresses, and several of them looked considerably more attractive than the one that was created for our dress. With very little time left before the wedding, my mom picked up the dress from Michelle’s and took it to a different alteration seamstress who showed us how best to bustle this very long, train-​heavy dress. The corrected bustle was beautiful and suited the style and weight of the dress.
Anyone who’s ever done wedding planning knows how hectic things can get and so we weren’t able to express our disappointment and displeasure with Michelle’s seamstress recommendation until after the wedding. Several weeks after the wedding, my mom went to Michelle’s and presented pictures of their bustle and the bustle we had redone elsewhere.
The salespeople were unresponsive, unmoved, and refused to take any responsibility for what the seamstress who works contractually out of their store created. When my mom informed them that we were not shown that there were several options for bustling, they only said it was up to the seamstress and not to them. In fact, they agreed with the seamstress on her choice of bustling technique. Michelle’s was not considerate of our criticism.
Buyer beware. In my opinion, they’re selling very pretty dresses for pretty penny and then allowing a contractual and recommended seamstress to destroy it. I have actually talked to other customers of their store who have similar stories after purchasing prom dresses and having them altered by the same person.

My girls and I have bought over 10 dresses over their H. S years, very happy every time. Highly recommend.

I have never written a review on here before because I never felt it was necessary, but after my experience today, I advise those potential shoppers to think twice about visiting this store.
I had a bad feeling about our appointment when we showed up early for our appointment and had to ask twice if we had a consultant. They finally had a room for us a half hour later, as our arms were overflowing with dresses. Once we were in a room (four girls in one room, mind you), our consultant was nowhere to be found. I would ask her to grab some dresses for us and it would take her ten minutes to come back. We had other appointments today and couldn’t be waiting around. She apologized saying her other appointment ran over, but I do not feel that means she should spend less time with us. She only surfaced to take our «no’s» out of the dressing room.
Additionally, when we asked about other dresses in the line, they lied to us and said they had every dress there in store. No sooner did we leave, did I look online and find other dresses in the line that were not in store.
We understood that they were busy and that it is a Saturday during prom season, but that should not have affected our experience or the way we were treated. They treated us like our time didn’t matter and that their prom girls were more important. Plus, as we were finishing up, we felt rushed out of our area because a large group was coming in and needed the space.
In short — we were made to feel like our time was not worth their efforts and that other customers were more important. The good news is that we found dresses that we love, however we will not be buying them from Michelle’s.

Yes, the store is beautiful and great. Rented my suit from the store. The staff measured and ordered a set for me. Got here 2 days before the wedding, the whole thing is way too fat. My own suit looks 10x better than this crap. No recommended. Seriously, $ 180 rental fee for this thing? Your people measured it already and why is it still so baggy?

I decided to check out Michelle’s Bridal and Tuxedo after having bad experiences at other stores. I made an appointment and during the appointment I was able to go around and browse their selection of dresses. My consultant Lauren was extremely nice and helpful! I told her the type of dress I was looking for and she was able to pick out many that I was interested in trying on. I tried on a few in my price range, and then she bought a dress to me that I didn’t realize how much it was out of my price range until I tried it on and fell in love. I really did not want to break my price range though. So I decided to come back in a week and try one more dresses. During my second visit, I tried on one of the dresses from the first visit and FELL IN LOVE! I was so happy that I decided to go home and think about the dresses before making a quick decision. Each time I went dress shopping by myself and was SO happy that I did. My consultant was very good at helping me pick out a dress and giving me honest opinions. Although I haven’t had alterations done yet. I would recommend Michelle’s to all central Illinois brides! Since I haven’t done alteration yet, I am giving a 4 out of 5 rating until then.

I want to start off by saying that I did not purchase my dress here. It was my first stop on my dress hunting adventure. Lauren was the consultant who I worked with. I just want to say, she was awesome! She kept pulling styles close to the ones I liked so I could try more on. The only thing I did not like was that she kept pulling styles over my budget, even though they were only $ 100 or $ 200 over, I had already told her that I could NOT go over my budget. There was simply no wiggle room. But she is a saleswoman so she was just doing her job. The shop was clean and organized and they had lots of accessories to try on with the dresses. In the end I found a dress that I really liked, but I found one that literally brought me to tears at another shop. I would definitely recommend them to any bride.

With all of the fabulous bridal salons here in Atlanta, I never in a million years thought I would find my dress in Champaign, IL; but thanks to Michelle’s, I did! I had already done some shopping in Chicago and found a dress I really liked, but was trying to find something a little more in line with my budget. When I was in town for a family function and having no desire to do any serious wedding business, my mom convinced me to go «just for fun». What I found at Michelle’s were more dresses in the style and price range that I wanted than anywhere I looked in Chicago. My consultant was extremely helpful and asked all the right questions to help guide me in my decision. When I put on the last one though, BAM, done and done. No questions necessary for this one, just tell me where to sign. So, while I didn’t get to look into any of the bridal salons I have been lusting after for the past several months down here in the South, I did get the dress of my dreams at a reasonable (ish) price AND my mom got to be there.
I also really appreciate that they let you take pictures. I feel like some bridal salons miss out on sales because of that. I know with my second choice dress in Chicago, if they would have let me take a picture of myself in it so that I could obsess over it and show it to all my friends after I left, I probably would have gone back to get it. But since I had nothing to go on, the magic kind of faded from memory.
My mom also purchased her dress here, and she is VERY excited about it.

Best bridal shop in the country. I tried on 250+ dresses before I came here and FINALLY found my dress!!! They made it special, didn’t rush me and really helped me find what I was truly wanting. Couldn’t recommend them more!

I ended up not buying my dress from Michelle’s, but visited the shop twice and had lovely experiences both times.
My consultants were always extremely friendly and helpful, and provided excellent suggestions and honest feedback. The store is beautiful inside (and recently remodeled), with a very large selection of dresses. They allow you to peruse the racks yourself, but also pick out dresses they feel match what you are looking for. In short, very helpful and fun to work with! If their prices were more in my range (we are having a very low-​budget wedding), I definitely would have purchased my gown from them.
I can’t speak for their ordering/​alterations/​etc since I didn’t go that far, but I have not heard anything bad about them in that regard.

I had a truly wonderful experience at Michelle’s — thanks to them, I found MY dress!
I live in LA but was in Urbana for Thanksgiving with my family. I had an appointment for the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend but found out my mother unexpectedly got Friday off work as well. I called the morning of Black Friday to see if Michelle’s could fit me in that day, and Judy got me an appointment that afternoon, no problem! And it only got better from there.
Cassidy was a fantastic consultant. She listened attentively when I described what I was looking for, and although the shop was set up a little differently than normal due to the Black Friday sale, she got my mother and me oriented and let us pull our own dresses to try on. Michelle’s selection is great and I quickly had to stop myself from pulling dress after dress after dress. Once in the dressing room, Cassidy was enormously helpful and listened to my feedback with each dress, helping me to narrow down my focus. She also was great with suggesting accessories, bringing me different belts and sashes to try on, as well as veils, necklaces, etc. — all helping to complete «the look» and give me a better idea of what the dress would look like on the big day. I was interested in trying on a birdcage veil and Cassidy quickly brought another consultant over to help with that, as well. Unlike at some other salons, I never felt rushed or pressured for a single moment! Thanks to Cassidy and the team at Michelle’s, I found the PERFECT dress for me and couldn’t be happier! Thank you, Michelle’s!

I would have loved my experience at this store EXCEPT that my dress was not fitted properly and would not stay up at my ceremony. The alterations gal made it clear to me that I had chosen a very «busy» time (prom season) and that my wedding dress fitting was NOT her priority. To this day, I feel as if the store should have refunded my money as my wedding pictures and comfort on my wedding day were ruined due to my mal-​fitted dress.

I didn’t buy my dress at Michelle’s, only rented tuxes there, so I cannot speak for the dress buying experience at Michelle’s.
DO NOT rent tuxes from them. DO NOT! If you think about renting them there and speak with someone named Monica, run! I live about 3 hours from Champaign but had my wedding in Champaign, and I spent a lot of (needless) time emailing back and forth with Monica. For some reason I had to repeat things over and over… she definitely was not really reading my emails or just has really bad reading comprehension because she would ask the same questions over and over… things I had already answered. When I talked to her on the phone she seemed very scatterbrained.
The day of the wedding all of the guys were wearing different styles of vests!!! They were all the correct color (black…kind of hard to mess that part up), but they were all different styles! Apparently after the long string of emails she still couldn’t get it right.
My friend recently got married she also dealt with Monica and all the guys ended up with the wrong shoes — she had ordered them the wrong ones! She was told Michelle’s would give her a refund for the shoes, but she hasn’t seen it yet.

A study in stark contrast when compared to David’s Bridal.
Michelle’s Bridal, I don’t mind saying, is the shit.
They have a fabulous selection of dresses from great designers (Maggie Sottero, Sottero & Midgley, Mori Lee, Essense of Australia, Casablanca, Enzoani, and Alfred Angelo). And that’s only the wedding dresses! They also have extensive selections for the bridal party, tuxes, and prom dresses.
The shop itself is beautiful, has gorgeous wood floors, is well-​layed out, well-​furnished and is always kept tidy and clean.
The staff is beyond friendly and helpful. My consultant, Melissa, is experienced, talkative, and honest (l like it when I’m not just being pandered to, but being given honest opinions). She has had infinite patience with me so far, which is greatly appreciated.
Just be sure to make an appointment and you’ll get a whole hour and a half to kill there. Unlike some places, you get to walk around, browse through the dresses and pick as many as you’d like to try on. The consultant doesn’t stay right there to make you feel rushed, either, which I thought was fantastic. I went shopping alone, but I didn’t feel like I was alone, because Melissa was so attentive. She obliged me by taking multiple pictures of each dress (another benefit of this place).
I don’t think they’re too outrageously expensive… I’ve checked, and they’re not too far over suggested retail prices (after all, they’re an independent business who needs to make money to operate). Plus, they do have sales on each designer sometime throughout the year, so you can just wait for those if you have the time. And there’s a seamstress on staff who charges considerably less than those at, say, David’s Bridal.
Highly recommended all around.

This was the best place that I went to try on bridal gowns – and I went to 4 shops in 3 states. They have a large selection of dresses at a variety of price points, including many beautiful Maggie Sottero and Watters gowns (my favorites). The saleslady was extremely patient, encouraging and helpful. She had a great eye for pairing jewelry and veils to complete the look. The shop is beautiful on the inside, with huge mirrors for viewing the gowns, and really spacious fitting rooms for getting into that poofy cathedral-​trained gown without tripping all over. I didn’t make my final purchase from them in the end, so I can’t speak to their alterations service or the ordering process. I would definitely recommend it though to central Illinois brides. Most of the gowns I tried on here were around $ 1000, to give you a sense of the price point, although there were some closer to $ 500, and some for as much as $ 1400.

My best friend ordered her wedding gown here and I got to come along for the fun! This was the first place she looked for gowns and we went in on a weeknight after work. The sales professionals were amazingly friendly and didn’t hover over us. Nor were they snooty because we were young women in jeans and t-​shirts. They offered their assistance and placed her gowns in a very large and comfortable dressing room. Among the racks of choices, she found a gorgeous Maggie Sottero gown for $ 1100. She tried it on and fell it love, but not with the price.
She ended up looking in a few other shops in Rockford, but couldn’t stop talking about the dress at Michelle’s. A few weeks later, they called to follow up and to let us know about a special sale. All of the try-​on dresses were 25% off for one day only! So back we went to see «the» dress and she purchased it that day. Since it was a try-​on dress, there were some spots and damage to the corset back. When we went back to pick it up 2 days before the wedding, I was amazed! They cleaned the gown and re-​sewed the loose corset ties. No one would have known that this wasn’t a brand new dress.
My friend had left Champaign and headed to the wedding city when they called to let her know that they had forgotten to include her shoulder wrap. They actually offered to send it to her Next Day Air, but she arranged for me to pick it up. They still get 5 stars because accidents happen, but they handled it in the most professional manner.
In a few thousand years when I get hitched, I would most certainly purchase a gown here. I was impressed mostly with their customer service, especially because some stores are only interested in the bride and ignore everyone else. They truly wanted her to find a dress that she loved and didn’t push her into buying something she wasn’t sure about.

I ordered bridesmaid dresses here, but I saved the big wedding dress purchase for Marshall Fields’ bridal department. The dresses were too poofy for my taste. The ladies who work here are helpful but I prefer to make an appointment and take my time choosing. The bridesmaid dresses turned out fine.