Matrimony Prep Reviews – What you order vs. What you get!

1 out of 5 stars.

I created this site for one purpose. So other brides don’t get ripped off the way I did.

Like many brides to be I’ve scoured the internet looking for a wedding dress. I found a site that had exactly what I wanted. That site is MatrimonyPrep.com.

Who is Matrimonyprep.com? They are a site offering custom Gothic, Medieval, and Theme dresses.

I immediately tried to find reviews to see if they were reputable, but there were absolutely ZERO reviews anywhere. Red flag #1.

Still, I loved the dress I found titled: Celtic Mermaid Beach V Neck Wedding Dress AND they could do it in custom colors. I wanted a pale gray. I was having trouble finding what I wanted anywhere else, so I e-mailed the company. They were extremely responsive (remember this for later). Generally responding within hours, at most the next day. Great! We exchanged many, many e-mails.

Red flag #2. They post other designers work as their own. They steal images from the internet and post them on their site and change the dress name. I’m not sure how this is legal, but they’re doing it.

Right before I was about to buy my dress I found it somewhere else on the internet completely by accident. This dress was actually an Anna Campbell dress called The Sierra. I asked them if they had them in stock or if they did reproductions. They said they did reproductions. Ooookkkaaayyy. Now, I began to get nervous but I also wasn’t finding anything else I wanted. So I swallowed my anxiety and bought the dress. Paid in full for $628.99.

BTW, they immediately offered me $100 off my dress earlier in our e-mail exchange b/c I took a couple days to think about it and they were trying to get my business. Maybe this should have been Red Flag #3.

To make this custom dress they sent me a measurement form. I went to a professional tailor to get measured, and they filled out the form. My measurements were done correctly and accurately. I sent it in immediately.

So far, so good. They agreed to have the dress done by mid-August.

Delivery time. Mid-August rolled around and they delivered on time! Awesome. I was so excited!!! My excitement quickly faded. As soon as I pulled it out of the box…

… I don’t know how other high end wedding dress shops ship their dresses, but I wasn’t expecting it to be shoved into a Flat Rate USPS box…

…I could tell that this was not the same dress as I had seen advertised on their website. It looked like it was well sewn and it is a lovely dress, BUT it’s NOT the dress I expected and paid for.

Above is the dress I fell in love with and expected to receive. So what was wrong with it? Let’s start with fit. The measurements I gave them were 25″ waist, 36″ hips. I had two major concerns:

1. It was too large.

2. The neckline was too high.

Let’s start with the size.

The smallest my dress form goes is 25.5″ (yes, this is a bit of a problem for me). This dress was supposed to have a 25″ waist (as specified on the measurements form). It slipped onto my dress form and zipped up very easily and as you can see is more than 2.5″ too large in the waist.

Next, that neckline. We’ll start with the small thing. That lace along the neckline isn’t symmetric, and the right side is sewn down in a way that the lace is folded over itself.

Next. The neckline is at approximately 4 inches too high. In the next picture I’m wearing a push up bra and as you can see, no cleavage in sight! And look at that asymmetric lace. It just looks sloppy.

Below is what this neckline is supposed to look like.

Let’s move around to the back. The zipper on the Anna Campbell dress is hidden well and on the side. Not on the Matrimonyprep.com dress. Any thought of having a beautiful back shot of my dress is going to be marred by that zipper.

This is what the dress was supposed to look like.

That rhinestone and sequins work is wildly asymmetric too.

And while we’re at it, let’s address that hanging thread you see. That’s not the only one! Oh no. So many threads!

Let’s talk about that beaded bodice. This was my favorite part. When I was initially e-mailing with Matrimonyprep.com they mentioned how much beading would go into this dress. Awesome. This is what I was expecting.

This is what I got. This bodice looks NOTHING like what I expected. So many sequins! And can we talk about how asymmetric this work is?

They actually did try to do some real beading at the sleeves. This was probably the least offensive thing to me b/c I could have fixed this myself. Let’s compare.

Anyways…. back to the fit.

I can easily grab a handful of fabric at the widest part of my hips too.

The end result is a dress that is definitely formed to a good hourglass, but not my measurements. I don’t want to wear a dress that I’m swimming in and that makes me look boxier then I am.

Okay. Last thing that also contributes to the poor shape. In the advertised pictures the dress itself comes down to the knees before the lace mermaids out.

On the dress I received from Matrimonyprep.com the dress ends towards the top, mid-top of my thighs. It also doesn’t flare out at all.

One last thing I did not capture. The length of this dress. In my measurements I stated that I would be wearing 2.5″ heels. In these photos I’m wearing 4″ heels and still stepping on the dress in front. Tripping over my dress on my wedding day is not something most of us hope for.

Those were my issues. Now. Let’s talk about customer service.

I did not originally plan to do this write up and I never planned to ask for a refund. Matrimonyprep.com has a very strict NO REFUNDS policy. I understand it. I even agree with it. Once the materials are used, they can’t be reused and a lot of time goes into make a dress like this. HOWEVER…

I immediately e-mailed the company. I told them the dress they made was lovely but I had a couple problems. I asked if I could SEND THE DRESS BACK FOR ALTERATIONS. I asked for 3 things:

1. Resize the dress to fit my actual measurements.
2. Adjust the neckline to resemble what they advertised.
3. Fix that bit of lace on the neckline so it’s not folded over weird.

That’s it. That’s all I asked for. Why didn’t I ask for more? I’ve been sewing since I was a small child and I do beaded embroidery. I could fix the rest myself. Well, except that back zipper. That was a loss I was prepared to accept. Sadly. Because there’s nothing you can do about that.

This company that had been so great at communicating before I got my dress. Never replied.

I e-mailed again asking if they received my previous e-mail.

Finally I received a reply:

Hello {Name},

Thank you for your email. We have done all the customizations to your gown that you requested us to do. If any further customizations are wanted from you then we would suggest that you locate a seamstress in your area. Attached is a line to seamstresses in your Area. I hope this helps 🙂

Thank You,

Matrimony Prep Customer Service

I wrote back:

At the very least I requested a dress that fit the measurements you were given. The dress is too large. It doesn’t fit and I can’t wear it like this.

Second, the dress doesn’t look like what you advertised on your website. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a finished product that resembles what you advertised.

It’s a beautiful dress but you didn’t provide the customization I asked for.

Their reply?

Nothing.

I never heard from them again.

This is when I started to get very anxious and, honestly, angry. Had they just made the alterations I requested, even if the dress still didn’t work out, that would have been that. I would have respected the company and figured it out.

Instead they tried to ignore me. They told me it was no longer their problem. And then they did ignore me for good.

I paid $628.99 for a dress that doesn’t look like what they advertised and that I can’t wear. I can’t get a refund through PayPal either because custom clothing is not covered by their buyer protection.

One last little bit of shady news. They’ve taken down the original pictures of the dress that they offered, and replaced it with pictures of the dress they made for me! Fortunately I took that screenshot.

So, that was my experience with Matrimonyprep.com. Because there is no way to review this experience otherwise, I created my own way. I sincerely hope that if you choose to purchase from them, that you will have a better experience.