Joy Alterations

What a terrible experience. My husband and I went into Joys over a week before we were to go on a trip of a lifetime cruise on the Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Mary for a month. We brought in my husbands two custom tailored tuxedo shirts only to have a button hole added to each one. Joy told him that we could pick up the shirts at any time on the following Friday. My husband showed up a week later (Friday) at 2:45pm, and the shop was closed! Her signs state that she is open until 10am-4pm. So he bangs on the door, rings the bell, no response. He calls her repeatedly and gets a "we are closed" voicemail. He waits outside her shop for 30 minutes, thinking she might show. HE IS IN A PANIC! There is no way we're going to find another tuxedo shirt and have it tailored now. After additional phone calls, Joy finally answers the phone and tells me that she will open the door. (SHE WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME!!!) She tells my husband that she's "not feeling well today". Luckily, the button holes had been completed. Long story short- she can't be troubled to answer the door, or the telephone when she's "not feeling well", but she sure took our $25.00 for the button holes! (and who knows how many years off my poor husband's life) Take your alterations someplace else.

I live in Panama City, FL, two hours away. Never mind the excessive drive and cost to get there and back to Joy Alterations in Shalimar, let me tell you my horrible experience. Thinking its an actual tailor store and its not--its by a woman, who has been doing this for decades I was told. Her store is in her own home. I drive up and I hear a dog bark as shes putting him in the other room away from all the dresses. I'm not looking to complain on this issue, just the idea of her unprofessional this is to her business. I was trusting the owner's word of Simply Elegant that she was THE ONE to go to.



Well, I change into the dress and she pins it with safety pins and it is absolutely tighter than I have ever had in a dress a size too small. I thought they measured me, but dismissed it as I was told she was good at what she does and she knows what she is doing. I take the dress off and she tells me it'll be $250 for the alterations of taking in the top, the waist, the hips, 3 bustles, and taking in a few inches off the bottom.

Skipping to two weeks later when I pick up the dress. I should have known something was up when the dress wouldn't zip--mind you I even lost 3 lbs between those two weeks. It took about 5 minutes for her to zip it up and she blamed it on my posture; well I had to finally suck all I could in and breath out and stretch my upper body as far as I could for her to zip it. Again, I thought this was my fault at the time and trusted the professionalize. Maybe I ate too much for breakfast, I thought. The woman only had one mirror in the place and it was in front, so I couldn't really get a look at the back of the dress.

So I pay the rest for the dress, because I assumed that tailoring wedding dresses for the lengthy time she has, she would make sure the bride looks good before she walks out the door. NOT THE CASE HERE!

Since it was too tight, I lost a couple more pounds before the wedding and went to try on the dress. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE and I never cry, but I cried. It still wouldn't zip. It took my mom and my sister helping me, mind you I am only 126 lbs and 5"0' I AM NOT FAT.

At my house, I have two mirrors to look forward and the back when you stand between them. The top of the dress was so tight that my"fat" from the top back was hanging over the top part of the dress almost 1/2 inch. The front top wasn't so noticeable, this is probably why I didn't see it in the shop. However, I guess because I couldn't even breath in the dress at the shop due to having to suck it in so bad and stretching myself, I tried to relax that posture in just a normal standing straight, at my house and all of a sudden I see this massive amount of 2 to 3 rolls of ruffled material at my belly button. So both of those incidents made me want to inspect the dress even more at a critical look with my mom and sister. We noticed that the tailor was suppose to taper the bottom of the dress tighter at my hips and it wasn't. the only two parts she took in was at the top and in the middle at the waist.Taking off the dress and looking inside, my mother showed me that the boning was completely off! That on the side when it should go straight up, it was diagonally towards the bust and that was causing most of the problem for the waist ruffling in the front as well as she sewed it too small. Even with my heels that I tried on with the dress in the tailor shop, it was still about an inch too long and I was stepping on it.

This was two days before my wedding. It was the worse feeling ever. I had to stay up the whole night and finish what I needed for the rehearsal so I could make sure I could spend the entire next day trying to find a tailor that would fix my dress here in ONE DAY. Luckily I did and she confirmed every thing that was wrong with the dress that my mother said. People need to know that she's taking short cuts to alterations to and taking your money with no conscious.