Curves and Couture Bridal Boutique

Plus-size brides beware! This bridal shop is extremely limited, the dresses are all one-offs so you can't order anything in, you have to pay £35 just to look and you don't get the two ladies from the TV show.Any plus-size bride will know that shopping for a wedding dress can be a disheartening and frustrating experience. Having tried normal bridal shops, I was really excited to be able to visit Curves and Couture and finally try on dresses in my size.I phoned in advance to make sure they had the style of dresses I was after (floaty and not poofy) and they assured me they had a 'whole range' of these dresses in stock. I made sure of this as the shop is about an hour away from my home and I didn't want to make the journey for nothing.I reluctantly paid the £35 fee for the visit over the phone and booked in. When I arrived I was greeted by a lady who was not overly enthusiastic but helpful enough. I started to look through the collection and every dress was old fashioned and nothing like the style I had described. The collection was extremely limited and I was even more disappointed to learn that they don't order dresses in, so what you see is what you get.I tried on just one dress and then left after 10 minutes. It was only when I was driving home I realised I was not even offered the opportunity to redeem my £35 against any jewellery or shoes (you can redeem it against a dress too if you find one).I emailed the store a couple of days later to say how disappointed I was, and heard nothing back. I then left a voicemail and still heard nothing back. One week later I picked up the phone again, more angry that I was being ignored than anything else.Someone finally got back to me and issued a half-hearted apology, and told me they'd get back to me the next day about a refund. I still haven't heard anything and it's been four days.In summary, while I normally like supporting small businesses, this shop was by far the biggest disappointment of all the shops I tried, and I had to pay £35 for the privilege. If like me you're a modern bride who doesn't want to look like a toilet roll holder, avoid at all costs.

From start to finish my future daughter in law was treated with respect, care and understanding. It was a wonderful experience and one that will be remembered for all of the right reasons. Jo and Al are lovely and know their stuff! As for the filming crew...what a lovely lot, they looked after us really well. A long, full on day but so worth it to see the face of the bride when she found 'her' dress.

Visited for the first time today. The dresses were stunning and we had Cleo helping me get the dresses on. She was amazing very attentive and helped me get through about ten dresses during our slot. Will 100% be returning to get my dress closer to the time

I love this show!! Jo and Al are great!! You bring such joy to all who visit. Keep up the great job cause happiness brings peace!❤️

First of all the £35.00 fee (refundable if you buy from them) just to visit was disappointing and far from 'industry standard' I have since discovered. I decided to give it a try as they are specifically for curvy girls and I felt that was what I would need. Alison was lovely on the day and I cannot fault her service or enthusiasm for what she does. I do however have issues with the speed in which they respond to enquiries before making the appointment and also afterwards when I called up to ask for the prices on what I tried on - it took several days on both occasions. This certainly didn't give me any confidence to place an order with them and hence I went elsewhere and found my dress in a shop which isn't specifically for my shape and they were still able to cater for me in a much more efficient manner. I wouldn't recommend personally, mainly on the fee to view and the communication (or lack thereof).

Really difficult place to find, no signs anywhere to be seen, actually drove into someone's drive way by accident. One lady offered to show us some of the sale dresses then disappeared and never came back. The lady helping us did not fit the dresses to her shape at all so all the dresses looked like they were falling off her. She then told my size 20 sister she was a size 28. Luckily she's quite thick skinned but for a place that claims everyone is beautiful and they deserve to feel it" certainly didn't make her feel that way today. No accessories or veils offered to try and the lady didn't appear to know anything about them or adjustments that could be made."

If you are looking for Jo and Al's store from the TV show Curvy Brides"

Went here in the hope of finding my wedding dress after having to pay a £35 deposit. The place was hard to find and had no signs. Their curves and couture banner was so faded I was starting to wonder if the place was abandoned. They had a very small selection of dresses. I asked for mermaid/ fish tail dresses and was told those dresses ain’t “very in” at the moment and how they don’t flatter bigger brides. This is nonsense as I’ve tried many of that style on and found they were the only ones to flatter my figure. The women didn’t clip me in the dresses to try and give me an idea of what it would look like. I had one woman put a dress on me, came out looked in the mirror and had the other woman ready with the next one. They kept going on about refurbishing and making excuses for the state of the place and the carpet. Despite telling us to take our shoes off because they didn’t want to ruin the carpet. Which was already ruined. I asked about some shoes on display and was told that the ones there are all they have in that size because the owner is a size 7 so if no one buys them she can keep them herself. They tried to charge £65 for the shoes, I found them online turns out they are a lot cheaper and only come in white. The ones on display were cream so must of been there a while. All accessories on display were broken and cheap looking. I refused to leave without getting something for my £35 deposit and ended up picking 3 small cheap tiaras that she pulled out of a box from the back somewhere. Probably amazons finest. I wouldn’t recommend going here and being disappointed with the experience. There’s far better places. I got my dream dress from confetti and lace in lakeside and they are brilliant in there. You get a proper bridal experience and the women know what there doing . Don’t waste your time or money with curves and couture!!

Unfortunately my wife's dress arrived faulty a few days before the wedding, she was in tears, she tried it on a week or so before and it had faults then, with missing components. She was assured the problem would be rectofied, but unfortunately it was not, it arrived by a shoddy courier who left it in a hedge, when it was raining. We got a refund eventually by an unsympathetic person called Emma and never recieved a sorry for ruining her moment. My wife filmed with the owners who were nice, it's such a shame maybe they dont know about the incompetence of some of there staff. I really hope the owners retrain there staff in diplomacy and administration skills. I wish the business well and hope they have continued success, and this maybe one awful isolated incident.