When my husband and I got engaged last August 1, 2015, we started attending bridal fairs in Manila to look for good deals. Yes, we wanted our wedding to be beautiful but we knew we could achieve a beautiful wedding without having to spend A LOT of money.
We attended one of the big bridal fairs in SMX, collected all the flyers we were given since we had no idea yet who to book, went home and reviewed all the flyers. I saw Desino Dulce's flyer offering very affordable rates on their gowns. On top of that, its office was just in Makati. It was very close to home so it wouldn't be so stressful if we had to check on them regarding the gowns. I was not able to book them during the fair so I just emailed them and they promptly replied to my email.
We met with the owner (let's just call her Ms. ______) who was very accommodating and nice to us. Their rates were almost 50% lower than the regular rates for entourage gowns of other designers I inquired with and may I add again that they are just located in Makati. Before our appointment, I also checked online if there were negative reviews and I was unable to find any. If there was, it was that there was a delay in delivery. I even found a writeup on them online and found out that they just recently entered the wedding industry. Ms. ______ informed us that in order to reserve a slot for our June wedding, we had to make a downpayment. Admittedly, the downpayment was not a big amount, so during the meeting, we booked them on the spot. That was our first mistake because our worries started after paying them the downpayment.
Replies to my emails and viber messages were getting less prompt and frequent. When it was time for my bridesmaids to have their measurements taken, I had to make another downpayment (half of the total amount). It was a another mistake that we paid the second downpayment.
One of my bridesmaids told me that there were sooo many people in the store when she had her measurements taken and that this lady just rushed getting her measurements and asked her what was her design. The thing was, I already gave Ms. _________ the designs of all my bridesmaids and flowergirls, even labeling each design with their names so they would not forget. I vibered Ms. _________ immediately after my bridesmaid told me that she was being asked for the design. She didn't reply and I was so worried. I also emailed her and messaged the facebook of Desino. I checked again online for reviews and guess what?! There were already negative reviews about them in an online forum. I was getting very stressed. My then fiance offered that I look for another supplier for the gowns of my bridesmaids and flowergirls and he would just ask Desino to make his suit for him. He would ask Desino to apply our downpayment to his suit. Desino agreed. This was already another chance for Desino to redeem itself. However, even that wasn't a good idea because the suit they made for my fiance didn't look elegant and the material seemed to be of cheap quality =( plus it was actually more expensive than having a suit made in Onesimus. To cut the long story short, he had his suit made in Onesimus less than 2 months before the wedding and Onesimus delivered perfectly in such short period of time.
Don't get me wrong, I follow Desino's facebook page and instragram and they seem to make very nice gowns. I even have a friend who got them as a supplier and he said that they were okay. The difference was that their wedding was a year before us and their account was not assigned to Ms. _____. At that time, maybe they did not have much clients yet for weddings and maybe his AE was better in accommodating clients. One thing's for sure though, I regret booking them from the start. Yes, their rates were way lower than those of others but in the end, it was such a waste of time and money.
**All the reviews, opinions, and writeups posted on my blog are my own and based on my own experience. This is not a paid or sponsored post. My then fiance and I paid for the suit (should've been gowns).
**All the reviews, opinions, and writeups posted on my blog are my own and based on my own experience. This is not a paid or sponsored post. My then fiance and I paid for the suit (should've been gowns).
