A bride-to-be was left in tears after handing her wedding dress into a local shop to be altered – only for it to come back “absolutely bogging” and allegedly covered in dog hair and dust.
Fuming mum-of-three Joanne Black says she gave her £1,000 gown to Alterations by Janice in Paisley, Scotland, at the beginning of March to have the shoulders of the frock lifted and the sleeves taken up.
But the 32-year-old told the Daily Record she was less than impressed when, five weeks later, she picked up her dress only to find that none of the adjustments had been made.
The mum, who said the dress was in a garment bag when she collected it, claims she was “disgusted” to find it covered in dog hair, dirt and dust as if it had been “dragged along the ground”.
Joanne, who is due to tie the knot with her partner of three years, Tony, in Auchen Castle in Moffat on May 8, says the experience has robbed her of all her excitement in the run-up to her special day.
Joanne has shared pictures of the frock after it was returned ( Image: Daily Record)
She told the Record: “I’ve been so stressed. I didn’t sleep the night I got it back and I was crying.
“It’s stressful enough organising a wedding, but this has really put me off my dress. When I picked it up I expected to have this ‘wow’ moment and to feel absolutely ecstatic, but now I’m totally deflated.
“This has taken that moment away from me. You only planned to get married once and you should be so excited about it, but it’s totally turned the other way.
“On one part of the sleeve, you can literally pull the fabric and see it’s just falling away. I have no idea what she’s done to the hem either… the bottom is all pinned up which I never even asked for.
“The dress has come back absolutely bogging.”
Joanne suffers from anxiety, so asked her mum to approach the shop the day after the garment was returned to go over her concerns.
But the family claim Alterations by Janice refused to refund the £200 Joanne paid to have the adjustments done on the grounds that she won’t take her dress back into the shop to be fixed.
With time ticking on, Joanne has now had to borrow money from her aunt and book in with another alteration service in Glasgow, leaving her a further £100 out of pocket – another blow to her ‘budget wedding’.
Joanne continued: “Even when I had my dress on to get altered in the shop, the owner’s dog was walking all over the bottom of it.
“She says she makes her customers aware that there’s a dog, but she didn’t make me aware. If I was told that detail, I wouldn’t have picked that shop.
“My heart was racing and my palms were sweating. I felt so uncomfortable and I just couldn’t wait to get out of there. It was a terrible experience.
“Looking back, I should’ve just taken my business elsewhere, but I don’t like confrontation.
“When I went to the new shop in Glasgow with my dress, they couldn’t believe the mess of it.”
Joanne now plans to pursue the matter with Trading Standards in the hope of getting her money back.
She added: “I’m not leaving this. I’ve got three kids and I’ve not got a lot of money to throw about.”
The Mirror contacted Alterations by Janice but a staff member said no one was available to comment, and declined to give any further response to Joanne’s complaint.
