My daughter purchased her gown at Francesca's. I should have known right from the beginning it was not going to turn out well.

My daughter, who is a size 6, was told ALL gowns are small, and they ordered her a 12!! They measured her with her clothes on - in the winter~ the wedding was two weeks ago! When I questioned it, they told me if I ordered a size or two smaller and it didn't fit, they would not be able to order it.

Of course, it came in and it was HUGE! The bill to alter it was almost $400 - which we had to pay in CASH or they wouldn't let me daughter try it on.

After the first fitting, I was promised if more alterations were needed we would not have to pay. The owner, Francesca, called my daughter 3 days before the wedding and tried to get her to pay. My daughter may be tiny, but she's mighty - cancer does that to someone!

My daughter held her ground and did not pay the additional $100... but when she went to try it on the final time, the gown was SO tight, she couldn't even sit down and had to get dressed at the church! Her gown was tighter than the original she tried on - the one they said she need 6 sizes up!

Long and short of this is, I called Francesca and she never called me back. I called again and she talked to me like I was some kind of idiot - very condescending. Never once apologized for their obvious alteration error - nor did she ever offer to reimburse me for the alterations.

I am also reporting her to the Better Business Bureau because you could only pay her seamstress with cash - I am sure there is something illegal going on there.

I also wrote Oprah asking her to look into this b/c I've heard of many brides that have had the same experience - had to pay big bucks for alterations - however, my daughter is the only one that I know of that had the sad experience of the gown being altered to the point where it was so tight she couldn't breathe or sit down.