Amazing service from Mint Velvet a few years ago whilst sourcing a bridesmaid dress for my daughters wedding.
A long story but it needs context.........
She had set her heart on a particular colour of pale grey. We were not seriously bridesmaid dress shopping on this occasion but without expecting to we stumbled across a sale rail in a department store with a Mint Velvet concession. We homed in, from different directions, to a lovely chiffon grey dress with cream trim. They were priced at £38 (reduced from £150.....yes you read that correctly).
We quickly texted the three bridesmaids to ask for sizes and because we didn't get a response right away I suggested we just buy the four dresses in the three sizes they had. At that price I wasn't going to worry too much and thought I could off load one at the local dress exchange.
A few days later in another town and store I saw another (by now reduced to £25). Better be safe than sorry I thought and decided to buy it! We now had 5 dresses in three sizes, and with slow responses from the bridesmaids, I was pretty sure we could cover the range of sizes required!
Some months later we managed to get all the bridesmaids in one place to try on a dress. Straight away I could see my lovely niece had put on some weight. My daughter and I exchanged a glance and knew she would need a size larger than we had. My niece put on a brave face but I could see she was upset when she realised the largest size (which she had declared would fit) was just a bit too snug on her top half. There was another six months to the wedding and she said she was determined to lose the weight. I, on the other hand was trying to work out if I could let out a seam or two.
Wanting to be prepared and cover all eventualities I went online to search for a dress. I then found myself messaging Mint Velvet on their website (at 8pm one evening) to ask if any of their stores or concessions might have a particular size in the dress. We are now 4 months on from the buying the heavily discounted dresses, which had been at full price two seasons before.
Amazingly I had an immediate response with a promise to phone around and find out. They said they would phone me the next day with any information.
Sure enough at about midday I had a call. They had found a dress in the required size in a stock room of one of their shops in Kent. It had a small make-up stain on the inside lining of the bodice, because of that I could have it for £20 (no postage), did I still want it? (yes!) and did I want to pay over the phone?
It arrived the next day (less than 48 hours after my initial enquiry) beautifully packaged with pink tissue paper in a dress box tied with ribbon. There was a lovely hand written card wishing my daughter best wishes for her wedding.
I couldn't praise them enough and made sure I let them know of their excellent service.
In the end my niece never needed the larger size! and I gave away the three dresses we didn't use to a local charity that provides wedding dresses and outfits etc. to brides who, in the saddest of circumstances have to arrange a hasty wedding due to family or their own illnesses.
