I have just bought my wedding gown from Hugs for Brides, and couldn't be happier. The Saturday I was hoping to make an appointment for was fully booked, however the owner Wendy offered to open late one evening during the week, which was great. Very personalised service with no other customers in store.

After reading some of the earlier reviews I was a little hesitant about going there, but I'm very glad I did! I can understand how some of the less favourable reviews regarding service could be misinterpreted; Wendy speaks fairly directly and will tell you straight up if a dress suits you or not, and why. I am definitely the type of person who wants an honest opinion about whether a dress I was going to spend a lot of money on, and going to wear on such a special day, was going to suit me.

At another bridal store, the staff told me ‘how beautiful' and ‘how perfect' every single dress I tried on was – there were some dresses I could plainly see didn't suit my ‘pear' shape and by the end I was just over the insincere comments.

Out of all the dresses I tried on, I ended up buying one which was less expensive than the others simply because it was the perfect dress for me. Wendy could have pushed the more expensive dresses, which were all beautiful, but they just didn't have that ‘wow' factor when I was wearing them.

Wendy also gave me great suggestions on how I might wear my hair and details about the alterations I'll need to have made to my dress.

I highly recommend Hugs for Brides for beautiful gowns and excellent, thorough and honest service.