Customers of the Champagne! boutique in Saint-Hyacinthe reportedly lost thousands of dollars and sometimes even found themselves without their wedding dress, just a few days before their wedding, our Investigation Office discovered . Here are their testimonies.
A bride-to-be from Montreal who trusted the Champagne boutique! to make her the white dress of her dreams instead ended up with a lime green outfit and $3,000 less in her pocket, a few days before her wedding.
• Read also: Horror weddings: when the dream dress becomes the worst nightmare
Andrée-Anne Hallé had a very precise idea of the dress she would wear when uniting her destiny with her lover. At the end of 2022, she enters Champagne!, but none of the dresses on the floor convince her. The co-owner of the place, Claudy Tessier, then offered to create a tailor-made one for her, which she could rent, in order to save money.
“She said, ‘I see the dress you have in mind.’ She even designed the dress. I did: that’s exactly it. This was exactly what I wanted! […] She showed me the fabrics, the type of white, it’s like: wow!”, she remembers.
The bride-to-be accepts this tempting offer, pays the $2,500 bill and leaves the store… without anyone taking her measurements. Andrée-Anne Hallé later reports the situation to the store, who tells her not to worry, that this is a “standard” size and that taking her measurements “is not absolutely necessary”.
A little “creativity”
A first fitting is scheduled for July 4, 2023. But the dress is not ready and the appointment is postponed to the following month, three weeks before the wedding.
At the time of the fitting, Claudy Tessier then informed the future bride that she had allowed herself a “little creative freedom”: the entire bottom of her dress was going to be… green. However, there was never any question of the outfit being any color other than white.
The future bride Andrée-Anne Hallé, with the co-owner of the Champagne! boutique, Claudy Tessier, during the unveiling of her wedding dress… green Credits: Photo provided by Andrée-Anne Hallé
Photo provided by Andrée-Anne Hallé
“It was so absurd. It was a bigger situation than me. I wasn’t even capable of being angry,” recalls the bride-to-be, still stunned.
Faced with Andrée-Anne Hallé’s dissatisfaction, Champagne agrees to rework the dress… but for an additional $500. With the wedding just around the corner, the bride-to-be accepts.
Not enough fabric
The two parties therefore meet again, four days before the ceremony. But during the final fitting, the disappointment was total: the dress constantly fell on the back, which exposed the bride-to-be’s chest at all times.
Andrée-Anne Hallé, during the fitting of the new dress made by Champagne!, a few days before her wedding. The dress is ill-fitting and constantly falls down, revealing the bride-to-be’s breasts. Photo provided by Andrée-Anne Hallé
Photo provided by Andrée-Anne Hallé
Claudy Tessier would have defended herself by saying that she had “lacked fabrics” to complete the dress. For the client, it’s too much. The trust is no longer there.
The bride-to-be went to another store, where she finally found her dress… just a few hours before her wedding. In the months following her marriage, Andrée-Anne Hallée filed a small claims lawsuit against Champagne!
“Flexibility”
In a written statement, the Champagne boutique! defends itself by asserting that designers have a “certain margin of maneuver in the design and making of dresses”, a fact known and “appreciated” by its customers.
The company acknowledges that “on occasion” clients are “dissatisfied”, for example “because certain artistic decisions do not suit them”.
In such cases, Champagne! “strives to offer an adequate solution”, in particular “by readjusting the dress according to the requests made”, she says.