Coutures by Laura

10/07/2008 Posted by LaraGG

What the heck is Laura's problem? That will be the question you ask when you walk away from her store. She carries an attitude that would make any Hollywood diva jealous. Normally this is acceptable of people that are good at what they do - Laura is not. Her work is sub par, she is never on time, her customer service skills are detestable, and she's just plain dumb. I tried to get a price quote from her on a dress. She gave me three different quotes, all in the same sentence. I asked "well, which is it?" She said, "I'll get back to you." I think she was trying to feel me out to determine how much money I had before she decided on an appropriate quote. Either that or she couldn't remember which is the correct quote. She never got back to me either. I called, and called, and called. I guess she decided I wasn't rich so my call wasn't a priority. I also looked at some of her actually samples. Not the ones she advertises on her website, but actual ones. They are appropriate for a shot-gun wedding in Vegas, not for another respectable. Laura stinks. Go with someone else in Austin.

Pros: If it's opposite day, you'll get fast and good service.

Cons: It's never opposite day.

09/27/2008 Posted by ShayThomas

Unless you're already best buds with this liar, you would do good to look some place else. This horrid witch operates a business like she's still the snooty girl in high school. Her good friends get prioritized over the "regular" customer which she treats like dirt. She misquotes all the time. She does not properly honor gift certificates. She will change her quote in order to fully cover your gift certificate so that you have no credit left to use it on other services. She will be late on her work and ignore your calls and messages. If you have to use her (only if you HAVE to), buy her a dozen cookies. She responds to food.

Pros: Treats her friends well

Cons: You are not her friend

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

09/21/2008 Posted by brandyt

Laura is a terrible "business person." She does not honor gift certificates properly. She will quote a price for you and then change it when she finds out you are using a gift certificate. Furthermore, she will delay and delay and delay on your dress if you try to call her out on this. Take a look at her reviews. You will see people either love her or hate her. The ones that hate her are justified in doing so because these are people she has wronged. The ones that love her, probably close friends of hers or people that flashed around their money in front of her dishonest nose. Do yourself a favor. Go elsewhere.

Pros: None

Cons: Lies, misquotes, pretends to donate gift certificates to charity but doesn't honor them

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

09/21/2008 Posted by jennygarza

I have friends that have used her that hate her and one friend that recommended her so I decided to see for myself. Laura is the type of person that will kiss your butt the more money you spend. She was really nice to me at first, then found out I was going to use a friend's store credit. After that, I could never get her to return phone calls and had to surprise her by showing up at her store. She lies, does substandard work, and takes too much time. I later found out that my one friend that recommended her was getting special treatment by bribing her fat *ss with cookies.

Pros: If she likes you, you might get good service

Cons: If she doesn't like you, good luck ever reaching her.

09/19/2008 Posted by mac100

This "businessperson" is dishonorable and cheap. She does NOT honor gift certificates properly. She will quote a price for you and then when she finds out you are using a gift certificate, she will say that the service may actually cost more than the original price quoted. This is not how you build customer loyalty. It seems she has a few positive reviews? Maybe she does good work, but her customer interaction is horrendous. No doubt she is one of those people that if she likes you and/or she's your friend, you will see her good side. Everyone else will see her deceitful side. If I could give her 0 stars on this website, I would.

Pros: None

Cons: Liar

09/18/2008 Posted by SV1979

I went to Laura to have my wedding dress altered after I received a $400 gift certificate for her shop. Instead of being forthcoming about the estimate for the alterations, she replied to my inquiry by asking how much the certificate was for. Finally she told me the alterations were going to be $238. I noted that amount and the date (7/22). When I was in her shop to check on the dress I asked her to make a veil and to apply the rest of the certificate (since there was about half left over after the alterations) she replied by saying "oh no, I can only let you use it on labor, not materials." Anyway, I didn't want to make a scene in front of one of my bridesmaids (whose wedding dress she made and who happens to be one of her best clients) so I called on my drive home and asked what else I could do to use up the certificate. She then proceeded to ask me "well, how much did youpay for it?" I replied, "IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MUCH I PAID, THIS IS WORTH $400 AND I EXPECT YOU TO HONOR THAT." She replied by saying "well, the alterations are actually going to be more than my estimate. I don't know how much more right now and I won't until I'm done." She even told my fiance I wanted everything for free! So basically Laura doesn't want to honor the full $400 she donated to the charity and retracted her original estimate in an attempt to inflate the amount of the alterations so I can't use the rest of it. She's only willing to honor what I paid for it which is why she keeps asking me (and I won't tell her). Seriously, this is a disgrace of an honest person and business person who never intended to donate $400 to the charity at which I won the auction for the certificate. If I had a gift certificate to walmart, should I expect for them to ask me where I got it and how much I paid for it? I hate thieves, I hate liars, I hate dishonest business people, I hate people with no tact or integrity. If you hate those things too, believe me YOU WILL HATE AND DETEST LAURA GONZALEZ!!!!

Pros: None

Cons: Everything about her is dishonest and she has foul intentions

03/04/2008 Posted by twiceabride

Having been a bride twice, I knew that there would be no one better than Laura to create my perfect gown! After a brief conversation and giving her some general details, she was able to bring to life (both for my 1st and 2nd wedding) exactly what I had imagined my gown to be. She has such an expert knowledge of fabrics, laces, and beads -- she was able to put that all together into something that was just for me -- with my taste and style. Laura has done work for me for over 20 years and I can say that she is a fabulous person and a true expert in her field -- her work is of upmost quality, her service is attentive and professional. I totally recommend her to any first time, 2nd time or anytime bride!

09/21/2007 Posted by vhparker

Laura was absolutely wonderful to work with. Not only is she a sweet and caring woman, but also she works very hard for all of her customers. She made me 10 beautiful bridesmaids dresses, three flower girl dresses, and my mother's dress for my wedding, as well as two dresses for my honeymoon. She also took care of everything on my wedding day, pressing all of the dresses and transporting them to the church for me. She did beautiful, quality work, and had everything done on time. I would highly reccommend her to everyone.

Pros: Customer service, quality

08/08/2007 Posted by l_dee

If you want quality dresses made in a timely professional manner, then stay away from Laura! We used vintage lace on my wedding dress, which she ripped. And she either stole or threw away the rather expensive and very sentimental lace that was left over that I told her that I wanted to keep. When I asked about it when we picked up the dress, she said that there was no lace left over even though she showed me the leftover lace the first time I tried the dress on and it didn't fit. She ordered the wrong color chiffon for the bridesmaids dress, and then tried to tell me that was the color we picked. She did finally find where she wrote the color down and admitted it was her mistake. The fabric she used was really cheap. It looked cheap. It felt cheap. One bridesmaid had her dress dry-cleaned after the wedding and the color faded and got streaky. Laura is so unorganized it is hard to relax and believe that she won't get things mixed up. She got confused and made one bridesmaids dress with the right colored fabric, but in the style of the flower girl's dresses - high waist with a wide sash and big huge bow in the back. Cute if you are 3' tall, but not when you are 5'8". Before we even got to wedding time, seams were already coming undone because of the cheap, shoddy work. Maybe if you know Laura and knew her before she got so busy, then she'll take care of you and your family. She treated my family and me like dirt. She had no time to spare for us even though I called and made appointments every time I was going to go in. She basically extorted more money from us regularly. In the two months leading up to the wedding I called at least once a week to check on things, but it didn't seem to help speed up the process. She screwed up every single thing she made, and we didn't get any of our dresses until too close to wedding time to get anything fixed. Laura lied, scammed, and gave us sub-par products. I would never recommend her. Ever.

Pros: It was less expensive than Vera Wang

Cons: The quality was about what a 5 year old could do with a toy sewing machine

07/05/2007 Posted by lisatx

My mother, grandmother and I have all worked with Laura on a number of occasions. While I'll admit I have heard some of the below gripes regarding her bridesmaid's dresses, Laura has been nothing but extremely attentive to me and my family. She completely reworked an outfit for me recently it came out looking like it was handmade for me. She has been so attentive to my wedding dress, although I will recommend that you keep on her--take the initiative to make the appointments with her--she does have a lot of appointments and overextends herself, working until all hours of the night to have everything done on time. My wedding dress is delicate english lace and I could not be more pleased with her--she has reworked it to give me more of a figure and I would not trust any seamstress but her to fashion the lace correctly. Spend the money on Laura if you want it done correctly--her attention to detail is unmatched in this city.