Leigh is a scammer and a con artist and frankly, will likely end up in prison. She has stolen thousands of pounds from women who have ordered their dress with her and not actually ordered the dresses for them. She is selling old stock on Vinted under bigwhitedress (these dresses belong to women who have already paid for them). She is clearly a very evil and sad person with an agenda to match. I don’t know how she will ever show her face in the area ever again. She has ruined the weddings of hundreds of women.

I strongly urge anyone considering using Bustle & Bow (Leigh Shann) to reconsider. My experience, along with countless others, has been nothing short of disastrous.

Leigh Shann's pre-sales tactics are incredibly deceptive. She creates an illusion of professionalism and care, only to vanish once payment is received. Months of stress and anxiety followed by a dismissive and rude email is a common pattern among her victims.

It's disheartening to see this business continue to operate on Hitched, potentially harming more brides. There's an ongoing case against Leigh Shann, and it's evident she's a predator targeting vulnerable customers.

Please protect yourself and other brides by avoiding Bustle & Bow entirely. Hitched, it's crucial to remove this profile to prevent further damage.

I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews online, but unfortunately I want to warn all other brides to avoid Bustle & Bow if they’re hoping for a stress free and exciting bridal experience.
I bought my dress from Bustle & Bow in January 2024. I bought a half price sample sale gown and was happy with what I’d chosen. I paid the full price within 24 hours because I was advised if I didn’t purchase the dress quickly it’d likely sell quickly in the next few days. Looking back I totally fell for this, as I looked online weeks later at the sample sale and some of the other dresses had still not sold, but I liked my dress and was pleased to have got it sorted for my wedding in December 2024.

In June, one of my school friends reached out to me to find out if I’d had any contact with Leigh (the owner) for arrangement of fittings. Her wedding is in October and she had been advised her fittings would start in June and she was panicking as her emails and phone calls had been ignored.

I then read a load of negative google reviews with numerous brides documenting their awful experiences with a lack of communication and dresses not being ordered. There was also a local Facebook post made from another bride who was worried she hadn’t heard anything about her dress.

I sent a friendly message to Leigh, via instagram, to enquire about my own fittings and to inform her of my friend’s concern.

Leigh messaged back very quickly - presumably because of the positive relationship we’d had previously via instagram through my local social media page. I felt angry that she would choose to respond to me so quickly after ignoring my friend for so long. This aside, she assured me she would contact my friend the next day.

This never happened.

It became quickly evident that there was a list of brides who had purchased dresses months previously and paid in full, whose dresses were never ordered. My friend unfortunately got given this information only from contacting her dress designer directly. You can only imagine the stress and upset this has caused my friend and all the other brides.

Given that my dress was a sample sale dress (and veil) it was presumably just sat in the bridal studio awaiting for my alterations to be done. Unfortunately I had lost all faith that Leigh would communicate with me or provide a decent service for this to be done in time. So I messaged Leigh again to inform her that I hoped to collect my dress as soon as possible. As I work on weekdays I said that my fiancé would come on my behalf to collect the dress and she suggested he came on the Wednesday.

My fiancé turned up as agreed on the Wednesday to find an empty shop and no one to be seen. He waited 20 minutes after taking time out of his working day to make the journey to Berkhamsted especially for this. He left a voicemail and an email vocalising his frustration.

Leigh’s apology was quite frankly pathetic but never the less it was agreed he would go the next day to collect my dress and veil.

My dress and veil are now safely in my hands but I am now left with several months before my big day and I am having to sort all the cleaning and alterations of my dress myself.

Leigh may have treated me nicely in our communication but she had no idea that one of my friends was one of the customers she was treating so awfully. The utter stress of this all has really affected what I had hoped would be an exciting lead up to my wedding.

I understand the shop has now been repossessed due to Leigh not paying months of rent. It seems she has been taking money upfront off customers and not fulfilling their contracts or providing them with the service they paid for which is nothing short of fraudulent.

I imagine the business won’t be opening again but if it does I’ll be urging any local brides to avoid at all costs.

have no words for the service or lack of service I have received at Bustle and Bow.

Leigh is very attentive and helpful at the point of buying a dress and after that becomes uncontactable.

During this time I read other reviews from brides that have experienced the same.

I simply wanted to collect the shoes I had ordered over two months before and arrange for a fitting.

After endless emails, messages through WhatsApp - all of which were ignored, my sister in law had to go to the shop on my behalf. Leigh was defensive and pretty much shut the door in her face.

I emailed again to say I would be collecting my dress and had decided to go elsewhere for alterations and a fitting. I also made her aware I had ordered my own shoes - they arrived in 24 hours! Clearly Leigh never placed an order for mine! I requested a refund for the ones I had never received from her.

Finally I got a response by email - to say I could collect my dress and that it was a shame I felt I had not had the service expected as ‘Leigh spoke so highly of me.’

When I arrived, Leigh informed me she had sent two pairs of shoes to my address! Interestingly neither of these have been received. She also said she had issued a refund for them. Here I am two weeks later, as expected my emails are being ignored and no refund has been received. She has had my money for months! I will be taking this further.

Leigh also told me alterations would be £200 max, I’ve paid a fortune so far!
If you want an experience to remember for the right reasons…go elsewhere!!!

Absolutely shocking that you can spend so much money and be treated in this way.

Read the reviews!!! So many brides have found themselves in the same position or worse.

I would vote no stars if I could. My sister in law to be bought a wedding dress only a few weeks ago and since this company has gone bankrupt. We were completely taken in and she has been unprofessional. All the poor brides who perhaps still have no idea and have paid out a fortune and have nothing to show for it! Watch out if she sets up elsewhere!

Like the other reviews, I have also had a bad experience with Leigh at Bustle&Bow. I went to see her in June and the appointment was fine and I found d a dress I loved and paid in full.

Two days ago I found out through another bridal store that Bustle&Bow have closed down and the bailiffs were in. I have tried to contact Leigh multiple times with no answer and struggled to find my dress supplier.

I have reached out to all the suppliers who have been amazing and finally found the dress I bought from Leigh and the dress is just under a grand less through this other bridal store!

Leigh is a scam artist who takes the magical moment of finding your dream dress and turns it into a nightmare!!

Don’t touch this shop with a barge pole if you want a stress free wedding. To cut a long story short, I paid Leigh over £2200 for my daughter’s wedding dress in Sept 2023 (the wedding is Aug 2024).

Eight weeks before the wedding my daughter tried to contact Bustle & Bow to arrange her first fitting, as recommended by Leigh when we bought the dress. No response from Leigh to constant phone calls, emails or social media contacts. Eventually my daughter contacted the designer direct to be told that they no longer have a working relationship with Bustle & Bow and told my daughter that her dress had been ready to be sent to the shop since January 2024 but Bustle & Bow had not paid her so it had not been sent. The designer herself contacted Bustle & Bow and told them that one of their clients had been in touch with her. Miraculously the shop then responded to emails and an appointment was made for my daughter to have a fitting. We were told by the designer that be dress was going to be sent that day (27th June) by DHL.

Leigh has never had the courtesy to contact my daughter about her shoddy treatment over her wedding dress. We went on 27th June, collected the dress and my daughter has arranged her own seamstress for alterations as the service provided by Bustle & Bow is despicable. We just wanted to collect the dress and get out of there. They turned the whole experience of buying the most exciting dress in your life into the most stressful one and tainted it for my daughter. No explanation as to why the dress hasn’t been paid for when it had been paid for in full for 10 months! We actually doubted at times if we’d have a wedding dress at the end of it such was the lack of communication from Leigh. All very promising to start with but it’s a facade!

My 5th bridal shop and I definitely saved the best for last!
I'd recommend Leigh and Bustle & Bow to any bride. It was the most fun and most relaxed appointment. Leigh is so knowledgeable and I've managed to create a completely bespoke look which I am so excited about.
Now the worlds biggest Bustle & Bow fan!

Outstanding service, the best bridal appointment I had.
Wasn't salesy, or snooty, just down to earth and really good fun and said HELL YES to the most magical dress!