Bridal shop collapse leaves at least 99 weddings in jeopardy, customers speak out

Dozens of couples in Melbourne and Sydney have been blindsided after a company collapsed suddenly earlier this week.

Sydney woman Gabrielle* is just weeks out from her wedding with no dress and more than $6000 out of pocket from a terrible ordeal.

The woman, 31, is among nearly 100 victims left out in the cold after wedding company The Bridal Atelier collapsed into liquidation earlier this week.

News.com.au reported that staff were terminated abruptly on Friday across the boutique’s two stores in Sydney and Melbourne. On Monday, the Melbourne store filed its liquidation papers and the following day the Sydney one did too.

News.com.au understands at least 99 weddings have been impacted – 69 from Sydney and around 30 in Melbourne.

Gabrielle was meant to be starting alterations on her dress next week, so that it would be perfect for when she travels overseas for her big day in mid-August.

Instead, she’s been left scrambling, with just seven weeks to secure a dress to salvage her looming wedding with her future husband, 32, whom she has been in a relationship with for 12 years.

“The dress was $6800. It’s a lot more than I ever planned on spending, which makes it more heartbreaking,” Gabrielle told news.com.au.

She paid in full for the dress in two instalments, in November 2022 and February this year, but has since learned her cash was never passed on to the designer.

Gabrielle has potentially lost $6800 from The Bridal Atelier suddenly going bust.

The Sydney woman is unsure if her dress even exists. As far as she understands, the order was placed with the designer, who she is in contact with.

“I just hope I can have my dress,” Gabrielle said.

“I don’t know yet. I’ve already paid so much money.

“I’m quite upset, I’m supposed to be going into alterations next week, but I don't have a dress, I don't have much time to sort (another one).”

On Friday evening, Gabrielle learned The Bridal Atelier had gone bust.

“It was definitely heartbreak on Friday night,” she said, adding that “you just get that feeling” that it was over.

In the months leading up to the company’s demise, Gabrielle said the date her dress was meant to be arriving was continually pushed back.

The fact The Bridal Atelier never paid her initial deposit in November to the dress designer makes her think the company’s financial woes dated back to at least then.

As the cost of living crisis rages on, Gabrielle says the $6800 she’s sunk into the endeavour could have gone a long way.

“We’ve just moved from a two-bedder into a one-bed (apartment), because we just got a rent increase,” she added.

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Emma* spent $5600 on her dress, and the money was never passed on to the designer.

Another Sydney couple, Emma* and her partner Cait, have been completely blindsided by the company’s collapse.

They had their hen’s party on the weekend ahead of their August 12 wedding but Emma learned on Monday The Bridal Atelier had gone into liquidation, leaving the fate of her fully-paid-for $56000 dress in jeopardy.

“I thought it was normal to pay 50 per cent upfront. I was pretty naive,’” Emma, 29, told news.com.au.

Then in May, she was made to pay the remaining amount.

“I did think it was a bit weird to pay the whole dress before it arrived,” she added.

Her dress was supposed to arrive by the end of June, but the company went under in the meantime, leaving her chances of recovering the dress doubtful.

“I don’t always wear dresses, I’m quite fussy. This was the only dress that I fell in love with,” she said.

Emma’s dress is made through a supplier called Love Honor. When she contacted the company, they indicated they would be willing to reduce the amount for her to pay to try to ensure her wedding still goes ahead as planned.

Even then, she will be out of pocket.

It’s particularly hard for the mum-of-two, who has recently moved to the Central Coast as prices have gone up in NSW’s capital.

Emma and Cait’s wedding plans have been thrown into disarray.

The pair have two kids together.

A Melbourne couple are also facing frustration as they have been left $1000 in the hole from The Bridal Atelier’s collapse.

Looking back, they said there were a number of red flags the company was in trouble.

Rhiannon Mason and her partner Toni are due to get married early next month, which is less than three weeks away, so they were “freaking out” upon hearing of the company’s closure.

They were urged to “pay immediately” half the price of the dress in November last year, which they did.

Then in February, they paid the rest of the deposit, which came to a total of $2000.

Ms Mason has since learned that the initial payment of $1000 was paid to their designer, but the rest was not.

That means they had to fork out an additional $1000 to secure their dress in time for their wedding on July 7.

At first the dress was supposed to arrive in April, but this was then pushed to early May, then mid May, then late May.

Early this month, one staff member told them the dress had been shipped and would be arriving in five days, but was unable to give them a tracking number. A separate worker later told them there were delays with the dressmaking proces.

The pair felt like something “suss” was happening and asked staff to call them, but they never did.

They eventually went directly to the designer where they learned the dress had been ready since April.

Luckily, their dress arrived on Sunday morning, sent directly from the designer, after paying an additional amount.

“I have no idea what would have happened if we had not contacted the designer directly,” Ms Mason said.

Thankfully, Toni’s dress arrived in the mail on Sunday. But it was sent by their designer, when it should have come months earlier from the bridal shop itself.

The dress Toni paid $2000 for which has caused them a lot of grief. Her wedding is less than three weeks away.

Rhiannon and Toni.

Michael Dullaway and Mark William Pearce from Pearce & Heers Insolvency Accountants, are the appointed liquidators, but were unable to tell news.com.au how many weddings had been impacted.

The Bridal Atelier’s website and Instagram pages have been removed while the company’s phone number is disconnected.

One of the Melburnian workers, Georgia Schroeder, said she had only been hired as the New Retail and Operations manager less than two months before the collapse and that she was devastated.

“I’m a broken woman,” she posted online, adding that she is “completely crushed”.

Ms Schroeder said she had thought scoring the gig would be a “dream job” but it’s turned into more of a nightmare, as she has been left dealing with the fallout.

“I’ve had hundreds of phone calls from brides begging and crying about their gowns and loss of money,” she said.

“And even though it won’t mean much to the hundreds affected, none of the staff have been paid. We have all been left in the dark.”

Workers like Ms Schroeder will be fully compensated for their unpaid wages under a government scheme called the Fair Entitlements Guarantee.

It’s understood four staff members have lost their jobs.

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*Name withheld over privacy concerns.