It is with great regret that I must inform you that the Directors of The Bridal Gallery Group Ltd have decided to close it’s stores. Before you panic, we do not intend to just shut up the shops and leave you attempting to regain your deposit and find that dress of your dreams all over again. We aim to fulfill all orders currently placed and give further details below. If your dress was already in at one of our stores, then these are safe and you will be contacted shortly.
We are a family owned and run business, and over the last 6 years we have invested a considerable amount of personal money, along with blood, sweat and tears, into building what we consider to be four amazing bridal shops, and have not taken a penny out during this time. However in recent weeks both our bank and our credit card processors have made it impossible for us to continue trading. This has come as a shock to us as I am sure it has to you also, and we did not expect to be put in the situation of having to make this decision.
Our bank has refused to increase our overdraft facility of £20,000 that allows us to fund the day to day running of the stores since the day we opened the business 6 years ago. This is despite going from zero turnover that day to what was a considerable amount now.
Our credit card processors have also decided they want extra cash security just to continue allowing us to take credit card payments, this is on top of the current £180,000 cash security they are already holding. To get this they have been taking 25% of all credit card payments since August, putting us in an extremely difficult position.
It is our intention to fulfill all current orders we have, however this requires the agreement from our suppliers which we are currently in discussions with. We will be pushing hard for them to allow us to provide your dress as intended, and hopefully they will also, like ourselves, not want to put you in a bad situation.
Unfortunately that is the only information we have at this time. The moment we have any further information we will contact you immediately to inform you how we can proceed. If you do wish to contact us in the meantime then please do so by emailing us on enquiries@thebridalgallerygroup.com - due to the number of emails we expect we are dealing with them in wedding date order so we can arrange the most urgent items being delivered first.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, but please rest assured we are putting every effort into delivering your dream dress as intended.
UPDATE 19th Oct 20.30: If you have emailed up then please accept our apologies with the delay in replying. As this all happened so quickly we had to make our first priority getting Bride's dresses out of the shops to avoid these being taken. We are now answering all emails as quickly as possible.
UPDATE 20th Oct 09.45: We have been made aware of a number of local media reports suggesting we have taken Bride's dresses out of our shops for personal gain. We know the source of these reports and can categorically deny this is the case. All Bride's dresses within our stores have been taken with permission of the liquidators (who were there at the time) so we could secure these and distribute to the brides on time - 6 of which were done yesterday, with more scheduled over the coming week.
UPDATE 22nd Oct 11.00: Letters have now all gone out, if you don't receive one in the next few days then please contact us via this website. With regards to people asking about using their bridal insurance, this will be possible however as this all happened so suddenly the Administrators haven't yet processed everything which would enable your insurance to pay out.
Can you all please beware of offers of help/information on the internet and just check the offer is genuine and accurate. We have had multiple brides contact us now who have received bogus information as well as reading incorrect information about us.
We have delivered over 30 dresses this weekend so far, with over 20 planned for today and a lot more in the coming few days. We are working as hard and as fast as we can to sort all brides out but understand some have still yet to get an answer from us, we apologise for this and will get to you as quickly as possible.
UPDATE 24th Oct 9.00: After speaking with a large number of suppliers and brides over the last two days, the best way we can help all brides is to help you work either directly with the bridal designers, or through one of their other local suppliers, to obtain your dress as intended. This will enable you to receive the level of service you expected when you first purchased your dress.
We will be finalising over the next few days what each particular designer would rather their brides do, either work directly or with another supplier, and will contact each bride directly to give you more specific details. We will also post this information on here as and when we have it.
Of course you can also decide to fully cancel your order and obtain a refund for your deposit either through your bridal insurance provider firstly, or through your credit/debit card provider. We are awaiting final details on the process for each of these methods from our Administrators and credit card processors, and we will inform anyone who wishes to do so as soon as possible.
As we have continually stated, our aim has been to make sure we can provide the dress you ordered as intended with as little upset and inconvenience as possible, and we are still pushing forward with attempting to do so.
UPDATE 1st Nov 15.45: We can now confirm, after the creditors meeting held by our insolvency practitioner’s Begbies Traynor, that The Bridal Gallery Group Ltd. is now formally in Creditors Voluntary Liquidation. All brides should now receive a letter from Begbies Traynor to confirm this and to set out the procedures to follow to obtain a refund of your deposit should this be required.
We have spoken to all of our suppliers and most have been very helpful in working to find a way to supply gowns ordered for our brides. Please see below for an up to date list and full details of how and who to contact for your particular designer.
Ian Stuart - Will deal directly with brides, contact 020 8761 6302
Hollywood Dreams - Will deal directly with brides, contact 020 8801 9797
Venus - Will deal directly with brides, contact 0113 256 9627
Alan Hannah - Will deal directly with brides, contact 020 8804 1444
Richard Designs - Will deal directly with brides, contact 01353 661 600 or email info@richarddesigns.co.uk
Dessy - Customers who have ordered Dessy/Alfred Sung dresses should make contact with The Dessy Group directly to check the status of their order. Please call 01909 774444, email lynda@dessy.com or write to The Dessy Group, Unit 5 Vector 31 Network Centre, Waleswood Way, Sheffield S26 5NU
Sophia Tolli - Contact them on 01954 232 102, we are unsure on their exact plans currently.
Essense - Contact Laura at 0800 961 140. She can be reached between 1 PM and 10 PM UK time.