LONDON, ONT. -- There are conflicting reasons being given as to why a Dundas Street bridal shop is closed, leaving a number of women wondering what’s going on.
Bride-to-be Kira Longeuay said yes to her dress in March 2019 at The Nicholas & Elizabeth Bridal Salon.
She says she was supposed to pick up the dress in January, but it took two months longer than was scheduled for her to get her hands on the gown.
Longeuay said the delay was blamed on a leak in the store.
“I was told that there was some sort of leak and the landlord had locked them out and wasn’t letting them in,” Kira says. “He was taking his time and just not giving any answers as to when they would get back in.”
The bridal salon doors are locked and a handwritten sign is posted on the window indicating it’s ‘closed due to a leak.'
Carly Green, the store manager confirmed, “We have a leak in the back of the store which is why it has been closed.”
Green also claimed that the landlord was in the process of getting it fixed but added, “He doesn’t want us in there right now.”
Some bridal customers have flooded to a Facebook group called, “London Ontario Wedding Swap and Sell” to express their worries over a lack of communication from the shop's owner.
Some brides have even reached out to neighbouring stores to try and get inside information on the bridal store’s closure.
Rachael Tenkate, a junior stylist at WABI SABI hair + Body, says the store has received multiple calls from concerned brides.
“We have had many people over the last couple weeks come in and ask us what is going on. They’re saying that it's completely dark in the store and they have appointments.”
The landlord and owner of the building, Ian Johnstone, tells a different story.
“There is no leak,” Johnstone says. “That’s not true at all. There has been an order. The owner of the store hasn’t paid the rent so we went to the courts and got a bailiff and they’re locked out.”
Johstone says that the bridal salon was served the notice of bailiff on February 14.
Longeuay says she's glad things worked out for her, but she’s concerned other brides are still trying to get answers.
“You pay with your hard-earned money to go and purchase something that is for one day for your lifetime…it’s just not a good feeling”
After the story aired, Green contacted CTV News to say they are making efforts to have the store reopen next week, but the landlord says that is unlikely.
With files from Mariana Calles.
