LONDON, ONT. -- Several brides are still out in the cold after CTV News broke the story last Tuesday involving a London bridal shop and conflicting reasons as to why it has closed its doors.
Carly Green, store manager at Nicholas & Elizabeth Bridal, had originally blamed the closure on a leak on March 3, but after further investigation CTV News learned it’s an issue of unpaid rent.
Four soon-to-be brides showed up at the doorsteps of Nicholas & Elizabeth on Monday morning searching for answers.
The brides say they have paid for their wedding dresses in full but were told by Green that the dresses are locked up in the store.
"It’s just a matter of opening a door, handing us our items and that’s it we'll move on and drop it,” says Angela Barrett, a bride who ordered a dress there and is expected to get married in November.
“That’s what upsets me the most,” she continued, “is how much money I actually have invested into my dress for my wedding, which is one day, and I can’t even get my dress.”
The store manager retracted the claim that the store was closed due to a leak and said instead that it was an issue between the landlord and the owner.
The landlord, Ian Johnstone, provided a document to CTV News indicating that the store owes over $15,000 in rent.
CTV News reached out to the bailiff Rick Schwarzer.
“On February 14th I entered the premises and I confronted the employee…Carly Green I think her name is, and presented the notice of termination of tenancy and summoned the lock smith and changed the lock,” Schwarzer says.
Schwarzer added that a landlord is required to give a tenant a reasonable amount of time to collect their goods, usually about five to seven days
“The landlord declared that within five days he was going to move it into storage.”
Schwarzer says he is not privy to negotiations that have been happening between the landlord and the store owner when it comes to collecting the items, and says that the timeframe is not carved in stone.
Amanda Purdy, another bride who waited outside the bridal shop’s doors, says her situation is particularly time sensitive because her wedding is seven weeks away
"If I don’t get this dress I have to somehow get another one and it’s not going to be the dress that we fell in love with. It's not going to have the same emotional connection.”
Brides looking for information about dresses purchased at Nicholas & Elizabeth Bridal, a closed London, Ont. bridal shop, are seen Monday, March 9, 2020. (Jordyn Read / CTV London)
Some brides have found a way to get their dresses themselves by going through other bridal shops.
Sophie’s Bridal Shoppe Manager Lilia Da Silva says that if a bride can show their bill of sale they can locate the dress.
"We are offering to help them out and get their dresses into our store, their dresses are for the most part are just sitting in a warehouse so it’s just a matter of getting in touch with the manufacturers."
Still, the dress have to be repurchased
Green provided a statement to CTV news.
“I am in the process of having my lawyer assist me in this matter and will be in a position to provide a further response by the end of this week or early next week."
-With files from Mariana Calles
