Brides left 'heartbroken' after bridal shop closes suddenly

"It's something you read about, not something that happens to you," said Hayley Cook after discovering the wedding dress she had ordered and paid for would not be delivered.

The 30-year-old from Featherstone, West Yorkshire, is one of dozens of brides-to-be who had ordered their wedding outfits from a shop in Pontefract which closed down suddenly without warning.

"It doesn't seem real. but I know it's very real," Hayley said.

She added she felt "angry and betrayed" by the shop owner.

Hayley said they used money her late stepfather, Pops as she called him, had saved in a tin to one day pay for her wedding dress.

She said it had been "the last tangible thing" he could do for her.

Her mum found the £980 dress online and after trying it on in the shop Hayley decided it was the right one for her.

The shop in question is Abbey Bridal and in a statement on its website owner Jessica Sykes blamed the "rapidly declining economic state of the United Kingdom" for its sudden closure.

She added that if anyone was waiting for a dress or refund, she was "dealing with this".

"If you have not yet had a reply to your email, it is because it is taking longer to gather the answers to your questions."

Hayley said when she first saw the post online saying the bridal shop was closing, she could not believe it.

"We actually received a payment reminder and the Friday before the news came out that the business was closing and so we've now fully paid for a dress."

She is not sure if she will receive a refund and said she and her mum were "heartbroken".

Hayley said she feels the shop owner has "stolen the last part" of her stepfather.

"She's taken what was a beautiful day and ruined it."

Another bride-to-be left without her wedding dress is 47-year-old Madeline Roberts from Pontefract.

She paid £2,500 for it in November last year and her bank is yet to confirm whether she will get her money back.

Madeline said: "It was the dress, I cried, the mother-in-law cried, my sister-in-law cried, the owner was like 'are you saying yes to the dress?' I was like - absolutely.

"Transferred the money from my savings, paid her in full, didn't think anything about it, why would you?

"I just thought wow, I was really happy, job done, massive box ticked."

She said that after setting up a Facebook group warning people of what had happened to her, she had been in touch with dozens of other women, as well as teenage girls waiting for prom dresses, who were in the same situation.

"I put a group up as soon as I realised that this was bigger than just a couple of brides," she said.

"From there we obviously got together and we've been supporting each other and trying to reach out to manufacturers, suppliers and banks - all helping each other.

"It's good for the girls to know that they're not the only person."

The BBC made several attempts to contact Jessica Sykes and the business, and she did respond with a statement.

"A supplier was blackmailing us for over £2,000 per week," it stated.

Skyes wrote that she was pursuing a fraud case against that supplier.

"We decided that we could no longer make this work due to the drop in sales caused by the cost of living crisis in Yorkshire."

Sykes explained they had planned a "soft closure of the business," but because of what she described as "severe threats" to her and her family's lives, alongside what she called "online, phone, and in-person harassment," she was unable to proceed with the soft closure "due to the risk of harm".

Sykes strongly denied claims she and her husband were "running away with the money," and would "work with the police where required".

Hayley said her stepfather had always wanted to be a part of her wedding day and she felt like she had "let him down".

"It's awful because I can't talk to him and say I'm sorry this has happened," Hayley said.

She said the dress would have been a connection between them and he would have "loved it".

"He wanted to walk me down the aisle along with my dad.

"He was going to be essentially walking me down with it [the dress]. He'll still be there - but that moment is gone."

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