Designers praised after boutique goes bust, leaving hundreds of brides stranded

Hundreds of brides have been left without wedding dresses after a major bridal shop went bust.

Melbourne boutique, The Bridal Atelier, closed its doors and went completely off the radar after lawyers contacted customers to inform them the business had gone into liquidation.

While many are scrambling to find last-minute dresses to replace the ones they spent thousands on, some brides have been handed a lifeline after reaching out directly to the designers making their gowns.

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"It's a really unfortunate set of circumstances I think for everyone involved," bride-to-be Hannah Connolly told Today.

"I haven't heard a whisper from the company, all socials have been shut down, the website shut down - I don't think I will be hearing from them anytime soon, that's for sure."

But with her wedding still a year away, Hannah contacted the designer in New Zealand, who has committed to getting her dress delivered to her on time for her big day.

"I'm certainly one of the luck ones, the designer has been phenomenal and I believe they have committed that to a tonne of different brides," she said.

"I'm lucky timing-wise, but I don't think some other brides who have three weeks to their wedding are in the same circumstance as me."

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For fellow bride Rhiannon Mason, she also reached out to the designer to find out what was happening with her fiancee's dress.

And that's when she found out the brides-to-be weren't the only victims impacted by the boutique's collapse.

"The designer was very professional," she told Today Extra.

"They said the dress passed quality checks, but the owner of The Bridal Atelier called us and said the dress was late because of the designer.

"Then, a few days later we got a call from the designer saying it's not late, it's been ready since April, but they haven't been paid.

"That was brutal, I think on both ends we were being deceived and I think it's the same for the staff, there are a lot of different victims here and a lot of people that have been treated unfairly."

See what else Hannah and Rhiannon had to say in the videos above

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