BRIDES DUPED IN DRESS DECEPTION
DIRTY dresses, half-finished gowns and clothes delivered in cardboard boxes with Chinese postage stamps.
These are some of the claims made from customers of a bridal shop which left brides in the lurch in the days and months before their big day.
On Thursday wedding dress sellers AnnaSara Bridal in Newport pleaded guilty to lying to customers by telling them dresses made in China were “handmade” and “bespoke”.
Melanie Bishop, 36, from Ivy Bush Cottages in Oakdale, Blackwood, admitted 16 counts of being engaged in unfair commercial practice between March 2015 and July 2016.
Patricia Bishop, from the same address, also admitted 16 counts of being engaged in unfair commercial practice.
Now five brides have spoken of their experiences, more than 18 months after the bridal shop shut its doors.
For call centre worker Jade and her wife Kylie the build-up to their wedding became a race against the clock after buying dresses from AnnaSara.
After first coming across the mother-and-daughter business at a wedding fair in October 2015, the couple from Tredegar ordered eight gowns from the company, including both of their wedding dresses.
But after months of waiting for their dresses to arrive, the pair claim they were left with little choice but to take their half-finished dresses to another seamstress before leaving for their wedding in Malta.
Jade, 28, said: “Me and my partner went to a wedding fair in Maes Manor in Blackwood and my partner saw a dress they were advertising and fell in love with it straight away.
“We went down to the shop and they were amazing, they couldn’t have been nicer people. They said as we were both brides they would get a deal for us and they had some lovely dresses.
“They said they only make one of each dress and they name each dress after you.”
According to Jade, problems began after visiting the shop with five bridesmaids and a flower girl to get measured – paying more than £2,000 upfront for eight dresses.
She said: “They gave us colours to choose from but they didn’t measure us, they just guessed.
“They said they didn’t need to measure us as they’d been doing this long enough and they knew.
“After 12 weeks the bridesmaids dresses finally came and they were the wrong colour. The flower girl’s dress was a completely different dress and was in ivory, not white.
“My partner was outside the shop in tears.”
They found themselves months before their June wedding without any dresses.
Jade said: “They kept saying they were being made in their factory, they said it was somewhere in Wales.
“They said bridesmaid dresses were being made in a factory and the wedding dresses at home but never in China.
“I was speaking to them in my work breaks every day. “At this point we had a month left.” With time running out Jade and Kylie allege they had little choice but to collect the dresses, despite some remaining unfinished.
Jade said: “We took them from the shop there and then, as we knew if we didn’t take them we wouldn’t have them at all.
“Two bridesmaid dresses fitted but the other three we had to buy all new, as they were the wrong colour and fit.
“The flower girl’s dress we had to buy as it wasn’t even fitted.
“My dress still had a Chinese label in it and the bridesmaids’ dresses had Chinese labels that had been cut out.”
With neither bridal dress finished on time Jade and Kylie finally decided to use another seamstress to finish the work and removed damaged straps from the bridesmaid dresses.
Jade said: “We went to Belle Mariee Bridal in Porth and they saved us.
“They had to do all the alterations and we had about two weeks before we were leaving.
“We just spent it in floods of tears – for two people that seemed so lovely and made out they cared so much they couldn’t have cared less.
“It was gutting, we had got on so well and they seemed like they were perfect. When we look back at our photo there’s a bit of regret as it wasn’t the way we wanted it.”
For Beverley Dalgleish, 51, the run-up to her wedding was similar. After ordering a £1,100 bridal dress from AnnaSara the bride-to-be from Rogerstone claims she was left with no hint of a dress three days before her wedding in April 2015.
Beverley said: “I was at a wedding fair in the Holiday Inn in Newport and saw a beautiful bridesmaid’s dress. I said I was trying to design my own dress and they said they could help with that.
“I showed them what I wanted and decided I would take their bodice and they said they could make the rest. I was completely sucked in and paid a £600 bank transfer deposit.”
Despite little communication over the dress size or colour Beverley went to the Newport shop weeks later for a fitting.
She said: “I went into the shop and the dress was in a crumpled ball with Chinese writing on the packaging.
“That’s when it went wrong – it was lie after lie. I went in the week before the wedding and it wasn’t done.
“The Wednesday before my wedding I went to try it on and I couldn’t get it on it was so tight. They said I had put on weight.
“They never once altered it until the week before and it was pinned into all different shapes. I couldn’t get it over my hips and it was covered in dirt.”
In desperation Beverley turned to the House of Couture in Newport, three days before her wedding at Mansion House. She said: “I stormed out and got over to Maindee. I was crying my eyes out and she fixed it all – she had to unpick it.”
On a summer’s day at Celtic Manor one year later, Nichola Hutchings’ wedding should have been perfect.
But after a downpour, the Cwmbran bride claims she found herself covered in dye after buying a red dress from AnnaSara Bridal.
Nichola, 35, said: “For personal reasons I wanted a red dress.
“The wedding was in August and it poured with rain and all the dye came out. My parents bought me lovely underwear and shoes and it was all tinged with dye.”
Her wedding day followed months of stress, after allegedly resorting to buying nine bridesmaid dresses off the hanger, despite paying deposits at AnnaSara.
Nichola said: “They came and they were the wrong style, the wrong colour and five sizes too big.”
It was gutting, we had got on so well and they seemed like they were perfect. When we look back at our photo there’s a bit of regret as it wasn’t the way we wanted it JADE
She added: “They kept saying they were making my dress and it was going through quality control.
“At the end my mum went down and collected the dress and it was given in a cardboard box with Chinese postage marks all over it.
“It was absolutely horrendous, the quality, everything.
“The dress was quite pretty but it was a mermaid style and the lace was white. I had a seamstress working around the clock to make it work.
“It ruined the build-up for me, I was drained.”
Meanwhile, after finally choosing the perfect dress, other brides were left in the dark after the bridal shop shut its door in 2016.
After paying a £500 deposit, Cardiff town planner Lindy Marshall said she was unable to get in contact with Melanie Bishop weeks after placing her order.
Lindy, 29, said: “Everything seemed fine: I found a dress I really liked and they said they could take one dress and add the bottom of another dress and said it was their own design. I took my gran and my mum and Melanie’s mum was talking to my gran, it all seemed normal.
“They said they needed half of the payment, which was £500. I didn’t think anything of it.”
After coming across concerns on a Facebook page about AnnaSara, Lindy found herself unable to get in contact with the company.
The page – called Anna Sara Bridal Newport or China? – has more than 1,500 followers, with dozens of brides sharing their experiences and offering their wedding dresses to others.
Lindy said: “I panicked – I contacted her and had nothing back, I tried phoning her and messaging her on Facebook but nothing at all. “She just disappeared off the face of the earth.”
With seven months before her wedding Lindy was able to claim her deposit using wedding insurance.
She said: “I had seven months left and they say to leave nine months for a wedding dress, but it was OK.
“It made me a lot more stressed than I would have been, as you are always comparing everything to the dress you never had.
“It was that realisation you would never see the dress.
“For a lot of ladies this is one of the most important parts of a wedding.”
After finding AnnaSara Bridal at a wedding fair, bride-to-be Victoria Maynard decided to use the company for both her wedding dress and her daughter’s flower girl outfit.
The 33-year-old from Bridgend said: “They took a £500 deposit and a week later I discovered people were saying some negative things.
“I panicked and was trying to get hold of them, I couldn’t get an answer from the shop or Facebook.
“I sent them a letter and didn’t have a response.
“I took them to the small claims court and the judge agreed they could pay back £3 a month.”
On September 30, 2016, Victoria received a report from the small claims court stating that AnnaSara had made a full admission after failing to return her deposit.
She said: “You can imagine trying to plan a wedding and then the stress of finding another dress.
“It put a damper on the excitement of the day with dress shopping and having to do it all over again.”
Melanie and Patricia Bishop will be sentenced on March 9 at Cardiff Crown Court.