Alfred Angelo, Say goodbye to your reputation.

My son is getting married in November and our future daughter in-law, Lynn, found bridesmaid dresses for her three bridesmaids at Alfred Angelo. All the dresses were ordered and paid for, one in Tucson, one in San Francisco and one in Plano. The Tucson dress came in, and the Maid of Honor now has her dress. Then I get a text from Lynn late on July 13th telling me that she saw a news report that Alfred Angelo closed its doors for good that day.

 

In re: AA Florida Bridal Retail Company, LLC et al., Case No.: 17-18864-BKC-PGH

Statement from the Chapter 7 Trustee:
The Chapter 7 Trustee greatly regrets the upset that Alfred Angelo’s July 14th bankruptcy filing has caused its customers. While we have been successful in obtaining customer records and delivering many dresses and accessories for customers all over the country, even after the bankruptcy filing date, it has now become apparent that the logistical and financial strain of fulfilling each and every open order makes continuing that course of action no longer possible.

Thus, to the extent any order has not been fully delivered to a customer, it shall have to remain unfilled. If you believe you are owed any money, please use the link below to complete a proof of claim. Please be advised that neither the Chapter 7 Trustee nor her counsel are authorized to provide legal advice to any affected customer regarding their purchase.

The "Hero" in this story would have to be Davids Bridal. In a smart business move they are offering Alfred Angelo customers that have a receipt and did not receive their dress a 20% discount for bridesmaids dress and free shipping. So, Lynn made an appointment at Davids and went in to find coordinating dresses. She found a dress that is pretty identical in the front, but a little different in the back to the Alfred Angelo dress. She had the receipts from the bridesmaids that had not received their dresses from CA and TX, so she ordered them new dresses.

The Alfred Angelo original dress

The Davids Bridal replacement dress

The Alfred Angelo dress was in the their color called tealness. Davids did not have a similar shade, so Lynne ordered the California attendant's dress in meadow, and the Texas attendants in mint. Then she had them ship the dresses to Tucson so she could check them out first, before they were sent to the ladies for alterations.

The Alfred Angelo color tealness

Meadow color swatch from Davids Bridal

Mint color swatch from Davids Bridal

As with all hitches in our families events it didn't end there. While Lynn was ordering and paying for the new dresses, the California bridesmaid received her Alfred Angelo dress in the mail. Now, the Maid of Honor has the original dress, the CA bridesmaid has the original and a new dress, and the Texas bridesmaid (my daughter) just has the new dress. This is a dress mess, lol.

I think in the long run we got off a lot easier than many other customers of Alfred Angelo. While one of the bridesmaids did not get her dress and will probably not get her money back, and the bride and groom had to buy two extra dresses, we were only disappointed and inconvenienced because we had time to fix the situation. Many brides and maids were not as "lucky". Many brides ordered their "dream dress", paid for it, and will never get it or their money back. Many will not have time to reorder a new "dream dress" or have the money to spend on a replacement. According to an article in USA Today: "Store managers were not alerted to the closure, according to the Wall Street Journal, and many stores were locked up for the last time on Thursday with no advance warning to customers or employees." This means that Alfred Angelo let their stores sell wedding dresses and wedding party dresses to customers up until the day they filed bankruptcy, taking money from brides, mothers and attendants and not telling the stores employees that these orders will never be filled or that the customer may not get their money back.  This is from a company that had been in the Bridal business since 1933 and had a stellar reputation in the business.

This is the way Alfred Angelo chose to go out of business? Now instead of the name of Alfred Angelo being associated with making a brides wedding dreams come true, their name is now synonymous with what wedding nightmares are made of.