Belly-Up Bridal Shop Leaves Brides Dress-less

A bridal shop in Charlotte, NC, closed it's doors suddenly, leaving dozens of brides without their dresses or any recourse into recovering their money. The worst part? Many can see their dresses through the stores windows.

Check out the link here:http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/06/11/pkg.nc.jilted.brides.news14

Unfortunately, terrible things like this happen every day. Imagine the poor brides whose wedding plans have been ruined as of late to natural disasters that have been plaguing us for the past month. Some of you may not have seen these images taken during the earthquake in China:

This shot was taken before the earthquake:















And after:
















Even if something terrible should happen to your wedding plans- remember, the most important thing to come out of the day is that you and your husband are married, and that the disaster didn't happen during your wedding when so many could've been hurt or worse (miraculously, all of the guests at the wedding in China were unharmed).

Is there anything to be done to protect yourself from a situation like this? You can purchase Wedding Insurance from a site like www.wedsafe.com, who is a Better Business Bureau member and has been in business for more than 8 years (not endorsing them as I have no experience with them). To avoid a situation like the bankrupt shop, put deposits on a credit card- you may have some recourse with your CC company if the goods aren't delivered and have been paid for (but bankruptcy laws and rules may prevent this as they are different in every state). But be sure to file a chargeback immediately. Also, be sure to pick up your dress as soon as it's ready. No sense in leaving it there for storage, and consider having your alterations done somewhere that's not affliated with the shop as 1) it may be less expensive anyway and 2) the dress will be in someone else's hands.

These are, of course, worst-case scenarios. It's always best to be prepared for an emergency, but don't go crazy thinking something might terrible might happen on your big day. There's enough wedding stress without worrying about the "what-ifs". Just shop smartly :).