Brides-to-be left panicking following sudden closure of wedding dress shop in Milton Keynes

The New Beginnings Bridal Boutique closed down suddenly last week, with owner Rhian making an apologetic post on social media.

She said the closure was due to the death of her mum – her business partner- earlier this year, together with her own health problems.

And she promised all orders of wedding dresses would be honoured and nobody would be let down.

However, some of brides-to-be who had dresses on order claim they have been told a different story.

They have set up a Facebook group called ‘Brides of New Beginnings Help Group’ and already there are 146 members.

They claim some women have no idea what has happened to the dress they ordered and partly paid for, while others say they have been told they are not eligible for a refund – even though they have not received their wedding dress.

One said: “I’m absolutely devastated… I paid in full and I get married in 12 weeks. I can’t afford just to go and buy another dress after shelling out £1,300 on this one.”

Another said: “Please do not recommend New Beginnings Bridal in Newport Pagnell as they have my £800, will not respond, no refund, not paid the designer and I have NO wedding dress. The bank are investigating but as its been 120days chances are I will not get a penny back.”

A third wrote: “They are not their to answer the phone and do not respond to messages. Loads of brides left without dresses. I know they have shut. More worrying that my dress is not being made as she has not paid for it. The designers said they can make my dress but I have to pay again.”

The Citizen tried to contact New Beginnings, which is still advertising as open for business online on its website. But the phone went unanswered and there was no reply from the email address.

We eventually contacted the company through Facebook.

A spokesman said the claims of some of the women were “simply not true” but declined to comment further.

The company has now closed down its Facebook page.