A third Australian bridal shop has collapsed in as many weeks, impacting brides just months out from their weddings.

Last week, brides started to grow alarmed when the social media pages and the website of Brisbane-based bridal shop Stunning Wedding Dress disappeared.

One person who did not want to be named even sent a relative to visit the store’s location in Paddington which deepened their concerns.

“The store had been completely gutted, there was a couch and empty racks, but no dresses,” they told news.com.au.

On Friday, their worst fears were confirmed.

Stunning Wedding Dress sent an email to customers confirming that the shop had shut down for good, citing “circumstances beyond our control”.

Stunning Wedding Dress assured customers there was no need to “panic” as all dresses had been completed and would be delivered to them in due course.

“You don’t need to panic, your wedding dress has now been completed and will be delivered direct to your home address or wherever you designate,” the email read.

“We thank you for your support and looking forward to seeing photos of you in your Stunning Wedding Dress”.

However, news.com.au understands some brides have received incomplete orders.

The Brisbane-based firm was operated under a sole trader registration by Oleksandra ‘Sasha’ Manteit who did not respond to requests for comment.

Her sole trader licence has been registered since 2018.

As Stunning Wedding Dress is a sole trader business and not a proprietary limited company, that means any outstanding debts will have to be settled personally by Ms Manteit.

It comes as last month, two other bridal shops collapsed just days apart, with one of them plunging nearly 100 weddings into jeopardy.

Have you been impacted? Get in touch | alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au

At the end of June, The Bridal Atelier collapsed into liquidation, leading to its Sydney and Melbourne stores shutting down.

It’s understood 99 weddings have been impacted by the company’s closure, leaving some brides out of pocket thousands of dollars.

Emma*, for instance, paid $5600, but this money was never passed onto the design company, meaning she paid all that money for nothing.

The designer has agreed to provide her with the gown for $3000, which is the absolute minimum they can do it for in order for them to break even. Emma has started a GoFundMe to crowd fund the final price of her dress.

“I don’t always wear dresses, I’m quite fussy. This was the only dress that I fell in love with,” she previously told news.com.au.

Just two days later Adelaide boutique Bridal Fusion by Mascia also closed permanently with its owner filing for bankruptcy.

The owner, the eponymous Mascia Paradiso, told news.com.au at the time she just “couldn’t hang on” anymore.

“Due to the fact of Covid and a marriage breakdown as well as storms and a lot of outside issues, and also personal stress and problems, I decided to declare bankruptcy,” Ms Paradiso, 50, told news.com.au.

“Last November I got hit by a storm, (the store) got flooded, I couldn’t open for weeks on end, right before Christmas. I lost thousands and thousands of dollars,” she explained.

And earlier this year, another wedding business, Eden and Bell, which sold floral arrangements to brides and grooms, also collapsed. The Sydney based business owed $530,000 to 85 creditors, including to a bride and groom owed $2500.

The sad news about Stunning Wedding Dress came just hours after news.com.au lifted the lid on the entire wedding industry which is suffering immensely amid the cost of living crisis.

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Helen Manuell, owner of the eponymous Helen Manuell Bridal Couture, said that demand for her intricate handmade wedding dresses had dried up so drastically that she is learning a new profession after 25 years in the industry.

“It was pretty obvious, as soon as the RBA starts mucking around with the interest rates, the first thing that’s going to go is the luxury end,” Ms Manuell told news.com.au.

“Wedding dresses are a luxury. Couture — hand made wedding dresses like the ones I make — are beyond a luxury.”

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