Michiana brides/families/friends are left in limbo as Brides A La Mode did not reopen on the announced date of February 15th! It’s been  a stressful two plus weeks for the customers of Brides A La Mode since the doors were locked on January 31 with a sign saying “Closed for Inventory/Remodeling”. After WNDU broke the news and received a statement that said the wedding gown store would be reopening on February 15th the sign changed to the one pictured to the left, stating the reopening date. Then Saturday the 11th the store reopened for 2 hours, but as many customers on the Brides A La Mode Facebook page testified, were not contacted by email, phone and there were no announcements on the Facebook page announcing the 2 hour opening.

One bride who had noticed the sign on the door mentioning Saturday named Kelsey did get a refund on Saturday and posted this on the BAM Facebook page: when I went to BAM to cancel my bridal gown order and obtain a refund I was told by Kathy herself in front of my maid of honor that the new owner took over yesterday…

Another bride named Dana who also went into the store on Saturday, posted to the Facebook page this: She (Kathy Strukel) said that there would be a new manager in place this week… 

Two different people, two different excuses given to. One claiming there was new ownership of the wedding gown shop and another excuse saying there was going to be a new manager. Which is true or if there is another reason entirely we can not say.

Wednesday the 15th came and went and the store did not open. On Thursday the 16th the sign pictured here disappeared and all that remains is the closed sign. After the 15th passed numerous brides went on the Facebook page, demanding to know what is going on, how to get a refund and just asking what they should do. No announcements were made and no answers from the owner Kathy Strukel were forth coming.

What does this mean if you are a customer, waiting on an order to come in? It means you need to start taking steps to protect yourself! In our opinion, at this point Brides A La Mode can be written off as history. We were willing to give the owner the benefit of the doubt, somewhat up to the 15th, but with the date having come and gone with no announcement even this is not a owner to trust.

So the first thing you need to do as a customer is start shopping for a gown again, or whatever product it was that you had on order. Below we will list a couple of the wedding gown shops in Michiana that we trust and who have a history in the market. Next if you paid for your purchase with a credit card you are fairly safe and should be able to get a charge back to your card issued. Many credit card companies allow you to protest a charge from 6 months to a year after purchase. Even if you are beyond that time you should be still be able to protest if you have not taken possession of your merchandise!

Did you pay by cash or check? If yes, your situation is far more difficult. But most likely you won’t get an answer back so your alternative is small claims court. But depending on the amount of money involved it may cost more to pursue in court than just writing it off to lesson learned. And even being rewarded an amount of money in court does not mean the defendant will pay it to you.

Was your gown in and you were storing it at BAM until needed? If you haven’t heard from Kathy Strukel and your attempts to contact her have resulted in nothing, there is the option of contacting the police. Several years ago a Michiana photographer vanished on his clients and after several complaints to the police by customers, the police opened his office and carted off all the negatives and prints they could find to distribute to the rightful customers.

If the original sign was right and Kathy Strukel’s intent wasn’t to go out of business, we don’t know of any worse way she could have handled the situation than this. From the start she showed a complete lack of understanding of her market and her customers. And an inability to handle a crisis.