Brides-to-be scramble to find new dresses when New Jersey bridal shop abruptly closes

RED BANK, N.J. (WABC) -- Several brides-to-be from New Jersey are facing a nightmare after a bridal shop suddenly shut its doors, leaving them scrambling to find new dresses.

Customers showed up at the Sassy Chic boutique in Red Bank and found an eviction notice. And now countless brides are without their dresses, and out hundreds of dollars.

While planning a wedding is stressful, the part that's supposed to be most enjoyable for a bride is finding the dress.

"Things go wrong in weddings but you would never think that it would be your dress, three weeks, two weeks before your wedding and you don't have anything to wear," said bride-to-be Jeannette Franzone.

Not the situation 28 year old Franzone expected when she purchased her wedding dress from Sassy Chic last October.

"I lost my mother at a young age so to not have her there, it was a very beautiful moment when I found the dress I love, I was crying," she said.

Franzone plopped down an $851 deposit to Donna Orecchia, seen on her Facebook page posing inside her bridal store.

As the date for her wedding got closer, Franzone called in June to make sure her dress was going to be delivered on schedule.

"I kept calling and my aunt started calling and we kind of got the runaround, oh it's not in, it's being shipped by UPS, then they told us it was at a warehouse in Utah," she said.

Franzone says she was told to come in, and would be offered one of the sample dresses instead...not ideal, but it also didn't happen.

The doors to the shop are locked with a sign stating a warrant of removal has been executed now taped to the store's window.

"That's when I kind of knew I wasn't getting my dress," said Franzone.

In emails Franzone was copied on, Orecchia asked the makers of the dress, Essence of Australia, to ship the dress to directly to Franzone.

But when she contacted the manufacturer they told her "unfortunately Sassy Boutique has not paid for your gown, you will need to recoup your payment from your credit card company or bank."

Luckily Franzone was able to get another dress just 16 days before the wedding, but is out the deposit. As far as the contact number, we were put in touch with her lawyer who specializes in bankruptcy but hasn't returned our calls.

For Andrea Russell, buying her wedding dress at Sassy Chic boutique was the exact experience she had pictured.

"The owner actually made me feel very comfortable, it was a very intimate experience it was exactly what I was looking for," said Andrea Russell.

In December, Russell says she gave Orecchia a $600 deposit, as did mother-of-the bride Sharon Walsh, who visited the store with her daughter last year.

"We came back in January to put the deposit down after going to a few different stores," said Walsh.

It wasn't until days ago, when checking on the delivery of the dresses, the brides found out they had no gown, and no sign of their deposit.

"The first week of August I called twice and I left a message both times and didn't hear anything back so then I definitely thought something was up," said Russell.

"I lost $717 on my credit card," said Walsh.

We tried to call Orecchia and her attorney, but to no avail. We went to the home neighbors tell us Orecchia lives at, only to have the door slammed in our face.

For these women, they were fortunate enough to have other bridal shops help them out just in time for the weddings, but both are out hundreds of dollars and many sleepless nights worrying about the big day.

"To leave people high and dry like this right before their wedding and not even have the decency to contact their clients to say hey something's up, here's what you need to do to get your dress, to not even hear from them it was very disheartening that a business owner could do this," said Russell.