Wedding retailer Brideside has shut down, vanquished by a pandemic that shrank celebrations, drove postponements and turned “I do” into “we can’t.”
"With two-thirds of weddings cancelled in 2020 and an uncertain year ahead, our chapter has come to an end," said co-founder and CEO Nicole Staple in an e-mailed statement, Retail Dive reported.
The company, launched by Staple and Sonali Lamba in Chicago in 2014 as a bridal concierge service, sold wedding apparel online and at retail locations in Chicago, New York, Charlotte and Boston.
The company closed a $7 million funding round in December 2019, bringing its total equity funding raised to more than $13 million.
Customers were directed in the email to contact dress designers with questions about past or upcoming orders. Visitors to the Brideside website are greeted with an apology: “Brideside is not taking orders at this time.”
Although 2020 has been a devastating year for the industry — The Wedding Report estimates a drop by half from 2.13 million ceremonies in 2019 to 1.11 million this yeart — the wedding industry already faced challenges before the onset of Covid-19, including a plummeting marriage rate in the United States that dropped from 9.8 marriages per 1,000 people in 1990 to 6.5 in 2018.
In early 2018, industry giant David’s Bridal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, exiting after two just months with a new strategy including lower prices on best-selling dress styles and extending its assortment of sizes for brides to try on.
David’s secured new capital and rolled out a suite of online services including virtual appointments when the pandemic hit.
In 2017, bridal retailer Alfred Angelo closed suddenly, leaving orders unfilled and some brides unable to pick up their dresses.
Gap exited the special occasion wear market in 2018, selling Weddington Way to Adrianna Papell, who re-launched it as a website. J.Crew shut down its bridal business in 2016.
The U.S wedding gown and bridesmaid dress market was valued at $2.86 billion in 2017 and was forecast to reach about $3.23 billion by 2021, per Statista.
