Could Colorado’s Biggest Bridal Shop Be Shutting Down for Good?

If you've ever planned a wedding, odds are at some point you've looked into bridal gown's at the nation's largest bridal gown retailer, even if just for inspiration. They're probably on your wedding's Pinterest board somewhere.

After all, according to Wikipedia, David's Bridal dresses one in four American brides. Their revenue in 2022 surpassed $1.3b - that's a B for "billion" - a peak point in the company's history.

And yet, news comes this week from KDVR in Denver that in the coming months, they're set to layoff over 9,200 of their 12,000 employees nationally and that the company will be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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They have six locations in Colorado and have long been a staple in the planning of weddings across the Rocky Mountain Front Range for decades, after expanding from a simple neighborhood bridal shop that opened in Fort Lauderdale in 1950.

Part of the Chapter 11 and layoff process includes notifying the public, required by the US Department of Labor's federal "Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act" - or WARN Act - that something not so good may be coming down the road.

In the case of David's Bridal, they filed notice with the State of Colorado, among others, that they are "in the process of evaluating (their) strategic options, including a sale as a going concern, a sale of certain assets and intellectual property, or a potential wind-down of some or all of the business and a resulting limited or Company-wide reduction in force and job elimination of employees within the State."

In other words, things aren't looking too good right now. It's certainly possible that the stores will be closing. It's also possible they'll emerge from bankruptcy in tact, as they have before. As of now, all we know for sure is layoffs and bankruptcy are imminent and that thousands of workers and brides will certainly be affected.