A DEVASTATED bride-to-be is facing a race against time to restore her wedding dress to its former glory after it was damaged, just over a week before her big day.

Yvonne Hollings, 36, had been storing the £400 gown in her wardrobe and wanted it spruced up ready for her marriage to fiance Tony Nevins on Saturday, September 11.

The couple of Lynwood Avenue, Darwen, are holding the ceremony and reception at Whitehall Hotel and Country Club, Darwen.

She took the dress to Abbey Clean of Whalley whose advert in Yellow Pages stated 'specialist cleaners of wedding gowns.'

Staff cut off some of the beads and said a test would be done before any process was attempted. But when she went to pick up her dress she discovered the detailed beading on the bodice and seams had disintegrated.

Yvonne's mum, Maria Hollings, of Vicarage Drive, Darwen, said: "Yvonne is heartbroken. You want everything to be perfect on your wedding day.

"Because she was assured the beads would be tested she never imagined anything could go wrong. What makes it worse is they have accepted no responsibility and actually charged her £45 for what they had done, which was melt all the beautiful beads. "It just over a week to the wedding and we don't know what to do. Its such a special day and we don't want this to spoil it.

"Ideally we'd like them to arrange for repairs and give a refund on the cleaning. I'm not a trouble-maker but it's the least they can do."

Abbey Clean, of Whalley, said the original dressmakers had labelled the garment 'dry-clean only' but used the wrong type of beading.

Ken Readfern, owner of the business, said the dry clean only label meant the dress should have been able to withstand normal dry cleaning according to British standards.

He added: "We have a computer-controlled machine which has a much milder programme than the standard process.

"The beading on the dress could not stand even this milder process.

"We carried out a precautionary check which indicated low risk but our check is not foolproof and not a substitute for the dress maker specifying the correct type of beading."

Mr Readfern said he was willing to pay for the dress to be independenly examined by experts.

He said: "In our view, the customer has an excellent claim against the garment supplier for faulty merchandise."

His wife Elaine said she had offered to have the dress repaired by her own tailoress with new beading but Miss Hollings had refused.

Chief trading standards officer Jim Potts of Lancashire County Council said he would be happy to look into the case.

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