Multiple brides left in limbo after Braddon florist suddenly closes

A florist in Braddon has seemingly vanished, leaving many brides-to-be scrambling to source bouquets mere hours before their big days.

Henry Waldren and his fiancée paid $5000 to Braddon Flowers before Christmas for bouquets for their wedding, but that was before the owner stuck a ‘Sorry, we are closed’ sticker to the front door of the Lonsdale Street business.

“She has closed her Instagram account, her Facebook, her website, switched off her business phone and is not responding to any emails,” Mr Waldren told Region.

“The owner has given no indication of whether she will refund anyone and has gone completely radio silent.”

The couple aren’t the only ones.

“There are now multiple brides posting about being left high and dry in a group named Canberra Weddings on Facebook,” he said.

One of these, Queanbeyan bride Angel Cabuya, went to pick up bouquets from Braddon Flowers for her wedding on 20 December only to also find the closed sign on the door and no one on the end of the shop phone.

“My wedding is this afternoon and I urgently need help finding a florist who can make a bouquet for me ASAP,” she wrote to the Canberra Notice Board Group on Facebook.

In the end, nearby florist Moxom and Whitney came to the rescue just in time with “a beautiful act of kindness that I’ll never forget”. They provided “the most stunning bouquet” for Ms Cabuya and a boutonniere for her partner, both free of charge.

“Their kindness brought me to tears, and I cannot thank them enough for being such a blessing on our wedding day,” Ms Cabuya said in a subsequent post.

In the week before Christmas, Braddon Flowers posted a statement to its Instagram page that read, “With a heavy heart … Braddon Flowers will be closing for the foreseeable future”.

“With some personal and psychological hurdles along with some poor decisions, I find myself in a situation of needing to choose me or my business,” the post read.

“At this point, it feels like the end of the world, but ultimately, I know it’s the right thing for me.”

The owner, Lauren King, then assured her followers she was “slowly working through emails and will be in contact with details about booked events”.

Sure enough, another customer who recently expressed to the Canberra Notice Board Group how he and his partner had been left without flowers the day before their wedding, later updated his post to say he had spoken with the florist and “she has confirmed the booking is still on”.

But others, like Mr Waldren, have still yet to hear anything.

“The owner of Braddon Flowers has severely hurt people both from a financial standpoint and from a point of significant stress due to people needing flowers for their weddings and being left without any communication,” he told Region this week.

Lou Moxom, founder of Moxom and Whitney – also on Lonsdale Street in Braddon – said businesses in the area are “really suffering” at the moment.

“It’s been hell,” she said.

“Some days we’ll have two to three customers through the doors, some days none.”

She largely blamed COVID for this, which has left businesses in the area with lingering debt, but also added that the ACT Government’s recent upgrades to the streetscape in Braddon haven’t helped.

“Rather than take out parking, they should have put more in. The idea was that people would park at the Canberra Centre and walk to Braddon, but we both know that on a 38-degree day, no one’s going to do that … It wasn’t thought out well, and a lot of us were ignored with our concerns.”

Flowers are also a particularly tough industry.

“There’s a thing we say in floristry about how you’re only as good as your worst bouquet – that’s how people judge you.”

Ms Moxom founded the business in 2012 after her husband lost a battle with cancer.

“Before he passed away, he used to say, ‘There’s no dress rehearsal in life, you don’t get a second chance’, and I’d always loved flowers and his courage gave me the courage to do it,” she said.

“But it’s a competitive, hard industry. And with the rising costs of living, people are paying more for tomatoes and lettuce, and flowers are no different. We’re trying as hard as we can to seek out local growers and cheap flowers, but it’s getting harder every week.

“I don’t know any business owner on this street who isn’t literally living week to week. It’s frightening, and I feel for Lauren – I really do.”

Region made attempts to contact Braddon Flowers and Lauren King.