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NYC Bridal Firm Settles With Jilted Customers

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Jul 20, 2009 11:54 pm US/Eastern

NYC Bridal Firm Settles With Jilted Customers

Attorney General Cuomo Forces Queens Bridal Center To Fork Over $250,000 Worth Of Wedding Day Memories

By KATHRYN BROWN, CBS 2 HD News
MINEOLA (CBS) ― A beautiful wedding -- with nothing to show for it.

That's what happened to hundreds of newlyweds who were ripped off by a Queens-based bridal photographer.

Now they're getting some of their money back. But as CBS 2 HD found out, there are some things money can't buy.

Debbie Ervolino's perfect wedding day came crashing around her when the company she hired to photograph and videotape her ceremony suddenly went bankrupt, taking off with her money and leaving the newlywed couple with only a CD of proofs and hours of unedited videotape.

"I was absolutely hysterical. I went crying to my mother-in-law. I had my mother on the phone crying hysterical calling my husband. I didn't know what to do," Ervolino said.

Ervolino is just one of nearly 600 people left high and dry when the Queens Bridal Center suddenly shut its doors in 2007.

She picked them because they seemed reliable -- with a 40-year history of business.

And everything seemed fine until she and her husband, Matt, returned from their honeymoon and went to pick up their proofs.

They were told to bring the final balance -- around $600 -- in cash.

"The next week I called to tell them which pictures I took and ... never got an answer," Ervolino said. "As far as I know the day I went there with my money that was their last day of business."

After logging hundreds of complaints from panicked customers -- the New York State attorney general's office launched an investigation.

Now -- nearly two years later -- Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is forcing the defunct company's owner to pay back $250,000 to ripped off customers.

Ervolino still doesn't know how much of her money she'll see, but considers herself one of the lucky ones.

"I got my pictures. I didn't get everything I paid for. I didn't get all the services, but I have all my pictures. I have something to remember that day by," she said.

CBS 2 HD tried to contact the Queens Bridal Center, but our phone calls and e-mails were not returned.

Many other customers were not as lucky as Ervolino. Some were left with no record of their cherished day.

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