PITTSBURG, Calif. (KRON) — With less than a week and a half to go before the big day, an East Bay woman narrowly avoided a wedding nightmare. The bride-to-be was devastated to learn that the bridal shop where her wedding dress was being stored had closed and gone out of business.

It was an off-the-rack wedding dress that caught Akila Mwongozi’s eye. A year later, she could envision herself wearing it down the aisle in San Diego, where she will exchange her wedding vows on September 1 and begin the next chapter of her life with the love of her life.

“I’ve had the dress since October last year,” said Mwongozi. “It was at the bridal shop.”

Shortly after her engagement, Mwongozi purchased the dress late last year with money she earned from three jobs at Bellisima Couture in downtown Pittsburgh, shelling out nearly $1,000 for it and several other services.

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She entrusted shop owner Brisa Bernal to keep the dress in the bridal shop until the big day while alterations were made over the following months.

Mwongzi’s last fitting took place in early July. That was the last time she saw the dress and the shop owner.

A few weeks before the wedding, the couple arranged to meet by phone to finalize the alterations, but Mwongozi said Bernal stopped returning her calls and didn’t show up for appointments. When she stopped by the store this week, it was empty.

There was nothing left, not even her dress.

“My heart sank. I think I was completely calm until that moment,” Mwongozi said.

Shortly after KRON4 met with Mwongozi and her friends rushed to find her another dress and received generous offers from the public, Bernal called back and took responsibility for leaving Mwongozi at the proverbial altar.

“I’m learning my lesson,” said Bernal, the shop owner. “It’s my fault.”

She said the lease on her store was up at the end of July and she made a spontaneous decision not to renew it, saying instead she wanted to save some money until the end of the year before opening a larger store downtown in January.

So she packed everything up and is storing her belongings at home until she moves into her new home.

“My season is over. August, September, November, December – it’s winter; quiet,” Bernal said. “So, all I have left is this dress for her and a quinceanera and my season is over.”

Bernal started her business 20 years ago in Bolivia and operates five stores there. The Pittsburg location is the only one in the United States and Bernal takes pride in keeping her customers happy.

She said she took responsibility for leaving some clients, such as Mwongozi, in the dark.

“It was my mistake because the day she came I wasn’t there,” she said. “And I didn’t call her because I lost my phone. So it’s my fault.”

“It will go on whether I have a dress or not, ha-ha,” said Mwongozi.

Fortunately, she will not have just one, but the one who, like her fiancé, caught her eye and captured her heart.

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