Woman Says She Had to Fight to Get Wedding Dress Back After Bed Bath & Beyond Filed Bankruptcy (Exclusive)

Jesse Moltenbrey tells PEOPLE that she's still waiting to get back her wedding dress after sending it off to Bed Bath & Beyond's Preservation Service

A Bedford, New Hampshire, woman says she is still waiting to get her wedding dress back in the wake of Bed Bath & Beyond's recent bankruptcy filing.

Last month, Jesse Moltenbrey purchased a wedding gown preservation kit from the retailer, which is described on Bed Bath & Beyond's website as an easy option "to have your gown cleaned and preserved after your wedding."

Moltenbrey tells PEOPLE she followed the instructions and shipped off her dress to Memories Wedding Gown Preservation, a Houston-based company and thought nothing of it until she received an alarming message on March 24. At that time, she was informed that the company was withholding all dresses as of March 11 due to Bed Bath & Beyond owing more than $42,000 in debts.

"I read it and I just felt kind of sick and helpless for a little while," she says. "I'm thinking, how am I supposed to get a bankrupt company to pay a debt? I went through their online chat, which was six hours of waiting, but of course they were like, 'You shouldn't have been dragged into this and you need to insist that they give you your dress back.' I just felt helpless for a little while."

Moltenbrey adds that she had no immediate plans for the preserved dress, but with a second baby on the way (she's already mom to her 2-year-old daughter), she needed to move the gown to the basement to make room for the baby.

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"I had to clear out that closet, and I was afraid that something could happen to it," she says. "And it's a very unique dress. It's a black wedding dress. My kids probably won't want to wear it. I mean, who knows, but I just figured it, it's special to me. I will hold onto it, and if one of them wants to do something with it in the future, then that's up to them. I wanted it to at least have that option. And it's just the principle too. It's my property and they don't have any right to hold it."

At that point, Moltenbrey set out to get back her gown.

"In my initial email, I was like, 'Please, please, please just send me back my dress.' Just begging them to just return it. I don't care if the service was done. I just want my dress back," she explains.

"Then after a few hours of reflecting, taking a few deep breaths, I was like, all right, 'We're going to make a TikTok, we'll contact the news. We're going to do everything we can.'"

She eventually made contact with Memories and the company provided her with a tracking number for the dress "a few days ago," though she says there's been no update since.

"I have received a tracking number, but there's no movement on it. It says the label has been created, but it hasn't shipped out yet."

A representative from Memories Gown Preservation told PEOPLE on Friday in an emailed statement that Moltenbrey's gown has been returned.

"We informed Bed Bath & Bed Bath brides beginning March 11, 2023 (before they filed for bankruptcy) that we would no longer be processing their gowns. At that time Bed Bath had outstanding invoices that date back to March of 2022. Memories is a small business and could no longer afford to 'clean, preserve, box, & ship gowns' without payment."

The statement continues:

"We are working with Bed Bath brides on a case by case basis, Not holding gowns hostage, and are giving them two options to return their gown: 1) Unprocessed - $30 for shipping/handling. 2) Cleaned & preserved at Bed Baths very low wholesale price. This is a bad situation all around. In a perfect world we could stop Bed Bath gowns from shipping to us, but that's not how the UPS Labels work. Both Memories Gown Preservation and Bed Bath brides are owed a major apology by Bed Bath & Beyond and their management."

PEOPLE reached out to Bed Bath & Beyond, but a representative declined to comment on the legal matter.

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