Romsey Bridal Boutique, owned by Tara Stuart, 53, from Bournemouth, was emailed that her shop had been vandalised on Saturday.
Recently awarded Bridal Retailer of the Year for the South Central region by The Wedding Industry Awards, the shop had two windows broken and glass, as well as ornaments, strewn across the premises.
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Romsey Bridal Boutique (Image: Tara Stuart) Tara said: “I don’t really know what happened [but] whatever happened, it had been done with some force – the glass was at the back of the shop.
“I was expecting to find a brick or something. My award [Bridal Retailer of the Year for the South Central region] was punched to the back of the shop. There was a lot of mess.”
Before Tara and her husband, Peter Stuart, could board up the Latimer Street shop, it was wreaked by the weekend’s terrible weather.
The businesswoman announced the news in a Facebook post on Sunday. She wrote: “Today the love for my home town wavered when I was contacted early this morning to let me know my beautiful boutique had been vandalised.
“It was heartbreaking to see the mindless damage to my business that I have worked so hard to build.”
Tara, however, praised Romsey’s community for helping to notify her and for the offers of help – one passerby even rang the police from the nearby Waitrose.
Tara said: “One of the things I am proud of as a Romsonian is how the community pulled together. I feel that it showed how people, in general, are angered by mindless vandalism.”
The responses to the Facebook post support her remarks on Romsey’s community. One user wrote: “So sorry to see this Tara! We were in Romsey this weekend and passed by your gorgeous boutique yesterday – lovely to see it buzzing with bridal appointments.
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“What a horrible thing to experience, especially at the start of a New Year, too. You’ve got this though, onwards and upwards.”
A professional wedding dress cleaning business wrote: “2025 is going to be a challenge anyway without this type of mindless damage. Please, if any of the dresses require attention, we would welcome doing this for you.”
The Advertiser asked Tara if she had contacted the police. She said she had but the police informed her it would be difficult to help due to a lack of information.
She said: “I get it, I’m assuming it was more than likely drunken people walking past and taking out their rage on my windows and I understand, if they have no information, what can they do?
“I’ve never had to contact the police before, but it would have been nice if they sent something around for a look.”
Tara continued: “But it will take more than this to get me down – I will bounce back.”
The police said: “We received a report of criminal damage to a window at the location specified. This is reported to have occurred overnight, between Saturday 4 January and Sunday 5 January.
“As part of our enquiries into the circumstances surrounding the incident, any witnesses are asked to call 101 and quote incident number 44250005352.
The police continued: “We’d be keen to hear from anyone who has any footage of the incident, including dash cam, doorbell camera or any other CCTV.”