Two thousand couples who have wedding lists with the online gift service Wrapit face losing £5million of presents after the company was put into administration.

Newlyweds face the difficult task of contacting an estimated 100,000 guests to tell them to try to reclaim their money for presents now unlikely to grace the couples’ marital homes.

Guests who used a credit card to buy gifts costing more than £100 should have little difficulty getting their money back. However, at least 20,000 people who are thought to have used debit cards have been told that their best hope will be to add their names to the company’s long list of creditors.

Angry brides, some in their wedding dresses, plan a protest march tomorrow to the headquarters of the HSBC bank, which the company blamed for its collapse.

Until yesterday, Wrapit boasted of offering the “ultimate wedding list service”. It even advised betrothed couples on its website that “there is one time in your life when you just have to grit your teeth and get down to some serious receiving”.

As news spread of the company’s demise yesterday afternoon, scores of disgruntled newlyweds complained on internet forums.

“God I feel so embarrassed about this,” one bride declared.

The online firm, which handles around 2,500 to 3,500 wedding lists a year – each worth on average £2,800 - appointed administrators after spending the past few months struggling to refinance.

The eight-year-old company blamed HSBC bank for withholding its credit and debit card income, leaving it with a cash crisis.

In an e-mail to customers, Peter Gelardi, Wrapit’s managing director, said that it would cost HSBC about £4 million to refund the 80 per cent of purchases made with a credit card or Visa debit card.

He claimed that the cost of fulfilling the orders was £1 million less than the refund charge, but said that the bank had refused to cooperate.

“HSBC now have it within their power to minimise the pain caused to 2,000 couples (and, probably, 100,000 of their guests) and ensure that no Wrapit customer loses any money,” he said. “As things stand, they will not take it.”

Mr Gelardi told The Times: “It is a terribly sad situation and I really feel bad for all the couples who have had the disruption and embarrassment at this time.

“If HSBC were able to take a more pragmatic view, and use this money to fulfill these deliveries, then all the couples and their guests would be happy. But sadly we are not a big enough company to make them inclined to change the rules. It’s a ridiculous situation.”

The news came on the same day HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, reported half-year profits of £5.1 billion - nearly £27 million a day. Its chairman insisted the group was facing the “most difficult financial markets for several decades”. Profits were 28 per cent below the same period last year An HSBC spokesman said: “We did what we could to help Wrapit and it certainly and quite obviously isn’t in our interests for it to go into administration. Faced with its worsening financial situation, we had no other choice.”

The Trading Standards Institute has advised couples and customers to formally register as a creditor of the company as quickly as possible by writing to administrators KPMG. Customers were also urged not to descend upon the company warehouse in West London, or any of its 15 showrooms across the UK, which have now closed with a loss of 100 staff. KPMG said customers who believe they may be owed money should call 0844 770 1301.