A comparative study of the solvation and non-radiative relaxation dynamics of bridged and unbridged ionic styryl dye compounds is reported. Femto- and picosecond fluorescence transient measurements reveal solvation dynamics on a picosecond timescale of the solutes in ethanol, benzonitrile and decanol. Bridging is found to strongly affect the lifetime of the emissive state. It is shown that the presence of unbridged styryl-group single bonds allows for an effective non-radiative decay process. This decay process is suppressed by double chemical bridging.