Your Bankrupt Wedding Venue
Jillian emailed the BAB team this week with a dilemma: Montefiori, her wedding venue outside of Chicago IL, sent her a letter two weeks ago, stating that they were closing as of December 1st, and cancelling all their scheduled 2012 events. Montefiori is currently in foreclosure, having defaulted on a $3 million mortgage. Their phones are disconnected, and the website is gone. And according to news reports, that leaves about 30 (!) couples scrambling to look for alternatives. Jillian had paid a deposit of $5,000, but told me today that she knows of other brides who had lost as much as $14,000.
Brides stood up by facility’s closing
Can you imagine? On second thought, don’t.
This is the third instance this year that I’ve heard of vendors going bankrupt, including a very popular caterer here in Los Angeles. Operating costs have eaten up their client’s deposits, so most are left in the lurch. And it’s so frustrating, because there just isn’t that much you can do. Bankruptcy basically means that you have to stand in life after all their other creditors, and the biggest fishes get paid first. And it’s not like you can tell if a business is going out of business. Several of Montefiori’s brides had asked them what their status was, based on what was going on in the local wedding industry, and were reassured that they would still be around. What else would they tell you?
Gah, the UGH just won’t quit! The only way I can think of to protect yourself in this case is to purchase event insurance, either through your home owner or apartment rental insurance or through companies like Wedsafe.com. A couple hundred dollars on a policy can get you your money back if this happens to you. Many venues are even requiring that you have it upfront, anyway, so that’s extra protection for both parties.
And, in the meantime, you have to find another venue in your budget, given the money that you’ve already spent. Give yourself a couple of days to wallow – TWO – and then take a deep breath and think about your options. I always say that the last vendor you meet with isn’t the only choice you have, and this is your chance to prove me right.
Seriously, DEEP BREATH. If you’ve already secured a block of rooms, see if that hotel has ballroom space available, too. Take another look at the other venues you may have rejected. Search for city and state owned facilities that are usually much less expensive, like a local park, museum, or recreation center that you can jazz up. Figure out ways to downsize other wedding expenses (see my post on wedding budget tetris). You can do this. It sucks, but you can do this.
One of Montefiori’s brides also started a blog where other couples could log in their complaints. Shining a light on the situation has produced some action, so see what you can do to get the word out, too. Other local wedding venues have gone on the site to offer their services, and the blog set off a slew of newspaper and television reports. So many, in fact, that Montefiori’s owners finally contacted brides this to let them know that they will be receiving their refunds this week. Jillian hasn’t gotten hers yet, but she’s hopeful that Montefiori will stick to their word this time. Unfortunately, that’s all that she can do.
Have any of you been caught in this situation? What advice can you offer about getting your money back or starting the vendor search over? Share in the comments below.
What a horrible nightmare! My heart really goes out to anyone who finds themselves in this situation.
If the deposit was paid with a credit card, some banks have "shitty vendor protection" (my term, not the bank's) that will cover you if a vendor flakes and runs off with your deposit. I hear about it most often with wedding dress shops but I'm sure this applies to venues as well. If the deposit was made with a credit card, it is worth making a call to the bank to see what their "good faith" protection policy is, meaning that you as the customer made the deposit to the vendor in good faith, thinking that they would provide a service but they didn't come through.
Unfortunately this happens, especially in this economy. If you paid by credit card, you may have some recourse thru your credit card company. We've been able to recoop funds for our clients when the airline they've been booked on went bankrupt.
Best of luck to you!
As soon as we were engaged, my fiance and I knew where we wanted to get married: the Orpheum Lofts in downtown Phoenix. You get married on the rooftop, and you have the whole top floor (the penthouse suite) for your reception. It was the easiest decision. Only thing is, they went bankrupt a few weeks after we got engaged. We were devastated. It took us months of searching to find the right place, and in the end we chose the Phoenix Art Museum.
Luckily we didn't lose any money, just time and lost sleep. And in the end I'm getting married to the man I love at a gorgeous place.
This is one of those "this isn't happening" moments. the best thing to do is move quickly to find another venue and start looking at cutting expenses in other ways. I feel bad for the couples that have to go through this, this is extra stress on top of everything else.
Situations such as this are just awful and no bride or groom needs the additional stress!
Sadly in the current economic climate, vendors going out of business is an all too common occurrence. In fact, here in the UK suppliers going bankrupt make up 4 of the top 10 claims on wedding insurance policies – http://www.compareweddinginsurance.org.uk/article….
Whilst event/wedding insurance won't stop these things from happening, at least they can pick up the pieces from a financial point of view so you won't be left out of pocket.
Ted Connolly is a lawyer in the Boston office of a large, international law firm, where he concentrates his legal practice in bankruptcy and finance law.