Montgomery County Banquet Hall Closes Weeks Before Couple's Wedding
By Jan Carabeo
NORRISTOWN, Pa., (CBS) -- Hearing that the venue for your wedding is closing unexpectedly just weeks before the big day is bad enough.
But now frustrated customers are wondering when or if they'll ever get their money back.
The sign outside the Four Seasons Banquet Hall in Norristown says "sorry, we're closed."
Well, for these couples, sorry doesn't cut it.
"I've known her since she was 11," Patrick said.
It's a day a lifetime in the making for Tracey and Patrick.
"This is her day," Patrick said.
A wedding day that Tracey has been planning for two years after paying a $750 deposit for a wedding at the Four Seasons Banquet Hall.
But all of this planning fell to pieces last week when she got a call from General Manager Victor Morris saying he was closed.
"I was bawling my eyes out acting like someone died. That's how upset I was," bride-to-be Tracey Dudlik said.
That's because Tracey's wedding is this weekend, leaving the couple less than 14 days to find a place that could hold a ceremony and reception for 130 people.
"Everything was going to be there," she said.
Today, with remnants of happier days still visible inside, outside a notice detailing a suit between the landlord Rudolph Digiacomo and tenant Morris Catering.
The notice indicates a sheriff's sale. The Montgomery County Sheriff's office says the catering company owes close to $37,000.
"It's beyond worst nightmare. You never think this would be happening to you until it happens to you," Tracey said.
Tracey and Patrick want answers, but they've been hard to come by.
The landlord's family says Digiacomo is out of town until Thursday and no one can speak on his behalf.
And Morris didn't return our calls.
Fortunately the couple found another venue last minute.
"I'm frustrated until I get that deposit. If I ever do," Tracey said.
Tracey says she was told she'd get her deposit returned in two weeks. She still hasn't gotten it.
She say she needs that money, especially since the couple had to pay $1,000 for their new spot.
CBS 3 is told local caterers have stepped in to help though.
Many are honoring the discounts these couples got through the Four Seasons.
And one company tells CBS 3 it's squeezing in a dozen couples who were left in this same jam.
