"We were gonna use the gazebo at the hotel and then we were going to use the ballroom right next to the gazebo," told bride-to-be Karen Grable to Seven On Your Side's Tappy Phillips.
Karen and her family had been making regular payments to the hotel, totaling $2050 so far.
"My sister and my mother were going to make a payment," said the frustrated fiance. "And that's when they were told, the Crowne Plaza (JFK) was going out of business."
Karen was afraid she'd lose her deposit or worse. "I might have to postpone (the wedding)."
So we went to the hotel.
Tappy hunted down the hotel manager, "We need to talk to you about a deposit on a wedding that needs to be returned. You're closing, right?"
The manager told us he'd been on the job less than 2 days. He said the hotel wasn't closing, but when he got there, it was in disarray.
He says he had been left with a mess; the hotel restaurant closed, and the office piled with loose files. He couldn't even get into the computer to check Karen's account.
"I could not get in, 'cause, you know, they ask for a password. And I don't know the password," said Senjay Patel, the hotel manager.
We called the corporate office who apologized and promised a full refund by mail. But that check never arrived. Finally, that same manager we met came through.
"We got the two thousand and fifty dollars back," said the relieved bride.
Karen got the entire deposit refunded. And has started planning a wedding at a different spot.
In Prospect Park, Tappy Phillips Channel Seven Eyewitness News.
----
Story by: Tappy Phillips
Produced by: Steve Livingstone