12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Churches, banquet halls, caterers and wedding coordinators across North Texas offered their assistance – some of it on the house – after learning of the nearly two dozen couples left in the lurch by a banquet hall that took tens of thousands of their dollars, then abruptly shut down.
"Three people called me this morning and said they'd like to help," said May Vong, whose plans to get married Oct. 10 at the Arts District Banquet Facility in the Trammell Crow Center fell apart.
Vong said she and her fiancée lost about $8,000. Twenty other couples sank more than $80,000 into the bankrupt business before it collapsed Aug. 22 and shuttered last week.
Sam Jackson was among those who saw the story in Tuesday's Dallas Morning News and wanted to help. He said he would offer affected couples a cut rate at Na'Kayshions, the 5-acre wedding event center he and his wife own in Cedar Hill. Last weekend, TLC filmed a segment there for its fall show Four Weddings, he said.
"Being in this business, it's tough to see something like this," he said.
Wilshire Baptist Church and Preston Road Church of Christ were among those offering their facilities for free, depending on space availability.
"I am very sorry to hear about their loss and wanted to see if we could be a part of the solution," said W. Scott Sager, senior minister at Preston Road Church of Christ.
The Orosa family has not commented publicly on the uproar. They own the parent company, CPO International Inc., which owned the banquet hall and the adjoining Aija restaurant.
The restaurant closed when the family's company filed for bankruptcy in mid-July. Their attorney said they tried to keep the banquet hall afloat so that they could continue to put on weddings and receptions at least through the end of the year. But they were $42,000 behind in rent and other charges to the landlord, forcing the closure.
"They are deeply regretful that they could not do these weddings," Kevin Wiley Jr. said Tuesday on behalf of the family. "They empathize with the brides and their situations. Honestly, they're hurt by all this."
Wiley, who earlier said the facility stopped booking weddings in January, on Tuesday acknowledged brides' claims that his clients continued to book new events through May.
He responded to allegations by one bride that the banquet hall rushed to collect a final $4,000 payment from her father's credit card two weeks before it was due in order to beat the court-ordered shutdown date of Aug. 22.
Wiley said that his clients did not know they were going to be shut down when they charged that family's credit card on Aug. 18 for that final payment on the Sept. 18 wedding.
Asked when his clients knew they would be closed, Wiley said it was when the judge issued the order Aug. 20.
Wiley said that his clients had a right to charge the final installment on any wedding 30 days before the event, and routinely did so. "The bottom line is, the payment was taken out pursuant to the contract. It wasn't taken under any other premises."
The bankruptcy court has scheduled a meeting of creditors in the case at 3:50 p.m. Sept. 28 on the fifth floor of the Earle Cabell Federal Courthouse, 1100 Commerce St. The hearing is public.
"Oh, I will be there," Vong said. She said she wants to talk "face to face" with Eduardo Orosa, president of the banquet hall's parent company. "I want to ask him how he can get away with this."
She still doesn't know where she will be married next month. But she said she is reconsidering her fiancé's original vision for their most special day: "He wanted hot dogs in the backyard."
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