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Make New York Post a Preferred Source It went from a fairy tale to a fiasco.
Numerous brides who had booked six-figure weddings at New York City’s legendary — and ultra-luxury — Plaza Hotel have been left scrambling to find altar -nate venues after the bombshell announcement that it was closing in January for at least four years.
Christine Carney, whose costly May 1 wedding had been booked almost a year in advance, only learned that her dream day was dashed when a friend texted her about the closure.
The 38-year-old Chicago-based bride, who had wanted to tie the knot at the opulent hotel since childhood, told The Post she spent seven agonizing minutes on hold with the hotel’s concierge — before being told that her 200-guest wedding was suddenly without a venue.
To make matters worse, she told The Post, “We haven’t yet had anyone from the plaza reach out to tell us what next steps are and what happens with our money.
The photographer, band, flowers, and rentals have all been secured with deposits, while her rehearsal dinner and welcome party are still up in the air.
“Everything for spring books up so quickly we would have to hope they’re willing to refund us so we can find a replacement, or we’d have to eat the deposit and find a replacement anyway,” she groaned.
“I’m definitely frustrated and disappointed that this happened, and I’m anxious to figure out what the next steps will be.”
And with save-the-dates already sent, downsizing isn’t an option.
The question is just where… and when. And that part is sending high-end event planners into a frenzy.
For Alyssa Pettinato, owner of Alinato Events and Carney’s wedding planner, the sudden shutdown means planning the entire extravagant affair all over again — for free.
“Technically, we are getting penalized as planners,” Pettinato told The Post. “Am I allowed to ask them for payment for this?”
The planner said the wedding band has already been difficult about a possible date change, creating yet another expensive headache.
And the predicament isn’t entirely unheard of: Pettinato said this is the third wedding she’s had to replan this year because of venue-related disruptions.
But the veteran event planner says the announcement feels out of left field and, for a place as prestigious as the Plaza , the lack of communication has been particularly shocking.
Pettinato said she was still working with hotel employees on room-block contracts when news of the closure broke — and believes staff members were completely unaware.
“People who have been working there for decades are blindsided,” she said. “It feels like it was a leak because they seem extremely ill-prepared.”
Hannah Livingstone, a 30-year-old bride from Scotland, booked eight nights in a Plaza suite for roughly $9,000.00 and splurged on first-class flights to New York for an intimate February wedding with her partner, James McPherson.
A lifelong fan of American romantic comedies and Sex and the City , Livingstone planned a first look to capture the moment the couple sees each other for the first time in the Plaza’s bar, wedding photographs, and even dress-steaming services.
Instead, she discovered the hotel was closing while scrolling TikTok—a rather 1-star experience.
“I thought, no, that surely can’t be right,” Livingstone told The Post.
Just weeks earlier, she’d been in contact with the hotel to firm up her booking…