LEELANAU COUNTY — A wedding venue unexpectedly shut down and filed for bankruptcy, leaving couples scrambling to find a new place to tie the knot and get their money back.
Nature LLC, located in Maple City, notified the couples by email about the venue closing down. Bride-to-be Katie Bush said they had picked out the venue last year after getting engaged in February.
“We have all our other vendors already set up. We have catering, DJ, bartending services, our cake, our everything, all our makeup, all that stuff is already set for the date,” said Bush.
Bush was panicked when she receiving an email that the venue she had rented for their June 15 nuptials was no longer an option.
“It was a big shock. There was lots of crying involved, but it was a lot of like, ‘OK, what do we do now? We’ve got 200 people invited. What do we do with all these people and where do we have this?’” said Bush.
Not only did they lose their venue, but said they are also out thousands of dollars after paying in full, nine months in advance.
“We paid 10 grand to have the venue from Friday to Sunday. And as of right now, we are going through the process of filing claims and talking with the credit card company and trying to get some of that money back,” said Bush.
Owner Bryan Cloninger said Katie and her fiancé, Andrew Reid, are one of four couples affected. He said a perfect storm of business- and COVID-related difficulties forced him to close Nature.
“A lot of things that happened [were] outside of my control. But the thing that is most upsetting about this entire thing is the amount of regret that I have for those people. They trusted me to fulfill that,” said Cloninger.
Katie and Andrew said Cloninger told them he was selling but said it would not impact their wedding. Cloninger said a judge ruled that the venue would be sold to a private seller, and he had no say in the matter.
“It was a legal order. It’s a definitive order. I didn’t have a choice. It was against my will,” said Cloninger. He said he lost everything in the bankruptcy.
Katie and Andrew said they are just trying to move forward, and that not getting married has never crossed their minds.
“It’s definitely a hurdle. But you can always run over hurdles,” said Reid.
