Mindy Escobar knew exactly what she wanted in a wedding venue \u2014 and she found it in the Crystal Ballroom in downtown Houston.<\/p>\n
The venue needed to be both classic and unique. It had to be downtown, a middle point between her family in Jefferson County and her fiance\u2019s in Austin. And it needed to have availability before the new year.<\/p>\n
She signed her contract with the Crystal Ballroom at the Rice \u2014 the venue inside the historic former hotel \u2014 and put down a $6,500 deposit in June, three weeks after her engagement.<\/p>\n
Then last Friday,\u00a0Escobar and others who’d reserved the space\u00a0received an unexpected email from a lawyer. It said the venue was permanently closing and would be unable to fulfill its contractual obligations. The venue intends to file for bankruptcy after the landlord terminated its lease, according to an email the lawyer sent to Escobar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That initial email and an email she received later from 909 Events, which operated the venue, did not mention the bankruptcy filing. Neither the law firm or venue management responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that many of you have entrusted us with your weddings, celebrations, corporate events, and other once-in-a-lifetime occasions,\u201d said Elliott, Thomason and Gibson, the law firm representing 909 Events, in an email to ballroom clients. \u201cWe recognize the time, planning, and financial commitment that goes into these events, and we sincerely apologize for the disappointment and hardship this news will cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now four months from her Dec. 19 wedding date,\u00a0Escobar has emailed and called the lawyer and 909 Events. The company did not respond to her emails \u2014 and its phone line said it was no longer in service. The venue\u2019s website remains down.<\/p>\n
Escobar posted her experience on TikTok, where it gained over 10,000 likes and drew the attention of others who received the same notice.<\/p>\n
Vanessa Morana was one of them. Morana signed her contract a week before receiving the email about the venue\u2019s closure. Her wedding was scheduled for June 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been a very hectic weekend,\u201d Morana said. \u201cDefinitely not what I thought that weekend was gonna be. It took us a lot of months to find a venue that not only we envisioned ourselves having our reception and like a very important day for us (at). It took us a long time to find it.<\/p>\n
Unlike Escobar, Morana had not sent a deposit. When she signed her contract on Aug. 4, the venue said its payment system was down, she said.<\/p>\n
Both Escobar and Morana said finding a new venue has been difficult. For Escobar, not knowing whether she\u2019ll get her deposit back has decreased her overall wedding budget, limiting options. Finding availability for the dates they originally planned also poses a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to remind brides that a lot of unexpected things can happen during your wedding planning and on the wedding day,\u201d Escobar said. \u201cBut this should be one of the happiest moments of your life with your fiance, and you just have to remember that when going through the motions, and don’t focus on the negativity. Try to find the light at the end of the tunnel, and share these moments with the people that care about you the most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mindy Escobar knew exactly what she wanted in a wedding venue \u2014 and she found it in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-408163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}