For hundreds of brides across the United States, their worst nightmare came true this week.

Without anyone noticing, their wedding venue closed it’s doors. For some brides, they are only weeks away from their wedding, and now they are scrambling to find a new venue for their wedding and reception.

Noah’s wedding venue has over 30 locations across the United States (imagine if each of these venues booked only 10 couples. That’s over 300 brides!) There is one right in our backyard in Greenville, SC.

Noah’s Wedding Event Venue

Now for a little history about NOAH’s Event Venue.

They first started in Utah WAY back in 2003. In 2007, they opened up their first venue. After 4 years, they had already opened 6 venues.

Unlike most wedding venues, NOAH’s doesn’t actually own the property. A property broker company will purchase the property, lease it to Noah’s, and then they will build and operate the property under the Noah’s event name.

Last year in 2019, Noah’s filed for bankruptcy and was accused of being nothing more than a Ponzi scheme. There were dozens of retirees who have invested in the event space. Now all those retirees have lost thousands of dollars.

While we feel bad for those investors, it’s hearing the stories of the brides and grooms that truly breaks our hearts. Mitchel wanted to know more, so he reached out to a lot of brides on Facebook who had been impacted by Noah’s closing down. Here is the story of one bride:

I was heartbroken and sad. I had no idea what was going on. No one contacted me nor my fiancé. We tried to contact them multiple times and no answer. Now we have to find another Venue with no money because for two years we saved $5000 for our wedding venue. I’ve never felt this pain. I am lost and don’t know what to do. I feel like my fiancé will never get to see me in my wedding dress because we saved so much money for our wedding and now we are lost.

This is just one of the countless stories we’ve seen on Facebook. In fact, there has been a Facebook group created for people who have been impacted by the closing. The goal of the group is to connect these couples with vendors who are willing and available to help them out. Some Greenville area venues are even offering discounts to help couples out.

To make the story even worse, almost NONE of the brides were contacted by the venue to be informed of the closing. Of the 6 brides we talked to, only 1 got an email from Noah’s. The rest were told by their friends or they found out on social media. Imagine having to learn about your wedding venue going bankrupt from your Facebook page.

When talking about how they felt right after hearing about the Noah’s closing, one bride said:

I’m shocked and now furious! Not only do we have to start over again, but will most likely be out thousands of dollars with 55 days to find a new vendor and a way to pay for them.

Yes, that’s right. NO REFUND with only 55 days to go. This poor couple has less than two months to nail down a venue that has their date available and pay for two separate venues. This is one of the worst things we’ve heard.

There are couples who have been making payments for a year and now all of their money is down the drain. Unless they are able to sue, there is a good chance they won’t see any of their money again, and if they do it’s going to be a long time.

As a wedding vendor, it’s been amazing to see other venues offering discounts (sometimes up to 50%) to anyone who was booked at one of Noah’s 30 different locations. These venues have opened their arms and spaces to help out these people. While it doesn’t make the situation any easier, it’s been incredible to watch. That’s the wedding community we have come to know and love.

Statement From Noah’s Wedding Venue

Noah’s has updated their website and the only thing it includes is this PDF statement:

According to this statement, one of the locations in Utah is going to remain open, which allows any of those couples to still hose their wedding there.

I’ve reached out to Noah’s with no response from anyone who works there. We will update this post if anything new comes of it.

We are just so thankful that none of our couples were affected!