It’s nothing new that weddings, especially the ones abroad, can often come with a pretty steep price-tag attached but many couples happily budget, scrimp and save in order to go all out on their special day.
Well, for one pair of newlyweds, this was far from the case after the bride and groom reportedly left their wedding reception and ‘fled’ the country without footing the staggering £7,000 bill due last week.
The couple – a 40-year-old construction contractor local to the area and his 25-year-old German wife – reportedly enjoyed a lavish banquet with 80 guests before doing the dip and leaving the restaurant owner at a mammoth loss.
Enzo Fabrizi, owner of the Ristorante La Rotonda in Frosinone, Italy, hosted the civil ceremony last month (24 September) after being introduced to the couple by a friend he had known for ’20 years’ according to the Corriere Della Sera newspaper.
He also claimed that the 25-year-old was the groom’s third wife.
“I trusted because my friend has always kept his word,” Fabrizi said. “A serious person.
“He reassured me by saying that the bride’s father works in a bank in Germany. In short, it’s a wealthy family.”
Fabrizi reportedly provided a lunch ‘costing 90 euros per person’ for ‘around 80 guests’
The restauranteur claimed: “They only paid me the deposit (around £2,800) and disappeared. And to think that I thought of everything: flowers, music.”
“The decoration alone cost me 400 euros (approximately £350).”
Almost ‘immediately’ after the wedding ceremony wrapped up, after commencing at 11 am, guests ‘sat down at the table and lunch began’.
They ate, danced and drank to their heart’s content,” Fabrizi recalled. “They left at 10 pm, but they were almost all drunk.”
The restaurant owner was sure to approach the groom before he left to try and settle the bill.
“We did the calculations and he shook my hand and told me he would come by the next day to pay,” Fabrizi claimed. “The next day, however, he took the plane to Germany.”
Clearly still hoping the recover the small fortune, Fabrizi has since enlisted the help of a lawyer, Luigi Tozzi, to ‘file a complaint with the police for fraud’.
He said: “I have the written contract in my hand, signed by the groom. I will not give him peace until he has paid every penny.”
Fabrizi, who has been a restaurateur for 40 years, revealed never in all four decades has he had a ‘misadventure’ like this happen to him.
“My lawyer will take care of blocking him and I hope that as soon as he sets foot in Italy again, his passport will be withdrawn immediately,” he added.
To make matters even worse, the dine-and-dasher even promised Fabrizi he would go above and beyond to compensate the servers.
“And to think that he told me that he would also tip the waiters…” Fabrizi claimed.
