Julia Green and Scotty Brown were excited to plan a dreamy wedding at the Plaza Hotel, one of New York’s most storied venues.
It seemed like an emblem of New York City — the place where the couple had their first date in October 2023, and where they got engaged this year. They had just designed their save-the-dates, which featured a sketch of the building’s unmistakable stone facade — and a bustling street with taxis and a horse-drawn carriage — with the date: Sept. 25, 2027.
That was before the Plaza Hotel announced it was closing for at least four years for renovations.
Green and Brown were watching “Love Is Blind” last week when their wedding planner called them with the news. Their nuptials, along with other events slated for after January, were canceled.
“We were blindsided,” said Green, 28, who is the director of development for Philadelphia Youth Basketball. “It felt like April Fools’ Day.”
They’re among an unknown number of couples who had booked their weddings at the Plaza for next year and beyond and paid deposits well in advance. Many were caught off guard by the news and are scrambling to find alternative venues for their celebrations.
Two couples interviewed for this story whose weddings at the hotel were canceled said they had not received notice from the Plaza’s events team ahead of the announcement and learned about the closing from news outlets, along with the general public. Both have since heard from the property, but as of Thursday, neither had received a refund of their deposit. Neither the hotel nor its parent company, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, responded to questions from The New York Times, providing only a link to an official statement announcing the news.
Though the hotel sent an email promising to refund the couples’ deposits, the closing threw a wrench into their plans.
“I envisioned everyone we know and love there celebrating and so happy for us in this beautiful venue,” Green said.
Green said she appreciated how the Plaza’s events team had handled the situation, and she said a representative had called her the day after the news broke. “She apologized and even offered to call other venues to help us find something else,” she said. “We’re waiting on our deposit back, but she said it’s coming.”
By contrast, Christine Carney, 38, a stay-at-home mom in Naperville, Ill., had a less than favorable experience with the cancellation of the reservation for her May 2027 wedding for 200 guests. She described it as “horrendously handled.” “It took us a week to hear from the hotel by email after we had emailed them multiple times,” she said, adding that she and her fiancé had not received a refund of their six-figure deposit.
“We have our vendors secured and have paid them, so it’s a big ripple effect,” she said.
Carney still has her heart set on “a destination New York wedding,” though she doesn’t yet know where.
Green and Brown have started a “mad dash” to find their venue. “We’re probably not getting married in New York anymore, because we can’t find anything that’s comparable, both price-wise and in atmosphere,” said Brown, 29, a real estate broker at MPN Realty in Philadelphia.
The Plaza has long hosted the weddings of celebrities and public figures, from Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones to Donald J. Trump and Marla Maples. The 2009 romantic comedy “Bride Wars,” starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, underscored its place in modern pop culture, with its story about two best friends who end up fighting when they’re accidentally scheduled to have their weddings at the hotel on the same day.
“The Plaza, with its location and prestige, is iconic,” said Michael Russo, of Michael Russo Events in New York. “It’s the most sought-after wedding venue in New York by far and top ranked worldwide.”
A lucky few couples are getting in under the wire. The final night for hotel bookings is Jan. 19, and Julianne Del Giorno and Andrew Fellus will exchange their vows on Jan. 17.
They believe they will be the last couple to marry at the property before its closure.
Del Giorno, 27, a registered nurse who is currently between jobs, and Fellus, 31, who works in finance, live on the Upper East Side near the Plaza and booked the venue in February of this year.
“I feel incredibly fortunate,” Del Giorno said.
Del Giorno, from Staten Island, has dreamed of a Plaza wedding since she was a child, when she and her mother and grandmother would come into Manhattan to have tea in the Palm Court. “When I first met Andrew, I told him I wanted to get married there,” Del Giorno said.
They’re inviting 250 guests to their big day, and while the bride-to-be was reluctant to share specific details about the event to maintain an element of surprise for their guests, Russo, the couple’s wedding planner, said it would be modeled after a popular fairy tale.
Julie Satow, author of “The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel” (and a New York Times contributor), said that the hotel’s ballroom was rebuilt and expanded to its current size in 1921.
She noted that some of the famous wedding celebrations held there had included Patricia Kennedy and Peter Lawford’s reception in 1954 and Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower’s reception in 1968, attended by Clare Boothe Luce and Thomas Dewey.
“The reason it is so iconic to be married there is partly its long history and partly practical,” Satow said. “Its ballroom was once nearly unparalleled in terms of size and elegance, and in more recent times, as other hotels have converted into condominiums or otherwise closed, it is one of the few historic spaces with capacity for large weddings.”
She noted that “competition from the newly renovated Waldorf Astoria and its overhauled ballroom may have played a part in the decision to do this renovation.”
For now, Del Giorno and Fellus’s wedding will represent the end of an era for the Plaza. The couple plan to include a piece of memorabilia from the hotel as part of their favors. “We wanted to pay a tribute to the hotel that we love so much,” Del Giorno said. “How lucky are we that we get to close it out?”
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