Five days before the event, which was booked at $20K+, suggests some serious pagent was being prepared.
Having been employed in the hospitality field, I'm aware of the scads (a very technical term, by the way) of foodstuffs, carvable ice and other stuff that is ordered up and received as much as 14 days before the event. Some of that may not be able to be pawned off on resold to other functions, and thus represents a financial loss to the hotel. I'm also aware of how easy it is to either sell most of it as reduced-price (reduced from the inflated per-plate fee they charge a wedding) dinner specials or convince somebody else who was thinking steamship roast beef that they really want 376 rock cornish hen dinners that they can get for a buck or two less per plate.
Sounds like somebody's lawyer will need for convince a judge to order somebody else's lawyer to produce invoices and explain why that which could be directed to use elsewhere was not. Then, once the legalese is completed, the almost-a-widow & family will end up with probably $2,, but they will have won the day in court.
Too bad the hotel cannot see all the negative publicity they are generating for themselves. No need to man the phones and take them to task. They seem to be doing just fine cutting their throats on their own.
stay safe.
skidmark
