Chilly reception: Florida couple try to get married at someone else’s mansion
An ambitious Florida couple attempted to hold their two-day wedding celebration at a mansion they didn’t have permission to use. But their intended nuptials ended before they could begin as the owner called the police and turned the wedding party away at the gate.
Courtney Wilson, the groom, and Shenita Jones, the bride, sent elaborate invitations to family and friends to attend their wedding at their “dream home and estate”, with the ceremony on Saturday, brunch on Sunday. But they never got permission from the owner, Nathan Finkel, to hold the event there, NBC affiliate WTVJ in Miami reported.
The detailed invitations described their love story and how they had been reunited via divine intervention 30 years after meeting in high school. Wilson had proposed over pizza one Christmas Eve.
When Wilson showed up on the morning of his wedding day, ready to begin “setting up”, Finkel saw them at the gate and immediately called the police, according to WTVJ.
“I have people trespassing on my property,” Finkel told a 911 dispatcher, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “And they keep harassing me, calling me. They say they’re having a wedding here and it’s God’s message. I don’t know what’s going on. All I want is [for] it to stop.”
When asked to leave, Wilson complied without issue and no charges were made. He told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he “didn’t want to talk about it”.
The couple assumed the property would be vacant after visiting an open house several months prior, posing as potential buyers. A few months after the visit, Wilson called Finkel to ask if the backyard could be used for their wedding and he immediately said no, according to Keith Poliakoff, attorney for Southwest Ranches, where the suburban mansion is located, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Finkel has been trying to sell the estate for the past two years. It is currently listed for just over $5m.
Ultimately, there was no wedding for Wilson and Jones that day and certainly not at their dream estate.
“The guy figured it was a vacant house and didn’t realize Nathan lived on the property in a different home,” Poliakoff told the Sun Sentinel. “This guy had no idea he lived there. You know the shock that must have been on his face when he showed up at the gate and the owner was home?
