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Help Offered for Couple Caught in 'Nightmare' Wedding Dispute

By Alisa Hauser | August 7, 2015 3:12pm | Updated on August 10, 2015 8:42am
 (l). Deanne Fornelli and Nick Dilly; and Jackie Diaz and  Jerald Richard.
(l). Deanne Fornelli and Nick Dilly; and Jackie Diaz and Jerald Richard.
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WEST TOWN — From donating space, videography and flowers, local vendors are eager to help a Bucktown couple who canceled their Sept. 12 wedding when a caterer allegedly refused to refund the $12,000 they spent in a catering contract at a venue spot he didn't control.

"Whatever things we can do to help them out, we will," said Britt Whitfield, CEO and founder of The Revel Group, a special events company. Ananda Breslof, owner of Flowerlife, said she would donate flowers to the couple.

"Hearing stories about this is so disheartening; I can't do an entire wedding but I can help," Breslof said.

Both vendors want to help Deanne Fornelli and Nick Dilly, whose "nightmare" fight over trying to recoup money from a West Town Caterer, Pure Kitchen, was detailed by DNAinfo Chicago on Friday.

Alisa Hauser details how the couple lost $12,000:

Within minutes of their story being published, another couple, Jackie Diaz and Jerald Richard of Jefferson Park, said they had "essentially the same situation" as Fornelli and Dilly after they invested $14,600 into their Oct. 3rd wedding, also planned for the Hub Studio Loft and arranged through Pure Kitchen Catering and Revolt Events, both companies owned by Joshua Yates.

Both couples say they signed contracts for Hub Studio Loft, 2155 W. Hubbard St., but, after paying Yates, later learned Yates did not control the property.

Yates did not respond to several attempts by DNAinfo Chicago seeking comment. Late Friday, Yates' lawyer, Peter Nabhani, issued the following statement:

"Pure Kitchen's owner, Joshua Yates, feels deeply saddened about the situation. He has assisted 100's of people in wedding preparations, and this is the first time that this type of thing has happened to him. His clients' events are always his top priority. This is a gut wrenching experience for him, in that he is without the personal resources to assist them, and has set up a GoFundMe campaign."

When asked how they feel about Yates' crowd-sourcing effort on their behalf, Fornelli said, "Why is he having others trying to fund this when he should be funding it because he already has our money? It's a lot too late. We have been in communication since June about a refund."

While Fornelli and Dilly are planning a small pop-up dinner in a local park only for immediate family and close friends to replace their wedding, Diaz and Richard decided to move their wedding to the National Hellenic Museum, one of the alternatives offered by the planner from Yates' Pure Kitchen Catering after it turned out Hub Studio Loft was not available.

Since switching to the museum, Diaz said her contact at Pure Kitchen "had stopped responding to emails" and she has not had a food tasting set up despite her wedding less than two months away.

Whitfield's Revel Group just opened a new loft venue in Fulton Market, at 1215 W. Fulton St., that Whitfield said "is like New York-meets-Chicago meat packing district" and very similar to the loft that fell through for both couples.

"I'd give the couples the Fulton Market spot or Revel's Downtown venue at 440 W. Randolph St. as a donation and while we provide catering through our in-house Limelight Catering, if there is something in their contracts that they must work with Pure Kitchen, we are willing to accommodate them or another caterer," Whitfield said.

Breslof, owner of Flowerlife, an events floral company at 2001 N. Oakley Ave., said she is not surprised that other vendors are reaching out because "most folks in the hospitality industry want to make people happy," she said.

"None of us want [this situation] to represent this industry. We work in this because we're passionate and want people to have good experiences," Breslof said.

Breslof had previously worked with Yates' company on a Bouquet Bar project and described it as a positive experience.

Consumer distress over the caterer appears to have occurred only in the past few months. Pure Kitchen closed its headquarters at 451 N. Elizabeth St. The Elizabeth Street location is now Eat Purely, a food delivery app for which Yates serves as spokesman, based on TV clips and media reports.

Diaz, who said she went weeks without getting a response for her refund request, said that Yates moving along with his staff was "incredible frustrating."

"I was aggravated every time I would see them update their Eat Purely Facebook page and yet no one was calling us back," Diaz said.

In the event they are looking for something more informal, Walt Kurek, owner of Stanley's at 43rd Street and Ashland Avenue, has offered up his tap across from the Union Stockyards too.

"We're the little guys but we'd be happy to subsidize something to help launch your new life together. Congrats from your friends at Stanley's," Kurek said to Fornelli and Dilly.

Rhys McIntyre,  a wedding videographer, is offering to provide "a possible videography offer, if it helps ease the pain of their nightmare!"

Though it's too soon to know if either couple would even accept the help, the outpouring may ease their stress.

"It's been weighing on us for several months. It's been ruining a lot of this time in our lives for us. Our wedding planning started out so well and it has gone downhill. We can't afford to lose this money and pay for another caterer, so we hope the Hellenic Museum alternative will be good; we are locked into it," Diaz said.

Nabhani said there were 13 couples who booked weddings at Hub Studio Loft and that Fornelli and Dilly were the only ones who did not accept an alternative venue offered.

In other matters, Nabhani is currently defending Yates in a civil lawsuit filed on May 5 by a former Pure Kitchen Catering employee who is suing Yates for not paying back wages of $8,566.00, according to records.

Yates also owes $117,554.43 in back taxes to the State of Illinois, the majority for not reporting sales tax revenues, documents show.

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