Wedding venue nightmare: Downtown Milwaukee hotel closes, couples are left scrambling
By Gabriella Garza
Click here for updates on this story
MILWAUKEE (WISN) — One Milwaukee couple’s dream wedding is turning into a nightmare after they found out their venue is closed just weeks ahead of their big day.
Their reception is set to take place at Sixth Floor, which operates inside the Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Milwaukee. Right now, their doors are closed for renovations — indefinitely.
The days leading up to your wedding day should be filled with excitement, or at most, pre-wedding jitters.
What should be one of the best days of Pat Hullum and Joseph Carter is quickly turning it the worst.
The couple is set to get married on May 28, after over a year of planning their dream wedding.
They chose to host their reception at Sixth Floor.
With just days until her wedding date, the couple received the worst news imaginable.
“I get this call, and I’m told the hotel closed, ‘What do you mean closed?’ ‘It’s completely closed. The hotel’s closed. Your families and friends can’t stay there. You have to move your reception somewhere else,'” Hullum said.
To make matters worse, Hullum said many of her guests booked their rooms at the hotel through a third-party travel site. The company didn’t respond and refused to issue refunds to their guests because they were unaware of the hotel closure.
The couple has tried turning to Hilton Corporate to remedy the situation, but they’ve had no luck.
“It’s as if they don’t care. They don’t care that I pre-planned, spent this money and everything was in place. Now it’s just a nightmare. It’s all over the place; nothing’s getting done,” Hullum said.
Hullum isn’t the only bride left scrambling. The owner of Sixth Floor, Clai Green, said the announcement of the hotel closure was abrupt.
He was left to rebook or refund more than 70 weddings that were booked for the Sixth Floor.
Green did secure the couple another space for their reception, with just days until “I do,” Hullum had run out of time to consider another option.
“We are accepting what they give us. It’s not what we wanted, not what we dreamed of; we’re just going with it,” Hullum said.
WISN 12 News has reached out to Hilton to find out how long the hotel closures would last. We have yet to hear back.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
