- A couple suing Brooklyn Pier 1 Hotel says its noise restrictions ruined their daughter's wedding.
- They say they weren't told of the restrictions, which made them move the wedding into another room.
- The couple is seeking $5 million in damages.
A couple is suing a New York hotel for $5 million after they say "severe" noise restrictions "destroyed" their daughter's wedding.
Marjorie and Russell Newman threw their daughter, Jessica Alovis, and son-in-law, Matt Alovis, a wedding at the Brooklyn Pier 1 Hotel on September 18, 2021, according to a complaint filed in the Kings County Supreme Court on January 31 and viewed by Insider. Guerdy Abraira, a "Real Housewives of Miami" star, planned the event.
Representatives for the Brooklyn Pier 1 Hotel and Abraira did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The Newmans said in the complaint that they spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" on the 200-person affair. They paid $150,000 for flowers alone, according to the New York Post.
The Newmans also said that the hotel "destroyed" the wedding by failing to inform them that there would be a "severe limitation on the sound level of the music" at the reception.
The hotel did not allow the DJ to use any bass tones during the receptions, making the volume so low that guests could barely hear it, according to the complaint. The New York Post reported that the restrictions existed to accommodate residential condos in the building.
The complaint states that the music the Newmans hoped to play at the wedding was approved by hotel staff member Bethanne Laterni before they signed a contract with the venue. Laterni did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Marjorie Newman got an email from the venue a few days before the wedding that indicated there might be problems with the music, according to the complaint, but it "did not make clear that they could not play the music in any meaningful way."
"The elimination of the bass and the restriction of the decibel level during the reception was woefully low, inadequate and inappropriate for this Wedding, or any wedding, and undenounced to the Newmans," the complaint states.
The noise restriction disrupted the Alovises' first dance and the reception could not go on in the space as intended, which "forced" the Newmans and their 200 guests to move the reception to a room in another building, according to the complaint. The Newmans said in the complaint that the new space was "much smaller" and "dingy," and it did not have enough space or tables and chairs for the guests.
The couple also said that the hotel staff did not help guests get to the new building, which led "at least half, if not more, of the guests" to leave the wedding early. According to the complaint, the location change prevented the wedding dinner from being "properly or fully" served.
Russell Newman, who owns the real-estate company Newman Properties, told the New York Post that his daughter Jessica became extremely upset as a result of the events of the wedding.
"After about a half-hour into this, she was hysterical and crying," he told the New York Post. "This is not how she envisioned her dream wedding."
She also couldn't do her bouquet toss, according to the New York Post.
The Newmans are suing the hotel, Abraira, and Laterni for breach of contract, fraud, tortious breach of the duty of care, negligent misrepresentation, deceptive business practices, and emotional distress. They are seeking $5 million in damages.
The Newmans' lawyer Sanford Rubenstein and co-counsel Mark Shirian told Insider in a statement: "To turn a beautiful dream into a nightmare and spoil one of the most important days in a girl's life — her wedding day — in our opinion is an example of corporate greed at its worse."