Only On 9: Chino Couple Accuses Wedding Planner Of Running Away With Their $20K

CHINO  (CBSLA.com) —  The couple spent tens of thousands of dollars on the ceremony -- the upcoming wedding of their dreams.

The same couple accuse their wedding planner of taking their money and then taking off.

The planner works for a venue that survived the Blue Cut Fire.

KCAL9's Tom Wait spoke to Brittany Bachman and Mathias Garcia about their ordeal.

It's a story that is Only On 9.

Wait also spoke to Xavier Perez, the wedding planner.

They have their rings – and the invitations were out. But now Bachman and Garcia's wedding is in limbo. Their nightmare started around the same time the Blue Cut Fire began raging.

"We got a call,  almost a week and a half ago from our cake vendor saying they haven't received payment," Bachman said.

And that was the beginning of the end.

The couple paid -- in full --  to have their wedding at the Green Mountain Ranch in Lytle Creek, which was evacuated as the Blue Cut Fire burned out of control.

The venue survived – so did the town. But the couple says Green Mountain Ranch went radio silent when the couple asked why bills to vendors went unpaid.

"So I waited about a week and then started emailing," Bachman said, "No response.Kept emailing. Still no response. Tried calling, no one is answering the phones."

It didn't help that a slew of negative reviews about the venue were popping up online – like one on Yelp: "...due to the fire that occurred near the area, (my cousin's) wedding was canceled...When they asked for a refund, they refused to give back any refund what so ever."

"We're paid in full. We've paid around $20,000," Bachman said

Wait said, "that's not easy money to come by."

Crying, Bachman dabs her eyes and says, "No."

The wedding planner told Wait that the venue would help the couple.

"We're going to work it out. We are going to work on what we can do to refund them," said Xavier Perez, the wedding planner.

Perez took the payment from Bachman and Garcia. He says he knows multiple couples are reporting him to local police.

Wait asks him, "Do you have the money to return to them if they want it?"

"Yeah, but it's just not made available to us. A lot with this is clients have stopped with their credit cards," said Perez.

Amid the uncertainty of their finances, Bachman and Garcia say they will get married.

"We've had a lot of amazing supporters, family, friends -- everything. Thank you.  They've been helping us. We're going to get through this," Bachman said.