The owner of a Hardin County wedding venue has been ordered to pay nearly $30,000 in restitution to several couples for not providing agreed upon services.
Following a consumer protection action taken by the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, Nicolle Thompson (aka Nicolle Thompson-Staples), owner of Gabriella Farm, formerly at 13943 Leitchfield Road in Eastview, was ordered to remit more than $27,000 in restitution to seven couples who had their weddings abruptly canceled, or paid for professional services they did not receive.
The court also ordered Thompson to pay an additional $20,000 in civil penalties and permanently banned her from operating another wedding service in the future.
In the Attorney General’s November 2018 lawsuit, officials sought to hold Thompson accountable for violating Kentucky’s Consumer Protection Act when she took payments from couples but did not pay vendors or provide agreed-upon services, and then ceased all communications with them and pocketed the money.
In the lawsuit, the Attorney General’s Office said that on September 6 and 7, 2018, Thompson or someone working for her called at least three couples with weddings scheduled in September and October of that year and canceled them, claiming that Gabriella Farm had been sold.
The caller allegedly threatened the couples with legal action for defamation if they posted negative reviews on social media. At that time, however, Gabriella Farm had not been sold and was not under contract to be sold.
The sudden cancellation of these all-inclusive weddings forced the majority of the couples to either quickly come up with thousands of dollars more to secure new venues and vendors, or to postpone their weddings because all of their available funds had been paid to Thompson.
In another instance, a Jefferson County groom was forced to end his contract with Thompson less than a month before his wedding.
According to the groom, he read a bad online review about the wedding venue that caused him to contact his vendors who were supposed to have been booked by Thompson. He discovered only one vendor, a videographer, had received a deposit. The cake designer, photographer, DJ, and bartender all said they were unaware of his wedding. While the couple did marry, they have not received a refund for the more than $11,000 they paid Thompson for the wedding and vendors.
Thompson purchased the 24 acres property in 2015 and opened it as a full-service wedding venue about two years later, according to a business overview on Yelp.
(Photo courtesy of Gabriella Farm’s Yelp page)
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
