Two newlyweds are accused of dine and dashing their own Italian wedding, and the aggrieved caterer is determined to settle his tab one way or another.
In August, Moreno Priorietti and Andrae Svenja held an opulent reception for their 80 guests in Lazio, Italy. For the special day, they employed local restaurateur Enzo Fabrizi’s La Rotonda seafood establishment. In an interview with Daily Mail, Fabrizi reported that in addition to preparing food and drink for the guests and providing incidentals like flowers and an altar for a priest, the entire ceremony was held on his property. In total, the bill came to over $7,000.
Fabrizi met with Prioretti after the reception, at which point the groom had no complaints and promised to come back the next day to settle up. But he never returned.
Fabrizi patiently waited several days before venturing into town to seek Prioretti and his bride. There, he was told that they had left town the day after the wedding. Fabrizi filed a complaint with local police, and called his lawyer.
“For a small place like mine, [it’s] a considerable amount of money,” Fabrizi told Daily Mail. “I need to have this bill settled as I have suppliers to pay and other overheads. If it's not settled soon, it could put me out of business. I'm happy to drop the legal action as soon as I'm paid but I can't get any response from them and have hired a lawyer.”
The couple apparently maintained contact with Fabrizi for several weeks, promising to pay, before dropping off the radar and eventually deleting their Facebook profiles. Police later determined that Prioretti and Svenja, his third wife, split for Germany with his parents after a quick trip to Rome. Italian police believe the couple will next travel to Poland, where Svenja’s family lives. Prioretti is reportedly now wanted for fraudulent insolvency.
The caterer expressed his shock to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. “It has never happened in many years of business, at most someone was late but it had never happened that the spouses disappeared without having paid the bill for the wedding banquet.”
“I will not give him peace until he has paid every penny,” Fabrizi swore of Prioretti’s debt. “I've been a restaurateur for 40 years, and I've never had a misadventure like this happen to me. And to think that he told me that he would also tip the waiters.”
Priorietti and Svenja have yet to surface to comment on the allegations.
