ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Action News Jax has learned the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office has opened a criminal investigation into Jeanetta Ceborello, the owner of the now-closed Chez L’Amour restaurant in downtown St. Augustine.
We reported last week when multiple brides said they spent between $5,000 - $7,000 for their wedding receptions to happen at the venue, just for them to be canceled without warning after the restaurant permanently closed.
Anna Watson is one of them, telling Action News Jax she first got a price for her reception in January and it wasn’t until the first days of September, weeks before her wedding, that she found out she’d have to find another venue.
“It was shocking. My mom and I really had worked so hard on planning our wedding to make sure that it was nice for us,” said Watson, “I think we ended up having about 17 days to plan our wedding reception.”
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Watson said she paid Ceborello about $6,300 for her reception at Chez L’Amour. She told us something seemed off in her interactions with the restaurant owner.
“She really, really encouraged us to pay in full and do it quickly,” Watson said.
Watson said she met with Ceborello two days before the day Ceborello told Action News Jax the restaurant permanently closed and, even then, had no reason to believe her reception would be canceled.
“She met with us knowing our event wasn’t going to happen,” Watson said, “you’re thinking how nice it’s going to be to get married and celebrate the day. You’re not really thinking about it being a scam.”
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Ceborello spoke only with Action News Jax earlier this week, when we asked for her response to the brides who told us they were still waiting for the money back from their canceled receptions. She claimed the restaurant building had to close because of a concern that part of the building would collapse and said she used money she received from the brides to pay for repairs.
“We tried to reach out about possibly fixing the business while we were closed and just honoring our event holders and closing our restaurant, so, unfortunately, we were not able to come to any sort of agreement,” Ceborello told us at the time.
Watson tells us she was never informed that her money would supposedly be going toward any repairs to the building. Even though Ceborello told us she is committed to paying all the brides who are waiting for their money back, Watson wishes she had chosen somewhere else for her wedding.
“I just wanted to have a nice wedding with all my family and friends there to support us,” Watson said.
Action News Jax tried reaching out to the lawyer representing the owner of the restaurant property, but we haven’t yet heard a response. The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office told us it can’t, at this time, share any of the details of its investigation.
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