COUPLE SPENDS WEDDING NIGHT TRAPPED IN HOTEL ELEVATOR!
They even missed their own reception
AFTER vowing for better or for worse, hard-luck newlyweds Panav and Victoria Jha missed their postnuptial party when they got trapped in a hotel elevator!
The just-hitched lovebirds, the bride’s sister and three members of the wedding party were on their way to join guests at the Grand Bohemian Hotel’s 16th-floor bar in Charlotte, N.C., when the elevator short-circuited — just five feet off the ground. “It was about 1 a.m. when lights went off, electricity stopped and I completely started to panic and was hyperventilating,” Victoria tells The National ENQUIRER.
“I barely had any cell phone service and the help button on the elevator wasn’t working. So thankfully my husband and sister were able to get service and get us rescued.”
Still, it took fire crews nearly two hours to save the bride, groom and their pals in the wee hours of Feb. 19. Victoria’s rescue was especially difficult because she had to climb a ladder bogged down by her traditional gem-studded, 20-pound Indian wedding gown.
While none of the six needed medical attention, the bartender had already yelled last call by the time they were rescued, causing the bride and groom to miss celebrating their wedding.
Victoria says the tab for the three-day wedding weekend came in at $50,000 and the pair was “shocked” and “angry” when the hotel initially only offered them a small discount for the mood-crushing disaster.
Days later, hotel bigwigs agreed to give the couple their rooms for free after Panav and Victoria griped. The newlyweds, both doctors, are now planning to honeymoon in Tokyo in May.