Groom retrieves wedding cash from Hamilton trash

It was a dirty job, but a couple that got married at Carmen’s Banquet Centre in Hamilton last weekend has retrieved their gift envelopes. They searched through knee-high trash after the gifts were accidentally thrown out.

Mississauga couple Joseph Grant and Paula Horatio alerted staff at Carmen’s on Sunday that they’d accidentally left behind a garbage bag containing cash and cheques from their 145 guests. Monday morning, Joseph and a crew at GFL Environmental waded through the contents of the Carmen’s dumpster at a transfer facility.

After two and half hours, they finally found the bag.

Operations manager Enzo Aprile was on hand, and told CHCH News what the groom was facing. “Carmen’s Banquet Hall, you know it’s basically a restaurant, food building, a lot of old food, it was probably sitting there 2 weeks, lots of organic juices. Nothing too pretty… I think that if the groom can make it through that day he’s going to have a (long) marriage.”

Aprile says the couple used hair dryers to dry out the soaked cheques, and were thankful the newer, plastic-coated dollar bills were well protected from the liquids.