For Stacey Gill, the unenviable predicament of Tom Scholz and Carrie Mathers was hauntingly familiar.
Gill could relate to Wednesday's column detailing how the Chicago couple were abruptly left without a place for their June 23 wedding reception.
Scholz, 34, and Mathers, 27, a Moon native, had booked the Pittsburgh International Airport Hyatt Regency ballroom for the event last June.
Shortly before Christmas, without advance notice, the Hyatt canceled their contract after a company offered the hotel chain more money to rent the space.
"The Hyatt did the exact same thing to me," said Gill, 31, of Orlando, Fla.
Gill and her fiance, Brian Burrows, 32 -- both, like Mathers, originally from Moon -- reserved the airport hotel ballroom last February for their wedding reception this March 23.
In November, Gill said, Hyatt bailed on them.
"They told us they got a better piece of business," she said.
Gill was stunned.
"I'm a professional meeting planner," she said. "I have worked with tons of hotels throughout the country, year in and year out. I've never heard of a hotel chain doing something like this."
Calls to the airport hotel and Hyatt corporate headquarters in Chicago requesting an explanation of this bumping-the-betrothed practice have not been returned.
Gill's wedding will occur on its scheduled date, with all but the final details worked out to hold the reception at the Sheraton Hotel at Station Square.
As for Scholz and Mathers, they had sudden and unexpected options after word of their dilemma got out -- not the least of which was the Pittsburgh Moose Lodge No. 46 in Shaler.
"We're in the process of sprucing up the place, and we'll be painting it within the next two or three months," said Frank Perman, a funeral director and manager of the Moose.
Perman wasn't the only one offering to rent the couple alternative space.
Among those who asked me to pass on their availability to host the reception:
• The Hidden Valley Four Season Resort in Somerset County
• The Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, Downtown
• The Sewickley Country Inn in Sewickley
• Sieb's Pub and the Nu Babcock banquet hall in Ross
• The Adamsburg fire hall in Westmoreland County
• The Raddison Hotel Milwaukee West in Milwaukee.
Wait a minute. Milwaukee?
"If they can change venues, we would love to help," said Tracy Renner, the Raddison sales manager. "Our ballroom accommodates 300 people, we have June 23 available and we have guest rooms. If they would like to consider Milwaukee, I would love to put together a proposal for them."
Scholz said he and Mathers were "very appreciative of all the people who have been so responsive to our situation."
Scholz indicated the couple is close to signing a contract with a new hotel to host the reception. He and his fiancee obviously have choices if that deal falls through.
As for others planning a wedding, be forewarned: Book your reception at the airport hotel, and you could end up unwillingly playing a stressful game of Hyatt and seek.
