Scammer bride faces jail time

From CBS News: Everyone knows the price of weddings has gone through the roof, but one California bride, who needed $35,000 to cover the costs, hit on a novel idea … steal the money.

And that’s how the ultimate bridezilla wound up spending her wedding night in jail, according to the San Mateo County Times. She was arrested two nights before her nuptials, according to the paper.

A judge told Briana Nicole Balancier, 26, of San Mateo, Calif., she faces up to nine months in the county jail, but said the blushing bride-to-be could get out sooner if she returned the cash, the paper reported.



Perhaps Balancier can pay them back with a giant party, since according to the paper, the money was used to pay for the caterer, reception hall, DJ and photographer, and we know they rarely give refunds.

How did the scam work? The San Mateo Times reported that Balancier wrote a bum check from her day care business, Little Hearts, to herself. When the bank told her she had to wait for the check to clear, she wrote a phony fax saying the money was there. That gave her a few days breathing room to take roughly $20,000 from the bank. But when the check finally bounced, so did Balancier’s special night.

Balancier pleaded no contest to charges of forgery, grand theft and commercial burglary on Tuesday as part of a deal that would allow her to avoid a state prison sentence, Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told reporters.

$35k in theft and fraud, all for a wedding? Clearly this bride has lost sight of the actual purpose of a wedding.

-Kay