A glamorous beauty queen who walked down the aisle in $1,000 Jimmy Choo heels has found herself at the center of a massive scandal. Manhattan's legendary five-star St. Regis Hotel has slapped her with a lawsuit, accusing her of holding out on a final $40,000 bill for her extravagant wedding.
The defendant named in the suit is influencer Caitlin Rose Kennedy-Melanson, who recently took home the crown as National American Miss New York Elite. According to court documents, she has failed to settle the outstanding balance for her lavish September 2025 nuptials, which featured a stay in a penthouse suite and a luxury rooftop dinner overlooking the Big Apple.
The Fifth Avenue hotel notes that the bill for the fine dining and catering alone topped $100,000.
Kennedy-Melanson (a former Miss Massachusetts Teen 2015) tied the knot at the historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral before hosting her reception and banquet at the St. Regis.
Hotel management claims that despite "repeated demands for payment," the newly minted Miss New York has failed to wire the remaining $37,000 (which has ballooned to $40,000 with accumulated interest). The couple did, however, pay the initial chunk of the bill, totaling $106,000.
When tracked down by The Post, Caitlin dismissed the hotel's claims as "bullsh*t," but noted she couldn't comment further without her attorney. She also ironically pointed out that she hadn't even been served with the lawsuit yet, as she and her husband "no longer live" at the address listed in the court filings, adding, "So that's actually great." She later took to Instagram to announce she was temporarily stepping back from making any public statements.
The beauty queen’s husband is Greg Melanson, founder of a New York-based commercial real estate investment sales brokerage. Interestingly, his name does not appear in the lawsuit—the hotel is suing Caitlin exclusively.
Caitlin’s Instagram account, where she boasts over 111,000 followers, features more than a dozen professional snapshots from the wedding. One photo captures the couple kissing outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral as six photographers look on. "Our version of a royal wedding," the caption reads under a post dated September 20—exactly five days after the hotel claims it issued the final invoice.
Other shots show the bride showing off high-end bridal details, including a $200 bottle of Prada perfume and her iconic $950 lace Jimmy Choo "Sacora 85" sandals.
As soon as news of the lawsuit leaked to the press this Thursday, the model quickly flipped her Instagram profile to private.
As it turns out, this is far from the beauty queen's first financial headache. In 2022, she was sued over a $3,100 unpaid rent debt for an apartment in East Harlem, though that matter was settled within two weeks.
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