WAKE COUNTY — A couple who paid to reserve the Plantation Inn for their wedding, only to be left at the altar when the hotel shut down, won a court battle Monday.

Amanda Wilkins and Robert Luvenguth paid $1,500 to Jim Blackstone, who ran the now-closed inn. In small claims court, a judge ordered Blackstone to return their money. Blackstone says he intends to pay back dozens of other couples, but only if they work with him.

"The three or four that I've met with, we've had no problems coming to terms. If everybody continues to be that way, it's not a problem," he says. "If they don't continue to be that way, then very definitely, the attorney's position is, 'why not just wash your hands of it?'"

"If he's trying to work with other people, it's not us because we would have never had to come to court to take it this far," Wilkins says.

Blackstone says he is trying to re-start his business in the area.