Wedding venue changing details despite contract

shreko

Not sure if anyone will be able to help but its worth a shot.

I recently got engaged and we decided to get married in Spain in a hotel we had been to a wedding at before.
The hotel is quite expensive but the reception is held outdoors and really has the Wow factor when you walk outside. There are lots of things I like about the hotel but the setting is by far the most important and on that basis we engaged the hotel and reserved our date.

When we got the contract we saw that, as it was high season, they would only give us the venue from 7.30 pm (this is due to the space being used as the beach club during the day for residents of the hotel).
We were going to have our ceremony here, followed by drinks reception, followed by dinner and disco.
As a result of the late time we decided to move our ceremony to a church at 4pm and then arrive at the venue at 7.30pm for our drinks reception.
They amended the contract to say this and we signed and paid our deposit.

Now two months later I have received an email to say that the times for 2016 have changed and we now cannot have the venue until 8.30pm and they will have to send us out a new contract to sign.
Even though its only an hour it causes huge issues for us. Our mass will be over by 5 and we were going to have a drinks reception until 6.45 then bus everyone to the venue.
That will now have to be 7.45 so will mean we have to pay for more drink(and now potentially food) plus its a lot of hanging around time for people.
But mostly we have now lost any day light in our venue for photos and guests will not experience the Wow factor that made us choose this venue in the first place and what we are paying so heavily for.

The events organizer is gone to talk to the Director to see if they will do anything for us. She has pointed out though that he never actually signed our contract, his name is "merely" printed on the bottom.
I've checked the contract and that is the case but I'm actually gobsmacked by that comment - from a 5 star hotel. You would expect fair and transparent dealings from a hotel like this but it appears not to be the case.

So, my question is does anyone know where we stand on this? They provided us with a contract which we signed and sent back. The contract outlines, in detail, the timing of the entire event.
Admittedly his signature is not on the contract but I'm not sure how relevant that is as it was provided to us by the hotel and they accepted our deposit based on that contract. To my mind that is an acceptance of that contract, but then again .. I'm not a lawyer.

So if there is anyone out there who happens to know where I might stand on this, Id appreciate any advice. Bear in mind, its Spain... not Ireland.

MarkAnthony

Postal rule may apply - oh goodie!

FreudianSlippers

Moved from Legal Discussion as I don't think it'll get much traction there given it's an issue in Spanish law. Others here may have some experience - I'd suggest seeing a solicitor.

stickybookmark

I would not take this lying down.......no way.
Although he didn't sign it (what a sneak) it's still legally binding but you would need to get spanish lawyers involved. I would expect the wedding planner to sort this out for you to be honest as they have the knowledge of local laws and how things work.
It's outrageous and I would threaten to cancel the whole wedding and see if that sways them.

Failing that.....everything has a price !!! Do you have some spare budget?

So my twopence worth:
1. Ask wedding planner to engage a local solicitor - just a solicitor's letter can be enough to sway a lot of people
2. Threaten to cancel the wedding unless they revert to Original contract
3. Ask how much extra to keep the Original contract (I'd be sick having to go for this option though but it is your wedding....)

Fiona44

Not much help but Im pretty sure I got married in that same venue last May!

I found them very inflexible in my dealings with them. But thankfully we didn't have any issues like that.
I think they know that if you walk away they'll easily get another booking for that date so they don't need to worry about being too accomodating.
But I'd imagine that a signed contract and deposit counts for something..,

I really hope you manage to get this sorted as it really is an amazing venue!
On the day itself they couldn't do more for us & the food was unbelievably good!

shreko

Yea - it is a fab venue. We really love it. But I feel that by losing all the daylight we'd be losing what we love about it.
And then it annoys me that Id be paying so much for it.

Anyway my wedding planner has told them there is no way we can alter our plans and they will need to honour the original times.
The event manager emailed me yesterday to say she will speak to the General Manager today to see if they can do anything.....
At the moment all I can do is wait and see.

I'm certainly not going to make this easy for them. I'm not going to accept it even if he says No and will demand to speak to him. I just wish I had some Spanish legal knowledge behind me so I could throw a bit of jargon around and make it seem like it would be easier to just let it go than to have to listen to me :-)

But as you say, they'd fill our slot in the morning if we gave it up so I'm sure they don't really care if we pull our wedding.

chanelfreak

I'm pretty sure I had my reception there too OP

I'm really sorry to hear about this, stress like that is the last thing you need when organising a wedding abroad. I would suggest that you get a solicitor on it asap, the fact that you have paid a deposit based on the previous contract must count for something and you never know, once the hotel receives a letter that might be all it takes and there could be no need to take it any further.

Cheeky b*stards though.

GalwayGirl26

That's totally unfair, and you are right to fight it. Even if you don't want to hire a Spanish lawyer, threaten it- or say that your Irish lawyer will be in contact in the coming days.
For the sake of an hour, they will not want to lose your custom.

shreko

Thanks everyone, appreciate the feedback.

So its now been 10 days and still no response from the hotel. Its so frustrating. They are still "waiting to speak with the manager".
Its so awful to be treated like this by such a well established hotel. I'm really in shock and part of me doesn't even want to have my wedding there if this is how we are being treated in the early days...

I'm going to give them until today and then possibly speak to a solicitor about it. It just seems completely unfair that they can change the details of a contract once it has been signed and a deposit accepted.

It also doesn't bode well for the future. At least now we still have a year to go, we could potentially pull out and try and get somewhere else. How do I know they wont change the prices in 6 months time and then I would be totally screwed.
Its not like an agreement means anything to them.

Its really put a major dampener on what was up until now a really exciting time. First world problems I know :-(

stickybookmark

You're right to be upset, one of the main elements of a foreign wedding is the wow factor. I remember clearly when we arrived by bus at the venue for my sister's wedding in Portugal. Wow wow wow. The sun was shining, we were all standing in a beautiful garden with a glass of bubbles, there were lemon and lime trees and little bean bags on the grass and lanterns and lovely stuff everywhere. The kids loved it, the adults loved it everyone was like ''oh my god you'd never get this at an irish wedding!' that's what you want......that's what you're paying for.

Gatica

They provided the contract, they know what's in it. I don't see how them not signing it has any bearing on its validity.
Any work contracts you get are also not always signed by the hiring manager, usually I sign and send back and there's no way they'd be getting away with "but only the company name is on the contract, not the signature". That's bullsh!t.

They're bound to a contract and if you still want to have your wedding there under the same T&Cs, you may need to splash out for a solicitor. The fact that they're sending you a new contract, shows they still want you to sign something for them, so if you signing it is so important, then they'd likely hold you to it, which mean they must be held to it in as much as you, if you get my drift.

Good luck!

Peregrinus

This is basically a question of Spanish law, and of what view the Spanish courts take of signatures, contract variations, etc, etc. I think you'll get a lot of sympathy on this forum, but not much in the way of informed advice. I'd like to think that the "Ha! I never signed it!" defence will not work for the hotel but, honestly, I have no idea.

I think you have three options:

1. Accept this.

2. Ask for the return of your deposit, and take yourselves and your wedding elsewhere.

3. Take advice from a Spanish lawyer on your chances of fighting this successfully.

shreko

Well just an update (for those who might be interested !) after much backwards and forwards the hotel eventually came back to us and offered us a 8 pm start (rather than 8.30), a compromise - in their words.

That actually made me furious.... the very idea that they felt like they were compromising by only changing our time by 30 mins as opposed to an hour.

I completely refused to accept any change on the time and told them we would have to pull our wedding if the agreed times weren't upheld.

1 hour later they came back to say that they would work by the original times.

So, all is ok again... until the next big bust up !!

Thanks all for your help :-)

Gatica

Glad to hear it!
.... still, the cheek of them! :eek:

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Make sure you receive a signed copy of their contract to stop this happening 6 months later

stickybookmark

Hard ball. ...works every time!