Anyone struggling to get money back from their Wedding Venue

Hogzy

Hey folks,

Just reaching out to see if there is anyone out there struggling to get money back from their wedding venue.

We had a 200pps wedding booked in May 2020 in a well known venue in munster. We postponed to December 2020 and obviously cant go ahead given the restrictions.

Our venue is refusing point blank to refund us any money. Just wondering if there is anyone else suffering the same fate and what you are doing about it etc. Feel free to PM me with yer experiences if ye wish to keep it off a public forum.

Hogzy

Nobody? Surprised at that tbh.

Teach30

Hogzy wrote: »

Nobody? Surprised at that tbh.

Can understand why they won’t give money back as you can still go ahead with a wedding. Might not be what you wanted but your still allowed have one.
We got full deposit back from venue but different circumstances at time as the the whole country was banned from holding weddings. Our venue was sound about it tbf.

Snotty

Why do you want the deposit back, are you not going to have a wedding anymore or do you want to have the wedding in a different venue?

narodvale

Hogzy wrote: »

Hey folks,

Just reaching out to see if there is anyone out there struggling to get money back from their wedding venue.

We had a 200pps wedding booked in May 2020 in a well known venue in munster. We postponed to December 2020 and obviously cant go ahead given the restrictions.

Our venue is refusing point blank to refund us any money. Just wondering if there is anyone else suffering the same fate and what you are doing about it etc. Feel free to PM me with yer experiences if ye wish to keep it off a public forum.

We were due to get married in London on Wednesday. Travelled over from Dublin on the ferry yesterday, dress and suit in the back of the car. Half way across UK in the dark and rain as Boris announces no weddings, and now my family can’t travel over for Christmas either.

Florist turns up on our doorstep today with all the flowers that she’d bought early. Says they’re ours and we have to pay for them. Happy to refund us less than 20% of total cost.

Madness, a lengthy debate ensued

Hogzy

Snotty wrote: »

Why do you want the deposit back, are you not going to have a wedding anymore or do you want to have the wedding in a different venue?

Sorry, I probably should have said, we have 80% of the costs for a 200pps wedding paid to the venue. Theyre refusing to refund us anything and are pushing us to postpone but who knows when you'll be able to have a 200pps wedding again. It could be two years and were not willing to put our lives on hold to suit the venue, they have been unbelievably inflexible with us hence why we are looking for our money back.

Snotty

Hogzy wrote: »

Sorry, I probably should have said, we have 80% of the costs for a 200pps wedding paid to the venue. Theyre refusing to refund us anything and are pushing us to postpone but who knows when you'll be able to have a 200pps wedding again. It could be two years and were not willing to put our lives on hold to suit the venue, they have been unbelievably inflexible with us hence why we are looking for our money back.

Ah OK, changes things slightly, 80% isn't the deposit but I'm guessing they had some stipulation that 50% was paid 4 weeks prior to date, 80% 1 week prior to date or something similar and you fell within these dates.
When was your wedding originally for? I'm going to assume you have a contract as if you don't the 80% is not a deposit and so the amount over the deposit should be refunded.
What does your contract say regarding cancellation?

voldejoie

My sister and her fiancé were due to get married in May last year, and their venue let them postpone twice as various new restrictions came in. Their revised date was meant to be in February this year but they wanted to push it out to the second half of the year and asked to do this a few weeks before Christmas. The venue initially said that they wouldn't allow a further postponement and that they would only refund the initially paid deposit and not the additional payments made incrementally last year if they wanted to push it out any further. It was a source of a lot of stress over the last few weeks but she managed to negotiate it and now is booked in for an October wedding. A good result for her in that she can have the wedding when hopefully things will be a little bit better, and the venue gets to keep the cash they have so far (they're obviously struggling quite a lot at the moment), but it's certainly an unpleasant conversation to have!

heffo500

I heard of a similar issue with another couple, venue would only offer the wedding to be held on a Monday or Tuesday. They had planned the wedding for a bank holiday Monday.

Solicitors letter sent out to the venue. Full refund given.

MrMusician18

If I had planned a wedding during covid, I would certainly be pushing the venues for cancellation and refund. The endless rolling over to later dates is quite risky. Once things normalize and the government starts withdrawing support, a lot of businesses in hospitality will go to the wall. All those deposits will go with them.

MrMusician18

MrMusician18 wrote: »

If I had planned a wedding during covid, I would certainly be pushing the venues for cancellation and refund. The endless rolling over to later dates is quite risky. Once things normalize and the government starts withdrawing support, a lot of businesses in hospitality will go to the wall. All those deposits will go with them.

We ensured what we discussed on the day we visited our venue was written in to the contract. If we need to reduce numbers then the per head remains the same. There will be no financial penalty. If we need to postpone to a further date then we won't lose the deposit.

I would urge any couples looking for venues now to make sure they are protected.