More than one wedding took place on my wedding day..

TugaGirl

Hi everyone!

We came back from our honeymoon on Monday and I’m now a Mrs! I’m so happy J

Just wanted to ask for your help once again though… when I selected my venue (2 years ago!) I remember specifically asking the then wedding coordinator if the hotel would host more than one wedding on the same day. They said no. we were unsure between two venues and this was what made us go for this one.

We did not get anything in writing, and I’ve gone through all of the paperwork and it doesn’t say anywhere anything about it.

There was another wedding taking place at the hotel at the same time as ours. It wasn’t nice for me, and I’m sure the other bride wasn’t thrilled. We crossed in the toilet and when we were going to have our main photos done. I’m sure this might not be an issue for some brides, but I was not happy.

I spoke to the wedding coordinator (it’s a different person from when I booked it) on the morning of the wedding, but obviously there was nothing that could be done about it.

There were quite a few things that went wrong on the day, including the fact that they are asking for more money as they made a mistake when sending the final invoice.

We are having a meeting with the general manager soon, so my question is:
Do they have to legally tell me that there will be more than one wedding taking place?

tbourner

That's unfortunate, sorry to hear it wasn't the perfect day for you.

I'm not sure about the legals, but I would guess as it wasn't agreed in writing and they now can't ask the original planner, it will be down to their good will. I'm sure you don't want to get tangled up in going to court etc. over it so you've got not much hope of finding the original planner I guess, which means you need to be nice to the manager and just say how upset you were about the whole thing and it's soured your wedding memories.

lazer

Check the Venues website now and see if it states only one wedding per day, or if no website phone up and request a brochure, getting it posted to a friend

If it does this will give you some leeway when negotiating with the general manager

RainbowDrops

Firstly congrat on making it to Mrs!

I totally see where you're coming from on wanting your special day to have been exclusive.
I have selected the same as I want to pretend that I'm the only person getting married that day, and don't want to feel like I'm on a conveyor belt of brides.

Anyway, about legality, I guess unless you have it in writing that you were promised exclusivity, you migh not have much to go on.

I'd say wait for some advice of the helpful girlies here, then write a letter to the management outlining the issues you had on the day.

On thing I would do personally though, is try not to dwell on it too much - if you get compo, great, but you want to remember your wedding day for the special part, not for a dragged out battle with the venue.

HTH

tbourner

Oh, and change your signature!!

frannyann

I understand where you are coming from, as one venue actually stated they will try to have two weddings per day so we decided against it, and went with the venue which promised one wedding per day, although again this is not in writing. I always understood that a verbal promise can be made to stand, personally I would write a polite letter asking why, when you were assured that no other wedding would occur you discovered another wedding was taking place. Then gauge your next step from that reply.

Horace

Congratulations on your wedding.

This is what happens when you book a hotel type venue because they will have more than one wedding on at a time. If you booked for exclusive use then this would wording would appear in your contract, if it does not then there really isnt anything that you can do about it especially as you booked the venue 2 years' ago and the original planner has left..a lot can change in 2 years.

The price you pay tends to reflect on whether or not you have an exclusivity deal too (they will always add the words in the contract) so if you paid upwards of £4K then you can expect exclusivity but if you paid say £1000 then it is likely that you haven't got an exclusive deal - hotels tend not to be exclusive as they like to maximise their income.

Dizzie77

Congrats Tuga -
A verbal agreement can be binding on both parties - however, the issue would be proving what was said.

If you have a meeting with the general manager anyway, I would make a list of all the points you want to
bring up. Mention that the reason you booked this venue was because you were told that there would only
be YOUR wedding party there, and that was why it was chosen over others.

Just remain calm and explain things in a logical fashion when you meet with the manager.

I used a local venue for a charity dinner/dance and I wasn't happy with the service that I received - I explained
the issues at the time, and again afterwards when the event coordinator asked if everything had been ok - i received
a refund of around half the cost - which I donated directly to the charity. It is definitely worth outlining the issues
that you had, even if they are relatively minor - when you add them all up, it meant that you couldn't completely
relax and enjoy the biggest day of you lives.

ellay864

A small hotel in my town advertises exclusive use of the hotel for weddings. Last year some friends of ours (3 couples and 2 single females sharing a room) came down for a party and stayed there. On the Saturday they were asked to have breakfast at a specific time, not to use the bar and even asked to move out of the garden because of a wedding booked in there. They were fuming - especially at being told they'd paid for a room, not for other parts of the hotel and grounds. The wedding party were annoyed as it was embarassing and they had no idea there'd be other guests there.
I would definitely say something though without it being in writing somewhere it might be a bit tricky, but I'm also sure verbal contracts so stand up to a certain degree

TugaGirl

Thank you so much for all your replies. I have a meeting with the wedding coordinator and the general manager next week so I will talk to them about this.

Like I said there were quite a few things that went wrong on the day.. I didn’t let any of it ruin the day, but I was upset and spent a lot of the honeymoon thinking about it.

Some examples are:

We received, signed and paid the final invoice two weeks before the wedding (over 4k). on the day before the wedding I got an email saying they made a mistake and that I still needed to pay a further £500. I rang and said I wouldn’t pay it as we didn’t have any more spare money. They emailed me whilst we were away and said we’ve got 28 days to settle the £500.

I was advised I needed to send a seating plan two weeks in advance. I did, I drew it and it was very clear. On the day the tables were not set in the correct places and my mother, bridesmaids and sisters were at the back of the room and nowhere near the top table.

The food served on the day was different to what we had chosen and tried at the menu sampling.



There are more issues, but I don’t think they are as big as the above.. my mum was devastated, but didn’t say anything at the time, obviously. I only realized when we were all seated, so it was too late to change the names..

Now, my hubby says that if they agree that we don’t have to pay the additional £500 that he would be happy. But I don’t know if I should be asking for more money back on top of not having to pay the £500.
I say this because, if they had charged us the correct amount in the first place, we would have paid it, but the above issues would have still happened and I would still be asking for some sort of a refund.

Am I being unreasonable?

MissPixie

I would get on to trading standards they are really helpful and will be able to tell you where you stand with all of this but after all that going wrong I don't think you are being unreasonable at all!