Wedding ruined, what are our rights

JPS29

Hi.
We have just been to Mexico for a fortnight and got married over there. We booked the whole thing flights, hotel, wedding etc through a high street travel operator.
We received a wedding "contract" from them which we had to sign detailing what was included.
We met with the wedding planner over there before the wedding who walked/talked us briefly through the process of the big day.
We were married in the hotel grounds in a gazebo, setting was really nice. We had chosen our own special music which meant so much to us, we went for this package as you were allowed this option. Also we had our own vows we had written, again special to us.
When this was raised with the wedding planner she told us the music would need to be in mp3 format to ensure compatibility with the hotels sound system. To make double sure we had an mp3 disc made over there with our chosen music on.
RE our vows we noticed that other couples were saying them over a microphone and all the nearby hotel guests could hear them, as ours were personal we asked could we just say them to each other, there were only 3 in our party so no need for anyone other than us to hear, and the minister of course. She agreed this would be no problem.

Come the day of the wedding we paid for flowers and extra flowers to be incorporated in to my wifes hair and my daughters. These were to be delivered an hour before the wedding, they turned up 15 mins before so we had no time to incorporate them into the hairstyles as we would have liked. Had this been the only fault then fair enough, mistakes happen and we would have lived with it.
I was waiting at the gazebo for my wife to be brought down by the wedding planner when she asked could she borrow our mp3 player and link it up to the hotels system as they were having issues with theirs. No problem and she brought it down when she accompanied my wife down. This was passed to the sound technician. After about 5 mins of him struggling with it he then notified the wedding planner by a cut throat signal that he couldnt get it to work. Thw wedding planner then held up her index finger to indicate a pre arranged plan and our worst nightmare ensued. "Here comes the bride" was played and my wife ushered down the aisle. We are not church going people, not religious and had we wanted church music played on an organ, we would have had a church wedding. HAd our chosen music been played the moment would have been full of sentiment and emotion, instead we bot have faces of confusion and shock.
Next the minister asked us the "I do" part and shoved a microphone under our noses. What were we supposed to do on camera, refuse to speak? We carried on again in disgust and also said our sacred vows to each other and the whole of the hotel through a microphone.
When the legalities were over the wedding planner approached us and the first thing we said to her was that we were fuming about the music. She told us she was sorry and it was the hotel's fault.
Also all the delay had meant our wedding only kicked off at 4.20 instead of 4 pm and as the photographer and videographer had a booking at 5 we were rushed through our photo shoot.
The wedding video also had part of my vows edited out so only half of them are on the video, a really important part. The first 20 mins worth of photos and vide lool more like we are at a funearal we are that peed off. All this could have been avoided if the planner would have told us there was a problem and either delayed the wedding or postponed.
We complained to our holiday rep and filled out a complaint form in the hotel about all of this. I also sent an email to their aftertravel dept as advised and have heard nothing, this was nearly a week ago.

I am hoping the more knowledgable people on here can advises us how to take this further.
We paid in total over £7k for this, we paid for a professional service and received a botch job.

Ideally we would like a full refund for breach of contract, a ruined wedding and the stress that came with it. My wife was seen by the hotel doctor over there for a panic attack, brought on by stress, in his words.

While we were in the hotel the manager offered us an upgrade from our hotel to the one next door, in the same group which we accepted on the understanding it did not form any part of compensatition or close the complaint.

Apologies for the long post and appreciate any advice

dmg24

Whilst there were clearly mistakes made, I do think that you are overreacting. I find in situations like this, when things go wrong, laughter tends to be the best solution ... not disgust.

By all means ask for some kind of reimbursement for the wedding element of the booking (the £7,000 also included a two week holiday - surely you don't expect all that back?), but you need to be more realistic in what you should expect from the operator.

JPS29

I appreciate your reply but spending 7 grand and planning something for over 2 years we expect evrything to go as planned. Had it been a kids party or a 21st we would have laughed it off but this was one of the most important moments of our lives, we were told we were in capable hands, clearly we werent.
A mistake would be the flowers, or the cake not turning up. IMO playing the wrong music without even consulting the bride and groom, not respecting their wishes re the microphone, cutting thew vows off the video, and rushing through the wedding and photo/video shoots show complete incompetence and a chain of mistakes, not merely one to laugh off.
When you say be more realistic in what we expect back from the operator the whole holiday ws ruined, to prove the point Im actually still in the hotel now on my laptop, we leave tomorrow. If we were enjoying ourselves and my wife wasnt upset we'd be out on the beach.
WHat would you say is reasonable then taken this into account

meer53

I agree it must have been disappointing for you both but as dmg24 says, it's usually best to accept that things can, and do, go wrong and just accept it. Having weddings abroad, you're always going to be in the hands of others who don't quite appreciate how you might feel on the day and might not place quite as much importance on the things you do. The travel company are probably looking into your complaint, i don't think a week is unacceptable for a response so far. I really don't think you'll get a full refund, you did get flights, accomodation etc so you'll probably have to negotiate with them if they do make an offer. You're still married at the end of the day, have a laugh about it all now, you can always renew your vows next year ! It's happened, you can't change things, no matter how much money you get back.

somethingcorporate

Oh dear, what a terrible thing to happen.

I agree with the rest, laughter would have been the best medicine (read some of the threads on the marriage forums to see what things happened at others weddings - that will cheer you up!).

Almost certainly will not get your full money back

dmg24

meer53 wrote: »

I agree it must have been disappointing for you both but as dmg24 says, it's usually best to accept that things can, and do, go wrong and just accept it. Having weddings abroad, you're always going to be in the hands of others who don't quite appreciate how you might feel on the day and might not place quite as much importance on the things you do. The travel company are probably looking into your complaint, i don't think a week is unacceptable for a response so far. I really don't think you'll get a full refund, you did get flights, accomodation etc so you'll probably have to negotiate with them if they do make an offer. You're still married at the end of the day, have a laugh about it all now, you can always renew your vows next year ! It's happened, you can't change things, no matter how much money you get back.

Absolutely - and that's a good idea, maybe the OP could use the cost of a small ceremony at home as a figure for compensation?

somethingcorporate

dmg24 wrote: »

Absolutely - and that's a good idea, maybe the OP could use the cost of a small ceremony at home as a figure for compensation?

:T 2 thumbs up for this idea!

JPS29

I agree a week is not unreasonable but the rep told us we would at least have a reply in 48 hrs, thats why I thought a week without even acknowledgement was bit off. I do understand that things go wrong and yes we enjoyed the first week, no argument there. The hotel is top class, the service great and the people friendly but if you put yourself in our shoes im sure youd be annoyed too. :-(

debsy42

Sounds like you are at the Riu Palace having started off at the Riu Cancun for the wedding? We came back from there only three weeks ago and saw several weddings there, the gazebo is in a very obvious location and attracts a lot of guests who love watching a wedding.

The staff within the hotel have a complaints procedure which I'm sure is ongoing so certainly for now I would concentrate on enjoying the time you have left there, a few pina coladas and a paddle in the sea. You can't change what has happened so no point in worrying about it, you'll have enough time for that when you get back to rainy England.

Angela

I dont see how this small ceremony took two years to plan myself.

meer53

Am i just cynical, or are weddings abroad getting too commercialised now to provide the personal experience that most people expect ? Especially in the big hotels ? I have no personal experience of this myself (married in a registry office, cost us £16 and divorced after 25 years !) but have friends who pay ridiculous amounts of money to people who they have never met, and trust them to arrange one of the most personal days pf their lives ! I also have friends who have married abroad and enjoyed their weddings but every one of them has some sort of horror story to tell about something that wasn't quite right. Why do people spend ridiculous amounts of money on their weddings ? I think it's for other people really, to impress them, maybe i'm wrong ?

I hope the OP manages to sort this out and can put this behind him eventually.