Please can someone help....wedding NIGHTMARE

southernlass_2

Hi,
My partner & I are 'supposed' to be getting married on 29th April 2012. It took us a while to seek out a suitable venue for two reasons.
Firstly we have a disabled son together so needed somewhere wheelchair friendly and with accomodation avaliable for the night before our wedding and the night after, as transport would be an issue.
Secondly we only wanted a small intimate wedding ceremony of around 27 family members and close friends, with a slightly larger reception of around 60 people in the evening.

Most places we looked at failed on either one of those points, then we found what we thought was the perfect location/venue.
They could cater for small wedding parties in the victorian house, they could also cater for larger parties in the permenent marquee in the gardens. The place was fairly flat, everything was downstairs and they said we could stay the night before and the night after and the best bit was that it was an exclusive venue, she said 'you'll have exclusive use of the house and gardens'. Their website states on two pages that they only ever have one wedding in a day and that they only ever have one bride per day. PERFECT!

So we booked and paid £670 deposit and signed a contract...very basic, just stating the terms of when payments needed to be made and also what the penalties were if my partner and I broke the conditions or cancelled our wedding....(we stupidly didn't get a copy of this)

About a month after booking, I made a general enquiry via email to our wedding co-ordinator about the overnight accomodation, where she told me we wouldn't be able to stay the night before our wedding as another party had booked that night. I was angry and made this known and as a compromise she said we could go to the venue at 11am on our wedding day and have a free nights accomodation that night. Although we were put out by this, we agreed and moved on from the issue.

We have since paid another £400 to the venue, paid £400 for the registrar to come and marry us on the day, paid £67.00 to give our notice of marraige and collect our blue forms, paid £50 deposit and booked our wedding cake and paid £125 deposit to our photographer and booked that too.

Everything seemed to be plodding along ok, although we've always felt that we were not getting much support from our co-ordinator at the venue, whenever we asked questions were just given short answers.

Yesterday she called me to say that another large wedding party were enquiring about booking the marquee for their celebration on the same day as ours at the same time, she said she was just calling to let me know it would cause minimal disruption to our day...she could tell I was shocked....infact I was speechless, she has said that she would bamboo screen the window to the house so that we couldn't see the other party having their photos taken in the garden and that she would lock the house to the door while we were having our wedding breakfast so that no-one from the other party could enter the house....along with some other stupid things which I can't remember as was in total shock.

I spoke to my partner about it and we were so upset and angry we decided to email the lady and try and discuss this. We said that the website clearly stated there was only ever one bride in a day and she herself had also said this to us. She said that she never said this when we both know that she did and that is irrelevent anyway as the website advertises it as an exclusive venue. Emails went back and forth and we asked for contact details of the owner of the venue (its a small privately owned place) she dodged all our questions, we asked for a copy of our contract, again she dodged the question, just kept saying shes been nothing but helpful, she gave us free overnight accomodation blah blah blah......

She then said don't worry she has managed to get the other party to move their date so its not a problem but that we DO NOT have exclusive use of the venue as this costs another £2000 (this is not stated anywhere on the website) then she said the marquee is a seperate venue and could be hired out the same day as ours....it isn't advertised as a seperate venue and the access to it is through the house and through the garden!!

We have asked to deal with another co-ordinator and speak to the owner, initially she said she'd already spoken to him today and he said she had to deal with it & then she changed her story and said he was away on holiday until the end of the month. She then told us she is a manager etc, so we have said that we have no trust in her and are losing faith in the venue and would like our money back plus compensation to cover the costs of all the other things we've already had to pay out as we're going to have to switch venue and date.

She just won't communicate or accept that what they have done is wrong, but she has said that the wording on their website is now being looked into and will be changed (we have screen shots of the website as it is now) she also said no other couple has ever requested a contract...we find that very hard to believe.

Basically I want to know where we can go from here, what are our options? she has ruined our day and our hearts are not in it now. She keeps changing the goal posts and we don't know where we stand or what else shes going to throw at us.

Really just want to some advice as we've spent alot of money and cannot afford to lose it all.

Thanks

fluffnutter

I'm hoping that others will be more certain... but, regardless of contract, the website states specific features, e.g. 'one bride per day', and 'exclusive' (I'll have to take your word for it as you've not said who the company is) which have been material in your choosing that particular venue for the price agreed. To achieve said 'exclusivity' you're now being asked to pay more than agreed.

I think you can reasonably ask for all your money back. They've broken their end of the bargain and in the absence of a contract unique to you, I'd argue that the website statements (and any T&Cs on the website) form the contract - hence the 'one bride per day' and 'exclusive' statements become binding. Write to them asking for a full refund and see what they say. If they drag their heels be prepared to pursue it through the small claims court. I'm not an expert but I think you have a good case. They sound pretty incompetent and opportunistic frankly. I hope you find somewhere much nicer

bordercars

i think on the 1 bride thing, the venue didnt expect to take a booking for your smaller and more intimate day and then get someone else willing to take other facilities. seek a 15min legal session then hit them in whatever way you feel. ie: more for no more £££ or tell them to shove it.

good luck and enjoy your day

scottishminnie

I can't offer much advice on your rights but I do recommend you take prints of the web pages showing the "exclusitivity" and only one bride per day etc. Just in case there is a sudden change to the website and you are left unable to prove what it used to say.

Maybe I'm just cynical that they would do this but better safe than sorry.

Good luck with finding an alternative, more reliable, caring venue and with your big day itself.

southernlass_2

Thankyou
well we have moved on ever so slightly. I have had contact back from trading standards who I contacted yesterday regarding the advertising on their website being misleading - they have said that it is misleading and breaches some law or other and they will be investigating. In terms of contracts, they told me that yes the venue broke that by false advertising but as they are saying they will move the other parties date so it isn't the same as ours, they have now honoured their advertisment making it hard for us to get out of the contract and get our money back so we may just have to go ahead with the wedding at that venue or risk losing all our money. However they also said that unless I get something in writing confirming our exclusivity that I'm open to this happening again but then they would again be breaking the law, to do with their advertising on their website.

Its all very confusing surely booking a wedding shouldn't be this much hassle?

We also contacted consumer advice today aswell, am awaiting a reply back from them but we have made the decision to go to the venue tomorrow and sit down and discuss all this face to face as to be honest we're getting nowhere with them though Emails, but we want to make it very clear to them how we are feeling, what we want etc and just have to see where it leaves us.

Just feels we are stuck in a corner. Get married somewhere where we now feel uncomfortable or walk away, be happy but lose all our money...It shouldn't have to be this way, considering we didn't do anything wrong.

gordikin

If you're unhappy try and get them to cancel by explaining your concerns and suggesting it would be better all round for everyone concerned.

Failing that insist on getting a copy of the contract.

I hope you have paid by credit card. If not, pay an additional sum by credit card ASAP as it gives you protection for all the money you already have paid.

southernlass_2

Nope didn't pay by credit card have read that in a few places today though, about paying by card. What exactly does it do in terms of the protection offered? We paid both installments in cash but we have receipts.
Because my partner and I are paying for the whole wedding ourself, we are saving like crazy and then building up a lump sum and paying it off. Probably not the best way to go about it

halibut2209

That's a great way to go about it!!!

You don't want to start off married life in debt paying for the wedding. Kudos to the both of you, and I wish you all the happiness in the world

gordikin

southernlass wrote: »

Nope didn't pay by credit card have read that in a few places today though, about paying by card. What exactly does it do in terms of the protection offered? We paid both installments in cash but we have receipts.
Because my partner and I are paying for the whole wedding ourself, we are saving like crazy and then building up a lump sum and paying it off. Probably not the best way to go about it

If you pay as little as £1 for the whole shebang on your credit card the credit card company is jointly liable for the whole sum you paid. ie if the venue business goes bust before next april you can claim the whole sum back from your credit card company.

I'd save like your doing and when you have a further payment to make use a credit card and use the money you've saved to pay it off when the cc bill comes in.

Read this:-

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

southernlass_2

Thankyou, just discussing that with my partner, think thats the way to go. I don't use my credit card but yeah we could pay it off straight away with the money we save.

So say for example we paid another £400 installment to them and then they still messed us about, breached contract, mislead us whatever....then we could claim it all back?? or does it have to be the deposit paid.....seriously considering doing this in future for big important things....this mess has taught me alot about not trusting companies and accepting what they say...

Everything in writing and cover myself as much as possible!!

newidentity

We had a similar (but different) problem with our wedding venue. It ended up in a big court battle for £5000 and we won. Our first point of contact was trading standards, followed by consumer direct (and MSE) and we were given loads of advice. Make sure everything is in writing (recorded delivery) and take evidence for everything. And definitely use a credit card for ALL payments. I am guessing you didn't take out wedding insurance?