Wedding Venue in Administration - advice please

HelenScribbly

Afternoon all,
In just over five weeks' time, my partner and I will be getting married. We discovered a couple of weeks ago (from a friend who'd heard it on local radio!) that our venue is in administration - staff not been paid for weeks etc.
We had just that week handed over a cheque for £7k being the balance owed, but we managed to cancel it. We visited the venue and were told it was "business as usual" and not to worry - but they wouldn't provide written confirmation that they could honour our booking, and weren't allowed to take any money off us. They had put our cheque in the safe and not presented it. So not really business as usual at all, then.
Since then, we have tried repeatedly to get a sensible answer our of someone as to whether they are able to host the wedding, but we just keep being told not to worry and that they value our business. But we're not worth a letter or a phone call, so clearly they don't value us too much ...
I know they are only trying to keep their own options open, but I feel at this stage they need to be more open with us. We know they are looking for a buyer, but there is no sign that one has been found.
We have also discovered that since making the booking the venue has changed hands, so although we have a contract it isn't with the current owners. We were not advised of this, although the venue changed hands in January.
We have managed to get another venue to hold a provisional booking for us. This venue isn't as convenient as the other, but I guess we're lucky just to have found somewhere. I contacted our wedding insurers and we can claim for the monies paid so far, and also for any monies paid to other suppliers for things that we wouldn't be able to use if we moved venues.
My question is - where do we stand? Am I panicking unnecessarily, or do I need to get Venue B confirmed a.s.a.p? Have seen some info re Administration on the internet, but it's mostly from the business's point of view and not the consumer's.
Thanks all,
Helen

wanchai_2

Oh, you poor thing. I would try to find out as much as possible about Venue A's current situation (and not give them another penny in the meantime!), but I would go with Venue B if you can get the insurance to pay out.

Burlesque_Babe

I would cancel the 7k cheque before anyone presents it, book venue B and start to claim from your insurers asap.

Although venue B isn't as convenient, it isn't worth the worry between now and your wedding day to stick with venue A.

HelenScribbly

Thanks for the replies - I think you have just confirmed what we were already thinking, i.e. that Venue A is no longer an option. We cancelled the cheque so no worries on that score. The Administrator - or someone representing him - is supposed to be calling us later today so we will see if we can get something concrete out of him.
The really annoying thing is that we've only found out about this on the grapevine, so we could have gone on merrily thinking everything was ok.
Grrr.
Thanks again,
Helen

wanchai_2

Nightmare!!!!! Thank God you were able to stop the cheque. It's immoral (and, AFAIK, illegal) for a company to accept money upfront when they know that they're in that sort of trouble.

trolleydolley

So sorry to hear about your venue trouble and hope that you will be able to find somewhere even nicer (and more reliable).

If all else fails phone up your local newspaper - they might be interested in doing a story and a venue might read the story and offer to help!