Advice - cancelling a wedding supplier. Keeping all monies paid.

NathanD

Hi,
Looking for some advice/sense check. My partner and I were getting married un April 2020. Unfortunately I unexpectedly lost my job in December and we have a little one on the way as such we have had to cancel the wedding with a view to doing a cheaper option on a couple of years.

I got in touch with the photographer we had booked. We had paid them a 175 deposit and had a payment plan of 70 per month which we had paid 14 months of. So in total 1155 pounds. Total charge would have been 1895. There contract explicitly states that all monies paid are non refundable. There was an option to pay the 175 and the balance 6 months before which we would have not paid and been in a better situation.

I believe that the supplier isn't within their right to keep all monies paid to them under the cra specifically unfair terms and also believe that this would constitute an unfair bias in the contract for the supplier.

I am pushing for a refund of some of the monies paid.

Couple of questions
1. Is what I have stated above accurate or are there other thoughts/ interpretations I have missed.
2. I appreciate that we wouldn't be entitled to all of it, nor would I expect it, but what would be a reasonable either costs/loss of nett profit 9 months before a wedding, with one preliminary meeting and a few email exchanges?
3. If we decided to go through the small claims does anyone have any experience of the outcomes of similar circumstances.

Thanks in advance