Wedding postponed - venue asking us to pay 2021 rate 6 May 2020 at 9:11AM in Weddings & anniversaries 2 replies 263 views

Al Pal

Currently our wedding is booked in for this July and we have paid for the venue in full already. We have scheduled a reserve date for next July 2021, if our date this year cannot go ahead. Though the venue have said their rates in 2021 have increased and we will need to pay a significant additional amount. 
I understand the venue/business will be losing money from not being able to resell our date for this year and going through financial hardship. However my income and earning potential has been reduced since being placed on furlough and the venue have given no reasonable explanation why their rates are going up. What are we paying extra for? To be asked to pay an additional amount to hold our wedding next year through not fault of our own and at at time when our income has been reduced, does seem unfair. 
Has anyone else had any similar experience and do you think this is fair of our venue to ask us to pay the additional rate?

[Deleted User]

They don't need to provide an explanation of the increase in costs.  You're paying extra to have it on a different date where the service provided costs more.

Ultimately, if you would prefer not to pay the asking price for the venue, you can ask for a refund as they are unable to supply the service you wanted on the date you wanted it.

Others will have had similar experiences.

Wraithlady

Al Pal,
It does seem unfair for them to ask you for more money for effectively the same thing as this year, however, everybody who booked their wedding this year will now want to book for next year - the law of supply and demand dictates that prices will go up.

 Whether they are genuinely following the supply and demand, or just plain profiteering, is up to you to decide. However, as zx81 says, you can ask for a refund - I would do a bit of shopping around first, as there's no sense in cutting off your nose to spite your face - firstly, can you move the date to a less popular time? If you can, find out from the venue how much that would be. If not, try nearby venues for availability and prices, maybe look at some level of DIY if you're interested in arts & crafts, even gettign married maybe somewhere in Europe. 

It boils down to - can you afford the increase? Do you want to afford the increase? Do you think the extra is worth it? And then move forward accordingly. And, if you took out wedding insurance, check to see if you can claim on that if you need to.