Wedding cancellation - is my contract fractured???

Jeremy535897

See CMA guidance:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds

P_Quinn

Soose28 said:

We are in a similar position, wedding date 15th July 2020.  Venue has offered alternative dates, non of which are suitable or like for like.  On top of this, I (the bride) have not yet given notice of marriage to registry office and as these are closed am unable to do so.  The latest that this can be given is the 13th June.  As well as this major obstacle, I have not had my dress fitted yet, my HTB has not even looked at suits.  In fact we have nothing organised so there is no way we will be able to get married on the 15th July.  On top of this my mum is extremely vulnerable and is unable to attend.  The venue are pressurising us into rescheduling and we do not feel that this is fair.  We have asked for a refund, but keep being met with resistance.  We did not take out wedding insurance.  Any advice?

We have cancelled with our current venue and rebooked with another venue for next year.
I have sent him a cancellation notice to which is actually replied (for the first time in 2 months) but he accepts that it isnt likely to go ahead given the amount of issues we have, it looks like we will lose our £750 deposit as he can evidence the back and forth we had with a wedding planner for the past 12 months but that is about it. The CMA states a refund should be issues for services that are not yet provided and where there haven't been costs incurred.

We have rearranged with our photographer, catering, hair, make up etc 

We were in the same position, I had my suit appointment the weekend lockdown begun and my partners wedding dress is stuck abroad which was due to arrive the weekend of lockdown too so there would not be enough time to go for fittings, alterations and all the rest if it, my partner has spoke to the dress shop who will store it until she goes for her final fitting, she just needs to pay a little bit more of a deposit due to them already incurring the cost of buying the dress ( theyve been more than reasonable) 

Our only issue was with the venue itself and if your venue cannot provide a similar date I.e. high season, same day etc then you should be able to get everything back from them leas a deposit for where theyve already incurred costs.

Soose28

UPDATE:  We have now cancelled our wedding and have received back the deposits paid less £250 for the wedding planners time.  We are pleased with this result.  Although obviously disappointed that the weeding could not go ahead, we now have no pressure to make impulsive decisions about what we want to do.  We quoted the Competition and Marketing Authority terms and conditions regarding wedding cancellations and was pleased to say the venue were willing to compromise.  
I hope everyone else has success in obtaining refunds if that is what they require.  

lincroft1710

It occurs to me that bad publicity about some of these wedding venues  may now make couples think about having simpler, cheaper weddings

Thrugelmir

lincroft1710 said:

It occurs to me that bad publicity about some of these wedding venues  may now make couples think about having simpler, cheaper weddings

The venues have to survive first. As won't have been purely used for weddings in many instances. 

P_Quinn

Soose28 said:

UPDATE:  We have now cancelled our wedding and have received back the deposits paid less £250 for the wedding planners time.  We are pleased with this result.  Although obviously disappointed that the weeding could not go ahead, we now have no pressure to make impulsive decisions about what we want to do.  We quoted the Competition and Marketing Authority terms and conditions regarding wedding cancellations and was pleased to say the venue were willing to compromise.  
I hope everyone else has success in obtaining refunds if that is what they require.  

Thanks for the update, our venue confirmed the booking but we are yet to get any money back, the venue was purely a wedding venue, no other operations taking place, he had already made the choice to sell the venue which is why we couldnt rearrange so he has agreed to pay us back once hit hotel and pub start operating again, around july time which we have agreed to. We never wanted to cancel but due to him burying his head in the sand we had no choice.
Happy to say we have found the perfect venue for next year though, even better than our original & it's right on lake windemere.

Soose28

I'm really pleased that you have managed to resolve your issue and to proceed to better things.   Best of luck to you both. 

iranganie

My son was due to get married end of March. The wedding was postponed to October 2nd. But still could not have the 300 guests. We have to cancel the wedding now as it is not possible to have a big wedding. We paid £16000. Initially Boreham House Essex said they can't offer any money at all. After we sent a letter through a lawyer agreed to pay £6000. They only did a few emails, phone calls, showed us the place. We don't mind paying a reasonable cost fr their administration costs. But £6000 for that is a huge amount. Couples can't afford to loose moany like that.  

Thrugelmir

Nor can a business. End of March suggests that the venue would have already committed to a sizable outlay ahead of the event. Suppliers still need paying etc. 

unholyangel

Thrugelmir said:

Nor can a business. End of March suggests that the venue would have already committed to a sizable outlay ahead of the event. Suppliers still need paying etc. 

That may be true, but unless the breach is the fault of the consumer and foreseeable, then they can't hold the consumer liable for those costs. 

When a contract is frustrated (breach not within the control of either party), each party is generally liable for their own costs.