Wedding deposit

JustBrows1ng

Hi, 
Our wedding was scheduled for October but given how unlikely it was for enough restrictions to be lifted by then, we decided to move it to May next year, at the same venue.
To move dates the venue has said it will keep half of our original deposit and put the other half towards the new deposit. Now I appreciate that we made the decision to move it, and it could have gone ahead in some form. However, assuming current restrictions stay in place, we could have only had 30 people for the ceremony and sit down meal - quite different to the 100 people plus bar and dance floor as originally planned. So from my consumer perspective, they wouldn't have been able to fulfil a significant part of the contract.
It seems unfair particularly as we're still using them as our wedding venue but not sure whether I'm just being an entitled consumer.
So my question is, should I challenge their decision to withhold half the original deposit or just accept it? Thanks 

michalu

It seems only 15 people allowed now if you're getting married in England. It's been a challenging year for both couples and suppliers. Some wedding venues have been purely set up to do weddings and this is their only income whereas some like hotels only treat weddings as an additional source of income. In both cases It will be hard for them to move the date and lose that income when you can still do weddings but for some it will be harder. I know what it looks like from the couples perspective but then if a venue moved all the dates without keeping the original deposits then it would have a really hard time surviving this pandemic. For some venues it is about surviving or going under.

Any updates? :-)

Thrugelmir

JustBrows1ng said:

So from my consumer perspective, they wouldn't have been able to fulfil a significant part of the contract.

You'll be receiving the same exclusive use of space and facilities. The venue has fixed costs to cover. Irrespective of the number of people you decide to invite. 

mattyprice4004

The restrictions are from the government, not the venue - so their offer is fair. They’re now having an empty venue on a day soon and a day next year taken when everyone wants one. 

Rather generous to be honest