Can’t afford wedding following coronavirus

Jmr141512

Did 

Aylesbury_Duck

I thought you said the contract was vague?  It looks pretty comprehensive and clear to me

4.2 and 4.3 look pretty clear to me.  As does the advice in 4.5

I'm not a lawyer but maybe someone with legal knowledge can say if the contract would be considered unfair in any way.  It doesn't look unreasonable to me.

macman

Even if they allow postponement, there's a £1,250 rearrangement fee. (4.4.4).
Assuming more than 30 days left, you will owe them 75% of the total quoted, minus your deposit. To state the obvious, the time to buy insurance is the day you book the wedding.

Aylesbury_Duck

What sums are we taking about here? How much deposit have you paid, what was the full estimated cost going to be and what are they proposing to charge you if you cancel? I don't think they can charge 75% and your deposit if they sum to more than the total cost.  I would have thought the 75% includes the deposited amount. 

photome

Aylesbury_Duck said:

What sums are we taking about here? How much deposit have you paid, what was the full estimated cost going to be and what are they proposing to charge you if you cancel? I don't think they can charge 75% and your deposit if they sum to more than the total cost.  I would have thought the 75% includes the deposited amount. 

my guess is the deposit was 10%  making the total fee 85% for the OP  or if cancelled within 30 days 90% charge plus the deposit making 100%

Looking tough for the OP, yet another hard lesson about taking out insurance at the time of booking.
OP Have you talked to them and made any kind of offer, payment plan etc?
Of course if they can rehire the venue to someone else on the same day, you wouldnt owe so much but thats not likely at short notice

32Battalion

OP I think you need to work with the company and run your wedding in some shape or form otherwise they are going to pursue you hard (I know I would if I were in their shoes, not from any malice but because it is my livelihood).  See what savings can be made and what help you can get from friends and family ( eg £50/head?)

Yesterday's announcement might mean they can not provide the wedding you paid for (ie the number of guests) which may mean they have to be a little more lenient.

Good luck I have our wedding to plan for November and and my daughter is getting married in May next year and the whole thing is looking at lot worse this week than it was last.

Takmon

Jmr141512 said:

With everything going on we had hoped things would improve but they got worse! We were speaking to the venue but if I’m honest we had so much going on. We have pretty much begged them to see if we can move the date but they said we’re being unreasonable! My partner being made redundant wasn’t really something we could see coming. We just can’t afford to pay anything to them, our essential bills need covering as our priority and we don’t have anything left.

This sounds like your finances are in a right mess. Where has the money gone that you were going to use for the wedding because if you manage your finances properly before this then you would have had an emergency fund for eventualities such as losing a job and then your wedding fund on top of this. So if you have no money at all left after your partner being made redundant then it sounds like you couldn't afford this wedding in the first place.

gettingtheresometime

Takmon said:

Jmr141512 said:

With everything going on we had hoped things would improve but they got worse! We were speaking to the venue but if I’m honest we had so much going on. We have pretty much begged them to see if we can move the date but they said we’re being unreasonable! My partner being made redundant wasn’t really something we could see coming. We just can’t afford to pay anything to them, our essential bills need covering as our priority and we don’t have anything left.

This sounds like your finances are in a right mess. Where has the money gone that you were going to use for the wedding because if you manage your finances properly before this then you would have had an emergency fund for eventualities such as losing a job and then your wedding fund on top of this. So if you have no money at all left after your partner being made redundant then it sounds like you couldn't afford this wedding in the first place.

Hindsight is always 20:20 

Takmon

gettingtheresometime said:

Takmon said:

Jmr141512 said:

With everything going on we had hoped things would improve but they got worse! We were speaking to the venue but if I’m honest we had so much going on. We have pretty much begged them to see if we can move the date but they said we’re being unreasonable! My partner being made redundant wasn’t really something we could see coming. We just can’t afford to pay anything to them, our essential bills need covering as our priority and we don’t have anything left.

This sounds like your finances are in a right mess. Where has the money gone that you were going to use for the wedding because if you manage your finances properly before this then you would have had an emergency fund for eventualities such as losing a job and then your wedding fund on top of this. So if you have no money at all left after your partner being made redundant then it sounds like you couldn't afford this wedding in the first place.

Hindsight is always 20:20 

Well Hindsight doesn't apply to this because people on here since this forum began have recommended that an emergency fund of at least 3 months outgoings is maintained and a wedding would use additional money saved up beyond this because a wedding isn't an emergency expenditure. I've had far more than 3 months saved up for years and that isn't because of hindsight. So if the OP did this sensible precaution and managed their money well they wouldn't have been in this situation. 

bradders1983

Hang on....surely the venue wont be able to honour the booking anyway due to the current restriction in place? They wont have changed that drastically by next month.

OP - how many people is it booked for?