📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Covid 19 wedding conundrum

Options
Hello all.

We were planning to marry on 4th July 2020 but the obvious happened. We were in touch with our venue who laid out the postponement options. We had to choose April 17th 2021 as we were told this was the only Saturday they had left that wouldn’t increase the price (as the next years prices were going up and we’d have to pay additional). We therefore rushed to postpone in a panic - much like most people and signed a new contract with the venue.

We have been able to move suppliers, although the photographer and cake maker both insisted that in the event of cancellation they would retain all money’s paid (Approx £3.5k). We haven’t had any new contracts from suppliers, just verbal/email agreement saying they would move the date. Our cake maker charged us an additional 10% due to their increased costs for next year which we paid.

Due to financial and personal reasons - we have begun discussing whether or not we should or even can go ahead with the wedding as despite today’s vaccine announcement, the day just won’t be the what we’d envisaged it being. The excitement and buzz has all gone.

Im keen to hear what our options are, if any. We have approximately £8k sitting with the venue and suppliers in total with a further payment to the venue required 1 month before (approx £9k). Would we be in any position to call it off and redeem anything or are we going to have to wait until nearer the time? Going by the CMA guidance I’m under the impression that as we didn’t sign any revised contracts with suppliers we could potentially request refunds from them, but not the venue unless they cannot provide the day outlined in the contract.

We have a mad idea to recoup any cash we can and run off and marry quietly for considerably less money...Any advice or correction is warmly welcomed.

PS - we typically didn’t t purchase wedding insurance, because of course we “knew better” and thought it was a waste of money at the time...

Comments

  • A contract doesn’t have to be signed - verbal contracts are also binding, so I feel you’re onto a loser there. 

    I also wouldn’t deem it fair to try and claw back payments from an industry that’s been essentially forced to closed for nearly a year, especially when they’ve likely turned away additional business to accommodate you - but that’s more of a moral issue. 
  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    samsam89 said:
     we have begun discussing whether or not we should or even can go ahead with the wedding as despite today’s vaccine announcement, 
    Today's announcement is merely the start of a long road. Don't plan on life getting back to normalility quite yet. Will simply potentially bring more disappointment. 
  • samsam89
    samsam89 Posts: 216 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    A contract doesn’t have to be signed - verbal contracts are also binding, so I feel you’re onto a loser there. 

    I also wouldn’t deem it fair to try and claw back payments from an industry that’s been essentially forced to closed for nearly a year, especially when they’ve likely turned away additional business to accommodate you - but that’s more of a moral issue. 

    I understand that the industry is finding it hard. At the same time it’s our hard earned money that they may potentially have for nothing. The government have supported them to an extent and my responsibility is to my family - I’m sure that’s understandable.


  • Essentially, if you cancel, you're subject to losing whatever is specified in the contract.  That is likely to be full payment, as the photographer and cake will still be available.
  • samsam89
    samsam89 Posts: 216 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Essentially, if you cancel, you're subject to losing whatever is specified in the contract.  That is likely to be full payment, as the photographer and cake will still be available.
    That doesn’t appear to match with the CMA issued guidance? 
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.2K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.7K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.2K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599.2K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177K Life & Family
  • 257.6K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.