Wedding Cancellation

mclellans14

Hi 
my daughter was due to have her wedding reception on 20/03/20, unfortunately as the country was starting to lockdown that day, it was decided to postpone to September 2020, then March 2021 and now March 2022, as the previous postponements were  still during lockdown.
the venue has been paid in full, unfortunately my daughter and her partner have now separated, so this reception is no longer required and the venue will only refund 25% if we cancel.
is there anything we can do to minimise our losses? No costs have been incurred, no food tasting etc. The original booking was very last minute.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

TBagpuss

It depends on the terms of her contract with the venue, but if the terms are that they only refund 25% then she will only be entitled to 25%. Obviously she can try to negotiate with them, perhaps point out that given the long lead in there is every chance that they will be able to re-book, but  unless the payment in full was because it was a last minute booking, and normally they would have paid a deposit and the balance closer to the time, where you might be able to argue that they should only retain the deposit, then I think she is stuck.

It's likely that the venue will have lost a lot of business due to lockdowns so they may not be in a position to  do anything more than the minimum required by the contract. 

Did she and her partner have insurance, and if so, does that cover the situation where they are separating? 

on the plus side, if t hadn't been for lockdown they would have spent the money and would now have the expense of a divorce, so she is probably still better off in the long run, although I don't suppose that will be much comfort to her at present.

mattyprice4004

It's all down to the terms agreed - ask for a copy and go from there.
They will have incurred costs in terms of staffing and if they don't re-sell the date they'll be down that amount too - but ultimately what you are entitled to is down to the T&Cs of what they signed.