Wedding Event Cancellation

km1500

The T&Cs seem to be clear and unambiguous. The only way forward is wedding insurance claim.

Alderbank

Gavin83 said:

Did you take out wedding insurance?

If you book a venue like the House of Lords (I didn't even know that was possible!) I think you have to expect the possibility of cancellations. Any Government business or visiting VIPs will always take precedence over your wedding and they're unlikely to tell you the real reason. I'd say wedding insurance is even more important for such a venue that normal.

If you want a more reliable wedding venue then choose somewhere normal. 

The Palace of Westminster is enormous. It has hundreds of rooms. Several can be booked for functions and at least two can be booked for weddings.

https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-catering/hoc-wedding-brochure.pdf

Their brochure says:

• Celebrate your vows with up to 150 guests in the grandeur of the Members' Dining Room overlooking the River Thames, or with up to 60 guests in the beautiful oak panelled Jubilee Room. Both venues are licensed with Westminster Council for civil ceremonies.

• Ceremonies can take place between 10.30 and 16.30 on Saturdays and Fridays when neither House is sitting. The latest ceremony can take place at 16.00

• The Westminster Registry Office accepts provisional bookings and will also allow you to give formal notice of your ceremony up to 12 months before the day.

Sounds pretty normal and reliable to me

jon81uk

Alderbank said:

Gavin83 said:

Did you take out wedding insurance?

If you book a venue like the House of Lords (I didn't even know that was possible!) I think you have to expect the possibility of cancellations. Any Government business or visiting VIPs will always take precedence over your wedding and they're unlikely to tell you the real reason. I'd say wedding insurance is even more important for such a venue that normal.

If you want a more reliable wedding venue then choose somewhere normal. 

The Palace of Westminster is enormous. It has hundreds of rooms. Several can be booked for functions and at least two can be booked for weddings.

https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-catering/hoc-wedding-brochure.pdf

Their brochure says:

• Celebrate your vows with up to 150 guests in the grandeur of the Members' Dining Room overlooking the River Thames, or with up to 60 guests in the beautiful oak panelled Jubilee Room. Both venues are licensed with Westminster Council for civil ceremonies.

• Ceremonies can take place between 10.30 and 16.30 on Saturdays and Fridays when neither House is sitting. The latest ceremony can take place at 16.00

• The Westminster Registry Office accepts provisional bookings and will also allow you to give formal notice of your ceremony up to 12 months before the day.

Sounds pretty normal and reliable to me

Those quoted ones are for civil cereomonies, the OP has a chapel booked.

DullGreyGuy

The brochure is also House of Commons (HoC) whereas the OP's terms mentions the House of Lords

You do have the likes of St Mary Undercroft which is a functioning, a royal peculiar rather than CoE church, but I thought it was limited to MPs/Lords

Gavin83

Alderbank said:

Gavin83 said:

Did you take out wedding insurance?

If you book a venue like the House of Lords (I didn't even know that was possible!) I think you have to expect the possibility of cancellations. Any Government business or visiting VIPs will always take precedence over your wedding and they're unlikely to tell you the real reason. I'd say wedding insurance is even more important for such a venue that normal.

If you want a more reliable wedding venue then choose somewhere normal. 

The Palace of Westminster is enormous. It has hundreds of rooms. Several can be booked for functions and at least two can be booked for weddings.

https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-catering/hoc-wedding-brochure.pdf

Their brochure says:

• Celebrate your vows with up to 150 guests in the grandeur of the Members' Dining Room overlooking the River Thames, or with up to 60 guests in the beautiful oak panelled Jubilee Room. Both venues are licensed with Westminster Council for civil ceremonies.

• Ceremonies can take place between 10.30 and 16.30 on Saturdays and Fridays when neither House is sitting. The latest ceremony can take place at 16.00

• The Westminster Registry Office accepts provisional bookings and will also allow you to give formal notice of your ceremony up to 12 months before the day.

Sounds pretty normal and reliable to me

I have to disagree. 

They include terms that allows them to cancel your wedding at very short notice should it be required. I expect most wedding venues include those terms. The difference is most wedding venues would only cancel if there was a serious problem as they wouldn’t want a bad review or to lose the money. With somewhere like the House of Lords, which isn’t specifically a wedding venue there’s a whole host of reasons they might cancel, most of which are due to other events considered more important than someone’s wedding.

The chances of cancellation at a venue like that is much higher. If you’re happy to accept that risk so be it but it definitely makes insurance all that more important.

Given several people have asked and given the lack of response by the OP I expect they haven’t got insurance. That is unfortunately down to them though.

Alderbank

The brochure is also House of Commons (HoC) whereas the OP's terms mentions the House of Lords

Since they started hiring rooms out for functions about 15 years ago I've been to several of those rooms. In every case the invitation card was headed 'House of Lords'. I think historical accuracy comes second to bragging rights.

You do have the likes of St Mary Undercroft which is a functioning, a royal peculiar rather than CoE church, but I thought it was limited to MPs/Lords

According to their brochure, Members of Parliament, peers and senior members of staff can get married there. I wonder where the OP works?

goater78

Alderbank said:

Gavin83 said:

Did you take out wedding insurance?

If you book a venue like the House of Lords (I didn't even know that was possible!) I think you have to expect the possibility of cancellations. Any Government business or visiting VIPs will always take precedence over your wedding and they're unlikely to tell you the real reason. I'd say wedding insurance is even more important for such a venue that normal.

If you want a more reliable wedding venue then choose somewhere normal. 

The Palace of Westminster is enormous. It has hundreds of rooms. Several can be booked for functions and at least two can be booked for weddings.

https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-catering/hoc-wedding-brochure.pdf

Their brochure says:

• Celebrate your vows with up to 150 guests in the grandeur of the Members' Dining Room overlooking the River Thames, or with up to 60 guests in the beautiful oak panelled Jubilee Room. Both venues are licensed with Westminster Council for civil ceremonies.

• Ceremonies can take place between 10.30 and 16.30 on Saturdays and Fridays when neither House is sitting. The latest ceremony can take place at 16.00

• The Westminster Registry Office accepts provisional bookings and will also allow you to give formal notice of your ceremony up to 12 months before the day.

Sounds pretty normal and reliable to me

These terms and conditions don’t look normal at all. Second clause says ceremonies can only take place when neither house is sitting so if you get an emergency situation (like what happened on brexit) and the house has to sit on the weekend then your wedding would be cancelled. 

DullGreyGuy

Alderbank said:

According to their brochure, Members of Parliament, peers and senior members of staff can get married there. I wonder where the OP works?

On another page it states direct disendents of peers also can... maybe its Lady DarkerKnight?

You'd imagine those so connected would be given a more meaningful explanation. 

darkerknight

I do not have insurance - I wouldn't have posted it here if I would have taken out a "wedding insurance". I wanted to know if anyone in the forum had any advice re the losses I would be incurring due to the cancellation. Thank you to everyone who recommended I check the T&Cs. Looks like they are not liable for any losses due to their cancellation. However, they have also said that they would try their best to find alternative dates in case they cancel the event. The cancellation was provided to me without any option of alternative dates. However, I will not be challenging them on that as it is hard to prove they have not "tried their best". 
Thank you for some of the helpful comments I have received here.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

darkerknight said:

The venue is a very special venue - it organises both a wedding/blessing service and banqueting service. The venue was personal yo both of us. I appreciate your ideas about other venues but that is something personal to us and we will decide in due course how/venue an alternative venue or event will be arranged. Fact remains that we will lose the money for flight tickets unless Ryanair offers a goodwill gesture (highly unlikely). 10 tickets are to be cancelled. 

Thank you for the pragmatic idea of reading the T&C. I have checked it:

“The occurrence of such an event may require us to cancel your booking of the Chapel 

at short notice. If this happens, any fee paid to the House of Lords will of course be 

refunded, but we will accept no liability for any other losses you may incur as a result 

of the cancellation. We will, however, make every effort to rebook your 

marriage/blessing at the earliest, most convenient opportunity”

What do the terms say about you wishing to cancel the contract OP?